Page 20 of The Bodyguard

“Dennis, nothing happened. My man here, Kayne Langley, managed to defuse the situation before any—"

“It doesn’t look as if nothing happened,” the duke bellows. His face is blood red, and his eyes are bulging with indignation. “We had a deal, Ernst. Or did you forget?” he adds with a degree of menace.

“And everything is in order,” the king says. His words sound heavy. There is more going on than just a friendly union of two families.

“Then I demand a doctor’s report. I won’t have my son and my family name dragged through the mud. You gave me your word—”

“Father, I believe nothing happened.”

A thin man of medium height speaks: Roger Thompson. The man she’s going to marry.

My fists twitch. I’m still carrying the adrenaline from the cabin. I idly imagine what would happen if I turned around and snapped the younger man’s head off his shoulders. He’s going to be the one touching her. Waking up with her every morning.

In that moment, I realize, it was inevitable. From the moment her father instructed me to protect her, from the moment she was within my reach, she would do this to me.

She would change me.

The duke is silent for a moment.

“The situation is contained, Dennis. Trust me. My daughters are safe. The man responsible for all this is behind bars without any chance of being released. Everything is back on schedule. The wedding will go ahead as planned.”

The duke hesitates.

“Look. You’re here. Stay the night. We’ll have a family dinner with a few other guests. What we need to do is maintain a sense of normalcy. The people who know about this are people I trust.”

“Like you trusted your brother-in-law?”

“Father,” Roger says, calling the duke out.

“Will the princess be well enough to be there?” Roger asks.

“Of course. She understands her duty. She is perfectly fine because nothing happened.”

“If I may ask, Your Highness. Where did the incident take place?”

He’s not asking for coordinates. He’s asking why I was alone with the princess five hours away from the palace.

“She was doing humanitarian work. Scouting out the land. One of her many projects.”

“I see.”

“Then it's settled? We’ll have dinner together?”

The duke agrees but not very enthusiastically.

I’m half tempted to just leave the king’s office without being dismissed.

“That will be all, Kayne,” the king finally says. “Thank you,” he adds, his words more heartfelt than he’s ever been before.

I leave his office.

There’s only one way I’m getting through this. I plan to drown myself in alcohol.

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