The Controversial Princess (The Smoke & Mirrors Duology #1)(44)

Shit, shit, shit.

There is only one reason Felix would make a trip to the mucky stables, where his fine threads and Italian loafers are at risk of being polluted by horse manure. There is a crisis that needs fixing. With a banker.

Damon motions to the Land Rover. “I suspect they’ll have arrived by now. May I suggest Your Highness drives back with me?” He looks past me to Josh, communicating silently everything he means. I have to agree. I trust Kim wholeheartedly, but I won’t hear the end of it from her or Felix if they catch me riding back into the stables with Josh Jameson wrapped around me. Especially after Kim caught sight of my blemished wrists this morning and answered my phone to him.

I look at Josh, who has remained respectfully quiet, but I can see the questions in his eyes. “Do you mind?”

“Sure thing.” He drops a chaste peck on my lips and helps me down from Stan. “He hasn’t had a good run yet. I’ll ride him back.”

“Thank you.”

Josh makes no big deal of it and turns Stan, before kicking him into a trot, and quickly breaking into a full-on canter. And I stand there, watching in awe as he rides away like the pro he is, his strong legs keeping his body out of the saddle with ease.

“Ma’am?” Damon nudges me from my daydream and I sigh, wandering to the Land Rover as I remove my hat.

“I’m sorry, Damon.” I know he’ll have been on the edge of losing it while I was enjoying my trot through the countryside. I like romantic Josh.

“All is well, ma’am. Let’s not make a big deal of it.”

I laugh on the inside, but I choose not to mention the epic speed at which he appeared over the horizon of the field, like he could have been in pursuit of my kidnapper. I know he was probably sweating while he couldn’t get hold of me. If the King found out Damon had allowed me out in the fields alone, his job would be on the line. The fact that I wasn’t alone would not make a teeny tiny bit of difference. In fact, the matter would be a whole lot worse.



I’M FULL OF DREAD WHEN Damon pulls up at the stables, especially when I see Kim and Felix step out of a shiny Mercedes, both looking stiff and stony. “I’m in trouble,” I mumble, unclipping my belt.

“I’ll take care of this.” Damon takes my hat from my lap.

“Can’t you take care of them?” I ask, giving him pleading eyes. “Please?”

He laughs softly, the fine lines around his eyes deepening, and then his face is deadly serious. “No.” His answer is abrupt and flat as he gets out of the Land Rover.

“Great.” I wouldn’t usually wait for Damon to open the car door for me when here, but it buys me a few more seconds to mount my defense. “Thanks.” Stepping out, I straighten my shoulders, all confident … but I still have no words in my defense.

“Your Highness.” Felix nods as I approach, as formal as ever, grimacing at a small mark on his Italian loafers.

“Felix.” I greet him before nodding at Kim, tilting my head in question. I get discreetly widening eyes in return, but she doesn’t say a thing. I sigh. “Whatever could be so urgent that you needed to come to the stables? I was rather enjoying a long overdue hack.”

Felix clears his throat. “There’s a matter of concern, ma’am.”

“There is?” I ask, bracing myself.

“About Gerry Rush, ma’am.”

The banker. “What about him?” I try to sound nonchalant, but my stomach sinks and I swallow, betraying my forced front. I was assured those pictures were intercepted; I don’t know how and I tend not to ask.

“Mr. Rush has been trying to make contact with you, ma’am.”

“Pardon?”

“He would like to see you.”

Needless to say, that isn’t going to happen. “Whatever for?”

“It would seem he’s been bewitched, ma’am.”

I laugh. “After one night?”

“Yes.”

“That’s utterly ridiculous.”

They look at each other out of the corner of their eyes, as if it is I who is the ridiculous one. “Ma’am,” Felix pushes on, “we have blocked his attempts to reach you, of course. But it seems he won’t heed our warning. Mr. Rush is married, as you know.” Felix cocks a sarcastic eyebrow. I don’t appreciate it, and my deep breath of impatience tells him so. “It goes without saying that we need to contain this. Rest assured, there won’t be an issue if we handle it swiftly and diligently.”

“Handle it swiftly and diligently, then,” I retort, far shorter than I should. They are only trying to avoid me getting caught in a potential scandal. “Thank you. Both of you.” I unbutton my gilet, feeling a little hot, and shrug it off before pulling my hair from its ponytail. But my motions slow as it occurs to me to wonder, again, why they’re here at the stables telling me all this.

“There is one other small matter, ma’am,” Felix goes on before I get the opportunity to ask.

“What?” I sound as cautious as I feel.

“We need to discuss how we’re handling this situation.”

“We do?” That’s not normal. The communications team do what they do, and I’m rarely consulted in the methods they adopt to clean up my mess, whether I want them cleaning up that mess or not.