“I’m proud of you for bringing Princess Valentina back where she belongs. But it doesn’t change or in any way diminish the dishonor of how badly I failed her all those years ago.” His father brought his own filled plate to the table and sat.
Neither of them picked up forks to so much as touch the food.
Searching for something to break the silence, Eli said, “It’s Kelsey, not Valentina. She wants us to use the name she’s known her whole life.”
A ghost of a smile almost flickered at the edges of his father’s mouth. “I cannot imagine Grand Duchess Agathe being happy about her granddaughter abandoning her royal name. Especially in favor of one so…very American.”
“Yeah, well, luckily my job is not to keep the grand duchess happy.” In an attempt to keep that smile flickering, Eli fell back on relating gossip about the guards. Because aside from his son, the bodyguards were the only thing in his father’s life. “Did you hear that she fired August Terrani last week? The man had twenty years in the Protection Service. Worked like a dog to be assigned to the inner circle of the Villani family. He didn’t last three days guarding her.”
The grand duchess’s temper was legendary. As was her biting wit that could sheer a person’s skin off with a handful of icy cold words. Elias worried about Kelsey holding her own against the formidable old woman.
On the other hand, maybe he should worry about Agathe holding up against Kelsey’s infectious spirit.
With a stiff nod, Albert picked up his fork. “I appreciate you bringing me this news. I’ll be sure to come to your medal ceremony.”
“What ceremony?”
“For finding the lost princess, of course. At the very least, the king will give you a medal of honor. At the most, a knighthood. Possibly a manor house to go with it.”
Fuck. Elias had assumed Christian had just been poking at him with the threat of a reward knighthood. Keeping the Villanis safe was all the reward he needed. He wasn’t one of the privileged elite. He worked for a living, and was damn proud of it. Sitting on his ass raking in money other people earned on his behalf was not how he planned to spend his life.
Now he’d have to find a way to head that off at the pass. On top of working out elaborate security plans for a princess who had to go incognito for two weeks.
And that was on top of working hard not to think about how good Kelsey had felt in his arms… Like a dream come true. Except more real, more fantastic than any dream.
But just as fleeting as a dream.
Maybe that was the problem. Maybe his father needed to see her to believe she was truly real, and not just a figment of his imagination. “Come meet Kelsey. I’ll look at her schedule and find a time. You’ll like her. She’s a breath of fresh air.”
“No.”
Right. The decades of embarrassment and guilt were holding Albert in place like quicksand. But Eli was throwing him a rope. All he had to do was let Eli pull him up. “It’ll give you closure. Once you see the princess, in the palace, you can finally put the whole thing behind you.” Having a plan kickstarted his appetite. He smeared a thick layer of loganberry jam on the toast.
“Why would she want to meet me?”
“She’s meeting an entire country’s worth of new people. It’s…disconcerting. Difficult. The princess trusts me, feels at ease in my presence in a way she doesn’t yet with most others in the palace. When I say I want to introduce her to my father, she’ll do it, no questions asked.”
“Your father, yes, I’m sure. But why would she want to meet me?” Thumping his fist against his sternum hard enough to make a knocking sound, he continued in a much louder tone. “Me, Albert Trebanti, the guard who let her be kidnapped?”
Elias shoveled in a forkful of eggs to have an excuse not to respond.
Because, hell no, he hadn’t told the princess about his own, very personal connection to her disappearance. He’d barely talked her into leaving Manhattan as it was. Knowing that his own flesh and blood was—technically—to blame for her abduction wouldn’t have given her any reason to walk out the apartment door with him.
His dad had raised him, knew his tells. And even after years of training to keep Elias stoic and poker-faced through any and everything, a parent always had intuition about his child.
Albert’s eyes narrowed. Then, with the most emotion he’d shown all day, he pounded on the table.
“Aha! The princess doesn’t know, does she?”
He dodged the accusation with as much finesse and speed as when he’d dodged Christian’s rapier-thrust when they’d fenced last month. “We’ve thrown a lot at her in a very short span of time. There’s only so much she can take in at once. I think it’s up to King Julian or Prince Christian to relate the official version of what happened when she was abducted. Right now, they’re too busy plotting her future to bother wallowing in the past.”
There. That sounded reasonable. Believable.
Not at all like it was already knotting up his gut to keep this from Kelsey. She’d poured out her heart to him. How was Elias repaying her? By half truthing it on one of the biggest pieces of his life.
The entire reason he’d joined the Royal Protection Service was to try and give his father the assurance that the Trebanti name would reclaim its honor with his devotion to the royal family. His best friend was the prince because he’d had free rein of the palace due to his mother being lady-in-waiting to the queen. And the disappearance of Princess Valentina had shadowed his life every bit as much as it had the Villanis.
“Son, this is a mistake. You need to tell her Highness before she finds out from someone else.”
“There are about a million and ten things she needs to know right now. Everything’s a top priority. A pair of Siamese octopuses couldn’t juggle everything being thrown at the princess.” His phone shimmied on the table as it vibrated with a notification.
Odd that it was from Sir Evan. They weren’t exactly drinking buddies. Why would Duchess Mathilde’s secretary need him? She had her own protection team.
One swipe gave him the answer. Or rather, a whole truckload of trouble. Short on detail but big on impact, it read,
THE PRINCESS IS ON TWITTER!!!!!!
Normally, Eli would roll his eyes at the string of exclamation marks. But today? With this news? They were barely enough to convey the enormity of the situation.
He pushed back from the table, took a fast swig of coffee. “There’s been a complication at the palace. I’m sorry, but I have to go. Please think about meeting the princess.”
“That would be a mistake.”
Well, it wouldn’t be the first of the day. This situation with Kelsey could flip from a huge mistake to huge danger in a matter of minutes. Three bites of breakfast were not enough fuel to get him through this next battle. So Eli called in reinforcements, texting Christian to meet him ASAP in the palace’s south wing.