Page 58 of Once Upon a Royal Summer
“Not that I’m aware of, but I wouldn’t rule it out.” The corner of Henry’s mouth hitched into a half grin. “She’s still not wild about riding in the procession. If she makes it from the park all the way to the palace in the saddle, I’ll loan her my own crown for her bubble bath tonight.”
He had a crown. Because of course he did.
“I wanted to let you know that someone took a picture of you and me together,” he said quietly. “There’s a chance it could appear in the newspaper.”
“Oh.” Lacey crossed her arms and promptly uncrossed them. Her picture? In the Bella-Moritz paper? “When?”
Her mouth went dry. Images of every royal girlfriend she’d ever heard about flashed through Lacey’s head: Lady Diana, Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle. Every one of them had been picked apart by the press, simply because they’d been dating princes. The fairy tales always seemed to leave that part out, didn’t they?
“I don’t know. Maybe today, maybe tomorrow, but definitely before you go.”
Before I go. A stupid, stupid lump formed in her throat. Of course she was leaving. She had the return plane ticket tucked into her handbag, along with her passport and her employee identification card from Once Upon A Time.
“I suppose someone took the photo at the flower park the other day,” Lacey said. She hadn’t seen anyone lurking in the flower beds when they’d walked off by themselves, but anything was possible. Maybe it was a picture of her and Henry with Ian and Ava, but the photographer had cropped the other couple out of the picture.
“Actually, no. It’s from the theme park.”
An icy chill ran down Lacey’s spine. “The theme park?”
“The Ferris wheel, to be exact.” He nodded. “I probably should’ve kept better track of my baseball cap.”
Lacey shook her head. This couldn’t be happening. Her picture was going to be on the front page, wasn’t it? Not just in Bella-Moritz, but maybe the whole world. She might even go viral…and she’d be dressed in a theme park princess costume.
“Your mother is going kill me,” Lacey said.
“No, she’s not. And it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. I just didn’t want you to get caught off-guard.” Henry reached for her hand and squeezed it tight. “We’re in this together, okay? Just you and me. I can make a statement and say whatever we want it to say—we’re just friends. It was Rose’s birthday, and I was on holiday. Or…”
Or…
Henry took a step forward, closing the space between them, and every last piece of Lacey’s battered heart seemed to hang on that one little word.
“Hi, sorry it took me so long. I—” Ava breezed into the room and came to stuttering halt when she saw Henry. “Oh my goodness, look at you.” She waved a hand at his uniform. “You seriously look like you just climbed out of the Disney vault.”
“Ava,” Lacey said. Not now. Please, not now.
But Henry just laughed. “I should go check on Rose. She was a lot more enthusiastic about the carousel at Once Upon A Time than she is about riding in this parade.”
“Wait a minute.” Lacey drew in a sharp breath. “That’s it!”
Henry’s brow furrowed. “What?”
“The carousel.” Lacey ran to her suitcase and yanked out a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, the first thing she could get her hands on. “We can dress Daisy in flowers and ribbons so she looks like a carousel horse. Rose will love it.”
“You’re a genius,” Ava said.
Henry nodded, beaming at her. “I think it might work.”
“We’ve got to hurry though, right?” Lacey ran to the bathroom to get dressed, grateful for a distraction from the question she’d yet to answer.
Or…?
Never in her life had she been ashamed of her job, but this was serious. She and Mark had broken up over that puffy pink dress. Sort of, anyway.
And now she was supposed to decide if she wanted to let the world at large gawk at a photo of her dressed as Princess Sweet Pea alongside Henry while speculation ran wild, or to ask him to explain the image away as a meaningless summer holiday. They’d started off in a fairy tale, but now they’d gone off book, and there was no magic mirror on the wall to tell her how to proceed.
She didn’t have time to think about it right now, though. Nor did she have a chance to give the matter another thought for the rest of the day. Miss Marie managed to help them gather enough ribbon and cut flowers to transform Daisy into the most whimsical, romantic carousel horse anyone had ever seen. Ava braided ribbons through the pony’s mane while Lacey made a daisy chain wreath to go around her neck. Henry helped tie tiny bows along the horse’s forelock, and when Rose arrived at the stables, dressed in her finest princess attire, she broke down in happy tears when she saw Daisy.
Lacey and Ava barely had time to change and make it down to the palace gates to watch the parade. But when she saw Henry riding on his big stallion alongside his little girl, prancing toward her on top of a proud pony, Lacey realized she didn’t need a magic mirror to tell her how she felt.
