by Emma Lea
A Royal Elopement
The Young Royals Book 5
Emma Lea
Copyright © 2017 by Emma Lea
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof
may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever
without the express written permission of the publisher
except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Cover design by Michelle Birrell
Book design and production by Michelle Birrell
Cover photograph by tomertu
Licensed by Adobe Stock
Created with Vellum
Contents
Other books by Emma Lea
About this Book
Author’s Note
Dedication
Previously
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Epilogue
Glossary
The Young Royals
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Thanks
Other books by Emma Lea
Other books by Emma Lea
This is Emma Lea’s complete book library at time of publication, but more books are coming out all the time. Find out every time Emma releases something by clicking here and signing up for her New Release Alerts.
SWEET ROMANCES
These are romantic tales without the bedroom scenes and the swearing, but that doesn’t mean they’re boring!
The Young Royals
A Royal Engagement
A Royal Entanglement
A Royal Entrapment
A Royal Expectation
A Royal Elopement
Bookish Book Club Novellas
Meeting Prince Charming
Broken Arrow Trilogy
Broken
Cursed
Eternal
SWEET & SEXY ROMANCES
In my Sweet & Sexy Romances I turn up the heat with a little bit of sexy. No swearing, or very minimal swearing, and brief, tasteful and not too graphic bedroom scenes.
Love, Money & Shoes Series
Walk of Shame
Strictly Business
Skin Deep
In The Money
All At Sea
Love, Money & Shoes Novellas
The Five Year Plan
Summer Fling
Standalone Novels
Amnesia
HOT & SEXY ROMANCES
Hot & Spicy Romances turn the heat way up. They contain swearing and sexy scenes and the characters get hot under the collar.
Recommended for 18+ readers
TGIF Series
Girl Friday
Black Friday
Good Friday
Twelve Days
Twelve Days of Christmas - Her Side of the Story
Twelve Days of Christmas - His Side of the Story
Quickies (Collins Bay Novellas)
Last Call
Standalone Novels
Learning to Breathe
TOO HOT TO HANDLE ROMANCES
These are definitely 18+ reads and contain graphic sex scenes and high level swearing – not for the faint of heart
The Young Billionaires
The Billionaire Stepbrother
The Billionaire Daddy
The Billionaire Muse
The Billionaire Replacement
The Billionaire Trap - coming soon
Music & Lyrics
Rock Star
Songbird
Strings
About this Book
Lady Meredith Bingham thought that she had her life sorted. She was a member of the royal guard - an elite security team tasked with protecting the queen of Merveille. She was also close personal friends with the queen and part of her inner circle - the ladies in waiting. But then her mother had to go and ruin it all. Lady Caroline Bingham was sick of her daughter fooling around and playing soldier. She thought it was high time her daughter got serious about her future and found herself a suitable husband. With the duke pulling double duty as the country's prime minister, it was only right that his daughter start acting like a proper daughter of nobility. Much to Meredith's chagrin, the queen agrees that Meredith must step down from her post.
Prince Christophe Kostopolous was a prince in exile. For the last ten years he had been living under the pseudonym of Jamie Kosta, and for the last seven years he has been part of the royal guard. Very few people knew his true identity, but that was all about to change. The people he had been hiding from all these years have found him and he may finally have his chance to reclaim his rightful place on the throne of his small island nation of Kalopsia. The only problem is, he has fallen for a certain duke's daughter and she has no idea who he really is.
Author’s Note
The Young Royals takes place in a country that doesn’t really exist. If it were to exist it would sit on the eastern edge of France bordered by Switzerland and Italy, quite close to Geneva. The country of Merveille (pronounced Mer-VAY) is a quiet, wealthy place ruled by a constitutional monarchy. It’s capital city is Calanais which is situated on the shores of a beautiful lake called Lac Merveilleux and is where the palace, named Château de Conte de Fées, sits.
Dedication
To the faithful readers who contacted me at the end of ‘A Royal Expectation’ demanding the next book…here ’tis.
Previously
Meredith
“Jamie? What are you doing?”
“Come on,” he said, tugging my hand as we escaped from the palace and snuck into a dark part of the gardens.
It was thrilling, this secret liaison between us, and we had been lucky so far that we hadn’t been caught. As the daughter of the prime minister and a duke, my dalliance with a security guard would probably not go down well. Jamie was more than just a security guard though, we both were. As part of the queen’s personal security team, we were highly trained bodyguards who were prepared to step in front of a bullet to save the life of our sovereign. This was a fact that my mother hated with a passion.
It took a minute for my eyes to adjust to the darkness after the bright lights of the palace, but the soft lapping of the water gave me some indication of where we were. There was a small dock in the shadow of the castle where the stone walls sunk into the lake. I felt the wooden boards under my feet as we walked out onto the short pier, the sky a dome of midnight blue velvet above us. I took a deep breath of the cool, fresh air and smiled as Jamie trailed a hand over my cheek and down my neck.
He kissed me then and I sighed into him. We saw each other every day, almost every hour of every day, but it was so very rare for us to be completely alone. It had started out as some harmless flirting and then one day when we had been sparring together he kissed me. I was ashamed to admit that it was my first kiss. As the queen’s companion and bodyguard, I hadn’t had all that much time to date and men found me intimidating a
nyway. Maybe it was the fact that I knew forty-seven different ways to kill a man without using a weapon that scared them off. Or maybe it was the fact that I could bench press more than them. Not everyone appreciated the muscles that I had spent time cultivating, but fortunately Jamie did.
He lifted his head and looked down at me with a crooked smile on his face. The man was gorgeous. He had the real boy-next-door look going on and with his sense of humour and love of life, it was hard not to be attracted to him. It was a pity that it would never work out in the long run. I had mostly escaped the trappings of being a duke’s daughter by first becoming Alyssa’s companion when we were children, and then convincing my father to let me train at the academy to be one of her bodyguards. At the time it had seemed like a logical thing to do, to have one of Alyssa’s friends also double as a guard, and thankfully my father had seen the sense in it despite my mother’s protests. I was grateful for his foresight because I loved my job and I didn’t want it to be taken away from me, although inevitably it would be.
I would eventually have to take a husband and I would be expected to marry well. My parents had not been so draconian as to try and find a husband for me but I knew that Jamie would not fit the bill. He was not nobility and therefore unsuitable for a duke’s daughter. I thought the whole thing was a bunch of poppycock, but I didn’t exactly have a say in the matter. Besides, Jamie and I were just having fun - neither of us had made a commitment to one another. With our jobs being the most important thing in our lives, I doubted either of us was prepared to give it up for the sake of a relationship. That would be what would have to happen. One of us would have to step down from the security detail and I knew neither one of us wanted to do that.
“Are you looking forward to our little field trip next week?’ Jamie asked as he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close.
“A month on a yacht visiting the tropical islands? Nah, it’s not really my scene.”
His laugh rumbled through his chest and made me tingle. “Yeah, me either,” he said.
The queen and prince were starting their tour in a week’s time. We would be away from the palace for a month and would be traveling by yacht, visiting the islands dotted around the Mediterranean. We would travel to Monaco first for a royal visit with the Prince of Monaco. We would then board the yacht, or fleet of yachts as the case may be, and travel to a small island owned by Merveille. We would spend a few nights there and then begin the tour of the islands off the coast of Spain and the Balearic Sea.
“I am looking forward to having some down time on Le Beau.”
“I never understood why they named an island ‘beautiful man’,” Jamie said.
I chuckled. “It’s because of the natives on the island. Apparently they’re beautiful.”
“It’s still a stupid name.” He was silent for a moment. “Are you going to hit the casinos?”
“I thought I might,” I replied. “Are you?”
“Maybe… maybe we could go together.”
“I’d like that,” I whispered.
The island of Le Beau was kind of like the Las Vegas of Merveille. It was a popular destination for bachelor parties and girls’ weekends. I had never been and I was really looking forward to seeing what all the fuss was about.
A giggle floated down to us from the garden terraces above and we both stiffened and lifted our heads to listen.
“We should get out of here before we’re seen,” I whispered.
Jamie pulled me hard up against his chest and kissed me fiercely, fogging my brain and making me breathless. And then he was gone, melting into the darkness and leaving me alone on the pier, stunned by the force of emotions that had swept over me with his kiss. I couldn’t be falling for him, I just couldn’t.
Jamie
I had been ignoring the message on my phone for the past half an hour, but I couldn’t ignore it anymore. I wanted to see Meredith one last time, just in case the meeting I was about to go into had the expected outcome. I had always known that it would happen one day, I just hadn’t thought it would be so soon. Not that ten years in exile was exactly soon. Maybe it was more the fact that now that I had initiated a relationship with Meredith, I wasn’t ready for it to be over.
I took a deep breath and tapped on the door. At the spoken command from inside, I entered.
“Benjamin,” I said, acknowledging my immediate superior. “Von Bartham.”
Both men nodded to me. “Prince Christophe.” Von Bartham returned and I sighed audibly.
“Has it happened then?” I asked.
Benjamin sat forward in his chair and leaned his elbows on his desk. “No,” he said. “Your father is still imprisoned, but there has been chatter.”
“They know where I am,” I said feeling the familiar frustration. I had been avoiding the traitorous insurgents for ten years. They had taken my father hostage and had murdered my mother and sisters. I had been lucky enough to escape and I had been biding my time in the hope of finally being able to reclaim the throne of my country.
“Yes,” Benjamin said.
“I told Freddie not to include me in his wedding party,” I said with a growl of frustration.
I had been so careful and Freddie was one of the very few people who knew who I really was. We had become close friends, not that anyone would know about it. I assumed Alex would know the truth now. Freddie had warned me he wouldn’t be keeping any secrets from her. I had only asked that he waited until they were married. The last thing I wanted was for the entire palace to know my secret. Now it seemed it wouldn’t matter. The cat, as they say, was out of the bag.
“So what do you want me to do?” I asked, resigned to fleeing in the middle of the night before anyone could drag me back to stand trial in what would be a farce of the judicial system.
The rebels who had attacked the palace on the small island that was my home were more corrupt than they accused my family of being. I hated to think what had become of the island paradise that I had once called home. My heart bled for the people I had left behind, but my hands were tied. I couldn’t reclaim what was mine until we found a weakness in their forces and so far none had become evident. Many had branded me a coward for running away, and perhaps they were right. My father had urged me to run and I had only been a mere boy of fifteen at the time. He had promised me that by running, I would live to fight another day. Alyssa’s father, King Edward, had been friends with my father and had offered me sanctuary. I had been secreted out of my country and sequestered in the castle of Merveille until the immediate danger had passed. When Von Bartham suggested I join the royal guard, I jumped at the chance. Spending time in America while Alyssa attended Harvard had further distanced me from the troubles at home. No one knew what had happened to me and many speculated that I was dead, a fact that the rebels touted to be the truth and to be at their hands.
“I want you to stick with the plan,” Benjamin said. “Go on tour with Alyssa. Get lost on Le Beau for a while. Keep your head down. Von Bartham will monitor the situation from here and we will do what we can to remove any photos of you in the wedding party that might surface.”
“And the rest of the guard? Are they to finally find out the truth about who I am?”
Benjamin studied me with his shrewd eyes before shaking his head with a sigh. “No. Not yet. This might all blow over and then we would have compromised your identity for nothing. We won’t say anything for now.”
“Does Alyssa know?” I hadn’t thought to ask before. She hadn’t treated me any differently, so I had just assumed the truth hadn’t been revealed to her yet.
“Yes. So does Will. Alyssa was told in her security briefing after she took the crown. Will was told in his after he married her.”
“And they are okay with me continuing on with the tour? Won’t having me there increase the security risks?”
Von Bartham and Benjamin shared a look. “We don’t think so. We will keep your duties out of the spotlight. You won’t be visible at any of their
public appearances and…”
“And what?”
Benjamin sighed. “We want you and Meredith to pose as decoys for Alyssa and Will.”
I scoffed. “Meredith has bright red hair and looks nothing like the queen.”
“A wig, some dark glasses. They are of a similar height and build. It was always part of the plan, and it is something that she has been trained for.”
“And me? A wig and dark glasses?”
Benjamin nodded. “And some decent clothes.” He smiled trying to lighten the situation. I wasn’t known for my stylish dressing, something that had become a bit of a joke around the palace.
“Okay,” I said, drawing in all the frustration and residual anger that seemed to be my constant companion.
I didn’t think this would end well, but maybe I would finally be able to do something to help my people. Maybe this whole ordeal was finally going to come to a head.
