When she arrived home, her mother was fluttering around the house giving orders to the staff. Liane wanted to escape to her bedroom but it was impossible, her mother heard her walk in and called her to the living room. She reluctantly went to sit with her. “Prince Louis is planning to visit us soon,” her mother said with such joy in her voice.
“Why?” Liane asked. Her mother narrowed her gaze at her eldest daughter.
“You are his fiancée. Can he not visit?”
“He can but he never has. So, why now?”
“I think that they have finalized the wedding date.”
Liane's eyes flew open. She was not even going to have some time to keep the secret to herself. She pulled out her phone and messaged her sisters, “Code Red”. She needed to speak with them immediately as she was going to need their help.
Liane rushed upstairs to her room to wait for her sisters to get there. They arrived moments later as code red meant extreme emergency. When Liane told her sisters, what was going on they both could not believe it, especially the fact that Jean Pierre was the father, as they knew how much she disliked him.
This was truly a messy situation and one that was going to be difficult to explain. Liane had no idea how she was even going to tell their mother. She was so happy about her engagement to the Crown Prince, you would think that she was the one getting married. But there was no way she could marry the prince now. The three sisters dreaded the repercussions, but decided that it was best not to reveal who the father is, at least, not yet.
* * *
Unfortunately, her parents didn’t take it well, particularly her mother and Liane was quickly sent off to North Creek to stay with a distant relative until the situation was resolved with the royal family. Her mother was not to be deterred and insisted that Francesca marry the Crown Prince, but Prince Louis had other ideas and chose Macee. Poor Macee was placed on the fast track to Crown Princess, as she had to spend most of each day working with the royal tutor to make her over into a candidate for the royal family.
Chapter 6
6 months later
Liane was nervous as she walked into the palace with her obvious bump. Her family had been summoned to the palace to settle the matter about her pregnancy. The queen in particular felt insulted given the fact that Liane had been engaged to her son, the crown prince, and then slept with another man.
A palace maid led Liane to the courtyard where her family was already waiting for her. She hugged Francesca. Her younger sister was looking worried. Liane then greeted her parents. Moments later, Macee rushed out to the courtyard and hugged both her sisters.
Prince Louis arrived moments later and greeted the LeBlancs. Liane looked at him awkwardly. It was the first time she was seeing him after he had found out the truth. She immediately felt nervous and looked down. “Do not worry about apologising to me,” he said to her and rubbed her shoulders.
“I should though,” Liane said.
“No, I should thank you, because I was able to meet Macee.” While the situation wasn’t ideal, Liane’s pregnancy gave the Crown Prince the opportunity to consider a different woman to be his wife and his decision brought him love. While he had been prepared to accept a political marriage, he was unprepared for the fiery younger LeBlanc sister who melted his heart and after considerable strife; the two did eventually admit their love for one another. And while their marriage was not without conflict, both felt that they could weather the worst storm so long as they were together.
Colonel LeBlanc smiled. The most important thing he had wanted was for Macee to be happy. She had always gotten the short end of the stick around her mother and he was glad to see that the Crown Prince loved her and it was not simply a political marriage to him.
Everyone became tense when the queen walked out. She looked at Liane's bump, as she sat down at the table and gestured for everyone else to do so. The king was not going to attend as he had matters to sort out and Bridgette had been chased out of the palace after the trouble she had caused planting false stories about Macee and revealing Liane’s pregnancy to the press.
The maids brought out refreshments, but the queen waved them away. This was not a social call “Let us get straight to the point,” she said. Macee held tight to Prince Louis's hand. While she was no longer afraid of the queen, she was worried about how everyone would react to finding out who the father of the baby was. Even her parents did not know.
“I would like to apologise first,” Liane began.
“That will not help anything. It is already done. Now, who is the father of the baby?”
Liane's parents whipped their heads in her direction. They were dying to know who the father was as the sisters had kept that information a secret. Macee and Francesca looked at each other feeling useless and unable to help their sister.