Page 6 of Trained Royal
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Saturday dawned bright and warm and stayed that way throughout the day. Patrick offered him a ride to the party, and as they both lived in the same house, he accepted. It would’ve seemed strange if he hadn’t. After almost losing his head the other day, he had tried to take a step back from Patrick. It wasn’t easy, especially as he trained him every day.
It hadn’t beenhisidea to train Patrick. In fact, Patrick had cornered him the day after the bomb and implored him to help him learn to fight. The man had tears threatening to fall at the slightest provocation, and Kieren had been helpless to decline. The prince shouldn’t have to learn how to fight. It was Kieren’s job to protect him, but he understood the need to feel something, anything, other than fear and grief. It was what had turned Kieren towards security detail in the first place. A need to protect. That same need coursed through Patrick.
They hadn’t spoken about the whys of it. All Kieren had done was take stock of where Patrick initially stood in relation to training and started from there. For him to have taken Kieren down to the floor the other day meant the training was becoming part of him, instinctual, which was what Kieren had been hoping for.
“Are you looking forward to relaxing with your friends?” Patrick asked after several long minutes of silence. He didn’t look at Kieren, his eyes completely focused on the road ahead of him as he traversed the roads towards Windsor.
Kieren resettled himself and tapped his fingertips on his thumb, a nervous gesture he had never curbed himself of. “Yes. It’ll be nice.”
He didn’t know how relaxed he could be with at least six princes, five partners and several other royally related people, and that’s without including his colleagues.
“Can you say that with more feeling?” Patrick glanced across at him and back to the road, his mouth quirked at the corner.
Kieren huffed a laugh. “Itwillbe nice. I’m just not a very social person—as you might have gathered.”
“Well, I know you like yoga,” Patrick cleared his throat at the probably inadvertent reminder of the other day, “but what else do you do when you’re not bored out of your brain looking after me?”
Kieren stared out of the window, not seeing the passing scenery. “I don’t know, really. I watch TV a little, read a little. That kind of thing.” He wasn’t discussing what he really did. That was no one’s business but his own.
“Hmm. I don’t see you as the type of person to sit around doing nothing.”
“You’d be surprised.”
“What do you read?”
“Mainly sci-fi. I’m not a fast reader, by any means, but I read a couple of chapters a night.”
Patrick chuckled. “It’s more than I do.”
Their easy conversation continued for the entire journey. When Kieren climbed out of the car, he automatically studied their surroundings but snapped his head around when Patrick laughed.
“You’re not on duty. Chill.”
Kieren pursed his lips. “‘Chill?’ What year did you come from?”
“I’ll have you know there’s nothing wrong with the word ‘chill.’”
“Maybe from a teenager.” Kieren bit his cheek.
Patrick’s mouth twitched, and then they both laughed. “Come on. I need a drink.”
Patrick led the way to the door, which opened before they could even get close.
“Come in, come in!” George said, waving them through. “The Tantalising Twelve Plus are out the back. Have you got your sun cream on? It’s going to be a hot one!”
Patrick embraced his cousin. “Plus?”
“Well, there are too many to include in one name, so I just called all the guards ‘plus.’” George shrugged. “It’s not the best choice of words, but I asked their permission first. Brett said it was okay.” He glanced at Kieren. “Is it all right with you, Kieren?”
Kieren shrugged. “Not a problem for me.”
George fist-bumped the air. “Great. Let’s get some drinks.”
They wandered through the large house, down the hallway, through a kitchen and conservatory and out into the enormous back garden. It was something Kieren loved about this house—the privacy. It wasn’t completely blocked off, but it was better than some were. Journalists were still able to get the occasional photo through the trees, but the security team had added cameras to those areas to identify those and warn them against doing it again. So far, it had worked beautifully, and Prince George and his partners were able to live in relative peace.
“Kieren! I didn’t think you’d show,” Brett said, grabbing him in a back-slapping hug.
