“Your chariot awaits, princess,” he said. I giggled as he closed my door and ran around to the driver’s side. My father, always a gentleman, always a joker, always loving. It was good to be near him.
As we drove to the restaurant, I asked him about work.
“How’s everything at the embassy?” I asked.
“It’s good. We have a big diplomatic meeting coming up at the beginning of the year that we’re getting ready for. I have to give a speech.”
“Oh, I know how you love that,” I teased. Giving speeches was the one part of my father’s job that he didn’t enjoy. And he had to give a lot of speeches. He always felt sick beforehand.
“Where are we going?” I asked. We were in a busy part of town, with lots of bustling shoppers and bars and restaurants lining the cobblestone streets. Colorful buildings jutted up into the night sky, towering over us.
“To the oldest restaurant in Stockholm, it’s called Den Gyldene Freden. It means, “The Golden Peace”. Actually, it happens to be the oldest restaurant in the world, in fact. Very famous place.”
“Wow. Sounds awesome,” I replied. We turned down a tiny, old street, and I stared up at all the old buildings, instantly transported back in time. I loved the old architecture, the tiny cafes with their outdoor seating and sparkling lights and old ironwork. It was all so romantic and beautiful.
“Are you hungry?” he asked.
“Absolutely, I’m starving,” I replied. Dad slowed the car down as we approached the restaurant, and I noticed that the street was blocked off up ahead by several shiny, black SUV’s and a half-dozen men wearing black suits and little ear pieces.
“What’s all this?” I asked, as my father continued driving towards them.
“Don’t worry,” he said, patting my hand.
“Worry?” I was confused, but he continued towards them, slowing down and rolling down his window.
“Mr. Rose, good evening, sir,” the guard greeted him.
“Hello, Gerard,” my father replied. “Nice to see you.”
Gerard nodded and stepped to the side, allowing my father to pull through.
“What is all this, Dad?” I asked again.
“Security.”
“Security, right,” I repeated. We pulled up to the valet, and the doors of our car opened, a black gloved hand reaching in to help me out. I took it and stood on the sidewalk, taking in the tall men standing around, the deserted sidewalk in front of the cafe.
“I don’t understand, Dad,” as he joined me in front of the Den Gyldene Freden. I looked in the windows, and all the tables were empty. “I think they’re closed.”
“They aren’t closed, come on,” he grabbed my hand and guided me inside. I looked around at the empty candlelit tables, the enormous chandeliers and huge floral centerpieces, and realized how completely underdressed I was.
A large man greeted us, taking my big, comfortable purple coat away. When my father saw my short red dress, he raised his eyebrows, but he didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. I was thinking the same thing. Dammit.
“I didn’t have anything else nice to wear, sorry…” I said, my voice trailing off as we were seated at a large table in the center of the room. Vases filled with the tiniest red roses, pure white china, sterling silver bowls, crystal goblets, shimmering candles…the table looked like it was set for royalty.
I looked across the table at my father. He wasn’t beaming anymore. He looked nervous, even though his smile was still on his face, it was just a little more crooked now.
“What’s going on, Dad?” I asked again, hoping for some explanation.
“You’ll understand soon, darling.” I had no idea why he was being so vague, or why we were the only ones sitting in this fancy restaurant, and I really wanted to know what was up with all the security. My father didn’t need security and never had, so none of this made any sense to me. A waiter appeared and began pouring red wine in my crystal goblet, before repeating his flamboyant show with my father’s glass.
I sipped the wine slowly, the light reflecting in the glass on the table. I looked around, my eyes drawn out the door, over my father’s shoulder. The men outside were standing in one place, their heads moving back and forth as they scanned their surroundings.
“Should I be scared? This is a bit much.” My eyes widened as I had a terrible thought. “Dad, is your life in danger or something? Is that why all these security guys are here?” I would be devastated if something happened to my father.
“No, Jewels, it’s nothing like that. Don’t worry. You’ll find out soon enough. Enjoy your wine.”
“Dad, you have to tell me. This is getting weird.”
“Okay, I’ll give you a hint,” his eyes lit up. “I want you to meet someone.”
“Meet someone? Oh, okay. Who?”
“Well, that’s the surprise. I can’t tell you.”
“I see. Okay, Dad,” I replied. “It must be someone important.”
“You could say that,” he said, a teasing note rising in his voice.
The security guards outside launched into a frenzied dance of movement as a long limousine pulled up in front of the restaurant, surrounding the sleek black car completely. I watched as a door opened, and two figures emerged from the back. The large men obstructed my view, and I strained my neck to get a better look at them.
“Oh!” my father exclaimed. “They’re here!” he said, standing up and facing the door, blocking my view even more. I didn’t know if I should stand up or what, so I stayed seated, trying in vain to see around my father.
As soon as the front door opened, the energy in the room sizzled.
“Darling! It’s so good to see you,” I heard a female voice say, and then I watched as arms that were dripping in jeweled bracelets and hands wrapped in fur gloves wrapped around his neck.
So that was it. My father had a girlfriend. A very rich girlfriend. That needed an entire security team?
What the hell? I thought.
I took a deep breath, preparing for to face the first girlfriend my father had ever had since my mother died.
When she stepped around him and came into view, my jaw dropped.
It couldn’t be! No way in hell!
My body froze in shock, but somehow I found my feet and stood up.
Standing in front of me was the Queen of Sweden. The fucking Queen. The one and only. Authentic. Real. Living. Breathing. Queen!
Not some little moving picture on an electronic screen.
The Queen!
Please don’t let this be real, please don’t let this be real, please don’t let this be real…The chanting filled my head and my father’s voice barely registered.
“Jewels, I’d like you to meet Queen Victoria,” my father said. My eyes kept jumping back and forth between the two of them, the Queen, my father, the Queen, my father, my head stuck in a tailspin of confusion.
“H-h-hello,” I managed to blurt out, as I stared at her outstretched white-furred hand like it was a snake ready to attack. What the hell was I supposed to do with that? Give it CPR? Kiss it? Curtsy? Kiss it and curtsy at the same time? Call her ‘Your Highness’ or ‘Your Majesty’ or ‘Your Grace’ or something like that? Was I supposed to kneel down and let her bless me like the Pope or something?
I tried flipping through the images of royalty in my mind, trying to find some sliver of knowledge in the back of my head about the correct method of greeting the fucking Queen, but I came up empty. I wanted to kill my father for putting me in this situation with absolutely no warning.
“Julia, darling,” she exclaimed excitedly, “I’ve wanted to meet you for quite some time,” she grabbed my hand and then pulled me close to her, hugging me. The Queen of Sweden was hugging me and had been wanting to meet me? What universe was this?
The smell of what was surely perfume that probably cost a million dollars accosted my senses as she held me close. I stiffly let her embrace me, my arms like sticks at my side. I was terrified to touch h
er. The bright blue sapphires that lined the neckline of her royal blue dress pressed into my collarbone painfully.
I squeezed my eyes shut in pain and then opened them again as she began to pull away.
When I saw the tall figure standing behind her, I felt as if I had been punched in the stomach. My heart skipped a beat and I reached for the table to steady my weak knees.
I blinked hard, hoping against hope that I had been mistaken, and someone else would be standing there when I opened my eyes again.
No such luck.
My eyes collided with the biggest, most regretted mistake of my life.
Prince Wilhelm Philip, the Duke of Värmland.
The one man that I had allowed to break my heart.
The one man that I had spent the last ten years agonizing over, avoiding any news about, and harboring a growing hatred for.
The last man on Earth that I ever wanted to see again.
He stepped forward, and before I could catch my breath, the Queen released me and stepped to the side. And then there he was, standing in front of me, grabbing my hand and kissing the back of it, his lips touching me, shooting sparks up my arm and making my stomach turn in revulsion all at once.
“It’s good to see you again, Julia,” he said, an arrogant grin spreading across his hideously handsome face. “It’s been a very long time.”
“Will,” I replied, doing my best to make my voice as cold as the icy streets outside, as I narrowed my eyes and forced a smile. “What a surprise to see you again.”
“I had no idea you two knew each other,” my father said, as we settled around the table. Queen Victoria sat right next to my father, forcing me to sit next to Will.
“We met in Providence, during my fellowship at Rhode Island School of Design years ago,” Will replied, as if the story was so simple. “And you ended up graduating from Brown, right Julia?”
“Yes,” I replied, picking up my wine, and forcing myself not to pour the entire contents down my throat.
“That’s right,” my father commented. “Brown and RISD share a campus.”
“Yes,” I murmured, my heart in my throat. I could hardly speak. I could hardly breathe.
“Well, that’s wonderful!” my father replied. “That makes this all so much easier.”
“Makes what easier?” I asked. Nothing about this was easy. Nothing about seeing Will again, nothing about sitting next to him or being in the same room with him was easy. I wasn’t sure why my father was torturing me like this, but there was no way in hell I was going to inform him of why it was torture. I’d kept my mouth shut this long about Prince Wilhelm of Sweden, and I wasn’t about to open it now.
“The surprise, Jewels.”
“Jewels? That’s adorable,” Will said with a smirk. God, he’s still an arrogant prick, I thought. “I never thought to call you that.”
Please don’t let this be real, please don’t let this be real…I don’t know who I was pleading to, but if I ever needed a guardian angel it was now.
“Oh, yes. Jewel is Julia’s real name. She began insisting everyone call her Julia when she was six. She begrudgingly allows me to revert back to her given name occasionally.”
“No, I don’t let you, Dad. But you do it anyway,” I responded, ignoring the grin on Will’s face. That damn face, and that arrogant fucking grin that had haunted me for so long. I couldn’t believe I was in the same room with him again. It was like a ghost had appeared, as if I had thought about him so many times over the years, I had somehow manifested him.
I closed my eyes, trying to wish him away again, and opened them.
Nope.
Damn!
Still didn’t work.
There he sat. With the fucking Queen of Sweden sitting regally next to my father.
“What surprise, Dad?” I asked again, wanting suddenly to find the quickest way out of this situation.
My father looked over at Queen Victoria, and they smiled warmly at one another. He put his hand over her tiny furry one, and leaned towards her a little. Why in the hell was my father touching the Queen like that? I wondered, looking around for one of her many security guards that had entered the room when she did, to break his fingers. Nobody raised an eyebrow. Not even her.
What the fuck was going on?
I jumped when I felt a warm hand on my knee. My eyes flashed over to Will and he stared straight ahead, smiling at our parents as if he wasn’t actually squeezing my knee suggestively under the table. I pulled my leg away quickly, the heat of his hand lingering on my skin. What a fucking prick, I thought.
“I suppose we should just come right out and say it,” my father began. The Queen smiled serenely and nodded. “Vicky and I have known each other for years now, and well - we’ve become quite fond of each other.”
I stared at him blankly. Did he just call her Vicky?
“After developing a close friendship, we began to have feelings for each other a few months ago.”
“Feelings?” I asked, wrinkling my nose. I looked over at the Queen and tried to determine how old she was. She had to be at least ten years older than my father. None of this made sense. She was the fucking Queen! “What are you saying, Dad?”
“Victoria and I have fallen in love, Jewels.”
“Love?” My voice cracked and I reached for my wine again.
“I, for one, think it’s absolutely splendid!” Will said, his loud voice booming through the restaurant. As if anyone had asked for his damned opinion, I thought.
“We’ve had quite a whirlwind romance,” my father continued. “And I know this is fast, and probably quite a shock to you, Jewels, but we’re going to get married.”
“What!” I exclaimed, slamming my wine glass down on the table. It wobbled, and Will reached over just as I did to steady it. His hand brushed mine, causing that damned shockwave to run through my arm again and I pulled it away quickly.
“I know, Jewels, it’s fast. And I probably should have told you sooner, but Vicky wanted to be discrete at first. You understand.”
“Vicky…” I replied, my voice trailing off as I looked at the two of them. Indeed, they did look happy. And when they turned to look into each other’s eyes again, the love flowing between them was obvious.
“It’s wonderful, isn’t it, Jewels? You believe in love, don’t you?” Will said, turning towards me.
“Julia. My name is Julia,” I replied to him through clenched teeth.
“Right. Julia. Well, you know what this means, right?” he said.
“What?” I asked, as if it could possibly mean anything other than ‘what the fuck, oh my god, and no way in hell is this really happening!’.
My mind was stuck in a vicious cycle of disbelief.
“You’ll be a Princess! Princess Jewels! It has such a nice ring to it, don’t you think?”
“Um…” I was speechless, as visions of myself riding a life-size My Little Pony around a plastic castle filled my head. Then I thought of Princess Diana, and what a nightmare her life ended up being, and my heart filled with dread. “I don’t think I want…” my voice trailed off, and I struggled to wrap my head around what was happening.
“And you’ll finally have a brother,” my father blurted out, beaming at me from across the table. “You always wanted one, remember?”
“What? A brother? How?” I asked, bewildered. Was the Queen - fuck - Victoria or Vicky or Your Highness or whatever I was supposed to call her - pregnant? No, wait, she was ancient, she couldn’t be fucking pregnant. Could she? I mean, science was accomplishing amazing things these days, and she had gobs of money, so she could have frozen her eggs or something, I guess.
“I don’t understand,” I replied, shaking my head.
“Me,” Will said.
“You, what?” I asked, my voice laced with annoyance. I really wished he wasn’t here. This was all bad enough without having to deal with him. He was irritating me immensely with his arrogant, carefree attitude, as if this was something that happene
d every day.
“I’ll be your brother. Your step-brother,” he said it so nonchalantly, as if the implications of such a thing were no big deal to him.
It was then that reality hit me with the full force of its ugly head.
This couldn’t be happening. I looked at him in horror, visions of the past flooding my brain, visions of his lips, his chest, his massive cock flashing in my head uncontrollably.
“I say when, darling…”
“I - I - I have to go the ladies room,” I said, standing up abruptly and fleeing to the back of the restaurant as fast as I could, tears stinging my eyes, my heart racing so fast I thought it might pound its way right out of my chest.
At that moment, I wished for something, anything, to happen to make this nightmare disappear. Lightening striking me dead would be a great option, I thought. Or, better yet, striking Will dead, anything to wipe that arrogant fucking grin off his face.
Anything to wipe the past from existence, to keep this disaster from actually happening.
CHAPTER TWO
WILL
I knew she’d be surprised to see me. I knew she’d still be slightly mad at me. But I figured I could win her over. What I didn’t expect was the pure vitriol that shot from her eyes every time she looked at me.
Look, I did her a favor all those years ago. The last thing she needed was me sticking around to further complicate her life. I’d done enough damage already.
That’s why I ran. That’s why I took off like that, came back home to Sweden, to spare her the pain of having to end it herself. Because of course she would have. As soon as everything was taken care of, she would have dropped me in a second.
I knew where everything was headed. I knew the only thing that was going to come out of it was heartbreak, whether I stayed or not. So, I did the right thing.
Apparently, she didn’t agree. I’d pissed women off before, that was nothing knew. But I could usually get them to forgive me pretty quickly with a flash of a smile, a joke, an expensive little trinket, a quick bang or even the occasional apology.
I wasn’t in the habit of apologizing, though. That was only for extreme cases. But maybe that’s what I was dealing with now.
The Crown Jewels Page 2
