Page 42 of Once Upon a Royal Summer
Again, Henry tried to tell her that Lacey would soon be visiting Bella-Moritz. In just a matter of days, she’d be sitting at one of the empty places around the polished mahogany dining table. And despite the fictional nature of her royal title, Henry had no doubt she’d fit right in.
Beneath the table, Henry’s foot jiggled. He felt like he was going to jump out of his skin. He couldn’t wait for Lacey to arrive. “Actually…” he began.
But the queen stood, indicating the conversation was over. “I’m pleased you and Caitriona had a nice trip, but you two are home now. It’s time for both of you to turn your attention back to our family duties.” She squared her shoulders, even though Henry had never once seen his mother with anything but perfect posture. “You chose a most inopportune time to whisk your daughter off to fantasy land. I realize it was her birthday, but the Flower Festival begins in three days. There’s much business to attend to, and Caitriona needs to realize that royal life comes with real responsibilities. The sooner she learns that lesson, the better. It’s not all crowns and curtseys.”
Henry counted to ten in his head so he wouldn’t say something he’d later come to regret. A million objections spun round in his mind. His daughter had been born into privilege, but her life had also been marked by sadness when she’d lost her mother. Despite it all, Rose had a heart of gold. She deserved a real childhood.
Most of all, though, the time she’d spent with Lacey at Once Upon A Time had taught her more about being a princess than she could possibly learn from being shut inside the palace with a governess. Henry wasn’t sure he’d realized it until right that second, but tucked among Princess Sweet Pea’s silly rules had been the most important one of all—the rule Rose had truly taken to heart.
Always, always be kind.
“Rose will make a wonderful princess someday,” he said quietly. “She’s a special girl, and she’s braver than you realize.”
Braver than Henry had been in recent years, that was for sure—braver in ways that had nothing to do with climbing atop a pony. His little girl lived her life with her heart open wide.
“She is indeed special, but I worry about this new obsession she has with a fictional princess character. Surely you agree,” his mother said.
Henry’s stomach hardened. “Lacey plays a part at the park, but I assure you—she’s a real person.”
A real person who’d soon be showing up at the palace doors…but now clearly wasn’t the time to break this news.
Part of being a prince was mastering the fine art of diplomacy, and Henry possessed this particular attribute in spades. He’d dealt with stubborn heads of state on numerous occasions and mediated arguments between politicians and the citizens of Bella-Moritz to ensure everyone felt they’d been represented fairly and their voices had been heard. Experience had taught him when to hold his tongue and wait for a better moment to make his case most effectively. Now was definitely one of those times.
Even so, not speaking up was torturous.
“In any case, Caitriona doesn’t need to become so attached to someone who’ll never be a part of your permanent life,” Queen Elloise said as she walked briskly out of the room. Then she paused in the gilded doorway for a final word. “I think you’ve come home just in time.”
Somehow, Henry got the feeling her comment had nothing at all to do with the upcoming royal parade.
In the days that followed, Henry got back to his working royal routine. He sat in on a legislative meeting with the Bella-Moritz council. He went over the annual reports from several of the nonprofit organizations that listed him as their royal patron. He presided over the investitures honoring citizens of the principality who’d been awarded special honors for emergency medical services and rescue efforts.
Henry’s impromptu trip to America with Rose meant his work diary was piled with rescheduled meetings, one right on top of another. And since the Flower Festival was just days away, he also attended daily strategy sessions for the parade while his mother handled all the details for the flower show and the royal ball. Other than family breakfast, Henry’s only glimpses of the queen were the few times they passed one another in the palace hallways as they each rushed off to business meetings.
Worse yet, he rarely had time to see Rose, either. The minute he returned to the palace every evening, he went straight to her room so he could read her a bedtime story. On the third night after they’d come home, she yawned her way through a page or two of “The Princess and the Pea” and then fell asleep with her head on Henry’s shoulder as he lay in the dark, staring at the dried breadcrumbs she’d scattered on her windowsill overlooking the palace courtyard.
He missed the long, uninterrupted days spent together in Florida. Henry hadn’t even had a chance to look in on any of Rose’s riding lessons. This particular week was always the busiest of the year in Bella-Moritz, though. His schedule would calm down soon enough. Once the Flower Festival began, all work would cease for the entire principality. The three days of the festival had always been observed as traditional holidays.
Henry still felt strangely empty inside, even as he reminded himself the work he was doing on behalf of the kingdom was meaningful to the little principality that held such a special place in his heart. And the reason for his malaise was even more worrisome than his long work hours. He didn’t simply miss being on holiday. He missed Lacey.
He missed the sound of her laugher. He missed the gentle way she had with Rose and the way her eyes danced every time she teased him about his baseball cap. He missed her honesty and the way she talked to him as if he were a regular person instead of a prince.
He missed the tender intimacy of sitting beside her on a darkened ride and having to call on every last shred of his willpower not to hold her hand or take her lovely face in his hands and kiss her silly.
But most of all, Henry missed Lacey’s joyful spirit. Being around her made him want to experience every moment of the day as if it were something to be treasured, not simply tolerated.
He let his gaze travel over the words on the page of the book spread open on his lap.
So the prince returned to his kingdom with a heavy heart.
He scrubbed a hand over his face. This wasn’t a fairy tale; it was real life. But how many times in the past few days had his mother’s warning come back to him and burrowed deep inside his chest?
“Caitriona doesn’t need to become so attached to someone who’ll never be a part of your permanent life. I think you’ve come home just in time.”
Perhaps his daughter had come back to the palace just in time, but Henry was beginning to think he was a lost cause. He’d already grown attached.
The morning after Lacey chose her gown for the royal ball, she was back at work, playing her regular part at Once Upon A Time. No more escorting royalty around the park, and no more quiet, tender moments with Henry as they sat side by side in the dark in a sleigh or on a Ferris wheel. It was back to tea parties, meet-and-greets, and waltzing with a pretend Prince Charming instead of the real deal.
At one point, Prince Charming stepped on her toe so hard that her fake glass slipper broke with an audible crack. When the clock struck twelve and Lacey dashed out of the ballroom, she made sure to leave the other shoe behind so it wouldn’t look like she’d stepped out of a pile of tiny glass shards.
