Page 28 of Falling for the Queen Mother

Paul continued. "The Queen Mother and Mr. Dougherty spent some time together. She was showing him the view from the balcony on his temporary quarters. They were talking and fell asleep."

Janice shrugged. "So? Why is that anyone's business?"

"It's not," Frederick answered for all of them. "However, someone decided it was and threatened to release this photo along with some accusations about the Queen Mother and our guest."

"What kind of accusations?"

"Inappropriate ones," Frederick responded with a glare. "However, they also brought to our attention an ancient law that says the Queen Mother and the gentleman are now legally married."

Janice blinked, speechless, something Alaina doubted happened to her very often. "What?"

"It's a long story from hundreds of years ago. I'll see you're given enough information to do your own research. It's all public record, but those records aren't looked at by anyone very often." Paul took the photo down. "It's interesting that you were given different information. Who gave it to you?"

"I got an email." Janice pulled out her phone and found it before taking a screenshot and showing that to Frederick. "I won't show you who it's from at this time, but there's the content."

Frederick showed it to Paul then handed it to Alaina.

"We have a problem."

10

None of this made any sense to Nate.

Janice seemed like a nice enough woman, but he had no idea what the deal was. She seemed to be truthful.

So what could the king be talking about?

"I won't ask you who it came from at the moment," the king said to Janice. "But can you trust this person?"

"Implicitly." Janice seemed certain. "It's someone from my organization who I've worked with for years."

That would likely give some ideas to those who knew her organization, but it meant nothing to Nate.

"The question becomes, where did that person get the information they passed along?" Paul and the king exchanged another one of those looks. There were a lot of those going on this morning.

"I honestly have no idea."

King Frederick stood. "Ms. Baker, could you give us a moment please?" He opened the door for her and said something to the aide in the outer office. Likely for the aide to make sure she was comfortable and get her something to eat or drink if she wanted.

Once the door was closed behind her, the king returned to his seat. "It feels like we're being set up for something."

Paul nodded. "It does. I don't know for what, though."

"Lying to the public?" Alaina offered an option. "If we didn't know what she was going to say and went along with it while they were recording, then we tweak the press release followed by them releasing the photo and real story as they see it. Janice's story is edited, possibly without her knowledge, as more of a hit piece."

The king nodded. "That seems reasonable, but why? What would they gain?"

"I think the real first question is who is behind it? Who made sure they got the photos and what would that person or people have to gain?" For the first time, Nate felt like he had something to contribute.

"You're not wrong." Paul picked up the phone on the conference table and made a call. "We'll have more help in here soon. We'll have to consider what to do about both the interview and Ms. Baker. Do we want to go ahead with an honest interview? Give her a copy of the photos to include in the story. Make sure the press release is completely honest, including adjusting the things we obfuscated in the current version. It's not much, but enough that it could become an issue."

"Agreed. Complete honesty now, except for the full reason mr. Dougherty is here. Besides being the right thing to do, hopefully that will also give us some goodwill with Ms. Baker." King Frederick picked up another phone and Janice walked in a moment later holding a cup of coffee.

Once they were all seated around the table, the king spoke again. "Ms. Baker, we're going to be completely honest with you about everything we know, however, we don't know everything, not yet."

"You've been a senior royal correspondent for a long time and have proven trustworthy." Paul took over the conversation and explained everything they knew, as well as information about where it came from.

Janice leaned back in her seat. "I was an investigative reporter, once upon a time, and I haven't felt this kind of tingle on the back of my neck in years. Will you let me help with the investigation? There's things I can do and find that you can't, and the other way round, of course."