Chapter 36
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
OLIVER
Lexi’s sudden clench on my hand instantly cuts the blood supply to my fingers.
Giles’s statement, along with his stony expression, makes me feel like the rest of my extremities are about to drop off too.
How can he possibly know? Only a handful of people at the publishing company, my agent, Lexi, and her boss know about this book. Everyone’s signed NDAs. And it’s in none of their interests to leak it.
Could he have made a bizarrely lucky guess?
Whatever’s happened, I’m not letting him ruin the afterglow of that amazing moment Lexi and I just had. Giles has always been the human version of a bucket of cold water whatever the occasion.
“Well, that’s a far-fetched one, even for you, Giles,” I scoff as if it’s the most ridiculous suggestion I’ve ever heard. “Now please excuse us. We need to rejoin my family.”
“This is urgent,” Giles says. “Miss Lane needs to leave now.”
“What?” Lexi pipes up behind me.
He releases a sharp sigh. “I know you’re writing the prince’s biography or life story or memoir or whatever the hell your tawdry little book is.”
Lexi moves to my side and lets go of my hand.
Another chill runs through me at the thought she might have broken physical contact to distance herself from me.
But maybe it’s just because she’s super independent and doesn’t want it to look like she needs to lean on me for support when someone’s attacking her.
“Just because I’m a reporter doesn’t mean I’m like all the other reporters you’re used to,” she says.
I can hear the self-control in her voice, the slight tremor that no one else would notice that says she’s fighting to keep a lid on her shock, anger, and confusion.
“There’s no point denying it,” Giles says. “I’ve seen it.”
“Seen it?” Lexi and I say together.
I know she’s making good progress on her first draft because she’s shown me a few parts to double-check things with me, but I know for sure she’s not sent it to anyone yet, so Giles can’t possibly have seen it.
Unless he’s accessed her lapt—
“For security reasons,” Giles says. “And I stress for that reason only, I had the team go through your computer.”
“You did what?” In the fraction of a second that Lexi lunges forward from my side, the red mist in her eyes is obvious.
I just manage to catch her by the upper arms and hold her back. While I don’t think for a moment that she has a single violent pore in her body, the way Giles recoils says he thinks she does.
“And thank goodness we did,” he says. “Because books like this are not allowed. The Palace says so.”
“The Palace?” I snap. “You mean you’ve told my grandparents?”
“Not yet, sir,” he says. “I know how much you respect Their Majesties, and I’m sure you’d hate for them to find out from anyone other than yourself.
If Miss Lane leaves now, you’ll be free to do that in your own time.
If she doesn’t…well, my loyalty to the family would leave me with no choice but to inform them. ”
“You’re threatening me?” It might be me who needs to be held back now.
“I wouldn’t call it that, sir,” Giles smarms.
“What about my parents? Are you not-threatening to tell them too?”
“I don’t doubt it would be best if you told them yourself. And it would be my humble suggestion that perhaps you do that sooner rather than later. Otherwise…” I have never seen a less humble or more punchable smirk.
Not wanting to ruin my sister’s wedding with the scandal of me assaulting a long-serving member of staff, I channel my fury into sarcasm. “I am deeply honored that you would deign to extend me such a courtesy, sir.”
“But now at least I can see right through this arrangement you two have.” Giles turns his attention to Lexi.
“This relationship is obviously a fraud and a contrived means of getting you into Glenwither in order for you to work together. Frankly, that’s something of a relief.
Because, God knows, you’d never fit in around here. ”
Shit. If Giles hasn’t already pushed enough of Lexi’s buttons, that one will hammer the big red flashing one—the one attached to her awful experiences as the odd one out among her privileged classmates at private school, and to all the rich wankers around the world that she’s reported on.
Sure enough, she wriggles out of my grip, shoulders square but her jaw trembling, eyes bright with hurt.
“How dare you?” The words scrape out of her, her knuckles white as they grip her handbag. “You’re not actually royal yourself, you know. And even if you were, so what? They’re all just people. And most of them are not very nice.”
I slip my hand around her waist and pull her tight to my side.
“Don’t be so fucking offensive, Giles,” I spit. “Our relationship is anything but a fraud. And my sister’s wedding is not the place for this conversation.”
“It would be a shame, wouldn’t it, sir”—he straightens his tie and lifts his chin—“if Miss Lane didn’t leave and then the press happened to publish more disparaging stories that might harm her career.” He says the last word as if it’s shit on his tongue.
“I knew you had to be behind that,” Lexi says through her teeth.
I look from Lexi to Giles. Oh my God. “It was you who got hold of those photos and leaked them to the press?”
“All I’m saying, sir, is that if you were still a fully fledged member of the royal household, then of course we would do our very best to protect you and your, um”—he coughs—“loved one from damaging stories. But since you’ve chosen not to be…” His raise of an eyebrow says everything else.
Is this sarcastic fucking arsehole for real?
“So you’re saying that either Lexi leaves or you’ll tell my parents and grandparents about the book and dig up more shitty little stories about her and have your pals in the press publish them?”
He laughs as if that’s an outrageous concept. “Of course not, sir.” He’s reverted to his patronizing voice. “I’m merely suggesting that it might be best for all concerned if she leaves. The wisest thing. The most judicious decision, if you will.”
Christ, this is like a Mafia shakedown. And from someone who’s supposed to be on my side, but who I’ve always known really isn’t.
Lexi was right all along. The call has always been coming from inside the house.
“Yeah, right. Of course that’s what you’re saying,” Lexi says.
“And it was obviously you who bugged our room. What was that for? To get more dirt on me to pass to your unpleasant tabloid pals in the hope it would make me go away? Or to get something on Oliver to make it look like he’s the one in the wrong for leaving the country?
So you can preserve the family’s reputation and no one will ever know the problem is actually them? And, clearly, also you.”
“A bug?” Giles says in his best pearl-clutching voice. “If there were any monitoring of the prince’s surroundings, I can promise you it would only be for his own good.”
“Since when the hell did anyone around here ever do anything for my own good?”
Giles ignores me and continues to stare at Lexi. “For his own good. And his own protection. We wouldn’t want him to fall victim to”—he pauses to circle his hand in something resembling a royal wave while he comes up with an appropriately superior noun—“interlopers.”
“She is not a fucking interloper.” My words echo around the church. That was obviously a lot louder than I intended.
“No, sir. Of course not. She’s the love of your life. You mentioned it.” Giles raises his eyes to the vaulted ceiling.
“Look, Oliver.” Lexi touches my arm. “Me being here is obviously causing way too much drama and embarrassment. I should go.”
“Absolutely fucking not. I want you here with me. Screw Giles. It doesn’t matter a damn what he thinks.”
“I believe it matters to your parents,” Giles says. “They trust me to look out for everyone. And that’s all I’m doing, after all.”
“The stupid pictures in the stupid article, I can deal with,” Lexi says, ignoring him.
“That’s my world. I get it. I can cope with it.
But this.” She points first straight at Giles, then gestures to all the surrounding wedding paraphernalia, then toward my family and the great and good who’re gathered outside, smiling and laughing in the afternoon sun.
“This is not my world. I have no frame of reference for a system where the people who work for you spy on you and feed embarrassing photos to the press in order to drive away your friends that they don’t approve of.
This is a world so fucked up it’s impossible to deal with. ”
“Glory be.” I throw my arms in the air. “That’s what I’ve been saying for about twenty years, and no one will listen. But you’ve figured it out in less than a couple of weeks.”
While it’s the most reassuring thing in the world that Lexi sees the bullshit that I see, there’s also a new kind of panic inside me.
One that shakes me to my bones. A panic that the system, the Firm, the way things work around here, is going to drive another person away.
And this person is definitely not disposable.
I need her to understand that we think the same, that we are as one, that she really absolutely mustn’t walk away.
I clutch her hand in both of mine. “That’s exactly why I left. You see we’re in total agreement.”
“Yeah, but the thing is, I wasn’t born to it. And I don’t have to tolerate a single second of it. Or a single moment with people like him.” She jabs her finger toward Giles.
An ironic laugh is out of me before I can stop it. Because it’s all entirely my own fault. I know better.
“This is exactly why I told you not to come here,” I tell her. “Everything around me is poison. I’m poison. I knew it would infect you. And look. It has. You are paying the price for being associated with me.”
Silence falls around us as I take a deep breath and try to calm my racing mind and think only of Lexi rather than my own selfish desire to be with her.
She deserves me to be a bigger person than that.
“Okay,” I say, on a long exhale. “It’s not right that you should be punished purely because you’re my girlfriend.
” I lift her hand to my lips and kiss the back of it.
“Go find the driver who brought you here. Tell him to take you back to Glenwither. I’ll arrange a flight for you.
And get Dane or Cole off their mountain bikes to take you to the airport. ”
“So you want me to go?” Her voice is quieter now, her brow furrowed.
Christ, no, I don’t want her to go. I want to fall asleep next to her tonight.
Wake up beside her tomorrow morning. And I want to laugh and joke and maybe get naked with her on the flight home.
I no more want her to go home than I’d want to have the sovereign’s scepter, the one with the big cross on top, rammed up my arse. But this isn’t about me.
“It would undoubtedly be better for you if you left.” I’m so sick to my stomach I can barely force out the words.
“So you go. Save yourself. I’ll sort things out here and be back in New York the day after tomorrow.
” I stroke her warm cheek. “I’ll miss you.
But it’s not long. We’ll pick up everything when I’m back. ”
“Oliver?” My mother’s voice rattles off the stone walls as she totters toward us. “What are you doing in here? We need you for a couple more photos of the newlyweds with their siblings.”
She stops and looks from me to Giles to Lexi. “Giles? What’s going on?”
Giles stares at Lexi. “We’re finalizing some travel plans.”
Without looking at me, Lexi straightens her shoulders, walks past my mother toward the door, and disappears.
I don’t doubt there’s a torrent of emotions bubbling up under those even, steady steps.
But well done, Lexi, for keeping a lid on it till you get outside.
She’s a far better and stronger person than me.
“Well, thank goodness,” Mum says with a look of disdain over her shoulder as if she’s saying good riddance to bad rubbish.
Then she turns back to me. “Come along, Oliver. You’re part of this family whether you like it or not.” She spins around and totters away. “And you might want to straighten your sporran.”
Every atom of me wants to run past her, chase after Lexi, tell her I’ll go back to New York with her right now and we can escape all this bullshit together.
But instead, I find myself moving slowly after my mother, something bred into my blood and my bones propelling me to do my duty.
Maybe there’s a limit to how far anyone can ever escape this family.