Royal Date (25 page)

I asked how the horses could run on the ice. Caitlin said they had special shoes, as well as snow pads that gave them better traction than the humans had. The only worry was getting too much snow stuck in their hooves, so the lake was cleared to prevent that from happening. The horses would also be switched out in intervals so as to not overtire them.

A waiter came to take our order, and I started crowd watching. A minute later I was interrupted by a bright flash. I held my hand up to my face, peering around it to see a photographer taking shots of us. I thought the paparazzi had been outlawed in Monterra. “What the . . .?” I asked.

“This is the official photographer I hired,” Lemon explained. “Pictures for the website. You don’t mind, do you, Caitlin?”

“No, not at all,” she said. We gathered together and took several pictures. I wondered how many of them Lemon was going to get framed and put up on our apartment wall. The photographer finished and went to find another victim.

Which made me think about my little situation. I needed to find Seamus before he found me in the company of the princess. That would just lead to all kind of awkward questions. I hadn’t even told Lemon yet. I figured that was mostly because if I didn’t talk or think about it, it was like it hadn’t happened. Telling her made it more real and scarier.

Our food came, and Lemon finally calmed down enough to have a normal conversation with Caitlin. I listened as the two chatted like they’d known each other their entire lives. I envied their ability to have a conversation with anyone anywhere.

A horn sounded, and the teams trotted out onto the ice. Nico’s team consisted of him and his two brothers. They all wore bright red, long-sleeve jerseys, helmets, and sunglasses. They had on tight white pants and black, shiny boots. Nico wore the number three. Alex’s team wore blue (which made me understand why his wife had on blue herself), and he was also number three for his team. I didn’t know the men he was playing with.

The ponies trotted out, doing a lap around the ice to all the cheering fans. I called out Nico’s name as he went by, and he waved to me.

“What is that on Dante’s mallet?” Caitlin asked, confused. I looked to where she pointed, and there was something red near the base, next to the hammer part. Then I noticed that Lemon had gone very quiet.

“Lemon?”

“It’s a favor.”

“A favor? What kind of favor?”

“Not that kind of favor,” she said in a quiet, embarrassed voice. “You know how when knights would joust and ladies would give them a favor to wear on their clothes or lance.”

“Yes,” Caitlin said. “Like a handkerchief or a scarf. Or a ribbon. Usually something with their family’s colors.”

“Well, I didn’t have any of those things in my favorite color. So that’s my, uh, you know . . .” Her voice trailed away.

“Your what?” I asked.

“My underwear,” Lemon said, blushing furiously, covering her eyes with both of her hands.

Caitlin and I exchanged glances and then howled with laughter. Today’s match was being sponsored by a pair of Lemon’s red lace underwear. I wondered if anyone else knew.

The referee pulled Nico and Alex aside and had them shake hands, while their horses pranced around, eager to get started. The referee then moved out to the sidelines and blew on his whistle.

A bright red ball was thrown in between the two princes, and the game started. Nico got the first whack, and everyone was riding after the ball.

I put my food down to cheer for the Fiorelli men. Snow polo was a lot more exciting than I thought it would be. My heart was in my throat the whole time, because I was so worried the horses would get hurt or slide and take the players down with them.

But both the horses and the men were in total control. No one slipped. No one ran into each other. No one hit each other with their mallets. I could only imagine the damage I would do if somebody put me on a horse on ice and told me to chase after a big plastic red ball.

The game went back and forth, neither side giving in, until Rafe finally scored a goal and the crowd cheered wildly for him. There were several breaks, called chukkers of all things, like quarters in football where the teams swapped out their horses and took off their helmets to cool off for a minute.

Nico’s team scored another goal, and Alex’s team scored two in return. There was a small scoreboard counting down the time, and it was getting closer and closer to being over with no winner.

Then Nico burst through Alex’s defense, clearly headed toward the goal. I started jumping up and down and calling his name when he gave the ball a final whack, and with only twenty seconds left on the scoreboard, he got another goal!

I thought I might go hoarse from all the screaming and hollering I was doing.

“Poor Alex,” Caitlin said, with a twinkle in his eye. “He hates to lose. He’ll need some cheering up. I’ll see you at dinner?”

When she left I saw that bright red hair belonging to Seamus in the crowd surrounding the lake, even more noticeable against the whiteness of the snow. I told Lemon I’d be right back.

I walked toward Seamus, both relieved that this would soon be over and terrified that I’d get caught before I could get rid of him. My heart pounded louder with every step that I took.

“There you are,” Seamus said to me.

“I don’t want to do this,” I told him. “I can’t take your money or take the pictures.” I took the camera out and held it out to him.

He didn’t take it. He studied me with a disgusted expression. “Fine. I’ll double the money. One hundred thousand American dollars.”

Before I could respond, Nico was there. Smiling down at me. “Katerina.” He noticed who I was with, and my stomach bottomed out when he said, “Mr. O’Brien? What are you doing here?”

“You should ask your girlfriend what I’m doing here.”

My veins filled with ice, paralyzing me for a second. My teeth started to chatter and my hands shook. I couldn’t breathe. He was going to hate me. Nico would never forgive me.

I had ruined everything.

He looked confused and then angry. “What’s happening? Explain yourself,” he said to the reporter.

Seamus had a nasty smile on his face. “Just a business transaction. Isn’t that right, Kat?”

“I’m calling for security,” Nico said, and I had a moment’s hope that he might not discover what I had done—that they would throw Seamus out before he could rat me out.

“Before you do that, you really should talk to your girlfriend here. She’s on my payroll. I gave her that phone. You should see the pictures she’s taken for me.”

I hadn’t taken any pictures for him, but he sounded so believable it made me more afraid.

“May I see the phone, Kat?” Nico asked, holding out his hand.

He didn’t call me Katerina. Despair and terror made me tremble. He always called me Katerina.

But I didn’t have anything to hide, so I gave him the phone. He turned it on, and I could see that he was scrolling through something. I didn’t know how that was possible since until today, I hadn’t taken the phone out of my drawer.

He handed it back to me, and I did not like the expression on his face. It scared me to death.

I looked at the phone, and there was a picture of Nico and his brothers playing video games. I flicked it with my thumb. One of Violetta texting on her phone. Flicked again. Chiara drawing in her sketchpad. Another flick and my heart plummeted. A picture of the king in his bed.

“Nico, I did not take these pictures. I promise you that I did not take these pictures.”

“I offered her a hundred thousand dollars to take those pictures,” Seamus said, looking way too satisfied with himself. “Does she really seem like the kind of girl who would turn down a hundred thousand dollars?”

What could I say in my own defense? Saying it was only fifty thousand initially and he’d just upped his offer sounded stupid. Mostly because he was right. I was the kind of girl who wouldn’t say no to a hundred thousand dollars. I needed it for my tuition. For my future plans. For the kids I loved.

And Nico knew it.

“And before you get too angry with me, she approached me in Paris. She was looking for a way to make a quick dollar. I was happy to oblige.”

The hurt, the pain in Nico’s eyes was more than I could bear. His face had turned hard, like stone. I grabbed his arm, desperate for him to believe in me.

“Never. I would never do that to you. Or to your family. Seamus came to me, offered me money, and left before I could say no. I’m meeting with him today to give him back his phone and his money.” Unshed tears were making my voice thick and my throat raw. I pulled the envelope out of my pocket and handed it to Nico. “I need you to trust me, to believe in me.”

“You never said anything about this.” Nico’s voice was so quiet I could barely hear him.

“I was embarrassed, and I didn’t know how to explain.” A fearsome desperation clawed its way through me, making it hard for me to think. I looked him in the eyes, even though I wanted to run away and hide. I would stay and face this. I would make him understand.

“You asked me to trust you. And I did. Now I’m asking you for the same thing. I am asking you to trust me. To believe me.”

I felt my soul spiral as an unbelievable darkness spread through me. Because Nico just stood there, staring at me. He wasn’t saying anything. Why wouldn’t he say something? It was like being knifed in the stomach repeatedly, standing there waiting.

“I believe you.”

He said it so quietly that for a minute I thought I had imagined it. That I was so pathetically desperate for him to trust me that I had hallucinated it.

“You believe me?” I had tears at the edge of my words.

He nodded at me and pulled me to him, hugging me tightly. Relief flooded through me as I wrapped my arms around him. That feeling of home returned, but I ignored it and just clung to him. Grateful that I could be in his arms again.

He shoved the envelope into Seamus’s chest. “There’s your money. I expect you to return to your hotel and leave my country. If you aren’t gone in the next hour, I will have my security detail personally escort you out.”

“I’ll be taking my phone back,” the reporter said.

“I don’t think so,” Nico said. “Count it as the cost of doing ‘business.’”

Seamus turned an angry shade of red just before he stomped off. Nico gestured to one of his guards and gave him instructions in Italian. Two guards in black suits with black trench coats followed behind Seamus.

As terrible as this entire encounter had been, I was so glad that Nico had interrupted us. It would have been world-ending if he hadn’t. I would have handed that phone over, not knowing that there were pictures on it. I could only imagine the damage that would have done to his family.

And the damage it would have done to us.

I held the phone up, scrolling through the pictures. The thought had crossed my mind that Seamus had set me up and put pictures on the phone in the first place, but these were all recent. I could see the Christmas decorations in the pictures. These had to be taken by someone with access inside the palace. But who would do that?

I let out a laugh when I figured it out. I held the phone up to Nico. “I caught our culprit.”

Serafina had taken twenty different selfies. She had stolen my phone and taken all these pictures. She’d stolen everyone else’s phones—I don’t know why I imagined I would be exempt.

That made Nico smile. I could feel his relief as clearly as my own. “Someone will have to have a talk with her about respecting personal property.”

I looked up at him. “I should have told you.”

“I should have immediately trusted you. I’m sorry I doubted you.”

“I don’t blame you. I doubted me and I knew I hadn’t done it.”

That made him chuckle, and he hugged me again. I saw something move out of the corner of my eye.

Lady Claire. Everything clicked. Why Seamus had lied. Why he tried to make it sound like this was all my idea. I had thought he was just trying to protect himself, but now I knew there was something deeper going on here. How could a paparazzo like Seamus get into the charity ball? How could he be allowed into this event? There was only one way.

If someone who was invited had let him in.

“That horrible little witch,” I said.

“Who?” Nico asked.

“Lady Claire did this. Look, I know she’s your friend and your families are friends, but she has been trying to set me up since I met her. She introduced me to an ambassador at the ball and told me to say something to him that humiliated me. I told her I didn’t drink and she’s the one who had them bring me that vodka. She confronted me at the ball, telling me that you guys were engaged and that you were just using me. And now she set me up with that paparazzo to make you turn against me. He said things that were totally untrue, like it being my idea. She’s out to get me.”

He looked puzzled. Confused.

“I know this sounds crazy. I know she’s not like this around you. But I am telling you that she has gone out of her way to sabotage me. Caitlin said Claire used to do this kind of stuff to her all the time in college. Think about this—how could someone like Seamus O’Brien go to your ball? I know you didn’t invite him. How is he here? Somebody had to make sure he got in. And there’s only one person I know of who wants to sabotage me.”