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The tiny little bit of backbone she’d shown last night had backfired spectacularly.
How many times had she picked up a newspaper or a glossy magazine and devoured all the headline news? She’d read about affairs, arguments, secret children, kidnapping, celebrity diets and drunken parties. Although she was sure it was sometimes blown out of proportion, she’d never really given much thought as to how much of it was actually lies.
She’d never given any thought to the fact that some of those people might be hurt by what was being written about them. She’d never considered it at all.
Not until now.
It seemed some of the papers had gone to extremes. One had tracked down an ex-boyfriend for a whole range of quotes about her that had been blown out of proportion.
She cringed. Luke wasn’t that kind of guy. He wasn’t malicious and she knew that. He’d just been blind-sided. But the words ‘I always knew she wouldn’t stay with me’ still hurt.
The truth was Luke had never really stood a chance against the memory of a guy he knew nothing about. None of her exes ever had.
She was feeling swamped. Overwhelmed. No one mentioned the kiss. No one mentioned the fact that Alex had kissed her in front of everyone and made it clear how he felt about her.
Maria Cochette claimed she’d hung over Alex all night—apparently her conduct had been ‘desperate and embarrassing’.
Other reports said the King and Queen of Leruna had been ‘horrified’ by her presence and had seemingly reacted with shock at the thought of Princess Ruby replacing their daughter.
Was this true? Had she maybe misread the whole situation?
Right now she didn’t know what was right and what was wrong.
Her eyes swam with tears. Reaction was overwhelming her, swamping her with emotions she didn’t know how to control.
Today should be a happy day. Today should be the start of a new kind of relationship with Alex.
Instead it was turning into the worst day of her life, with the world thinking she was some kind of sad, desperate woman who wanted to trap a prince.
Not a girl whose heart was filled with joy because she’d finally connected with the man she’d loved for ten years.
There was a noise behind her. Alex. His face was almost grey and the warm eyes she’d expected to see were clouded with worry. Rufus and another advisor were at his back.
‘There you are, Ruby.’ He walked across the library in long strides. ‘We need to talk.’
Today wasn’t supposed to be like this. He was supposed to be smiling. Taking her in his arms and telling her that he loved her.
But Alex looked distant.
She could almost see all her hopes and dreams disintegrating in front of her.
This was all her nightmares come true.
* * *
For a few seconds that morning everything had been perfect—right up until he’d woken up and found his bed empty.
Ruby was gone. He’d expected her still to be in his arms, expected to touch her soft hair and stroke her silky skin. Instead there had been a little dip in the bed where she’d lain.
He hadn’t had much time to think after that, because Rufus and the other advisors had arrived, their faces grim.
It had been more than bad news. Ruby had been painted as a villain across the world’s media. He guessed that jealous Maria Cochette had phoned most of her contacts to give the most skewed and inaccurate view of the evening.
His worst fears. People had painted his marriage to Sophia as a fairytale. No woman could live up to the aftermath of that. It was what he’d always feared and tried to protect Ruby from.
In his head, he knew exactly what he should have done. He should have introduced Ruby gradually to the world’s press. He should have made it clear she was no longer an employee. She was a friend. A family friend.
But his heart hadn’t been able to keep the slow pace required. He’d already waited ten years for Ruby. He didn’t want to wait for the media to catch up with him. He didn’t want to waste a tiny second. But his impatience had probably cost him everything.
This was all his fault. Totally his fault.
He should have spoken to Ruby about this. He should have spoken to his advisors. He should have prepared her, taken his time, treated her with the respect and love that she was due.
He was unworthy of Ruby. He’d failed her completely.
And from the look on her face she thought that too.
‘I went to the shops...I went to buy us breakfast,’ her words faltered. ‘I know that they have everything in the kitchen, but I wanted to get something special—for us.’
Her voice was shaky and her eyes were strangely blank, as if she was disengaged. As if she couldn’t really comprehend what was happening in the world around her. His heart twisted in his chest. She’d walked into the city. She’d found out about this on her own.
There were tear trails down her cheeks, glinting in the morning sun. He ignored the advisors in his ears and knelt next to her chair, staring at the computer screen in front of her.
‘I’m sorry, Ruby. I should have prepared you for this.’
Her eyes widened in clear disbelief. ‘You can prepare people for this? For these lies? This complete invasion of privacy?’ She shook her head. ‘They phoned me. Someone phoned me this morning, wanting an interview—’
‘What did you say?’ butted in Rufus.
Alex held up his hand to silence him.
She was still shaking her head. ‘I hung up. How did they get my number?’
Alex took a deep breath. ‘It’s not hard, Ruby. They do things like this all the time. You get used to it.’
‘You get used to this? How?’
He reached out and took her hand. It was icy cold and that shot a little fear into his heart. He could see the hopes and dreams for the way all this should go begin to crumble all around him.
It was her face. The expression on her face. She was devastated. Beyond devastated. And he was the one who’d exposed her to this.
She pulled her hand backwards. ‘What about Annabelle, Alex? How will you keep Annabelle from this? Is this the kind of life she’ll have? Every teenage kiss, every hand-hold, every party plastered across the press?’ She was shaking her head and tears were flowing freely now. ‘How on earth will you keep her safe from all this?’
Safe. The word struck fear inside. Ruby didn’t feel safe. But something else had resonated with him. Even now she was thinking about Annabelle in the future. She was raising the issue of trying to protect his daughter.
‘We have rules in Euronia, Ruby. Photographers are not allowed to take unofficial pictures of any members of the royal family. We’re strict about these things. They know they have to respect our privacy.’
‘Really?’ She spun the laptop around to face him again. ‘So what happened here, then?’
It was one of the photos from the newspapers. A picture from months ago, when he’d first taken her to the café in front of the casino.
‘What happened to respecting your privacy? What happened to respecting my privacy. This was when I first got here—how many more private pictures do they have of me, Alex?’
Her breaths were ragged, the pain on her face sending shards through his heart. This was exactly what he hadn’t wanted to happen. But these last few days his feelings for Ruby had just started to overwhelm him.
She’d been in his mind and his thoughts for ten years. Having her under his palace roof had taken every single element of his self-control. She’d opened his world again—asked him the right questions, made him question his own thoughts and feelings. She’d influenced his relationship with his daughter. It had improved beyond all recognition.
It was almost as if she’d taught him how to be a parent. How to love every
part of Annabelle and, more importantly, how to communicate with a little girl who wouldn’t talk to him. Before he’d been confused and felt guilty. Now he took each day as it came. His time devoted to Annabelle was never compromised.
Ruby was still crying, the tears slowly trickling down her cheeks. He reached out and touched her cheek but she flinched.
‘I’m not the person they say I am,’ she whispered. ‘I don’t want people to write things like that about me.’
His heart was breaking for her. ‘Ruby, I’m sorry. I should never have invited you to the ball. I should have waited. We should have waited. If we’d introduced you slowly the press would have been easier. My advisors could have told you how to act, what to say. This is my fault.’ He shook his head, ‘I just didn’t want to wait any longer, Ruby. I wanted you to be part of my world—part of Annabelle’s world.’
Right now he couldn’t care who else was in the room. Right now he was only interested in Ruby. The pain on her face was tearing him apart. More than anything he wanted her to look at him and tell him that was what she wanted too. To be part of his world. But even though she was looking at him it was as if she’d switched off.
She shook her head. ‘But that’s just it, Alex. I don’t want someone to tell me how to act and what to say.’ She pressed her hand against her chest. ‘What’s wrong with just me—Ruby Wetherspoon?’
He took both her hands in his. ‘Nothing—nothing at all. We can make this better, Ruby. I promise. I can make this better. We can work together. We can find a way to deal with the press. I’ll find the photographer who took those pictures of us and he or she will never be allowed in Euronia again. This isn’t as bad as you think.’
There was a noise behind him. The tiniest clearing of a throat...the squeak of a shoe. Ruby’s eyes darted to the advisors behind him. He winced. He didn’t need to turn around to know what the expressions on their faces must look like. He’d heard them talk incessantly since they’d knocked on his bedroom door this morning.
