Page 44 of Royally Knocked Up
“Your father told me to bring her along,” Romano said. “But I’m not to say any more than that, Your Highness. I’m sorry.”
Enzo released the door slowly, though he felt more unsteady than ever. His father knew who Hailey was? But how? How had he known that Enzo would be here with her?
And why did he want to see her?
Whatever this was about, Enzo knew that it couldn’t be good.
“Wait here,” he told Romano. “I’ll go and get her.”
The driver nodded. “I really am sorry, Your Highness,” he said quietly. “You know that I can’t go against my orders.”
“I know, Romano. I understand.” Romano would have given him the truth if he could have done so — Enzo felt fairly confident of that. But that wasn’t enough to help him out of his current predicament.
God, what is Hailey going to say to this? She’ll be stunned. I have to make sure she’s all right.
He went back to the bedroom. Hailey was sitting up in bed with her arms wrapped around her knees. It was a punch to the gut — in the shock of Romano’s arrival, Enzo had forgotten the fact that she had had a sleepless night.
“Hailey,” he said softly.
She looked up at him.
“I’m sorry. This is going to be alarming. But I promise everything is all right.”
“What’s going on?” She sat up straighter.
“You and I are being summoned to the palace.”
“But— what? I don’t understand.”
“Neither do I. I suppose my father must have had someone watching me. Someone must have reported that I came over here last night, and now my father wants to hear an explanation.” Enzo sighed. “It’s humiliating that he involves himself in my business like this. You shouldn’t have to answer to anyone for what we’ve been doing. We haven’t done anything wrong or scandalous. Please know that I won’t let him take it out on you.”
“No— I don’t— It’s all right.” She looked as if she was about to cry, though, and Enzo couldn’t help feeling that it wasn’t all right at all.
They rode to the palace in near silence.
Enzo badly wanted to say something to Hailey, but he didn’t know where to begin. He wanted to reassure her that whatever his father had to say to them wouldn’t be that bad. She must be intimidated by going to meet a king.
But every time he looked over at her, he found her staring out the window of the car, away from him.
Was she angry with him? Did she blame him for the fact that she was going to have to endure what was coming? If she did feel that way, he couldn’t fault her for it. Itwashis fault that this was happening the way it was, and he wished he could have sparedher from it. He was going to have a word with his father later, he decided. Dragging him in for a lecture was one thing, but forcing everyone he came into contact with to stand before the king… it was just going too far.
He expected Romano to drop them off in front of the palace — it wasn’t as if he didn’t know his way around — but to his surprise, Romano got out and transferred the car to a valet. “I’m supposed to take you into the throne room,” he said in response to Enzo’s questioning gaze.
“I know where the throne room is, Romano.”
“Yes, Your Highness.” But Romano gave no sign of being willing to stand down, and after a moment, Enzo let out a sigh and nodded.
He looked over at Hailey. “At least you get a chance to see the palace while you’re here,” he said, offering up a smile.
She didn’t return it. She bit her lip, meeting his gaze for several moments, and then looked away.
Enzo felt horrible. She was so miserable at the thought of what was to come. For half a moment, he considered sending her away and walking into the throne room alone — but if his father really wanted her here, he could have her brought back. There would be nothing Enzo could do about that.
He reached out and took her hand.
She looked at him.
“It’s all right,” he said, guessing what she must be thinking. “If he’s going to pull us in like this, we’re not going to hide. I’ll tell him the truth, that we’ve been involved with each other.”
