Escaping A Royal Wedding (17 page)

Forty five minutes later, her father opened the doors to his office and stormed out. “Where’s Ana..” he started to say then saw her sitting on the chair. “What are you doing there?” he asked.

Ana didn’t answer him. She stood up and preceded him into his office. She stood in front of his desk and waited for the yelling to start.

King Stephan watched his normally animated daughter walk listlessly into his office and station herself in front of his desk, her shoulders drooping as she waited for him to start their discussion. Turning back to the guards outside his office, he asked, “How long has she been sitting there?”

“Forty five minutes, sire,” the one to the right declared and snapped his feet as he bowed, then turned back to face the hallway.

King Stephan closed the door behind him and walked to take his seat behind his desk. He looked sternly at his oldest daughter and wondered what she had gone through while she was gone. “So start talking and tell me what was so important for you that you needed days without your guard,” he demanded without preamble.

Normally her father’s anger would bother her but this morning, she just didn’t care. Nothing mattered. She’d never see Marcus again and she was faced with an abhorrent future. Numbness was all she felt. “Does it matter? I’m back.” She looked at her watch and remembered she had her first fitting for her dress in two hours. She sighed at the idea.

Her father was having none of that. “It matters. Do I need to get my security team to find out or are you going to tell me?”

Ana considered his statement and wondered if she really cared if her father found out where she’d been. But in reality, she didn’t care. She simply shrugged her shoulders. “You should get your security team to find out,” she confirmed. She wouldn’t look at her father, but focused on a point over his head. “If there’s nothing else you’d like to discuss,” she asked and stood up, “I’ll get out of your way,” she said, ready to leave.

“Sit down, Ana,” he said sternly.

Ana shook her head and battled the tears again but won this time. She refused to cry over this situation. It was over and done with, she told herself. “I’d rather stand, father,” she said and took a deep breath.

“Why?” King Stephan demanded, noting the haggard look of her clothes and the dark circles under her eyes.

Ana’s shoulders drooped. “It doesn’t matter,” she said and sat down in the chair to the right, staring at the floor.

Stephan had never seen his daughter like this. She was usually very even tempered with only occasional bursts of anger. She’d never been depressed that he was aware of.

His anger seemed to dissipate somewhat. He sat down in the chair next to her and lowered his voice. “Were you in danger?”

“No,” she said quickly.

He considered all that he’d heard about her frustrations over the past week. Taking a different approach, he asked her about her major points of anger, or what he thought they were. “What’s wrong with Prince Erik?”

Ana closed her eyes and tried to control her emotions before answering her father. “Nothing now,” she finally said. There had been a whole host of issues with the man last week but she couldn’t even remember that far back. Her mind was centered on only one man and how he’d hurt her so deeply she didn’t think she’d ever recover.

“Then why are you so against this marriage?” he asked sternly. “Your mother tells me that you’re not happy about it.”

Ana shrugged. “He’ll do just as well as the next man,” she said, honestly not caring who she’d be married to. It wouldn’t be Marcus so really, one man or another didn’t matter. They were interchangeable in her mind after experiencing the magic of Marcus’s touch.

“So there won’t be anymore escape attempts?”

Ana smiled wryly at his words. “Is that what you would call what I did? If I had to escape, then you admit that I was imprisoned?”

King Stephan shook his head. “No. I don’t. But I’ll be sure to protect you despite yourself from now until your wedding day.”

That formed a small amount of interest but she still wouldn’t look at him. “Hence the guards outside my door?”

“Exactly.”

Taking a deep breath, she asked the burning question she’d wanted an answer to since stepping off the plane the previous day. “What happened to Roman and James?” she asked, referring to her previous guards.

Her father’s stern expression returned and his eyebrows creased with anger. “They have been reprimanded and released from their responsibilities.”

Ana almost broke down in tears again at that news. “Why?” she asked, her voice cracking on unwanted emotion. The guilt was almost overwhelming her on top of the pain of losing Marcus. “They were good men who would have laid down their life for me.”

Her father was unmoved by her emotions. He shook his head before saying, “They failed to protect you. They were unworthy of their posts. Enough said on the subject.”

Ana didn’t respond but bowed her head in shame. Roman and James were very good men and she had cared for them. Both had been her body guards for over fifteen years. Now, because of her selfish actions, they were jobless and it was all her fault.

“Is there anything else?” she asked, wanting to run and hide.

“No. That will be all.”

Ana stood and walked out of his office. She still had a long time before her fitting but she had nothing she needed to do. Her whole schedule had been cleared before their trip to ensure that she had enough time for the wedding plans, parties and festivities. She found herself in the library and picked out a book. But her mind couldn’t focus on the words. She sat down and stared out the window, just as she had in Washington, D.C.

Time slipped by as she stared out the window. Almost two hours had passed when someone burst into the library, breathless. It was one of her new body guards. “Your highness,” he said, breathless. “The seamstress is waiting,” he said and bowed as he held the door open for her.

Ana barely acknowledged the new guard as she put the book on the shelf and walked sedately down the hallway, not caring that she was late for her appointment or not. She wasn’t going to fight the wedding anymore, but neither could she become excited about the prospect either. Being married to anyone, much less a stranger… Ana shuddered at the thought.

The seamstress smiled as soon as Ana entered. “Oh, your highness. How exciting. I have so many designs for you to choose from. Why don’t you sit down and pick which one you’d like for your wedding dress,” she gushed. “I wish I had more time but no matter,” she said airily as Ana walked across the room to the table, “we will still make your wedding dreams come true.”

Ana sat down at a large, round table and pulled the designs toward her. Her excitement was not what one would expect of a bride to be and she knew she needed to show a little more enthusiasm. Flipping through the various designs, she tried to picture herself walking down the aisle in each of the dresses, taking the steps that would bring her closer to a stranger she didn’t love. Ana was just about to push the pictures away and run out when her mother entered the room.

“Don’t, Ana,” she said quietly. Natasha sat down in the chair next to her daughter. She dismissed the seamstress with a nod and, once they were alone, turned to face her daughter. “Ana, this will be your only wedding. You can make it a horror story, or you can make it a dream to remember. It is all up to you.”

“But mother, I don’t…”

“Stop. Don’t say another word. Remember when you told me you wanted to go to law school?”

“Yes.”

“What was my response?”

Ana thought back to that day over a week ago, fighting the tears that were threatening to overwhelm her. Gone was the numbness and the pain was back in full force as she stared at the pictures of possibly wedding dresses. “You said that I should use my mind to make my dreams come true.”

“Exactly.”

Ana put her head in her hands, desperate to figure out what her mother was trying to tell her. “I don’t understand mother,” she said.

Natasha pulled her daughter’s hands away and forced her to face her. “You don’t understand what a gift being royal really is, do you?”

Ana shook her head and considered her mother’s question seriously. “All I see is that I now have two guards posted outside my doors. Add to the fact that I have to marry someone I don’t know for the sake of an arranged marriage, arranged by someone other than me, then no. At this point in my life I don’t see many advantages to being a member of a royal family in general and this one in particular.”

Her mother nodded. “That’s a consequence. Not a gift. What is stopping you from studying law? You might not be able to attend law school formally, but you’re about to marry the future ruler of a country. Do you have any idea the influence that position carries? You have the ear of a king. And a very good one, if rumors are true. If you find an injustice, you need to figure out a way to fix it. What better way than to do that through the laws?”

For a long time, Ana considered her mother’s words. Could she be right? Could the wife to a king carry influence and help shape a country besides just being the walking womb to her husband’s dynasty? Ana’s eyes widened at all the possibilities that thought opened up. She had never considered that aspect of her life. She’d always been told that she would marry and produce the next heir to the throne but never what she could be doing besides that. She turned to face her smiling, beautiful mother and another thought came to her. “What were your dreams, mother?”

Natasha laughed softly, relieved that at least the initial crisis was over. “Honestly, my dreams came true the moment I met your father. And then I had three wonderful children. I don’t think I could have imagined anything more than that.”

Ana smiled for the first time in two days. “That sounds lovely. But I want more than that.”

She smiled fondly at her daughter. “Then find it. You have resources that you haven’t even tapped. Try that instead of banging your head against a brick wall, also known as your father.”

Ana laughed, never having heard her mother describe her father in anything but the most glowing of terms. “You’re definitely right about father. He can be pretty stubborn.”

“Marabeth takes after him. You’re more like me. You usually make the best of any situation. Except over the past few days, of course,” she said, grimacing at the memory of her fear and frustration over her daughter’s safety.

Ana saw the fatigue that was in her mother’s eyes for the first time since her return. “I’m sorry I caused you worry, mother. I really thought the note would suffice. If I’d known what it would cause….” Ana thought about what she would have done and knew, deep in her heart, that she still would have gone away with Marcus.

“You’d still have done the same thing,” Natasha finished, seeing the truth in her daughter’s eyes. “I don’t want to know what happened. I’m just relieved and grateful that you’re safe and back with us.” She kissed Ana’s cold cheek and smiled gently at her. “Now, how about if we move on to more exciting things, eh?”

Ana’s mother pulled the wedding dress designs closer and looked at them closely. “When you were a little girl, what did you picture getting married in?”

Ana glanced at all the lovely drawings and sighed. “Oh, I can’t remember that long ago.”

“I remember you telling me once that you wanted to look like an angel.”

Ana laughed, suddenly remembering that long ago memory. “Well, I don’t think father would appreciate me walking down the aisle with feather wings, would he?”

Natasha smiled and moved a picture toward Ana. “Probably not. But what about this one?”

Ana glanced at the drawing and nodded. “Yes. That looks lovely,” she said. But her eyes misted over because she was wondering what Marcus would think if he saw her in this dress. It was magical with soft layers floating down to the floor, a heart shaped, strapless bodice that really did look like it was flying away. The veil was just as wonderful and looked like it would fly away in a simple breeze and somehow curled around her face instead of falling neatly. She stared at the picture and considered her options. Her mother was right. She could either go into these next two weeks like a zombie and feel hurt and abused, or she could pick herself up, figure out how to make the best of a bad situation and learn to live without Marcus again. She’d done it before she’d entered that coffee shop so many days ago. Surely she could find meaning once again?

“Yes, that’s the dress I’d like to be married in,” she said and handed the picture to her mother for her opinion. “What do you think?” If a small voice inside her head reminded her that she wanted to be married only to one man, she pushed that thought aside and concentrated on getting through the next few moments.

“I love it and I think you’d look extraordinarily lovely in it as well. This one it is,” Natasha said and stood up. “I’ll get the seamstresses started,” and left Ana alone with her ideal wedding dress staring back at her. If only she could have her ideal groom to walk toward instead of a stranger, life would be perfect.

With a look of determination she was not really feeling, Ana picked herself up mentally and stood up physically, walking down the hallway as if she had some sort of purpose. Ignoring the guards walking silently behind her, she went to the kitchens to discuss the wedding menu with the cook, yet another task she’d been ignoring in the hopes that somehow the wedding would not take place.