Page 6 of Royally Wed
Good job. Way to confess.
She couldn’t do it. After finally managing to get her acttogether, Amelia couldn’t admit to embarrassing the family again. She’d just have to roll the dice and hope the handsome cello-playing stranger would keep his mouth shut.
Amelia swallowed. She hadn’t allowed herself to remember how very good-looking he’d been. Dark and mysterious. So gracefully melancholic. But that kind of thingwas awfully difficult to forget, no matter how much she tried.
“Eleanor was present?” Amelia’s mother shook her head. “Why?”
Amelia blinked. “She’s my friend. She’s also Holden’s daughter, remember?”
Beneath the desk, Willow let out a snort of derision, as if the dog knew what was coming.
“Of courseIdo, I simply want to make sure you remember that fact as well.”
“Mum, what are you trying to say?”
“I’m simply saying it’s probably time to reevaluate yourrelationship with Eleanor. In just a short while, you’ll be her stepmother.” Her mother lifted a brow.
She didn’t need to say any more. Amelia had been on the receiving end of that gesture more times than she could count. The queen of England could say more with a single eyebrow than the prime minister could convey in an entire speech to Parliament.
Amelia blinked again and swallowed aroundthe lump in her throat that stubbornly refused to go away. “I understand.”
She understood perfectly. Her days of partying with Eleanor were over. From now on, they would do mother-daughter things, like go to tea.
God, it sounded awful. Amelia didn’t even like tea.
On some level, she’d known this was part of the arrangement. She just hadn’t allowed herself to dwell on giving up her closest girlfriendonce she got married. She’d thought she’d have sufficient time to get used to the idea of being Eleanor’s stepmother. But less than a month just wasn’tenough.
And now time was running out.
“How far have you and your team gotten with the thank-you notes?”
And so it went.
Amelia spoke without really knowing what she was saying. She nodded, smiled, and did her best to forget about Eleanor andHolden and the awful thing she’d done the night before in the Abbey.
She wasn’t sure how much time passed as she sat there in her mother’s sitting room, trying her level best to become numb. She needed to turn off her feelings until after the wedding, and everything would be fine.
No more crying jags.
“Don’t forget about your appointment with the crown jeweler tomorrow morning. He’ll be hereat ten sharp, and you know how important...”
Before the queen could finish her sentence, she was cut off by another furious round of barking. The corgis charged the door, and Amelia’s mother glanced at the antique clock above the fireplace.
Apparently, Amelia’s appointment had ended. For a moment, she’d begun to believe that she and her mum were having a casual conversation. How stupid ofher. Of course they weren’t.
“Come in.” The queen nodded at her new visitor and waved whoever it was inside.
“Yes, Your Majesty,” someone behind Amelia replied.
A male someone.
An American-sounding male someone.
A veryfamiliarAmerican-sounding male someone.
Panic blossomed in Amelia’s chest. Her pulse pounded in her hears.
No.
