Chapter 29 Save the Day
Save the Day
Lars
“What is going on?” Keir demanded over breakfast. “Where is Rose? Why is Auntie Nat gone?”
Sanne and Pappa looked my way.
“Someone better talk or I’m going to lose it. I cannot—”
“Keir, this isn’t helping,” Ingrid said.
“Ingy, it’s—”
“I have chapped nipples and slept three hours last night since I couldn’t settle after his early morning feed. Please, try me,” Ingrid said.
I wasn’t about to poke that bear, so I sat quietly.
“What did you do?” Win asked.
“I didn’t do shit,” I said, finally annoyed enough to talk. “It’s private. She’s not angry, just taking her time with something.”
“Did you have an affair? I will fucking castrate you!” Betty said in angry Norsk.
“No, no, no one is castrating anyone!” Aunt Kiersten said. “And I was going to wait until your uncle got here to say this, but let’s all leave Lars alone. He—and Rose, by proxy—just learned that your cousin cannot produce an heir.”
The table fell silent.
“Oh, fuck,” Ollie, a twin stepbrother, looked at his fiancée, Queen Edina of Denmark. “Look, I know it’s not super exciting to think about but it’s possibly a blessing, right? I have adjusted to the idea.”
Edina smacked him. “Oliver, that’s unhelpful right now. You knew what you were getting into when Mum died and you insisted on marrying me.”
“I’m sorry for loving you, then.” Ollie chuckled.
The two argued like old people. I always thought Edina hated Ollie. She dated Keir off and on for years, so her appearance as Ollie’s girlfriend still bothered me.
“It will be okay. She’s a bride. Emotions are heightened,” Sanne said.
“But if you let her run for the hills, Lars, she will never work through this. I know she says she needs space, but the two of you need a plan to put her mind at ease. Trust me when I say that it was the only thing that put my mind at risk after…”
Her words trailed. Then, she disappeared.
“What the fuck is going on?” Nate, the second-oldest Lyons brother demanded. “Why is Mamma going now? And where is Auntie—”
“They are trying to help,” Prince Consort Ed answered. “Nat is… she’s talking Rose off the ledge. And now I think so is your mother.”
“It will be fine,” Pappa insisted.
“If there wasn’t a disaster the week before the wedding, it wouldn’t be a wedding,” Ed added. “As I recall, you and Lars’s mother had a meltdown scenario that Sanne’s mother helped cool?”
Peder chuckled. “Yes. Everyone tried to calm Alessandra down. Meanwhile, Kiersten called her a cunt, as I recall.”
“Auntie!” Betty erupted. “My God!”
“She bloody well deserved it. She treated me like a servant. It scandalized our fathers. Lars, it will be fine. I love you both to bits. Rose has such a big heart. She’s sensitive, but she won’t desert you.”
“If she did, I wouldn’t blame her.”
“Oh, stop it!” Keir said. “Look, Mum is right. You need to speak to her—one on one.”
“And how would I do that? There are fifty people in this house—plus staff. If we leave, the press will follow us. They always do. I had to drive to a random lookout just to feed her takeout last night, mate!”
“Then, take her elsewhere. Escape,” Aunt Kiersten said.
“Indeed,” Keir agreed. “A wise man once told me to fly a salty princess across an ocean to worm my way back into her good graces and it worked, I think.”
His words were punctuated by an audible fart from his child. We couldn’t help but laugh.
“My point remains,” Keir continued. “If you and Betty hadn’t threatened me and told me to fly Ingrid to Kentucky, I’d have lost out on the best thing I ever had. So, I’m going to force the issue. Where does she want to go? I will fly you.”
“What?” I spoke.
“Where does she want to go?”
I thought a minute. “All she wants to do is see the northern lights. But this time of year—”
“Take her to Bod?. Use the cabin,” Aunt Kiersten said. “If it was good enough for a proposal from your uncle, it will hold good things for you.”
I looked to my father, desperate for advice. “And how will I get her to agree?”
“Your mother and Auntie Nat are very convincing. Plus, Lucy Ferguson always gets her way.”
“That much is true,” Ed said. “Proceed with caution, but I trust you can come up with something. Given that Nat and I blew up and had a major argument the night of our rehearsal dinner and still ended up happily married, you’ll be fine.”
“What happened?” I asked. “What was the silver bullet?”
“Rose’s mum and your stepmum talked us off the ledge.”