Page 5 of Royally Roma
“One to two is set aside for lunch with the foreign ministry, followed by the presentation of a plaque. That will be a quick stop because your flight for Helsinki leaves at four.”
Niccolo’s hand paused mid-reach for his drink. “What did you just say?”
“Your flight leaves at four, sir.” Piero’s smile looked forced. With good reason.
“You mean my flight back to Lazaretto,” Niccolo said with exaggerated slowness.
Maybe he’d heard wrong. Maybe Piero had misspoken. Helsinki?
No.
God, no.
“I’m afraid not, sir. Your trip has been extended. An email arrived an hour ago.” Piero jabbed his pointer finger at his iPad, no doubt searching for the documentation of this abrupt change in plans.
There was really no need.
“An email,” Niccolo said flatly, pushing what was left of his Bloody trio away. He’d suddenly lost his appetite. “From whom?”
He didn’t know why he was asking. There was only one person who could make this kind of last minute adjustment to his schedule, one person who would dare give orders to the future king.
The current king.
“From the office of the king, sir.” Piero thrust the iPad under Niccolo’s nose.
He gave it a cursory glance. There it was. The king’s email address. The king’s name. The king’s insignia. The fact that the king also happened to be his grandfather was irrelevant. He was a king first, a grandfather second. Maybe even third or fourth. The bottom line was that Cassian had caused a major public-relations disaster, and it was now Niccolo’s job to turn things around. Lest the events of the past repeat themselves and the Lazaretto parliament consider abolishing the monarchy entirely.
He scanned the details of the email. His trip was to be extended by forty-one days. He closed his eyes and let that sink in for a moment. Forty-one more days. That was more than a month of moving from country to country, hotel room to hotel room, empty bed to empty bed.
Get a handle on yourself. It’s not so bad.
He would have the best of accommodations. That was a given. Private jets, chauffeured luxury cars, five-star hotels with Egyptian cotton sheets and down pillows. The crème de la crème. The best of everything. Always.
He had no right to complain. This was his job. A job he’d been born into. From day one, he’d known this was his destiny. But for some reason—the alcohol perhaps—this life felt hollow all of a sudden. And those longings he sometimes felt, the longings for something perfectly ordinary, something that he could sink his teeth into like a ripe Italian tomato, somethingreal, no longer simmered deep inside. They’d begun to boil over. He felt edgy. Irritable. Wholly out of sorts.
He pushed the iPad away. “Very well, then. The tour’s been extended. What, pray tell, will I be doing for the next forty-one days? Cutting ribbons and such? More of the same, I suppose?”
Piero offered him a consolatory smile. “Actually, it’s something a bit different this time, sir.”
Somewhere beneath the custom cut of his suit jacket, his made-to-measure oxford shirt, and tasteful silk tie, dread stirred in Niccolo’s soul. “Oh, really? Tell me more.”
“You’ll be attending, ah, some athletic events.” Piero’s smile grew wider, more forced.
Niccolo’s gaze narrowed. “Athletic events?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Let me guess—we’re not talking about football games, are we?”
“Not exactly. No.” Piero shook his head and released a shaky breath. He looked frightened. As frightened as a bearer of not just bad news, but the worst possible news one could fathom.
Niccolo would have pitied him, had he been prone to pitying people. Which he wasn’t. He had neither the time nor inclination for such useless emotion. “Give it to me straight, Piero.”
“You’ll be attending the European Synchronized Swimming Championships as a special ambassador to the sport.”
Niccolo reached for the dregs of his Bloody Mary and promptly drained the glass. His head spun slightly. A pleasant warmth coursed through his veins, yet Piero’s voice still reached him through his fog of alcohol-soaked fury.
“You’re to attend twenty competitions over the course of twenty days. At each stop, you’ll attend practices, be photographed with the athletes before the competition, and present the trophy to the winning team.”
