A Royal Distraction

by Daphne James Huff

  “He never liked blood,” said Helena, trying to explain her brother’s clumsy reaction. The air was thick with its metallic scent, mixed with the cleaning products the bartender was using to clean the floor.

  Alix said nothing, but felt her attitude shift a tiny bit toward sympathy. Not everyone was cut out for the life of a doctor. He had opened up so much to her tonight, yet she hadn’t shared much of herself, and didn’t plan on it. She told herself that since she was only after fun, it didn’t matter. As long as he knew what to do in bed, why did it matter if he was useless when she was in tears or in pain? After all, she didn’t plan on crying or bleeding in front of him again.

  A buzz from the door had Helena running. Alix was left with Stella, who concentrated on picking out the small bits of glass from her best friend’s hand.

  “Hey, it’s fine Stella,” she said, trying to hide her grimace with each piece of glass she removed. “Go back to Anton.”

  “No, it’s all right. He won’t even notice that I’m gone,” she said with a sad smile. “I need to make sure you’re okay.”

  Helena walked back in with a paramedic clutching a medical bag.

  “Duncan called them,” she said by way of explanation.

  Alix’s softened feelings toward Duncan hardened again. Not knowing how to handle a crying woman was one thing, but she’d explicitly said she didn’t need a doctor. It didn’t matter if he was right; what mattered was that he hadn’t listened to her. This was why men were so frustrating. Her father thought that he knew best and signed her up for university here without even asking her. Now Duncan, who couldn’t even handle a little blood, thought that he knew better than a future doctor what to do in an emergency.

  As if on cue, Duncan appeared at the door to the kitchen, looking hopeful, waiting to be told he had helped.

  “I’m fine!” she cried for the third time, trying to stand up before quickly sitting back down as the makeshift tourniquet fell off and her leg began to bleed profusely again.

  “Please, Lady Alix, let’s get you down to the ambulance,” said the paramedic.

  A second paramedic was arriving with a stretcher.

  She allowed herself to be helped onto it, not meeting Duncan’s gaze. It was childish and cruel, she knew, not to thank him for doing something helpful, but she was in too much pain to really care.

  As the other guests buzzed around, murmuring about the whole thing.

  “The press will have a field day with his,” someone said.

  “We could have driven her. Why did he call the paramedics?” a different voice commented angrily.

  As Alix left, she got the feeling that she wasn’t the only one who was upset with Duncan at the moment.

  Chapter 12

  Duncan wanted to leave with Alix and head directly to the hospital. Leo requested that he stay and help him bid farewell to everyone else, apologizing for the dramatic turn of events. He turned on his younger brother as soon as the four siblings were finally alone in the apartment.

  “Why on earth would you call an ambulance?” Leo demanded, hands on his hips. He glanced briefly at the waiters putting away the food, and gave them a sign to leave the bar set up.

  Duncan walked over and served himself another drink before responding to Leo. His hands shook a bit as he poured his favorite whiskey, as he thought of the blood gushing from the wounds on Alix’s small, perfectly white limbs. He knew it was ridiculous to think that he could have stopped it from happening. It was just a stupid accident.

  “There was so much blood, and she was crying and in pain,” he explained. “I wanted to help.”

  He sat down on the couch and looked up at his siblings standing above him. He felt like the youngest brother, instead of the second oldest, with all of their disappointed faces staring down at him.

  “You could have helped me keep everyone else occupied in the living room,” said Anton. “Everyone was crowding into the kitchen like it was one of my gallery openings.”

  “You could have offered to drive her to the hospital,” suggested Helena gently, with a glare at Anton. “Since you were so insistent on her seeing a doctor.”

  “I didn’t think of that,” he said.

  “Well it’s obvious that you didn’t think,” said Leo grumpily. “Now the press will be all over this. ‘Wild Party At The Princess’s Penthouse.’ You know they’re always looking for something, anything, to print.”

  “I know,” said Duncan testily. “But it’s not usually my name that’s in there.” He glanced at Anton, who at least had the decency to look ashamed.

  “It’s not my fault that all the ladies like to gab about how great I am,” he shrugged with a sheepish smile. “At least Stella seems a bit more discreet than the others.”

  “This is not about Anton’s whoring about,” said Helena, making a disgusted face at her youngest brother. “Duncan, this is about you. What are you going to do about your feelings for Alix?”

  “Feelings?” he said, surprised. “I don’t have feelings. I was just worried about her. She got hurt; that’s a normal reaction to have.”

  “You had Helena throw a party just so that you could spend more time with her,” accused Anton.

  “All of this for her?” Leo sounded surprised. “You’ve never put in this much effort for someone. What’s going on?”

  “Nothing!” insisted Duncan, upset that Helena had blabbed about the reasons for the party to Anton. “She’s just someone I want right now, and I’ll get her eventually, and then I’ll be done with her.”

  Helena chuckled.

  “You are so clueless, even about yourself!” she cried, exasperated. “You want so much more than that, and you know it.”

  Duncan took a sip of his drink and said nothing.

  “Alix seems really great, but she grew up away from all of this drama,” she went on. “I don’t think all this attention, this life, is what she’s looking for. You should be careful you don’t get hurt.”

  “You should be focusing on your other duties right now, anyway,” reminded Leo. “Keep this fun and light, don’t make it serious right now. You have more important things to worry about.”

  Duncan was getting annoyed. They were all telling him what he should do, which was nothing new. And usually, he was happy to do to whatever the family needed of him. Why was he so resistant in this case?

  “I want to go see her,” he said suddenly, standing. Now that he’d figured out what he wanted, he was determined. “I want to be sure she’s okay.”

  “Absolutely not,” ordered Leo. “There’ll be enough press at the hospital as it is. Don’t draw any more attention to this.”

  “It’s nothing serious,” Helena assured him. “The paramedics said that she wouldn’t even be kept overnight. She just needs some stitches.”

  “So what am I supposed to do?” he asked, helplessly, his determination suddenly deflated. He was confused by his feelings, by his siblings’ anger with him, by this whole night. He just wanted to know what to do.

  “Forget about her for now,” Leo said. “If all you want is some fun, you’ve already put in more than enough time. Move on.”

  Anton nodded in agreement.

  Helena hesitated.

  “If you think it might be more than just fun,” she began cautiously, “you could try doing something nice for her when she gets back from the hospital. Have something sent to her rooms. Flowers or something.”

  It was a good suggestion. The beginning of a plan began to form in his head. He didn’t share it with them; he wanted to try and work out how to do it on his own. He’d need help, of course, but not from them.

  He looked around Helena’s apartment, at the life she’d built, separate from the palace and from everything he knew. Was he ready to do that? Alix had already done it, too. She had plans, and had lived a whole life in a city far from here. He knew that he should listen to his sister.

  He looked at the small, framed photo on one of the side tables next to the couch. It
was one of his favorites: The four of them were young—Leo was only 10—and they were on the beach with their arms around each other. They’d always helped each other, been there for each other, no matter what. But they had their own lives now. It was time to start trying to build his.

  Chapter 13

  Alix bit her lip to avoid crying out in pain as the sharp needle dug into the tender skin of her calf. She hadn’t realized the cut was deep enough to need stitches. She knew that shallow wounds could sometimes bleed more than deep ones, but obviously that wasn’t the case this time. She still had so much to learn.

  To distract herself from the pain, she looked around the clean, modern hospital room, taking mental notes about what her life might look like one day. The smells of antiseptic and blood did not bother her as they did others. It made her think of all the good that was beneath the pain.

  Her room had the most up-to-date equipment, very different than what she’d see in the refugee camps. She tried to sneak a look at her chart, but the intern stitching her up held her in place with one hand as she concentrated on finishing her work.

  “You’ll probably have a scar,” she said sadly. “It’ll fade with time. You can see a plastic surgeon before you leave who can tell you when they’d be able to fix it.”

  “That won’t be necessary,” Alix said, not caring one bit about the mark it would leave. She wasn’t that kind of noble.

  No, she was the kind who drank too much and got hurt at parties with the royal siblings, she thought bitterly. This wasn’t what she wanted for herself at all. Even though she had to admit that she’d been having a good time before the accident.

  The doctor came in, interrupting her thoughts. He was young, probably only his first year on the job.

  “How are you feeling?” he said amiably, as if he was talking about the weather and not the fifteen stitches in her leg.

  “Not the best,” she said. “Probably dehydrated from drinking. I thought I’d have an IV by now, especially with the amount of blood I lost.”

  He looked impressed.

  “You’re thinking of a career in medicine?” he said, pushing the button to call a nurse.

  She nodded.

  “I was pre-med in New York. I just found out that I got into the Refugee Medical Alliance internship program. It’s a program that—”

  “Focuses on medical relief in refugee camps and areas of displacement,” he finished the tagline for her, smiling. He started to help the nurse who’d just arrived with the IV. “I know. I did two years myself before going to medical school at Oxford.”

  Alix beamed, eager to hear more about his time in the program. She blurted out question after question, barely taking a breath in her excitement.

  “It was the most life changing experience I’ve ever had,” he said after he’d patiently answered all her questions, confirming that the program was everything that she’d hoped it would be. “I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. It made me who I am today.”

  “But you came back to Prynesse to work?” she inquired. “You didn’t want to go somewhere else?”

  “This is still home,” he said with a shrug, and turned to greet Alix’s parents as they walked in.

  “She’s a genius this one,” he said, smiling. “She’ll do great next year.”

  Alix panicked and turned white.

  “Of course she will,” said her father with a proud chuckle. “She’ll be best in her class.”

  The doctor looked at Alix quizzically, but thankfully said nothing else before excusing himself to give the family some privacy.

  Her mother went to the window and pulled down the shade against the rising sun. She felt guilty for having woken them for such a small thing, and told them as much.

  “Nonsense,” said her mother, climbing into her hospital bed to stroke her hair tenderly. Her father perched himself in a chair next to the bed on the other side. It felt good to be surrounded by her parents.

  “I’m sorry that you’re hurt, but it’s nice to be able to come and see you right away after an accident, instead of having to call the school nurse eight times a day for updates,” said her father, referring to the handful of times she’d been sick or gotten hurt at boarding school.

  “It was hard to be away from you, whenever you were ill,” her mother said. “The trip is so long, you would have been better by the time we got there.”

  Alix nodded, remembering the constant phone calls in those situations. They annoyed her at the time, but looking back, she saw how much they had been worried about her.

  “It’s wonderful to have you home,” her mother sighed happily, hugging her close.

  “You don’t miss New York, though?” she asked them, directing the question more toward her mother. The question had been on her mind for months—years, really. Now that they were all together, it felt like the right time to talk about it. “That’s not home to you?”

  “Oh, not after all these years,” her mother said, without a hint of sadness. “My years on the stage there were wonderful, but I was happy to give all of that up for the life required of someone married to a Prynesse count.”

  Alix didn’t want to doubt her mother’s words, but it was so different than how she felt. Her mother saw the skeptical look on her daughter’s face and laughed.

  “I know that must sound ridiculous to you, you’re so young,” she smiled at Alix’s father, who looked at them both with tenderness and love. “Your father was happy to arrange his own duties so that we could be in New York while you were young. Then it was time to come here. It wasn’t so much a sacrifice for either of us, but more of a…” she looked to her husband.

  “Compromise,” he finished her thought with a chuckle. “When you love someone, supporting her dream doesn’t really feel like sacrifice. Because the other option is to live without her, and that would be so much worse.”

  Alix wanted to ask if they loved her enough to support a dream that only offered one option—to live without her—but decided she wasn’t ready to tell them yet.

  “Well, I’m glad we’re all here together now, and all you had to sacrifice tonight was sleep,” Alix said, bringing the conversation to a close by cuddling into her mother’s arms. Her parents smiled at her, assuring her they’d give up much more than a few hours of sleep to make sure that she’d be okay.

  As they left, Alix realized that she’d only just started to get to know them, as an adult, and here she was, ready to leave them again. She wanted to be sure to spend as much time as possible with them this summer before breaking their hearts.

  Chapter 14

  Duncan had never gone through so much trouble just to get into a girl’s bed. However, as he rearranged the flowers on the table that was set up in Alix’s sitting room, he had to admit to himself that it was much more than that. He had only admitted a small part of what he’d been feeling recently to his siblings.

  He realized that he was more comfortable in her room now. He had kept her simple, clean style in mind when picking out the tablecloth and china. Even the meal was nothing too fancy. He’d left the windows open at first, but had closed them when he realized they were blowing around the papers on her desk. He didn’t want her to think he’d been going through them, knowing how much she disliked people touching her things.

  He heard her approach in the hall and fidgeted in place. He didn’t want her to walk in and see him lounging around in her sitting room.

  The door opened and Stella helped Alix inside. She was on crutches. Stella did not look surprised to see him, and Duncan suspected that Anton must have told her something. She said nothing, proving Anton was right, and that she really was more discreet than others.

  Alix, however, did look surprised, and not very happy, to see Duncan standing there in front of a table set for two. She bid farewell to Stella with a significant glance to let her know a serious phone call would be happening the second Duncan left.

  “Hi,” he said lamely, not knowing what else to say.
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  “Hello,” she said, balancing on her crutches in the middle of the room. Her left leg was wrapped in gauze, as well as her right hand. She was no longer in the dress from the party, but a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt from her university in New York. She’d taken her hair out of the elaborate twist it had been in earlier, to let her dark hair fall messily down her shoulders. She’d washed away all of the makeup that she’d had on for the party. She was beautiful.

  After a moment of awkward silence, he rushed to help her sit.

  “I thought you might be hungry when you got back,” he explained, as he settled her into a chair. She shivered briefly, and he was pleased with himself for having thought to close the windows. He went to get a blanket off the couch and wrapped it around her shoulders, rubbing her arms to warm her up. He could hear her breath catch when he touched her. He pulled himself away, not wanting her to think he wanted anything more than dinner tonight. Even if he desperately wanted so much more.

  “Thank you,” she said, and he wasn’t sure if she meant for the dinner, the blanket, or both. He’d take it.

  He sat down across from her and lifted the covers from the plates with a flourish.

  “I hope you’re hungry,” he said with a nervous smile.

  “Did you do all of this yourself?” she asked, not touching her food.

  “I didn’t cook, no. But Helena can’t really cook, either,” he said, a bit defensively. “She suggested I send you flowers, but I wanted to do something more.”

  “Why?” she asked, her eyebrows knitted in confusion.

  He hesitated. He’d told her so much the night before about himself. Was he willing to tell her everything?

  “You’re very interesting,” he said, settling on something that was true, without revealing too much.

  “Because I didn’t jump into bed with you the second I met you?”

  He laughed out loud.

  “Yes,” he admitted, still chuckling. A small smile appeared on Alix’s face.