The Controversial Princess (The Smoke & Mirrors Duology #1)(119)

The King points his glass at me, sure and steady. “Make no mistake, my girl, you will do as I say.”

“No,” I shout, losing my shit. Enough is enough. No more. I will not be held hostage by expectations any longer. I ignore the stunned expressions I’m facing, powering on, to hell with them all. “I refuse to marry Haydon, and it is unfair for you to ask him to marry me, especially when … when …” I feel like I’m starting to hyperventilate, no air to be found to help me put it out there. “When …”

“When, what?” David snaps.

I breathe in and exhale what I’ve so desperately wanted to tell the world for so long. “When I am in love with someone else.”

My confession echoes around the room, bounces off the old stone walls. And then silence. Deafening silence. For ages, there is only silence and three sets of round eyes pointed at me. Oh shit. Shit, shit, shit.

“The banker?” Father laughs.

That’s it now. I’ve taken the leap. “No, not Gerry Rush.”

“Then who?”

I breathe in more strength to say his name, trying to ignore the feeling that I’m feeding Josh to the wolves. But we can’t go on like this. “Josh.”

My father looks plain confused, David annoyed, and Sir Don just closes his eyes, probably thinking his work is cut out for him.

“Who the hell is J … ?” The King’s question wanes, realization dawning. I was right all along. The King and his people aren’t responsible for Josh’s trashed hotel room. They really had no idea. “The American?” he asks. “Jameson’s son?”

I nod sharply. “Correct.”

Father bursts into laughter. It’s the most insulting reaction to my news. “How preposterous.”

“How so?” I ask calmly.

“He’s American.”

“And?”

“An American in the Royal Family? I won’t hear of it. Stop living with your head in the clouds, Adeline. You will marry Haydon Sampson and that will be the last we speak of it.”

“Wrong,” I say shortly, calmly, and the King recoils at my dismissal. “I love him.”

He bears his teeth, a true lion of a king. “I forbid it.”

“I don’t care.”

“You’ll be an outcast.”

“I don’t care.”

“You’ll lose everything!” he roars.

“Not everything,” I say coolly, giving each of the men in the room a moment of my attention. “I’ll have him.” Josh is the only thing that matters to me in the crazy world I’ve been born into. The only person I bow to is him. I turn and walk away before I’m dismissed. “Good day, Your Majesty.”

“Adeline!”

My pace picks up at the sound of my father yelling, my feet taking me through the castle to the garages at the far end of the East Wing. I grab the first set of keys I can find in the cabinet on the wall and press my thumb into the button on the fob, making the lights of a Land Rover at the back of the garage blink. I don’t drive nearly enough to be confident, so I pull away slowly before I find the will to put my foot down, the castle getting smaller and smaller in the rearview mirror as I go. When the gates to the estate come into view, I quickly conclude my current speed will have the Land Rover bouncing back off the iron rails. So I brace myself, closing one eye and pressing my foot into the accelerator, my arms ramrod straight, braced for impact. Call me mad, call me desperate, call it extreme. But it’s the only way out of my new prison. I drive at them with nothing but sheer determination, suppressing a yell and closing my eyes when I’m upon them. The metal keeping me contained bursts open, the Land Rover juddering violently, pain shooting up my arms. “Oh my goodness!” I swerve, mounting a grass verge as I fight with the steering wheel to line up the car again, bumping and bouncing all over the place. I’m tossed around, so much so my forehead crashes against the door window. I yelp, but keep my hands where they are, hitting pothole after pothole on the dirt track, none of them helping me pull the car straight. The persistent ringing of my phone doesn’t distract me from gaining back control of the Land Rover, and I only find it in my pocket when I am on even ground, driving steadily again. I expect to see Damon calling, mad and frantic, but it’s Josh. Just the sight of his name on my screen sends my emotions off the deep end, all adrenalin draining. “Josh,” I blurt down the line, keeping a keen eye on the road, one hand on the wheel. “My father. It was my father in the chopper I could see. He followed me to Scotland. He came to discuss arrangements. Press releases, announcements. I didn’t know what to do.”

“Fuckin’ hell, Adeline,” he breathes. “Where are you?”

“I left. I’m driving south.”

“On your own?”

“I didn’t have time to think, Josh.” I need to calm down. Right now, keeping my head is of paramount importance.

“You need to calm down.” He mimics my thoughts, but he doesn’t sound very calm himself. “How long before you reach any kind of civilization?”

“I don’t know. There’s a small village thirty miles from here.”

“What’s it called?”

“Sellington Heights.” I hear Josh relaying the name of the village to someone, and then the sound of helicopter blades start, building up, louder and louder, until he’s forced to shout down the line. “The pilot says I can be there in thirty minutes. Find a field north of the village. Drive to the middle so we can see you, got it?”