Page 79 of Royal Fling
I took a deep breath and sat back on my chair, sinking into it. If I wasn’t going to be treated like an adult, why the hell should I sit like one?
“Can we focus on the important thing right now? How are we going to protect Luke?” I asked.
Mama gasped and shook her head.
“You think he’s more important than you and your role?” she said.
“Yes,” I said. Simple, decisive, uncompromising.
“Aww,” Ginny cooed.
Mother gave her the side-eye before turning to Teagan.
“What did the crisis team say, Teagan?”
Teagan nodded and opened the notebook she was holding in her hands.
“There were several ideas thrown around. For starters, we can say the images were deep-faked,” she said.
When my mother raised an eyebrow in confusion, Teagan explained.
“Doctored. Photoshopped. We can also try to say that this wasn’t the prince but a lookalike. Failing that, we could say this was a misunderstanding, that the prince and this man were just friends and there was nothing to it other than some non-toxic masculinity at play. A bromance, if you may.”
“Yes, because best friends French kiss all the time. I know. I do it with all my girlfriends,” Ginny snorted.
“Dorothea!” Mother scolded her.
“They’re all ideas to try and mitigate some of the damage,” Teagan explained to my sister. “Worst case scenario we can admit the prince had a lapse in judgement, and he can make a public statement apologizing to his fiancée and asking for her forgiveness.”
“Which Phaedra will, of course, accept,” Mama added, nonchalantly.
Of course, she would. Why wouldn’t she accept my apology if it meant she married into the royal family and became queen?
“You can’t be serious! You can’t say that.” Ginny huffed again.
It was a good thing she wasn’t scared of Mother like I was. Maybe she could fight this battle for me because I was sheathing with every new “idea” Teagan was throwing on the wall.
“We can and we will. If we have to,” Mama said. “We need to salvage the situation, Ginny.”
“Yes, but not by making it sound like Auggie committed a crime or that he did something to be ashamed of.”
“We know it isn’t,” Mama said.
“So why would you force him to do something that appalling?”
“No one’s forcing anyone, Your Highness,” Teagan said. “They’re just ideas. The team believes saying the images are fake is the best course of action to start with.”
“Or, and I know this is a wild idea, but we could say the truth,” Ginny said.
Mother gasped.
“Our country voted for same sex marriage five years ago. We’ve had lots of esteemed Elysian artists come out of the closet to help our country move into the twenty-first century. Why can’t August do the same? Elysia is ready for a gay prince.”
“You don't know what you're talking about, Dora. People may have voted, and our society may be advancing, as you say, but they have certain expectations of their royal family. Besides, this might be the excuse the government is looking for to abolish constitutional monarchy.”
“And that would be such a terrible, terrible fate.” Ginny rolled her eyes only to get scolded by Mother again. “No, but seriously, screw the government.”
“Dorothea!”
