Page 57 of Once Upon a Royal Summer
“Do you like it?” he asked.
Lacey’s throat went tight. This was the best beastly surprise ever. She felt like Belle…except no, not really. She felt like herself, just the way Henry saw her. And that was infinitely better than playing pretend.
“I love it,” she whispered. “More than I can possibly say.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall
The following morning, the entire palace was abuzz with preparations for the royal procession and flower parade. Even though the queen’s mood had improved considerably since the surprise butterfly migration, Lacey was still filled with relief when Miss Marie swished into her room carrying a tray of hot coffee, buttery croissants, and homemade rose petal jam.
After the wet tiara debacle, Lacey dreaded setting foot in the dining room again. No amount of butterflies could erase the memory of the queen’s disapproving expression when she’d set eyes on the sudsy crown. She shot off a text to Ava. Come have breakfast with me.
Three little dots appeared, and then a return text popped up. I’ll be right there, followed by a crown emoji, a bubble bath emoji, and a red circle with a line through it.
Lacey laughed, and bit into a warm croissant. The jam melted her on tongue. She wasn’t sure she could go back to eating generic toaster pastries every morning before work.
She would, of course. This was a vacation, not real life—even though the line between fantasy and reality was becoming blurrier than ever.
Lacey closed her eyes and let her mind wander back to the tender expression on Henry’s face when he’d almost kissed her in the sword room.
Oh, princess. Don’t you know by now? It’s all been real to me.
She could’ve happily lived the rest of her life right there in that one, stolen moment. Minus the footman’s interruption, obviously.
A knock sounded on her door, so she shoved the rest of her croissant in her mouth and padded across the room to let Ava in.
When she swung the door open, Ava was nowhere to be seen. Instead, Henry’s warm smile greeted her. He was wearing a dress military uniform, complete with gold epaulettes on his shoulders and so many medals pinned to his chest she was surprised she hadn’t heard him rattling from all the way down the palace hall. He looked like every cartoon version of Prince Charming she’d ever seen.
Lacey coughed on her oversized bite of croissant. Crumbs sprayed Henry’s medal collection.
He laughed and wiped them away with brush of his white gloved hand.
“Sorry. You caught me off guard with all the”—she waved a hand, indicating his overall princely appearance—“regalia.”
“Apology accepted.” Henry arched a brow. “May I come in?”
“Sure.” She opened the door wider, feeling distinctly underdressed in her pajamas and bare feet.
“You’ve got a little jam.” Henry’s eyes twinkled and he brushed a fingertip across her cheek. “Right there.”
Lacey swiped it away with the back of her hand. “Careful. I wouldn’t want you to mess up those white gloves of yours.”
“I never take them off,” he said. “It’s in the palace handbook.”
“Sure it is,” she said, but her heart gave a forbidden little pitter-patter.
Oh, no. Panic zinged through Lacey, like a tiny white ball in one of the pinball machines in a theme park arcade. I think I love him.
She couldn’t, though. She wouldn’t. The uniform and the medals and the gold cartoon epaulettes were just messing with her head, that was all.
Your head isn’t the problem, Sweet Pea. It’s your heart that’s running wild.
“I…” she stuttered, unsure what to say. She didn’t even know what he was doing there. Wasn’t the parade supposed to start in just an hour or so?
“I wanted to talk to you for a minute before the procession,” he said, and only then did Lacey notice his smile didn’t quite reach his eyes.
“Is everything okay?” she asked. “Rose didn’t steal any more of the Crown Jewels for bath time, did she?”
