I nodded. “Okay. Your way definitely sounds better.”
As we drew up outside Richmond, Rogers came out to meet us. Rogers seldom allowed his expression to reflect his emotions, preferring a stonily respectful visage at all times. But now he was showing emotion, and it was not the happiness that should have been appropriate.
“Your Majesty,” he addressed the Queen as she got out of the car, “I fear there has been an incident.”
My heart began to pound, and Queen Constance arched a brow. “What’s happened?”
He took a deep breath. “There’s been a leak. A tabloid leak." He pronounced the word ‘tabloid’ like someone finding a worm in their apple. “They have asked if we would care to comment on the story they will be running tomorrow.”
The Queen took the paper, and I watched her face turn first to horror then to grim determination. “Right.” She passed the paper to Andrew and me. “I’m sorry, Keira, for what you’re about to go through.”
I looked at the paper, and my heart seemed to plummet directly into my stomach. The tabloid headline writers had put it more succinctly, but the general gist of the front page was: Prince forced to marry the maid he knocked up during dirty sex romps.
My heart was practically in my shoes now. I’d told them I was prepared for this, and I’d thought that I was prepared for this, but the reality of it, of someone prying into my life, was so violating. I shivered. The picture was the worst part of it; Andrew and I caught in a compromising position. It’d been a loving moment, but it was now rendered sordid.
I looked at Andrew and saw the fury in his eyes, and he spoke through grated teeth.
“I’ve seen this picture before.”
Chapter 26
Andrew
Doors burst open and smacked into their parent wall as I ploughed through the dining rooms and libraries of Richmond in search of my brother. As I went, hot anger radiated from me, and I heard Keira’s voice in my head, ‘He’s your brother—the only one you’ve got—try to understand why he did this and talk to him’. She was right, of course: what had the events of today taught me, if not that talking was the way to real progress, and that it was sadly missing from my family? I was lucky to have a woman like Keira, who would recognize my rage and calm it with those well-chosen words. My family was also lucky to be welcoming someone who could put the way she’d been treated to one side enough to see the need for peace between warring siblings. And so, when I found Michael, I would sit him down and calmly ask: why did you do this? What have I done to you that makes you want to hurt me this way? And what can I do to make things right between us in the future?
Or maybe I wouldn’t.
I threw open another heavy set of double doors, which slammed into the centuries-old plasterwork with a satisfying ‘whump!’ and came to a brief halt. There was the object of my search. I strode across the room, grabbed Michael by the lapels and propelled him with bruising force back against the wall.
“What the hell did you do?”
Of course, saying you’re going to act in a diplomatic way and actually doing it, when faced with a man who has slandered your fiancée in the press, are two very different things. I was willing to admit that I hadn’t really lived up to the spirit of what Keira had said. On the other hand, I hadn’t ripped off Michael’s arms and made him eat them, which I thought showed a great deal of restraint on my part, given the circumstances.
Michael was understandably taken aback by this, but he regained his composure admirably quickly.
“I did what I had to do.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“The public has a right to know the truth about their future King and Queen!”
I dropped him. “What?”
Michael brushed down his creased shirt front. “I heard Mother talking to Rogers. I knew she was bringing you back. So I’m back out in the cold again. The unwanted second child. Just kept around on the off-chance that there’s a national tragedy and we get caught without a King.”
“So you took your bitterness out on Keira.”
Michael drew himself up. “The public had a right to…”
“Oh, stop talking shit!” I fought down the urge to lose my temper again. Keira was right; it wouldn’t help. “Maybe you’ve managed to convince yourself that you did this for the good of the public, but it doesn’t fool me for one second.”
“Believe what you like,” Michael sneered. “It doesn’t matter anyway; as much damage as these photos might do to your reputation, you’ll still get to be King.”