ROYAL ROMANCE

by Victoria Hart

  “You sure know how to charm ‘em,” he said.

  “Have you not seen my giant room full of friends? Clearly I’m very good at it,” I said, rolling my eyes.

  I wanted him to laugh, but instead he frowned. He leaned forward, looking at me, suddenly quite serious. “You could have plenty of friends. They’re just not good enough for you.”

  I was taken aback. The look on his face said he meant it, and I felt myself catch my breath.

  “I just don’t want you to think one person speaks for everyone when it comes to you,” he said. “You’re incredible, and I hope you know that.”

  When you’re royalty, people don’t call you by your first name. Looking at Vince across the small table, I was filled with the sudden desire to hear him say it. Cassandra. I wanted to know what it sounded like on his tongue, in his mouth. They said that hearing your name from someone important, someone special, could change the way you hear it forever.

  I did end up getting him that hot chocolate, and a regular coffee for myself. I handed it to him and ignored his attempts to give me money for it. If I couldn’t afford a cup of coffee and hot chocolate than I was doing something very wrong with my adulthood.

  “I’ll get it next time,” he said.

  I smiled and tried not to show the butterflies I felt at thinking about there being a second time. I sipped my coffee to hide my grin, ignoring how hot it was. I waggled my eyebrows at him.

  “Keep it up and you’ll be in this café all by your lonesome,” he said.

  I laughed. “I think I’m fairly used to that, so do your worst.”

  He didn’t smile back. “You’re not alone – you know that, right?” he said. “I’m not here because it’s my job. In fact, right now, I’m kind of here in spite of my job, I think.”

  I could see the sincerity in his eyes and I felt the butterflies again, but this time they came with a sense of lightness, a sense of a weight lifting because I had someone on my side. Carlo had been close to me for a reason. Even if he’d found out I was a better person than he’d thought, and had come to regret the things he was doing, that ulterior motive had existed. Vince didn’t have one.

  He was there, of course, because someone paid him to be. But he was here now, even though he could be fired for it. He was looking at me with such reverence that it was impossible not to believe the things he was saying to me, the things he wanted me to know about myself.

  “Thank you,” I whispered, because I didn’t know what else to say.

  Our gazes locked, and I knew that the second he did say my name, I would kiss him. I wouldn’t be able to help it.

  Right now, I could shove out of my mind the idea that we might one day be able to kiss each other, whisper things in the dark that no one else could hear. I wanted that so much it hurt in my chest – and that scared me. I blinked, and looked away.

  “Your mind seems to be all over the place,” he said.

  “You have no idea.”

  “There’s no need to be afraid.”

  He had no idea why I was afraid, that he was what I was afraid of. I had every reason to be frightened. Even if I were to give in, even if I did say that I wanted a relationship with him, it could never come to fruition, not really.

  My aunt had moved mountains to be with the man she loved, and I doubted something like that was going to work twice. Things were too perilous for the monarchy already. This wasn’t a fairy tale.

  Besides…was I just rebounding? Was I turning to Vince because he wasn’t Carlo and because he wasn’t going to sell me out?

  Feeling chilled, I sipped my coffee and gave him the best smile I could manage. We sat in silence until it was time for the next class.

  Chapter 14

  It took a few weeks, but eventually we settled into a routine. Then one Friday, my last class of the day was cancelled, and I was smiling in the back seat while Benecio drove us home. Things seemed to be working themselves out.

  But, like all things in life, the second you think something good is happening, disaster strikes.

  When we turned into the long driveway up the palace, flanked by the beautiful orange trees on either side, I didn’t realize what was waiting for me.

  Several cars were parked in a line in front of the main doors. At the time, I didn’t think anything of it because important things happened here all the time. There could have been a meeting, or maybe there was something my aunt had forgotten to tell me about.

  I followed Vince inside, and paused. Something was off – security was everywhere, and none of the faces were familiar palace security. Instead, I saw several strangers, and they didn’t look very friendly.

  “What’s going on?” I asked him in an undertone, a little bit worried that he looked just as concerned and confused as me.

  “I don’t know,” he said. “No one told me anything.”

  “Because it was need-to-know,” came a voice from behind us, and I turned to see Benecio’s sour face. “They’re having a meeting to discuss the holiday gala and how to proceed.”

  How to proceed in using me as bait. That’s what they planned to do. I understood – they would never risk the queen – but had I been born here, they wouldn’t even think about risking me, either. I was the heir but there was an asterisk next to my name. I was the foreign heir that nobody liked, and nobody had asked for.

  “Oh,” was all I said and shifted uncomfortably under Benecio’s sneer.

  He liked the idea of keeping things from me, of me not knowing what was going on. He liked to see me confused and worried. He walked away and Vince and I watched him go, both glaring at the back of his head.

  Vince was angry too. We could both tell Benecio had intentionally excluded him. He wanted to cause trouble, wanted to anger Vince.

  “Don’t you think I should be a part of this meeting?” I asked. “I’m the bait, after all.”

  “Yes,” he said, warily. We were both thinking the same thing. If no one told me about the meeting, then there must be things they didn’t want me to know about what was going on.

  “What should I do? Should I go in? Should I knock?” I asked.

  He sighed. “As difficult as it is, try to be patient and see what they say. We can wait out here if you want and see if we can catch anyone coming out of the room.”

  I nodded, and proceeded to pace up and down the hall for the next twenty minutes, while Vince watched. From time to time, when I passed the double doors of the boardroom, one of the security guards posted there would twitch uncomfortably, as though I might ask him a question he wasn’t allowed to answer.

  After an interminable wait, the door opened, and I was not expecting to see the person who came through it.

  Carlo, with his breathtaking Mediterranean handsomeness, stepped out of the room just as I was passing. We were both caught unawares, and froze.

  “Oh.” It was out of my mouth as natural as a breath might be, and barely louder than one. He nodded. I felt Vince come up behind me, and I was aware of the bulk of his strength, strong chest and shoulders, just behind me. I watched Carlo’s eyes shift to stare at him.

  “You usually have class until five on Fridays,” he said, swallowing as though he had a lump in his throat.

  “I know. What are you doing here?” I asked. I knew what he was doing here. I’m not sure why I asked.

  “I’m, uh—” he cut himself off, his eyes shifting again to Vince.

  “I asked you a question,” I said, crossing my arms, my hip cocking to one side. It made me look like a child, an obstinate teenager. My mother always said that. It didn’t make me look wise, and certainly not like a diplomatic negotiator. I was an angry child.

  “I’m here on business dealing with terrorism,” he said, as though he’d been trained to answer that way for the press. I narrowed my eyes at him.

  “Business?”

  “Planning. I can’t talk about any more of it.”

  He thought he could just say that and then walk away. He stepped to on
e side, and made to do just that, but I wasn’t going to let him go that easily.

  “You can talk about it to me,” I said. It was not a request, not a suggestion. It was a demand and we both knew it.

  “You’re not the queen,” he said. Was he trying to hurt my feelings?

  “I know, and if you had your way then I never would be,” I said.

  He glared at me. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “You lied to me. For weeks,” I said.

  He growled. “You really want to do this here?”

  The answer was yes…and no. I didn’t want a conversation. What I wanted was a chance to yell at him, an opportunity to make him hear and understand how much he’d hurt me. I was tired of being polite, and having to be so conscious of what everybody else thought.

  “I won’t talk about this here,” he said. “We can talk somewhere private, some other time.”

  “As if anyone would let me be alone in a room with you.”

  “Maybe you should stop doing what everyone says, then,” he said.

  He walked away. He moved before I could think to step in front of him, and was gone before I could follow.

  I stared after him, aware that Vince was beside me now, bristling with anger.

  “I’m going to get something to eat,” I said, when the hallway was empty. It seemed the meeting would go on, even if Carlo’s part was finished.

  In truth, I was hungry.

  I sat in the parlor and ordered a tray of tea and some sandwiches from one of the maids. She gave me a sweet smile and said she’d be on it right away. I nodded and stared out the window at the ocean, visible over the palace walls, and heard someone shuffle in behind me. I was ready to turn around and tell Vince to leave, that I needed some time alone and that I didn’t want to talk with him – and honestly, I didn’t have the patience for a show of macho protectiveness.

  But when I turned around it was Aunt Sonia standing there with a thin, apologetic smile on her face.

  “Hello, dear,” she said.

  As she lowered herself gracefully into the chair opposite me, I realized she was just who I wanted to talk to. It had been too long since we’d had the chance to speak privately.

  “We weren’t excluding you,” she said. “I want that made clear right off the bat.” My face must have shown my surprise. “You were pretty loud out there with Mr. Vaspasian so I thought I’d clear that up. You’re a part of this but – honestly – I was hoping to spare you from having to deal with him directly, for now. Clearly that didn’t work.” She chuckled softly. “I can tell you what our plan is, if you’d like to know it,” she said.

  “I want to know,” I said. “I want this taken care of. I want my home to be safe without feeling like I constantly have to check my back.”

  My aunt smiled at me. “Well, it’s public knowledge that Carlo was captured and interrogated. Since he was on the fringes of the organization, he didn’t have any information to offer up – but we don’t suppose the Liberation Front quite knows that, at least not with any degree of certainty. We’ve put it out that he’s been very useful to us, and managed to ingratiate himself with the royal family.”

  “So as far as they know, we’re…friendly…again? They won’t be happy about that.”

  “Right.” Aunt Sonia looked pleased at my grasp of the situation. “At the same time, we’ve been in contact with another member of the Front who is acting as a double agent – we know he’s reporting to them. We’ve been sure to let him know that Carlo’s assistance is greatly appreciated…and that Carlo has even be invited to the holiday gala. We expect them to move against both of you, that night.”

  So both of us would be bait.

  My blood ran cold. Someone out there thought they were going to this party to try to kill me.

  “I know, it’s serious,” my aunt went on, reading my face. “And I know it’s really scary for you. I know that things like this are not something you sign on for when you agree to follow your destiny to the throne. They’re not unheard of, but it’s not part of the job description. You’re so busy focused on protecting others that you forget that sometimes you need to protect yourself as well.”

  “So we’re going to act like Carlo and I are friends again?”

  Yes,” she admitted. “But nothing bad will happen to you, I promise. Not just as your aunt who loves you dearly, but as your queen. You’re a subject as well, someone I’m sworn to protect. That’s a promise from me two times over.”

  I smiled. “I know. I want to help.” What I really wanted was to be worthy of her protection. I wanted to learn how to be someone who knew when to put fear behind them. For the longest time I’d thought it was all about not being afraid at all, about banishing doubt and being strong.

  “Well, that’s the plan,” she said. “We’re going to have more security at that gala than we’ve had in any one building before. We’ve got names and positive IDs on every one of the terrorists who is going to be involved. You will be monitored the entire night. I’m sorry to say you won’t even be going to the bathroom by yourself.”

  I snorted. “It sounds like a small price to pay.”

  “There will be one moment, just one, where we’re going to make it seem like you’re vulnerable. That will draw them out. But before anyone can do anything, they’ll be arrested.”

  There was a question I had in my mind that I knew I shouldn’t ask because once I knew the answer, I wouldn’t be able to get it out of my mind. But I needed to know. “How?”

  “A gun,” my aunt said plainly.

  A gun. So that was that. They wanted to shoot me.

  I pushed the thought from my mind; I wasn’t going to let it consume me. I wasn’t going to let it be the thing I focused on, because it wasn’t going to happen. My mind could play as many tricks as it wanted but no one was going to hurt me. I would never forget how they planned to murder me, but I couldn’t focus on that.

  “Okay,” I said.

  “The best thing you can do is know who to trust and go with the flow of the situation,” my aunt said. “And there will be training. You and Carlo together.”

  I nodded. That was going to be easier said than done. But I had a few weeks to get used to the idea.

  “We’re going to overcome this,” my aunt said. “We always do. We’re in this together, you and I.”

  I looked at her and, for the first time in a long time, I didn’t feel alone. She was the present, and I was the future. We were one.

  That’s how it was supposed to be, with the monarchy – seamless, timeless. We were part of the same whole. The second my aunt left this world, I would become her. It was something we borrowed from the ages of old, the seamless transition of the divine right between rulers.

  “You’re going to be an amazing woman,” my aunt said. “You have so much to offer the world, and you’re so much smarter than you realize. I won’t let them take your gift to the world away.”

  I didn’t know if all that was true, but I would do everything in my power to make sure I at least had a chance.

  Preparing for the gala took a lot longer and was a lot more work than I had thought it would be. I’d assumed that all that was needed was planning, personnel, forming timelines, and making sure everyone knew what to do. But, evidently, there was more to it than that. It was a good thing nobody had asked me to plan anything, because I wouldn’t have realized half the things that needed to be done.

  I went down to the ballroom at ten, as instructed, wearing a t-shirt and yoga pants. The corridors of the palace were a little chilly, but that didn’t stop my hands from sweating. Carlo and I were going to be training together today.

  The first thing I noticed was that the middle of the floor was covered in mats – the blue kind from gym class. Of course, the second thing I noticed was Carlo.

  He was thinner, and looked much less sure of himself today. He was watching me closely, and I saw him swallow. Before I could approach him, someone clapped their
hands to get our attention.

  “Good, we are all here,” the woman said. She was tall and thickly built, and she looked ready to kick my butt. I didn’t like the way she looked me over. “I am Anna. Let’s get started. Ten laps of the room, to warm up.”

  Carlo fell into step beside me and kept pace as we circled the room.

  “Your idea?” I huffed.

  “No,” he answered, “but I didn’t object. You should have begun self-defense training the day you arrived in Heledia.”

  “You would know.”

  He shot me a look but didn’t reply immediately. When we were almost done, he spoke softly, only slightly out of breath. “Cassie, I should have told you. We both know that. But I was never involved in any plan to harm you. This,” he waved a hand at the mats, “is my chance to prove it to you.”

  We came back to our starting place by the main doors, and stopped.

  “Let me do that,” he muttered under his breath as Anna approached. “Give me a chance.”

  I only had time to give him a look, but I think it showed my skepticism quite clearly.

  Anna herded us to the center of the mats, and she stood facing Carlo and showing me how to evade an attacker’s grasp if they came at me from the front, and if they came from behind.

  “Now, you.”

  I knew I was blushing, but I hoped the color would seem to be from exercise. I tried not to be distracted by the way he was touching me, while I struggled to shake him off. Before long we were laughing, and I actually did a little victory dance when I managed to trip him and knock him to the floor.

  My heart twisted when he grinned up at me, and I found myself smiling back.

  For half an hour after that, Anna explained the movements we would make throughout the room during the evening, and she showed us where the security team expected the attackers would be.

  “Our people will be mingling amongst the guests, and will endeavor to isolate and manipulate the suspects into this area, between these pillars. When the Moonlight Sonata begins, you two will move to the center of the floor to lead the waltz. Our people will be here, there, there, and there.” She pointed with her pencil. “Now comes the tricky part.”