Royally Ever After (Royals of Valleria #7)

T
he royal wedding
day is finally here … or is it?

Alex and Rebecca have already faced some difficult situations over the past year on their way to the aisle, and now they’ll face their toughest challenges yet. An unexpected medical crisis with two members of the family throws into question whether the wedding should be delayed, while an ancient law could destroy their right to get married at all. As if that weren’t enough, visiting royal relatives wreak havoc in the palace, while a menacing voice from the past arises once more, threatening all they hold dear.

Will Alex and Rebecca live royally ever after?

E
asy
. Piece of cake. No problem. Rebecca took a deep breath, her chest constricting against the corset underneath her dress. An errant lock of chestnut brown hair fell, obscuring her eyes. She tucked her hair back, slid her arm through her father’s, then stepped forward.

She paused between each slow step before moving forward again, waiting for the wobbles to settle in her velvet-covered Vallerian purple five-inch heels, which sported a sparkling diamond bow near the peep toes.

Unconventional shoes for a bride, unless you were a commoner about to marry into the royal family; then you wore the royal colors on your feet and added it via a sash to your vintage white dress.

Of course, when she had selected the shoes, she should have taken into account the never-ending aisle she was now walking down. She’d considered hundreds of details, but this one had eluded her.

Scores of royal heirs had been married in this thousand-year-old church. Since she was about to marry Alexander, the heir to Valleria’s throne, she would be married here, too.

Another step. A few thousand more to go.

Seriously, who thought this aisle would be a good idea?
Sure, the church could fit two thousand people – everyone from family, to world leaders, to celebrities from Vollywood, Valleria’s version of Hollywood. But had anyone ever given thought to the anxiety this kilometer-long aisle would give to a bride?

Okay, so it wasn’t a full kilometer. It was only about three hundred feet. However, it was, at least, five minutes of walking in these heels and her wedding dress.

And this was just the dress rehearsal; she had to do the whole thing again in a few days’ time.

At that thought, the aisle suddenly seemed to grow even longer, Alex now just a tiny speck in the distance. The entire space suddenly distorted like a fun-house mirror, the ceilings retreated higher over her head, and her vision started to spin. She inhaled sharply.

Her father, Ettore, tall and lanky beside her, gripped her steady against him. “How’s my girl doing?”

She took another deep breath and arranged her face into a smile. She had to smile the entire way down – for five endless minutes – even if it wasn’t natural to do so for such a long time. “I’m okay, Papa.”

“We’re getting near the breaking point.”

She spoke through smiling teeth. “What do you mean?”

“If you want to make a run for it, you’ve got to give me the signal before we get to the next pillar.”

Rebecca’s forced smile relaxed into a grin, and she glanced at her father. “Papa.”

“Just say the word and we’re gone. The car’s right outside.”

“What about the cameras?” She gestured to the videographers arranging video cameras in various parts of the church, and the official wedding photographer who was snapping shots of the rehearsal and testing the light. “Or the security agents who would, no doubt, tackle me as I ran away?” She pointed out the men and women in dark suits conducting sweeps of the church and going over the security plan, all led by Alex’s brother, Marcello. “I’ll be known the world over as the runaway bride.”

“Better that than an unhappy one.”

Her face softened. “Papa, I’m not unhappy. I love Alex, you know that.”

“I do, my little Rebecca. I see it every time the pair of you look at each other. You love each other like your Mama and I love each other, and I’m very happy you found that. But loving someone isn’t always enough to be happy.”

Rebecca looked down the aisle to Alex. Per tradition, his back was turned, as he was supposed to be the last one to see the bride, so he didn’t watch her unending descent down the aisle. “Alex and I have already been through a lot, Papa. I know it won’t be easy. Marriage isn’t easy, regardless of whether you’re marrying a prince or not.”

Ettore nodded to the stone column alongside them. “This is it. Are you sure?”

She squeezed his arm. “Positive. Though, since this is just the wedding rehearsal, if I change my mind on the day, I’ll give you a signal.”

“We can always rehearse running away, too. No harm in that.” When she giggled, he leaned over and kissed her cheek. “Be happy, my little Rebecca.”

“I’m not so little anymore.”

His wistful expression faded into a soft smile. “You’ll always be my little girl. Seeing you in those heels, I remember when you were only a few years old, sliding through the house in your Mama’s heels.”

Rebecca glanced towards the front of the church, where her mother was standing and waiting. “I wish Mama could have come with us on this walk.”

“She still can.”

“It’s not traditional.”

“So start a new tradition. Isn’t that what princesses do?”

“I’m not a princess yet.”

“Technicality.”

“Papa.”

“Rebecca.”

“Princesses follow tradition.”

“Do you want your Mama here?”

Rebecca bit her lip, ruining her carefully applied lipstick, then nodded.

“Good.” Ettore paused them and used his fingers to whistle down the aisle.

The music – which was the same classical piece that Alex’s mother, Genevieve, had walked down the aisle to at her wedding to King Gabriel – halted abruptly. Rebecca’s harried chief of staff and wedding planner, Mara, came running towards them, her eyes panicked.

“What’s wrong? What’s happened?”

“Rebecca wants both her mother and I to walk her down the aisle. Would you mind getting her?”

“Oh, Miss Campo, that’s just not done. No one in Valleria’s almost fifteen-hundred-year history has ever done that, except, of course, during a royal marriage in seventeen fifty-eight between then Prince Leopold and his betrothed, Isabelle, and that, of course, was due to Isabelle being in the throes of labor and needing a great deal of assistance to make it down the aisle.”

Rebecca stifled a laugh. “Well, I’m not in labor, but I’d like my mother all the same.” When the woman still didn’t move, Rebecca said, “We’ll wait.”

Mara squeaked, then ran down the aisle, no doubt frightening everyone who watched. She approached her mother, Francine, spoke to her for a few moments, and both women hurried down the aisle towards them.

Alex still faced forward, though now with a stiffness in his posture.

Oh boy.

Her mother approached them, somewhat out of breath. “Rebecca, dear, are you sure?”

She gave her mother a kiss on the cheek. “Positive. You’ll need to take my arm, though, since I can’t let go of the bouquet.” She gestured to the placeholder flowers in her arms.

Yes – placeholder flowers. Rebecca had managed to remember a fake bouquet for the rehearsal, but she’d forgotten the length of the church aisle when considering shoes. A sigh escaped her, and she glanced down at the gorgeous, torturous creations on her feet, then down the aisle again.

Ettore tugged her arm and they began walking again. “Better let your feet get used to them. If we need to make a run for it, you’ll need to do it in those shoes.”

Francine gaped at him. “Make a run for it? Are you mad, Ettore? She’s not going to jilt Alex at the altar.”

“She could if she needed to. It’s our job as her parents to make sure she’s happy.”

“She’s happy with Alex.”

“Being happy with Alex, and being happy with everything else,” Ettore swept an arm through the air, taking in the grandness of the church, the decorations, and the sheer royal-ness of the whole event, “are two different things.”

“Ettore,” Francine warned.

He just smiled; though they argued like any other couple, there was never any doubt they loved each other. “Franny, honey, if we need to save our daughter, we’ll do it.”

“You are the Head Groundskeeper for the royal palace. If Rebecca runs, you’ll be out of a job–”

“I’m close to retirement.”

“–and, as we live on the palace grounds, we’ll also be out of a home.”

“Well, we would need to leave the country anyway, so I don’t see that as an issue. Where should we move to?”

After a moment’s pause, both Rebecca and Francine laughed. “Papa.”

“I only speak the truth. Come on, then. Even with his back turned, your fiancé looks as though he wants to murder me for taking too long.”

Rebecca bit her lip to keep from laughing again. “It’s not you. It’s the shoes that are taking too long.”

Francine patted Rebecca’s arm. “Don’t you worry about a thing. You take just as long as you need to. Better to take your time than rush and fall flat on your face in front of the millions of people who’ll be watching the wedding live.”

“At least a billion, actually, last I heard.”

“You’re not
helping
, Ettore.” Francine reached over to smack her husband’s arm. “The cameras are being set up right now; do you want them recording your behavior?”

Rebecca tuned out her parent’s half-hearted argument and focused on the aisle in front of her which was, thankfully, growing shorter. She took a deep breath, inhaling the soft blooms that were situated every so often down the aisle. Trees had been brought in and were interspersed between the blooms. Her father had supplied both the blooms and the trees, as well as her bouquet – both the fake and real ones – for the wedding.

Rebecca loved the earth. She had so many fond memories of wandering the palace grounds as a child. She needed the outdoors with her as she wed, a sort of memory to bridge her childhood with adulthood. It didn’t matter that she was in her mid-thirties and an adult for years before she became engaged. Since finding love with Alex, her entire world had changed. She’d become a woman in his arms, and she knew the opposite was true for Alex. He may have bedded other women before her, but she would be the last in his bed, and his only love.

Alex’s brothers, his groomsmen, grinned as she came closer. Only one hadn’t arrived yet for the wedding.

Rebecca’s bridesmaids – composed of Alex’s sisters, and the women who loved his various brothers – smiled as she approached. Only one of Alex’s sisters, who was heavily pregnant, would not be able to attend the ceremony.

Rebecca finally arrived at the end of the aisle. “Sorry to keep you waiting.”

Alex exhaled, then turned to face her and took a leisurely glance down her body, stopping at her shoes. “Might I suggest, darling, that you pick another pair of shoes for the main event? If you keep me waiting that long next time, I can guarantee my patience will wear thin.”

She quirked her eyebrow. “Does that mean you don’t like them?”

The side of Alex’s mouth curved up. He loved her in heels, especially when she wore heels and nothing else. “I think they’re lovely.”

“Good, because she’s wearing them,” Catharine, Alex’s younger twin sister and Rebecca’s maid-of-honor, said from behind them.

Alex narrowed his eyes. “Stay out of this, Cat.”

“You stay out of it, Alex,” Cat swiftly replied. “It’s her wedding day. She gets to wear those shoes if she wants to.”

Alex looked up to the ceiling and took a breath before meeting Rebecca’s eyes again. “Shall we continue with the rehearsal, darling?”

Unable to resist, Rebecca lifted her lips to touch lightly against his cheek. “Thanks for waiting for me.”

The lingering irritation left his face. “I’ll always wait for you.”

William, the ceremony’s officiant, who was standing at the altar a few steps above them, cleared his throat. “Your Highness? Miss Campo? If you’ll please come up the steps.”

Alex’s concerned gaze bounced between the stairs and her heels. Just as he offered her his hand, Rebecca gasped. “I forgot to curtsy.”

“Oh. To my parents, you mean?”

“Yes, to your parents, also known as
the king and queen
. They’ll be sitting just there,” she said, pointing to an empty seat with her bouquet-filled hand, “and it would be a serious breach of etiquette if I forgot to curtsy on my way up the aisle.” She whirled around to her parents. “You mustn’t let me forget.”

Ettore gave her forehead a kiss. “We’ll make sure you remember. Just take a deep breath. All right?”

Rebecca nodded, then gave her fake bouquet to Cat and turned back to Alex. “Ready when you are.”

“I’ve been ready for over a year.” Alex took her hand and helped her up the few steps to the altar.

“Very good, very good,” William, said. “Will you be wearing a veil over your face, Miss Campo? If so, His Highness will need to lift it before we move forward with the ceremony.”

“That won’t be necessary. I’ll be wearing a veil, of course, but it will be set away from my face.”

“Really?” Alex asked. “Are you sure?”

Rebecca blinked. “Did you want to lift my veil?”

It was such a sweet thought, but she could only think of logistics: pushing the veil back, making sure it was laying right, then making sure her hair was laying right. If there weren’t going to be cameras everywhere, she wouldn’t worry. Well, maybe not as much.

“If we can coordinate it with the cameras, so they’re not on me when you lift the veil, then we could do it. Mara?” Her chief of staff scurried up to them. “Coordinate that with the videographers running the live feed and the photographer. I’d prefer panned shots of the crowd while Alex lifts my veil, no cameras on me or shots of me.” Mara nodded twice quickly and hurried away.

William clapped his hands together and rubbed. “Very good, very good. Now, from here on out, you’ll need to keep your hands joined. I will say a few words about why we’re gathered together and I’ll say a few words about marriage; those comments are being reviewed by your father, His Royal Majesty’s, staff. At that point, I will then ask if anyone objects to the union. Then I will ask who is standing with the bride, at which time, Mr. Campo, you will speak up.”

“Actually, I’d like both my parents to speak.”

William gaped at her. “Er, Miss Campo, surely you realize it is a bit unorthodox–”

“But it’s not impossible,” Alex interjected and eyed Tavin, his chief of staff, who stood off to the side taking notes. “Is there any legal reason why both her parents cannot stand with her?”

“No, Sir, not to my knowledge. I’ll have our legal team confirm it, however.” Tavin pulled out his phone and began typing away. Everyone’s phones – except for Tavin and Mara’s – were turned off to ensure a closed rehearsal.