Page 66 of Royal Darling
I work to sound civil. “Thank you, Mother. I hope we will one day be able to get to know each other as two adult women making our way in the world.” I parrot her words back because I’m done apologizing for exploring and changing myself in a way that I’ve really come to enjoy. Though it occurs to me that the loss of the closeness I shared with my mother is what finally drove me to leave Abdul and seek out a new life. In some bizarre way, her distance helped me break ties with my old life. I almost want to thank her for that, but I don’t think she’d take it the right way.
My mother inclines her head at me.
“Wonderful!” Anna exclaims, slapping a palm on the table. “I can feel the cloud lifting already. Oh, crap. Excuse me!” She rushes from the sitting room to her bedroom and hopefully to the bathroom because we can hear her retching through the open door.
Mother winces.
I stare at the table, wondering if I would be the same way when I’m pregnant one day, or maybe I’d be like my mother and not have any morning sickness. More fanciful fantasies. I’m single and truly free for the first time in my life. I need to focus on that no matter how much I wish things were different. No matter how much I miss Jackson.
Anna returns a few minutes later and takes her seat. “Sorry. It comes and goes very unpredictably, which brings me to my announcement. I would really like it if the two of you could get more involved with the day spa and natural beauty product line. I’m not running on all four cylinders, if you know what I mean, and there’s a lot of work to be done. Gabriel wants to help, but let’s face it, only we women understand what’s needed in a beauty product line and spa that will mostly bring in female clientele. So, first things first, I need help with research. I need you to find the best natural products on the market. Then I need you to figure out if it’s better to license existing products with our label and local ingredients, or start fresh and hire someone to come up with unique formulations. And—” she lifts a finger “—here’s the part you’ll probably really like. I need you to visit day spas in Europe so we know what services are expected locally and can go one level further.” She slaps a hand over her mouth for a moment and then takes a deep breath. “False alarm on the puking front. You two will be my trusted team here in Europe. Silvia’s going to do a little digging in the US. I can’t do much travelling until I stop barfing up the heir.” She smiles, rubs her stomach, and talks to it. “Just kidding, you’re staying right there.” She looks at me and then Mother. “Once I’m feeling better, I’ll jump in again.”
She grabs my hand and Mother’s hand and inclines her head at me. I take Mother’s other hand, so we now form a circle.
Anna leans in, her voice fierce. “Stronger together. Rourke women united for the cause, for the future of Villroy, for our legacy.”
Mother lets out a shaky breath.
“Yes,” I breathe, my heart soaring. I suddenly see where I fit into the new way of life here at the palace. Anna’s right. Only us Rourke women know what needs to be done for a day spa, and itisthe future of our kingdom, the key to saving our faltering economy. “I’ll happily do anything you need. Count me in.”
“Yay!” Anna says, releasing my hand and hugging me. She lets me go and turns to my mother. “Alexandra?”
“My God,” Mother says, “you are truly one of us.” She wipes her eyes. She must really be moved because she usually keeps a tight rein on her emotions. “I-I’m overcome.”
“Aww, I love you,” Anna says, giving her a hug.
Mother breaks down in tears, crying on Anna’s shoulder. I’m frozen in shock. Even at my father’s funeral, Mother didn’t break down.
Mother pushes Anna away a few minutes later, saying, “Don’t fuss over me.” She takes a shaky breath and squares her shoulders. “Yes, I would love to assist for this worthy cause. And I know Emma will be a great help, if she doesn’t mind working with me.” She turns to me, her lower lip wobbling, her eyes still shiny from her recent cry.
Now I’m crying. “Of course I will. I’ve missed you so much.”
“Well, geez,” Anna says, her own eyes watering. “If I’d known all it took to bring Alexandra back to the living was getting knocked up, I would’ve made Gabriel get on it earlier.”
“Anna,” Mother chides gently, but she’s smiling.
“Ha! Just kidding,” Anna says with a wink. “He tried every chance he could get. The man is hot for me.”
Mother presses her lips together primly. “May we talk about the beauty product line now?”
Anna pulls a huge white binder out from under the table. “All right, ladies, let’s get down to business.”
I exchange a smile with my mother, a peace settling over me. I know my place, and I know I’m important to the cause. I’ll learn to love this new life and, eventually, I’ll learn how to live without Jackson.
19
Emma
It’s New Year’s Eve and I can’t shake my sadness. I know I have so much to look forward to in the new year ahead of me. I have an important job helping Anna with the day spa; in many ways it’s a fun job. I have music and a new closeness with Anna and my mother. Hopefully, Silvia too, who will be joining us for some of our spa visits in Europe, using some of her vacation days.
It’s quiet here in the private salon, the TV on low volume showing New Year’s Eve celebrations around the world. My brothers are out partying who knows where, so it’s just me, Gabriel, Anna, and Mother. I’m sitting on a long burgundy leather sofa next to Anna and Gabriel. Mother sits in a highback chair adjacent to us. In deference to Anna’s pregnancy, we’re all sipping sparkling water.
“No one ever plays the piano in the conservatory,” I say, thinking of my new passion for music. “Maybe we should move it in here.” The conservatory is a distant, largely empty formal room that was once host to an evening’s entertainment in the olden days before all the other forms of entertainment available now.
“No one plays,” Gabriel says.
“I used to play,” my mother says.
This is news to me. “You did? Why did you stop?”
