Page 78 of Royal Fling
I looked at her and took a deep breath.
“I don't know, Mama.”
“I will tell you how it happened. It happened when you dragged that man to Ibiza for the Lopez Gala and showed him off to everyone there,” she said in the same tone.
Great. This was a fantastic start.
“That was a very foolish mistake, August.”
“It wasn't a foolish mistake, Mother,” I said.
“Yes, it was. You took your little plaything over there to parade him around as if you don’t know better.”
Despite my mother’s frustration, however, and how on the spot I felt, I didn’t like what she was implying. Luke wasn’t an expensive toy I had tried to dangle in front of my peers.
“Luke is not my plaything, Mama. Don't call him that. He's Fisayo’s son, for crying out loud.”
“He’s Nonny’s son?” Ginny exclaimed.
I nodded.
“I didn’t know she had a son.”
“Me neither. She gave him up for adoption before she started working for us,” I said.
“Wow.” Ginny’s jaw hung, and her eyes went wide.
“Shall we get back to the subject at hand?” Mother asked.
We all turned to look at her.
“Which is?”
“You showing off this Luke person when you know very well that you are engaged to Phaedra.”
“Mama, I wasn't showing him off. He's ateacher, he knows education better than anyone. Better than any one of us. I took him there because I valued his opinion, and I wanted it to be heard so we can make a valuable change.” I tried to keep my voice composed. Losing my temper with my mother would serve Luke or me no purpose.
“And how did that go?” she asked.
“It went very well,” I replied.
“And what about the boat ride? Was that because you valued his opinion on the fish of the Thames?”
Mama didn’t do sarcasm very often, but when she did, it was quite astonishing. Even if what she said annoyed me, I couldn’t help but smirk. Ginny did, too.
“This isn’t funny, Augustine. Why would you do something so precarious?” She scowled at both of us.
“I wasn’t being precarious. I took every precaution. I always do.”
“Does this mean you do this sort of thing often? Are you trying to destroy our family? I thought we sent you here to study. Not to be a playboy.”
I rubbed my eyes and leaned forward on my desk until all I could see was the oak surface.
How could I be a thirty-year-old man and yet feel like a child in front of her?
“I came to London because I wanted to live a normal life before I had to give it up to become a king,” I said under my breath.
“That backfired,” she said.
