The American Heir(12)

The setting was perfect. The castle featured nicely in the background of   the photos and, although a few clouds scuttled by, the sky was mostly   blue, and the lighting natural and flattering.

My smile should have felt frozen on my face, but it was genuinely   planted there from joy. Being with Riggins, who was faking his joy at   being an expectant father way too realistically, made me too happy for   the smile to be anything but genuine. Honestly, I knew his joy wasn't   real, but I was letting myself live in this fantasy world while it   lasted.

I'd had tea and cakes set up for the press and the crowd of villagers   we'd invited in for the big announcement. The tea table was covered with   a white cloth and pastel baby-themed confetti in the shape of ducks  and  bunnies. The food was ready for the guests to dive into as soon as  the  press finished with us.

I was proud of Riggins.

He was charming and outgoing, completely at ease as he announced the due date. "November ninth."   





 

That raised a few eyebrows. Almost every gaze in the crowd fell to my   flat abdomen. I pressed a hand to it without thinking, self-conscious.

"It's early to be announcing a pregnancy, isn't it?" a reporter for one of the entertainment shows asked.

There was no baby bump to report or photograph yet. I was sure that was a disappointment.

Riggins laughed it off. "Traditionally speaking, yes. We'd have   preferred to wait until the three-month mark. But since someone leaked   the story … " His smile dazzled the crowed.

They laughed with him, not at us. He had them entranced. They were   falling in love with their duke. The Dead Duke had neglected his social   duties for far too long. People were hungry to vicariously live the   aristocratic fantasy through us. Riggins picked up on that.

"About that," another member of the press said. "Rumor has it that the   duchess' friend and former competitor for your heart, Lady Rose, leaked   the story. Is that true?"

I froze and felt the nausea rise. I still wasn't sure whether I should   feel fury at Rose or sympathy. She'd been desperate and I'd been unable   to help. If the money from our story, which was only the truth, saved   her family estate, shouldn't I be the bigger person and be happy for   her? Even though it had been a breach of trust for her to share it, I   would have helped her if I could have. If this was the form my help   took, so be it.

Beside me, Riggins tensed, but his grin and charm didn't fail. "Frankly,   I have no idea. It's not important. We're just happy to be expecting.   This morning Dr. Turner gave us the good news the duchess is healthy  and  the pregnancy looks good. That's all that matters to me." He smiled  at  me in a way that took my breath away.

The crowd heaved a collective sigh. Wasn't that sweet? Wasn't he adorable the way he looked at the duchess and wanted that baby?

It would have been if it were true. Riggins, I realized with a start, was too good an actor to be trusted.

The questions flew. Where would we have the baby? Would we find out the   sex before it was born? What plans did we have for the nursery? Who   would be the designer? Would we get the same baby carriage the Duchess   of Cambridge favored? Would the baby be a dual citizen?

Riggins gave non-answers, deflecting most of the questions with charisma   and charm and the pat answer that it was still early days. We'd only   just found out about the baby ourselves. Nothing was decided.

I watched the crowd as I let Riggins handle the press. Happy as I was, I   was still in the throes of early pregnancy nausea and feeling peaked.

I recognized most of the people from the village, and, of course, the   staff from the castle. I'd become on friendly terms with Mrs. Rees. We   employed her cleaning service to do the castle housekeeping. She and her   crew were in several days a week. There was the librarian and library   staff from the village. Linda and Heidi from the dress shop. And over a   hundred others.

In the last decades, the castle grounds had rarely been open to the   public. People were naturally curious. There was always a discreet   detail of security people around the castle. The Dead Duke had employed a   security firm, and we did, too. It was only prudent. The dukes of old   had their knights to protect and serve them. We had hired security   guards, high-tech cameras, drone details, and a sophisticated alarm   system. After all, the castle housed as many, or more, precious   historical objects as most museums.

We'd hired an extra security detail to keep an eye on the crowd and keep   wanderers out of the castle itself. The last thing we needed were   interlopers in our inner sanctum. Because of the extra security, I   wasn't too concerned as people wandered away from the main gathering.   Other than the fact that I'd simply tossed that two-million-dollar set   of lingerie in a drawer. Oops. Maybe I should lock that up with the   duchess jewels. Then again, there were more valuable things in the   castle. Like many of those paintings casually hanging on the walls.

A movement on the edges of the grounds near the maze caught my   attention. A tall man lurked, cloaked in the shadows near the maze, his   face hidden. There was something vaguely familiar about him. The way he   was skulking around wasn't in his favor, either. Why didn't he join  the  crowd? I made a note to have security check him out.   





 

The questioning finally ended. I was caught up in my duty as hostess. I   invited everyone to help themselves to tea and sweets, and mingled.

"Yes, lovely." "Thanks so much." "We're thrilled." "Thanks for coming."   "Yes, a little earl would be just the thing." "At twenty weeks." "Yes,   we plan on finding out. The future of the dukedom hangs in the  balance."  I repeated all these pleasantries again and again.

The entire time, I felt I was being watched. Riggins was busy and   involved in conversations of his own. When I looked out at the maze, I   caught a glimpse of the man again.

I grabbed a security guard and pointed him toward the maze. "I'm not   sure. But if there's someone lurking, I'd like to know their   intentions."

"Yes, ma'am." The guard took off.

Riggins came up to me and whispered in my ear, "Everything okay?"

I frowned. "I think so. I saw someone in the maze." I smiled at him.   "It's probably nothing. I've sent someone out to check." On impulse, I   kissed him. And lingered long enough to express my interest. "You're   doing beautifully. I'm not going to be able to trust another thing you   ever say. You're such a fine actor. Or maybe liar is the better word."

He actually smiled. "If business has taught me one thing, it's how to put on a show."

The press conference party lasted no more than an hour and a half and   was, by all accounts, a success. Our security team checked the maze and   grounds, but could find no trace of the mysterious, lurking man. They   scoured the grounds and checked the security feeds once more after the   press and the guests left. There were no traces of him, or anyone.

As the guests left happy and excited, Alice made a point of pulling me   aside and telling me how much goodwill we'd made with the village.

After the day I'd had I was exhausted. I went to my room to rest. And   fell asleep as soon as I collapsed on the bed, without bothering to pull   up a blanket. The most I'd done was kick off my shoes and take off my   hat. And even that had taken supreme effort.

When I woke sometime later, my new dress was rumpled and it was already   dark out. Someone had thrown a blanket over me and turned on the gas   fireplace. In the old days, a maid would have had to come in to light   the fire. This old castle could get cold in a hurry.

I glanced at the clock. It was nearly midnight. How had I slept so long?   Pregnancy hormones had to be to blame. Growing a new life took more   energy than I had.

Alice had texted me sometime before she went home for the day that she'd   left a dinner tray in the fridge for Gibson to bring up when I was   ready. The duke had taken his tray earlier and dined in his room. What   was Riggins up to? Still trying to find a way to defeat my   great-grandpa?

I sat up and rubbed my eyes. In the dark, even my comfortable room could   feel a bit scary. Something about a castle that was hundreds of years   old brought out the gothic in my imagination. Truthfully, when Riggins   was gone, I'd holed up in my room for the night and didn't like to come   out until morning.

The halls at night, even with electric lighting, could be intimidating   and a little frightening. Footsteps echoed eerily on the tile floors. No   plush, quiet wall-to-wall carpet like at home.