Page 11 of Her Royal Rebellion

That actually didn’t sound too terrible at this point.

“No, I need to attend the meeting with Charlie and the representatives from Sudan. I can’t miss that.”

“Of course. I’ve scheduled your lunch with Charlie as well. I figured you might still want some space.”

Bless this woman. “Thank you.”

She smiled. “The car will be waiting at noon to take you to Robby’s pub.”

I threw my arms up and hugged her. She wasn’t a fan of physical affection, but tolerated me... most of the time. She chuckled and patted my hand resting on her shoulder. “You’re the best.”

“This afternoon, you have a meeting with Lewis about the next hospital renovation. A light day.”

I nodded. I was grateful for that. I wasn’t sure how long I could keep a smile on my face today. “I thought you had the meeting yesterday.”

“That was for the hospital in Ballivaughn. This is picking out the next hospital. Cian wants to continue to check off each children’s wing, even while he’s away. So, you and Lewis will be picking the next one.”

“We have a list, why don’t we just go in order?”

She opened her folder and looked through her notes. “Cian requested we go in order of need.”

“Fine. Has Serena chosen her next project?”

Carolyn turned a few pages. “She wants to help rebuild communities from the fires in Australia.”

I wrote that down and nodded. “Add me wherever I can help. I’m sure they need schools and hospitals immediately. Maybe we can hold off on the children’s wings here for a year. We’ve updated the most necessary ones, and Australia needs our help more right now.”

“I’ll send a message to Lewis and you can discuss it this afternoon.”

“Thank you.” I looked through the rest of the schedule for today and wondered if I’d have time to see Logan since Shane was on duty. I wanted to apologize for losing it on him yesterday. He’d been so kind and gentle. He was exactly what I needed to feel better, but I felt bad dumping my problems on him. Although, he did handle it quite well. The moment he stood and walked away, I shattered. I cried harder than I had the entire day. I realized that was the kind of man I needed. Someone who simply held me when I needed him to. Someone who was willing to stand up for me. That wanted to fix the problems, but knew that sometimes all that could be done was being there for someone.

I would be lying if I said my little crush didn’t get a whole lot bigger after last night. I could think in hypotheticals, but really, I knew I wanted all of what he showed me about a good man from him, not just anyone.

I had to push those thoughts away. It would only lead to more heartbreak for me.

We gathered our things, but before Carolyn could walk away, I stopped her. “Have you heard anything about why Dad’s doing this? Anyone have ideas?”

She shook her head. “Not yet. I’m keeping an ear out for any tips though.”

“It would be so much easier to go along with this if they were just honest with me. If there is a plan at play, I need to know what it is.”

She gave me a sympathetic smile. “We will figure it out, Isla. I promise.”

I nodded and followed her out of my office and down the hall to the garden drawing room. It was Charlie’s favorite, and since she didn’t have an official office, she liked to work from there.

The queen was happy to share her preferred space as well. Mum used her office more often now to give Charlie space, but soon Charlie would need her own room. Well, that was assuming Aiden and Charlie lived here after they married. They were waiting until after Cian and Serena’s wedding since they didn’t want to take any of the attention off the couple. I had a feeling Charlie wanted to marry quietly while the rest of the world was still fixated on the future king and queen.

It wouldn’t surprise me at this point if they slipped away and eloped somewhere. Our parents would probably kill them, but at that point what could they do? The thought made me smile. At least one of us should get what we wanted.

The door was cracked open, so I pushed it and stepped inside. Charlie was sitting on the velvet settee with papers scattered around her on the circular cushions. She glanced up with a weak smile.

“Good morning.”

I sat across from her and took in her tired face. “Morning. How are you?”

She sighed. “I’ve been better.”

I narrowed my eyes. “What’s going on?”