Page 66 of Loyally, Luke
“Our neighbors, Prince William and Princess Catherine, are cases in point,” Brodie gently offered. “And St.Clare, or some variation thereof, is not an uncommon surname in Skymar.”
The realization took the edge off Luke’s discomfort a little... but a very little.
“And you haven’t talked to her since?”
Luke looked over at Izzy and shrugged. “I’m still trying to wake up from some weird dream caused by listening to too many ofPenelope’s conversations. The last thing I need is to talk to anybody besides you guys.”
“The whole village and the orphanage just speak to her as if she’s a regular person?” This from Brodie.
“It seems there’s some kind of agreement between the folks in Crieff and the royal family so they can have a sense of... normalcy?” Luke shrugged, a wave of hurt tightening his jaw. “Like I was, I guess. A little experiment to feel normal.”
“I’m so sorry, Luke,” Izzy whispered, covering his hand on the table. “I guess she’s just an entitled sort of person.”
Luke met Brodie’s gaze and something in him flinched at Izzy’s words. No, Ellie... or Elliana... seemed more of a guarded, lost person than an entitled one.
“She apologized.” His shoulders drooped as he remembered the way her eyes pleaded with him. “Several times.”
“Before her father came to the orphanage?” Brodie asked.
Luke nodded. “She was trying to tell me about it, I think, before her father showed up, but his arrival certainly moved the confession along.”
“You know her behavior isn’t a measure of who you are.” Izzy sighed. “I mean, I can’t even believe we’re having this conversation, but she’s a princess! She should have known better than to go around dating a commoner, right? Of course, you could view it as a compliment that she was so drawn to you, she forsook common sense.”
Forsook? He tempered his eye roll at Izzy’s love of old-fashioned words. “I doubt my special brand of charm held that kind of mind-numbing power.” He raked a hand through his hair. “And we never dated, per se.”
He must have hesitated because Izzy’s gaze zeroed in on him. “What? What did you do?”
“What do you mean?”
“If you didn’t date but you did do something to show that you two were romantically interested...”
His face heated. “We may have kissed a couple of times.” A country couple, and then some. His beard started tingling from the warmth in his face from those memories.
“You kissed her?”
His palms came up. “In my defense, she kissed me back.”
“She kissed you back?” Izzy’s mouth dropped open. “The princess kissed you back?”
He looked over at Brodie. “I hate it when they rephrase what I just said into a question. It’s usually not a good sign.”
Brodie’s grin crooked a little and he smoothed his palm down Izzy’s back. “I’d put a little thought into what Isabelle said, though, Luke. You probably don’t know that Princess Elliana has a rather difficult past relationship with the paparazzi and certain men, if the news is any indicator. But it’s common knowledge she drew back from the spotlight and her royal duties to seek treatment for her difficulties with alcohol, as well as counseling for whatever happened in the shadows of that past.” His hand came up. “I’m not justifying her behavior by any means, but I am curious if the interest was genuine, all the more so because you weren’t judging her based on her position or past.”
Izzy looked over at her fiancé. “It still didn’t give her the right to play a game with his emotions, Brodie.”
“No, not at all, but it does make one wonder if you were as much a surprise to her as she was to you.” He gestured toward Izzy. “I know it’s not of the same caliber, but that’s how I felt when Izzy came into my life. Unexpected and rather perfect for the awkwardly bookish man I am.”
Izzy wove her arm through Brodie’s and leaned over to kiss his cheek.
“It’s no excuse for her not telling you the truth, Luke,” Brodie continued. “But perhaps it would help to understand her perspective alittle. I’m not certain what she’s had to overcome to venture back into active royal life, but I would hazard a guess there is more to it than the media reports. There usually is.”
“I imagine there is.” Luke rested his head back on the booth. “But that still doesn’t change the fact that she’s Princess Elliana of Skymar and I’m carpenter Luke Edgewood from America. And whatever was happening between us before today was as real as Penelope’s fairy tales when seen in the light of real life.” He braced his shoulders. “I’m just glad it didn’t continue on any longer, or I might... well, I could have—” He didn’t finish. Didn’t want to. The idea of hurting from feeling anything more than he already did nearly caused him to be sick.
“Will you still have to work with her?” Izzy asked.
Luke took his time with a sip of Coke before answering. “I’d expect so.”
The table grew quiet and an unwanted scene filtered into Luke’s head. One of Ellie playing hide-and-seek with the kids, laughing. Then another, of her conversation about the journal... and then their walk back from Crieff to the castle. She may have been a princess all that time, but she was also just Ellie all that time.
