A Royal Engagement: The Young Royals Book 1 (5 page)

Well, screw them.
 
I was the rightful heir and I intended to do my father and brother proud.
 
I refused to tarnish their memories by being anything less than they themselves had been.
 
Now I just had to find a way to make it so.

I sat with one leg crossed over the other, leaning back in my chair and idly playing with my silver bangle as Lorraine went over the duties expected of my new personal secretary, Lady Alexandra Fornette.
 
The poor woman was looking very much like she had the desire to ram something down Lorraine's throat as the other woman went on in a particularly condescending tone.

"Excuse me Lorraine," I said politely, "If I may?"
 
Lorraine nodded, but I could tell she was not happy at the interruption. "Lady Alexandra, were you employed before being summoned to Merveille?"

Alexandra nodded, "Yes, Your Highness," she replied.

"And what was it that you did in your previous employ?"

"I was the personal assistant to the CEO of a multimillion dollar investment firm."

I smiled at her and then turned to Lorraine, "I think that Lady Alexandra has a firm enough grip on the tasks that I will require of her, don't you agree?"

Lorraine flushed and her lips thinned in disapproval, "Of course, Your Highness," she replied, "However I do think that her role as the Queen's Personal Secretary has a little more import than that of being an assistant to a banker."
 
She said the word banker as if it tasted sour on her tongue.

"Actually," I said, "I disagree.
 
Lady Alexandra has grown up in a Royal household and knows the protocols that need to be heeded and on top of that she has worked for, what I daresay, was a particularly difficult man, and excelled.
 
I would not have chosen her if I did not think that she was up to the task."

Lorraine knew when she was beaten, although she was not gracious in defeat.
 
"Very well," she said, standing, "Then if you have no further use of me, I shall return to the Queen...I mean the Queen Mother."
 
She curtsied briefly and left the room.

I sighed and looked back at Alexandra who had a small smile on her face and a mischievous glint in her eye.
 
Meredith, who was seated beside me, had her hand covering her mouth and was attempting to disguise a giggle.

Alexandra was gorgeous and I felt rather plain beside her.
 
Her smooth blonde hair was twisted into a perfect French Knot without a stray piece out of place.
 
Her blue eyes were large and clear, framed by incredibly long lashes and her red lips were full.
 
She was dressed in an impeccable dove grey, tailored skirt suit with a purple silk blouse underneath.
 
The woman had class and she seemed to be sweet as well.

"I'm sorry, Lady Alexandra," I said and Alexandra's face broke into a fully fledged smile, "She was incredibly rude to you."

"It's fine, Your Highness," she replied, "It is not the first time I have been found wanting."

"Please, call me Alyssa," I said, "We're going to be working closely with one another and I don't like the fussiness of titles."

"Of course," she said, "And I prefer Alex.
 
My name is such a mouthful without adding the
Lady
part to it."

"Have you officially met Lady Meredith Bingham?" I asked smirking at my best friend.

Meredith rolled her eyes at me before smiling at Alex, "We have met, but don't you dare call me Lady Meredith.
 
I have a hard enough time with the rest of my team without them latching on to that little nugget."

I raised my eyebrows, "Benjamin doesn't know you're titled?"

"Of course
he
knows, but none of the others do.
 
I made him promise me on pain of death that he wouldn't tell them."

"Your father is the Duke of Monterey?" Alex asked.

Meredith nodded, "Yes," she said with a sigh, "He will be arriving today with my mother."
 
She grimaced.
 
Meredith's mother was not at all fond of the fact that she had decided to train to become my personal body guard, although her father had been delighted.

"Is Frederic coming as well?" I asked.

She huffed out a laugh, "Of course he is," she replied, "He asked about you."

Now I rolled my eyes.
 
I loved Frederic, but he was a well known playboy and I had no desire to become another notch on his bedpost.

Meredith laughed and Alex looked between us, puzzled.

"My brother, Earl of Avonlea, is an incurable flirt," Meredith said, "And it doesn't help that he is as handsome as sin.
 
Fortunately though, Lys here has been able to resist his charms and he cannot for the life of him understand why."

I chuckled, "You know I love him dearly," I said, "And he is quite pretty to look at.
 
Unfortunately he is all too aware of how he looks and I know that no sooner would I say yes to him than he would be scouting for his next conquest."

"It is the truth," Meredith said with a sigh, "And one of these days his roving eye is going to get him into trouble."

Alex checked her watch, "As much as I am enjoying hearing about your charming, but devilish brother, I'm afraid we need to go.
 
The Bishop will be waiting for us."

I stood wearily to my feet and smoothed my skirt.
 
I was dreading this meeting and not just because I had a peculiar dislike for the Bishop.
 
Having to make funeral arrangements was just one more thing that brought home the fact that my brother and father were gone.

When I had woken in my childhood bedroom this morning after a night where I slept like a log, I had a moment where I forgot that they were gone.
 
In my newly woken state, I had recognised my room and had immediately thought of walking down the stairs into the dining room to hear my fathers deep voice and booming laugh.
 
And then I remembered that I would never hear those two things again.

I was going to miss him and Jacob terribly and I knew that right now I hadn't even begun to grieve properly.
 
I was holding it together to get through the next few weeks of Royal engagements and then I would finally be able to let myself fall apart.
 
But it would only be a short reprieve.
 
I didn't have the luxury of mourning that common people had.
 
I needed to start to govern, although in what capacity that might be, I was still unsure.
 
Merveille had a constitutional monarchy, which meant the Parliament pretty much handled the everyday running of the country.
 
I had no idea what my duties were to be or even if I would be allowed to do them.

The brisk spring air streamed through my hair, tugging at my braid and freeing wayward strands from it's tight confines as I galloped through the green field.
 
It felt good to have the raw power of horse flesh under me and the freedom to ride far and fast.
 
Meredith, Jamie and Alex trailed me on their own mounts, and Carlos and Aiden followed on ATVs, but I had pulled ahead of them all with my need for a small slice of solitude.

Meeting with the Bishop had been harder than I thought and I had almost allowed my grief to overrule my years of etiquette training and snap at the disagreeable man.
 
I hardly think that it is my job to decide on who sat where or what refreshments would be served.
 
There was a whole staff of people to look after those minor details.
 
Both my father and my brother had had staff better suited to such tasks.

And what would happen to those staff now?

It was yet another question to which I didn't have the answer.

When we had arrived back at the palace, the walls had felt like they were closing in on me and I needed to get out.
 
I needed fresh air and a semblance of escaping, just for a while.
 
The pain of realising that I would be burying my father tomorrow and my brother the day after was almost too much to bear.
 
I'd made a beeline for the stables and now here I was, riding hell for leather across the lush, rolling hills of the palace grounds.

I pulled my horse to a stop as I reached the top of a hill and looked down towards a boundary fence.
 
On the other side of the fence there was a paddock filled with unfamiliar looking cows.
 
I thought I knew all breeds of cows in, if not Merveille, then at least Calanais.
 
It was what our small country was famous for and what ensured our coffers stayed full.

Our fortune was made on the back of a cow, well a cow's milk more precisely.
 
The Merveille Guernsey produced a milk that was highly prized by both the chocolatiers of Switzerland and the cheesemakers of France and Italy.
 
But the cows in the field over the boundary fence were not Merveille Guernseys, although they were similar.

I heard the others approach and stayed where I was until they pulled up beside me.
 
Jamie and Meredith had both been away from Merveille for the last four years with me and Alex had grown up in another country altogether, so I didn't think that any of them would have the answers to my questions, but I asked them anyway.

"Whose property is that?" I asked, pointing to the paddock beyond the boundary.

"I believe that belongs to Maison de Pemberton," Jamie replied.

"Will Darkly's estate?" I asked, surprised.

Jamie nodded.

"And those would be his cows?" I asked, dumbly.

"I assume so," Jamie replied, "They look like his breed."

"His breed?"

Jamie nodded again, "The Pemberton Jersey, I believe," he said, "The Lord of Pemberton developed the breed and his cheese is made entirely from the milk they produce."

"So that's what Jordan meant when he called him the cheese baron," I mused, "Did the elder Lord of Pemberton instigate the breeding program?"

Jamie shook his head, "I don't know, but I don't think so.
 
The elder Lord of Pemberton passed away a few years ago."

"Oh," I said softly.
 
I had no idea that Will's father was dead, "And the Lady of Pemberton?"

"I believe she died a few years before her husband," Jamie replied.

Will and Georgina were alone, not that they were children, but still.
 
Losing my own father, despite being an adult, had left a hole in my life, I couldn't imagine being without my mother as well.

I turned my mount and started back towards the stables.
 
It was easy to believe that I was the only one going through a hard time, but the fact was that I had it better than most.
 
Yes, I had lost two significant people in my life, but I was healthy, I had a roof over my head, more money than I could spend and I wasn't alone.
 
How many people in the world were worse off than me?
 
Most of them, more than likely.

I had never thought of myself as selfish and had believed that I had grown up without being too affected by my title.
 
While in the States I had learned to cook and clean and do my own laundry.
 
I didn't rely on Meredith to serve as a maid, even though I knew it was what my mother and father had expected.
 
But despite my desire to be independent, I had never really had to struggle.
 
I had a safety net and no one would have thought twice if I had come home because it had all been too hard for me.
 
Was it still considered being brave if there was no real way you could fail?

I would never know what it was really like to be an independent student striking out on my own.
 
I didn't have to hold down a job to pay my way through university, I didn't have the threat of student loans hanging over my head and I hadn't had to exist on Ramen noodles and tinned soup like many other students did.

Yes, I had lost my father and I had lost my brother, but so many people had lost so much more.
 
Wasn't that why I had wanted to work for the UN in the first place?
 
To ease the suffering of those less fortunate than myself.
 
I knew I needed to grieve and that I would more than likely have a fight in front of me to claim the throne, but in the grand scheme of things, I was still better off than so many other people and it was time I remembered that.

Chapter Four

"My dearest Princess Alyssabeth."

I barely contained my lips from turning up in a smirk as Frederic, Meredith's brother, Earl of Avonlea, bowed deeply before me.
 
I was standing in the library, perusing the extensive collection of leather bound books, when the footman had announced him.
 
I had already received the Duke and Duchess of Monterey, who were now settled in one of the guest suites in the Palace, and they had informed me that Frederic would not be far behind them.