Page 119 of Awaiting

“It’s a strawberry torte,” Alex replied. “But she also brought over a couple of other cakes and pies. As for your rude comment about my meal, there’s plenty more in the pot. I made enough for an army. You won’t starve.”

“I like it,” Henry told her with a smile.

“You’re not supposed to be eating yet. Not everyone is seated,” Margaret scolded lightly.

“Sorry,” he replied.

“Like a Prince,” the Queen said expectedly.

“My apologies, Your Royal Highness,” he said to his aunt, and it was adorable.

Alex sat down next to Bexley at the table that they’d set up together. Bexley had chopped vegetables alongside Alex, who had worked on the meat and the broth. Alex had been lucky the housekeeper had done the shopping.

“Bexley, tell us more about what you do,” the King said.

“Oh. Well, I run centers across Kansas that focus on clinical speech therapy and conduct research as well.”

“That sounds interesting,” he replied. “How did you get into that?”

“A friend of mine had a stutter when he was a kid. I saw him with his speech therapist, and I just knew I wanted to do that one day.”

“I understand, you’ve earned your doctorate as well?” he asked.

“Yes. It’s not required for my profession technically, but it helps, and I wanted to do it,” Bexley said.

“What’s a doctorate?” Henry asked.

“It means Bexley is a doctor,” Larry replied. “So, you should call her Dr.Woods.”

“Oh, no. That’s okay.”

“They’re at that age,” the Queen spoke. “Old enough to learn certain things, like not starting dinner before everyone is seated and to greet people by title. You can tell them to call you whatever you’d like in private, but in public, they should greet you properly. It’s just practice for them as they grow.”

“Oh, okay,” Bexley said, feeling like the Queen was actually kind of being nice to her for some reason. “What should I callthem?” she asked. “In public.”

“They are Princes, technically,” the Queen replied. “HRH is the proper title. A long time ago, King George V made it so that only the sovereign’s children and the firstborn of the first-in-line would be able to maintain the HRH title. Later, that was changed to all children of the firstborn. For example, when Alexandria has children, all of her children will be His or Her Royal Highness. As sovereign, George – or King Henry, as you know him – could also offer those titles to Lawrence’s children, which he did when Henry was born.” She winked at her husband from across the table. “So, you can call them Henry and Louis when it’s just us. They are still children, after all.” She smiled at Bexley. “But in public, they should be addressed as His Royal Highness, Sir, Your Grace at times, or simply Prince.”

Bexley nodded and said, “Thank you.”

“I know it’s a lot for outsiders to understand,” the King said, picking up his wineglass and taking a drink. “But Alex can teach you, or we can have someone on staff walk you through it. Perhaps, Sir Anthony?” He looked toward his wife.

“Sir Anthony is old.”

“He’s old and wise, dear,” he replied.

“And smells like cigars,” the Queen added.

“I can just walk her through it,” Alex offered, placing an arm over Bexley’s chair. “But not tonight. Whenever you’re ready.” She smiled warmly at Bexley.

Bexley swallowed and gave her a nervous nod. Alex recognized it and gave her an expression that told Bexley everything was okay.

“So, if you and Alex were to take things public, how would that work?” Larry asked Bexley.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, it’s all right for you to be secret for now, but eventually, you’ll want to tell the world you’re a couple,” the King explained. “We’d handle all of the communication, of course.”

“Oh, right,” Bexley said.

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