AN: Hey everyone! Happy Sunday! This chapter is a long one, but I didn't really want to cut it down, so you just get a few (thousand) extra words! Hope you don't mind :)


"It's not going to take Emma long to work out that I lied to her, so up and at 'em,"

This was Mary's way of waking her up Saturday morning after she'd managed to fall back asleep once she was tucked into her own bed, and Lily could feel in her bones that it was far earlier than nine o'clock, which was how late she'd been planning to let herself sleep till.

She let out a dramatic sigh, debating whether or not she should roll over and shove her head under the pillow, try and fight Mary, or just give in since fighting her would be futile. It had always been futile.

"Lily, we really do need to talk." This was Reggie's levelheaded voice, and it sent a jolt of adrenaline through her as she pushed herself off her pillows.

Something wasn't right.

"What's going on?" She asked, looking back and forth between the two of them. She didn't feel as though she'd just been pulled from a deep and dreamless sleep, even though she had been.

Mary walked over to the bed and sat down on the edge of her bed. "Where were you last night?"

If Mary hadn't sounded so serious just then, she would have lied to her, tried to tell her that she'd been here in her rooms all night. But she did sound serious and Reggie was standing behind her, looking as though he was about to start pacing.

"I was with James until a few hours ago." She said, too concerned about why they were looking at her like that to feel the need to blush or try and explain herself.

"Okay, that's what I assumed," Mary had nodded. "And that's what we're going to have to tell everyone. Probably. I'm not a social media expert. Emma will be here soon."

Lily shook her head and ran her fingers through her hair. "What are you talking about? Who are we going to have to tell? It's no one's business who I was with last night." She sat up straighter, looking over at her phone, but she didn't reach for it. She knew she wasn't going to like whatever information it would give her. She looked back at Mary. She'd rather it come from her.

Mary sighed and shook her head. "I'm so sorry, Lils. This shouldn't be happening."

"Mary, what is happening?" She asked.

Mary opened her mouth to answer her or to placate her further, but then Emma and her Gran were storming into the room.

"What were you thinking?" Emma shouted, a volume that was much too loud for this hour, whatever hour it was.

"What are you all going on about!? Someone just tell me!" She could hear her phone buzzing on the nightstand, and she wanted to throw it across the room.

Anita took a deep breath and took a seat on the other side of the bed, "There is a photo of you circulating around the internet. Most people believe that it depicts you leaving Bertram Aubrey's suite very early this morning."

"There is more than one picture." Emma snapped. "You told us that you weren't going to- And what the bloody hell would you be doing in-It's time stamped at four in the morning-"

"Emma," Anita snapped. "She is still the princess of this country; I'm going to have to ask you to revise your tone. I'm sure Lily has a perfectly reasonable excuse." But she didn't sound all that sure, even as Emma took a breath and let herself be admonished.

"I apologize. But the wedding is only a week away. There will be so much damage control to do- if James even still wants to marry her after this!"

Lily felt as though she was underwater. She felt a rush in her ears and then that was all she heard. The people around her bed continued to talk, but she didn't hear anything.

This felt like a nightmare.

She'd been afraid of something like this happening for as long as she'd been in the public eye.

And this wasn't just a scandal.

This was a sex scandal.

Despite the fact that there hadn't been any sex, pictures held implications, and her walking away from some blokes door at four in the morning, in yesterday's clothes, her shoes in her hand and a sleepy, smiley look on her face… well that was a lot of implications.

She couldn't face them. She couldn't go out in front of the media and let them ask her questions about this. She couldn't let them turn this into something that it wasn't, she couldn't let them have information about something that was none of their business. She'd finally let herself be vulnerable with James, and it hadn't felt weird or forced or uncomfortable. It had been so nice to be honest and playful with him, and then this happened. Somebody had gone and ruined it.

She didn't realize when she started breathing quicker, but Mary was soon at her side, wrapping her arms around her, stroking her hair.

"Well?" Anita seemed to be directing that word at Lily now, for she was looking at her with expectant eyes. Lily forced herself to meet her grans gaze, let the disappointment she thought she saw wash over her and then took a breath.

"I wasn't with Bertram last night." She said quietly. "I fell asleep on James' couch while we were watching a movie." She added the explanation only because she didn't want her gran to go ahead and make assumptions about Lily's sex life. Or to think about her having a sex life at all. It was bad enough that the rest of the country would be doing that as they continued to wake up today.

Emma sighed, a deep and heavy and tired thing that Lily felt echo in her bones. "I'm sorry that I yelled at you." And this apology seemed more sincere. "I should have assumed that you'd been with James and not Bertram."

"You shouldn't have made any assumptions at all." Mary snapped.

Emma flinched, not used to be reprimanded at all, let alone twice within a few minutes. "Yes, you're right. I shouldn't have."

"However," Anita nodded, her hands folded across her lap.

"Yes, however, it doesn't really matter what the truth is. What's out there, is that you-"

"Sauntered out of Bertram's room, yes, I've gathered. Thank you." Lily felt as though she was about to start crying, so she pushed herself out of Mary's arms, out of the bed and headed to the bathroom, a place she knew she wouldn't be followed.

She heard them all talking quietly as she walked to the sink and started washing her face. She hadn't bothered to clean it when she got back to her room. She heard Emma say that she'd do what she could and then she heard footsteps shuffling and the door close.

"Lily?" It was Mary. Lily started to cry, and the door opened.

Gwen and Amelia brought her breakfast in her room at nine, after Lily had managed to kick Mary out of her room.

It was all so much worse than she'd thought it would be. It wasn't just the gossip rags that were running the photo and the implied story. It wasn't just Bertram's Uncle's newspaper, it was all of them. The rags, the papers, the news stations. Rita's article was the most scathing, but none of them were nice, none of them were true and Lily didn't know what she could possibly do.

There was a knock on her door and Lily felt her heart jump to her throat. It was going to be Bertram. He'd come here acting contrite and as though he wasn't in on this latest act of sabotage, his most successful one yet.

Many women never came back from something like this. Sex wasn't something that they were allowed to take pleasure in casually, so they were demonized for it. Especially if there was a man who would have been hurt by it. Men had sex all the time, bragged about it even and it never effected their careers in the slightest. They could cheat on pregnant wives with strippers and not see any negative effects to their reputation, but women?

Her heart started pounding now. It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair that there was such a sure way to ruin her reputation, especially with parliament. How was she supposed to face them now?

She marched over to the door, ready to kick him out of the castle, kick him in the shin or throw hands if she needed to. But when she pulled back the door, it was James, and all the fight drained out of her at once and she almost started crying again.

She quickly stepped aside so that he could come in and then he was closing the door and wrapping his arms around her. "I'm so sorry, love."

And then she was crying again. "It's not fair," She muttered, feebly, uselessly.

He traced small circles on her back and held her against his chest. "I know." He said.

"I should have just kicked him out."

"He would have done something else if you'd kicked him out."

"I know, but it wouldn't be this." She clenched her fists around his shirt and clung to him.

"It might have been. We still don't know who's been taking the pictures." James shook his head. "This isn't your fault. Please don't do that to yourself."

"They're saying mean things about you too."

"I don't care what they're saying about me." He insisted.

"Why are they all so quick to believe it?" She felt so foolish, crying into his shirt, asking questions that didn't have good answers, questions that wouldn't fix anything.

"I don't know," He sounded about as frustrated as she felt. "This isn't fair, this shouldn't be happening."

A new thought hit Lily and she pulled away from him to look at his face. "Sirius is going to hate me forever."

James narrowed his brow, "Even if I hadn't already spoken to him, he wouldn't believe what they're saying over your word. He knows as well as anyone that the papers don't always tell the truth."

"So he's no more upset with me than he already was?"

James almost smiled and shook his head, "No, he's not anymore upset with you. He's probably less upset with you."

"Because I spent the night in your room?"

"I didn't let him draw conclusions. I told him that you fell asleep while watching Gladiator. He said that he didn't blame you."

Lily snorted, though it lacked any mirth or warmth. "I don't mind that movie normally, I was just tired and full of chocolate."

"Of course," He grinned, reaching up and brushing a lock of hair away from her face. "How do you want to face this?"

"I don't want to face it. I want it to go away." She said, knowing that what she wanted was impossible. She pressed her lips together. "Emma thought that I'd actually been in his rooms." She said, not sure why she was tattling. "She came in here and said that she didn't know if she could salvage this, especially if you weren't going to stick around."

"Maybe she's still not feeling well." James flinched. "She shouldn't have said any of that."

"I've never seen my Gran raise her voice at Emma." Lily nodded. "I don't know what to do though. The truth is much more boring than the story that they've made, and so I'm not sure that it'll make much difference."

"It might." He shifted and pulled his phone out of his pocket, looking awkward and unsure. "I might have a picture of my own, though I don't know how you're going to feel about it since someone else has recently taken a few pictures without your knowledge."

She narrowed her brows. "You took a picture of me? When?"

"I was going to send it to you when you tried to tell me that you hadn't fallen asleep during the movie." He clicked a few things on his phone and then spun it around to show her. She was asleep on his couch, his leg was tucked up against her on the edge, and she was very clearly wearing the clothes that she'd been pictured in leaving the room.

"Of course you were going to use it to tease me." She shook her head.

"I could post it on Instagram, not mention the other picture at all. Then we can make a statement later if we need to."

She let a breath out of her nose. "Did you already talk to Emma?"

"She said it was a good plan." He confirmed. "She's going to do all the legal stuff, like threatening to sue the papers for libel and telling them they have to print retractions and apologize for doing no investigating before running these lies."

Lily started chewing on the inside of her cheek, not sure what she wanted to do. "What if Emma can get them to retract without you giving her that picture?"

"We could go that route. Emma is good at what she does." He nodded. "But the window of time we have to use this picture is limited." He said, though she already knew that. If they used it any later than within the hour, then it looked like they had something to hide. It looked as though it had been staged or altered. "Emma said that I could post it on my personal account and then it could be 'hacked' or screenshot by one of my friends- Sirius, she was thinking Sirius, since he's got such a large presence online. I don't even have to post it since I sent it to him-"

"I don't want to." She said quietly, shaking her head. "I just- I don't want to. I know that I should let you, I know that we should do it, but I don't want to."

The look on his face was hard to read, but she could tell that he wanted her to agree to this plan. She threw her hands in the air and shook her head.

"They already get so much, James! I don't want to give them anything else!"

"I know," He said, reaching up to push his glasses up his nose and then run his hand through his hair. "And there's no guarantee that it would fix things. They might take it in another direction entirely."

"Exactly! And who knows what other pictures they have of us! Who knows what private moment they'll take next."

"It's still our moment, even if we share it."

Lily clenched her fists at her sides. "If we chose to share it, then yes, I agree with you. But getting our arm twisted into doing something doesn't really count as choosing to share anything and I don't want to." She was so angry and worked up that she couldn't think of any better words to explain that to him. So she just leaned her forehead against his chest and let him wrap his arms around her again.

"Okay." He said, pressing a quick kiss to the top of her head. "Then we won't do it. We'll see what Emma can do."

"I know it would make things easier," She mumbled quietly.

"For other people, not for you. It's alright, Lily." He kissed her again and she took a deep breath. "This will pass."

oOo

Lily tried to focus on the fact that her birthday party was that night. In only a few short hours, the castle would be filled with princess' from all over the world, ladies and duchesses and the like. She would play host to her friends and her peers. She'd been so excited for this all week, and now that it was here, she could hardly focus on it at all.

She kept checking her phone for updates on the story. She kept scrolling through all the comments that people were posting on different platforms, she kept rethinking her earlier decision about the picture. Because even as the day went on, and even as Emma talked herself red in the face to every newspaper in the country, nothing seemed to be getting better. The story headlines were getting worse, if anything. Scandal invited scandal and the term 'shotgun' wedding was now being tossed around.

"I need to talk to him," She muttered to herself, causing all conversation at the lunch table stopped.

"Who?" Emma asked.

"Bertram. They're not going to believe me if I come out and say that it's not true. But they might believe him. If his story matches mine-"

"Lily, he's the one who started the story though. Why would he help you stop it?" Reggie asked.

"Because he wants her to call off the wedding." James said. He had a strange look on his face again, like he had for most of the day. "She's not in danger of doing that right now."

"Exactly," Lily nodded, "So he might agree to help!"

"But we still don't know who the mole is, Lily." Anita pointed out. "If you're seen speaking with him today, after everything else, it will only fan the flame. We need to find a way to douse it."

Lily's shoulder dropped and she looked down at her plate. "Right. How is there a mole in the castle? Who would do this?"

"We're doing our best to find out, princess." Moody said from the corner of the room. "And when I do find out who they are, I'm going to make sure they are very sorry for what they did."

Lily gave him a small smile and nodded. "Thank you, Moody. I don't blame you for this, I'm just disheartened to think that someone I know could be doing this to me."

"I'll find them," Moody echoed his promise.

James reached over and squeezed her hand.

"Everything is all set for the party tonight," Anita changed the subject, sitting up straighter. "And that is sure to cause a distraction."

"Yes," Emma allowed. "But we still need to find a solution that Lily is comfortable with." She didn't say it in a way that should have made Lily get upset, but she'd said it and apparently that was enough to set Lily off.

She looked at James and then back at Emma. "I know you both think that I made the wrong choice, but I didn't."

"I don't think you made the wrong choice," James said quickly.

"Well I do," Emma shook her head. "And I know how you are with the media, so I knew that you were going to say no, but it would have made things so much easier."

"What would have?" Anita asked, just a fraction of a second before Mary could.

"Yeah," Mary narrowed her brow. "What could Lily have done to make this go away?" She sounded like she didn't believe that there was such a thing, and there wasn't. The picture James had wouldn't have made the entire mess go away, it only would have softened the blow, offered up an alternative storyline for people to believe. Right now there was only one narrative.

"James has a picture of Lily in his room last night." Emma said bluntly. "And she doesn't want us to use it as proof that she was with James instead of Bertram."

"A picture?" Anita sounded unsure.

"Yes, a picture." Lily nodded. "James had a plan to let Sirius leak the picture, and then-"

"There would be an alternative story. It would be easier for people to stick up for you and choose to be on your side." Anita nodded.

"But she said no," Mary said firmly, as though she'd heard about this before. She probably understood best why Lily didn't want the picture out and so she would stick up for her. Lily gave her an appreciative smile.

"I did say no." Lily nodded. "And now you lot are upset with me and I've got reporters scouring the front lawn and about thirty guests coming tonight. Or at least there should be, we'll see how many shows up now."

"A couple things," James turned in his seat, so he was facing her. "One, I'm not upset with you. I'm furious at the situation, but I completely understand why you said no to using the picture. Two, I think your friends are still going to show up, so don't worry about that. And three, maybe I should go and talk to Bertram."

Lily blinked at him. She wanted to argue with his first two points, but she didn't know what to say about his third one. "What do you want to say to him?"

"Quite a bit," He admitted. "But I think I can get him to come out and deny that there's anything going on between you and him. Like you said, his angle is to get you to call off the wedding, right? And this isn't going to get you to do it. He's probably dying to play the hero anyway, my groveling will only get him to do it faster and in the way we want."

"Interesting," Emma tapped her nails against the table. But James didn't look away from Lily. He didn't care what Emma said, Lily could see that. He was waiting to see what Lily thought of his plan. If she was alright with it.

"I mean, unless the mole wants to leak that James has also been seen sneaking in and out of Bertram's rooms," Mary shrugged. "I don't think there's much harm in trying."

Lily nodded. "Alright. You can talk to him if you want." Though she didn't like the idea of James groveling to Bertram. She didn't know what James would say, but anything she thought he might say gave her a stomachache. He was going to have to let Bertram think he still held all the cards, that Lily was still in the dark and still having feelings for him. And even though none of that was true, it still didn't make Lily feel good.

James nodded, seeming to understand that it wasn't something that she was completely comfortable with. He reached for her hand and squeezed it. "Don't worry, it won't take long." And then he was up and walking out of the room.

Lily bit down on her tongue and looked at her plate of untouched food.

"I hope he's as persuasive as he seems." Emma clicked her tongue and then dove back into her computer.

Lily went back to her room after lunch, and Mary and Reggie followed her there. It didn't seem to matter how many times she told them she was fine, they knew she was lying and wouldn't leave her to wallow in self-pity.

"Come on, Lily! Get angry! Throw something, shout about something!" Mary encouraged once they were back in her rooms.

"No, someone might see me!" Lily threw her hands up and kicked off her shoes, despite what she was saying. They knock against the door of her closet and she let them fall to the floor and stay there. "They might take a picture of it and send it to some paper! They might get to construct a narrative of what goes on in this castle without any concern for the truth! They might add 'raving' to 'pregnant whore!'"

"No one is calling you a whore,"

Mary wacked him on the arm. "She's venting, don't correct her."

"Right, sorry." He made a motion to mean she should carry on.

She didn't though.

Her phone was still on her nightstand, where she'd left it this morning. She wondered for a moment if her mum or sister had seen what was happening, if either of them had reached out to her, but she didn't want to check and be disappointed, so she just whirled around on her friends.

"How can we have a mole in the castle?" She asked.

"Moody is livid," Mary shook her head, her arms crossed over her chest. Reggie was pacing. "He's going to find whoever it is, and he'll do it quickly."

"I know, but…" She didn't blame Moody for what had happened of course, but he'd already promised to find out who the mole was once already. "James shouldn't have had to go and talk to Bertram." She sighed, falling onto her couch and pulling her legs up. "Bertram is going to be all smug and annoying."

"James is big boy, I'm sure he can handle himself." Mary sat down next to her.

"Reggie, I need you to sit. You're making me nervous with all your pacing."

Reggie snapped his gaze to hers and nodded. "Right, sorry." He sat on the edge of the chair across from the couch and then there was a knock on the door.

"Come in!" Lily called out, and then she immediately regretted it, because what if it was Bertram or someone else she didn't want to see?

But it wasn't, it was James.

She almost jumped off the couch.

She didn't know what to ask him. She'd almost asked him if he was alright, but that certainly wasn't the right question. Of course he was alright.

"It's over." He said, closing the door behind him and walking further into the room.

"Your knuckles aren't bruised or bleeding," Mary mused. "So, I'll take that to mean that things didn't come to blows?"

The corner of his mouth turned up, but it didn't reach his eyes. "No, not quite. But he is going to make a statement to the press, he'll say that the papers have it wrong."

Lily took in a deep breath, fully aware that Bertram denying that they were together last night wouldn't clear her reputation completely, but it was a win.

She crossed the room and hugged James, "Thank you." She said quietly.

"No need to thank me," He said, pulling her against his chest. "We're in this together. Partners in crime and all that." She smiled and nodded her head.

"Yeah, I know. But still."

"When is he going to do it?" Reggie asked, now sitting on the couch. Lily was glad to see he hadn't gone back to pacing. Lily pulled away from James to see him looking around the room. He hadn't come into her room this morning. They'd stayed by the door and Lily hadn't realized that that had been his first time in her room.

There weren't that many personal touches for him to find, as she hadn't lived here all that long. She'd just finished up school and officially moved in about six months ago, and because her Gran had designed these rooms specifically for her, they hadn't been ready until a few months ago. It looked like Lily's gran had designed it for her, but it also looked like her gran had designed it.

Everything was more fancy than comfortable, except for her bed, which was the first thing that Lily perfected upon moving in. There were far too many pillows and blankets piled on top of it. Gwen and Amelia had quite the time trying to sort out how to 'properly' make the bed each morning.

And then there were photos of Mary and Reggie and Dudley hung up on the walls, but not as many as Lily would like. It looked a bit impersonal overall, but it still functioned as a safe haven regardless. She'd have more say next time.

"He'll use twitter first, and then he'll go out front and make a statement that they can plaster all over everything. It's won't be a perfect fix of course, but it should help smooth things over."

Lily nodded and looked at Mary, but she didn't need to ask her to check because she had already pulled her phone out. "He's already done it." She said. "'As much as I love the pleasure of our princess' company, it makes me rather ill to see people using me to tarnish her good reputation. I shouldn't have to say this, but obviously Lily did not sneak out of my room last night, or any other night.'" Mary looked up from her phone and she was frowning.

"What?" Lily asked, because it sounded good to her.

"I wasn't expecting him to be helpful. Not entirely anyway, I was waiting for the underhanded comment to slip in, but that all seems rather aboveboard."

"It's also the truth," Lily said wiping her palms on her skirt and tapping her toes on the ground.

"Yes," Mary shrugged. "I don't know, I just figured… since he's probably behind this anyway," She bit her lip.

"What's his angle then?" Reggie supplied. Mary nodded.

"Exactly."

"I think he wanted to play the hero." James had his hands shoved in his pockets when Lily looked back at him. His shoulders were kind of slouched. For all she had thought that this kind of stuff didn't affect him when they first met, she had been wrong. He hadn't shown her that it affected him, but that didn't mean anything. They had kept quite a bit from one another at first. "He created a problem that he knew he could fix for you," He shrugged and gave her a halfhearted smile.

Lily agreed with that assessment. "He'll want to talk to me soon." She wiped her hands on her skirt again. When she'd decided not to let him in on the fact that she knew what he was up to, she'd been so sure that it was going to be easy, but it wasn't. He wasn't as easy to predict as she'd thought, and he still seemed to be one foot ahead even without the knowledge that she knew he wasn't sincere.

"You don't have to talk to him until you're ready." Mary said quickly, "And I can be there with you if you want. I mean, I'm always with you anyway, so it wouldn't look strange. Or I can hide, I'm a good hider."

"You're a terrible hider." James ran a hand through his hair and Lily laughed.

"It's true, you are." She agreed. "You forget about your feet a lot."

"And your hair." James added.

"Oh shut up, you two." She clicked her tongue and sat down next to Reggie, who put a consoling arm around her.

"Thank you though, I might take you up on that." Lily said. "I feel like he's still ahead of us somehow."

"You can always kick him out," Reggie reminded her. "Send him packing. Or let Mary have a go at him. I know she's been itching to pumble him in the face."

"I really have," Mary sighed dramatically, leaning her head back on the couch to look up at the ceiling.

"You've been itching to pumble a great number of people." Lily shook her head. "And I've already told you that I wouldn't sanction violence just to appease your caveman tendencies. It's not queenly."

"Bah," Mary waved her comment away and then reached for Reggie. "Come on, let's go. I want to go and stare at my ballgown for a little while. Or maybe I'll just get dressed now and dance around the palace, pretending to be a princess from years past. I can gasp indignantly when you call me by my Christian name and act scandalized when you touch my hand without gloves on. It'll be great fun."

Lily narrowed her brow as she watched her friend leave, wondering if Mary was actually going to do what she just said, or if she just wanted to drag Reggie off to snog him. Or maybe she thought Lily needed to be left alone with James. Or maybe it was a combination of all three. That sounded most Mary like.

"I'll see you for dinner." Mary grinned as she and Reggie walked passed.

"I'm sure everything will work out," Reggie said kindly as he was dragged out the door.

It closed behind him and then James walked further into the room. It was weird to see him here, especially now that they were alone. When she had been in his room many times, but it was part of her castle, there was nothing in the room that was James' other than his clothes. It hadn't felt like she was in his space. But James, being here, well he was in her space.

"This isn't really what I thought that your rooms would look like."

Lily followed him into the room. "No?"

"No, it doesn't look like you."

She smiled at his observation. "Probably not. My gran decorated it for me while I was still in school. Construction and whatnot only finished a couple months back. I like it, but I think I would have made a few different choices."

"It's not very colorful."

"No, but it's still cozy." Lily shrugged.

"It's is," He nodded, placing his hand on the back of the couch.

"Do you want to tell me what happened with Bertram?" She asked, because she knew that he'd kept a few things to himself while Mary and Reggie had been here.

He sighed. "He just got under my skin is all." He gave her a small grin. "He's pretty good at that. Always has been."

Lily shook her head. "I keep forgetting that you two grew up together."

"We did." James nodded. "He's had lots of practice." He looked up at her, eyes wider. "You shouldn't think that I didn't do my fairshare of… bothering him as well." She pressed her lips together in a grin.

"You bothered him?"

"I was a bit of a brute in my youth. Like Mary." He grinned back at her. Lily laughed.

"I do remember the Prime Minister and his wife telling me that a couple weeks back. And then you elaborated at the Dinner."

He rubbed his hand at the base of his neck. "I've done a lot to get people to forget about the trouble that I used to get wrapped up in."

"You've done a fine job. If you hadn't, then the people wouldn't be so thrilled by the prospect of you being their king." She leaned her hip against the arm of the couch and crossed her arms over her chest. "Pretty straitlaced now, yeah?"

James hung his hand and let out a loud breath. "Don't let Sirius hear you say anything like that. He'll be so disappointed in me." Lily laughed again.

"I'll keep it between us."

"Another secret."

"I'm sure he already knows, but I'll keep from pointing it out to him." She chuckled.

"Well I'll thank you for it. And I'm not entirely straitlaced now."

"No?"

He narrowed his brow. "I'm just on my best behavior for the time being."

"After the wedding, you'll show your true colors?"

"Oh yes, I plan to make all kinds of trouble after the wedding."

"Well then now it's my turn to thank you."

"I'm sorry that I took that picture of you." James said, no longer smiling playfully at her.

"You don't need to apologize." She shook her head. "I really don't mind."

"With everything that's been happening, I feel like I should apologize."

Lily shook her head again. "No. It's not your fault that people are invading my privacy. You taking a picture of me isn't the same."

"I should have woken you up, so that you could have decided what you wanted to do."

"They could have been waiting there all night. It might not have mattered when I left."

James shrugged a shoulder. "I don't know."

"You told me not to blame myself this morning. Why should you get anymore blame than me? I knew that I was falling asleep, I'm not narcoleptic, I could have chosen to leave." James looked at her for a minute and neither of them said anything. Lily took in a deep breath through her nose. "Maybe you can do the sneaking around for a while." She suggested before she had much chance to contemplate what that sounded like or if she was worried about it.

James smirked, "I'm very good at sneaking."

"I bet you are."

"So how do you want to playthings tonight?"

Lily narrowed her brow at the second quick topic change. "How do you mean?"

"There's no press at the party, and while we have a mole to worry about, we also have a bunch of princesses and highborn ladies coming. I know Reggie and I aren't permitted to stay for the sleepover portion of the night," Lily giggled. "But we'll make an appearance. So how do you want to play it?"

"You and I?" She asked, though she knew that's what he meant. "I don't really think we need to worry about that."

"No?"

"No." She shook her head.

"Because you fancy me?" He stepped closer to her.

She looked down at her feet. "Just because I told you that, doesn't mean you can throw it out and about whenever you please."

"Don't get embarrassed," He reached out and tucked her hair behind her ear. "I told you that I fancy you too, remember?"

She bit the tip of her tongue and glared at him. "I'm not embarrassed."

"You're blushing."

He was so damn pleased with himself. "Yes well, that can't really be helped at the moment."

"I know, but I have to point it out."

"I understand." He laughed at her and she smiled, perhaps fully for the first time today.

Then of course, there was a knock on her door and Emma came barging in without much concern for the fact that Lily was quite done with her for the day. "How did you get him to do that?" She was looking at James, and she looked so much less angry than she had this morning when she'd been blaming Lily for what had happened. Lily found that she was still annoyed with her.

"I just asked him nicely." James said, not stepping away from Lily. She reached out and took his hand, which seemed to surprise him. She smiled at him. He still hadn't told her exactly what Bertram had said to him that had upset him so much.

"Right," Emma scoffed. "I mean, it's not going to fix everything of course, but I do like what he said out on the lawn as well." She looked around the room before spotting Lily's remote, rushed over to it, clicked on the tv and found a news outlet. Bertram wasn't in the midst of talking, but the headline at the bottom of the screen read, 'Bertram denies affair with Princess.'

"It'll also make tonight go more smoothly. Some of the guests were getting a little weary." Emma was not looking at Lily, so she couldn't tell that she'd just hurt Lily's feelings, but James saw and he tugged her closer and put his arm around her. "Anyway, hopefully this will all blow over by the end of the weekend. I want everything to be about the wedding next week!" She left the tv on and started toward the door. "The team will be in to get you dressed shortly, Lily! We need to take pictures and talk to the press before guests arrive!"

And then she was gone.

Lily let out a sigh and fell back on the couch. "Maybe for our honeymoon, we tell Emma that we're going to Paris or something and then just hide somewhere she'll never think to look."

James laughed and leaned against the back of the couch, his arms crossed over his chest. "You need a break from her?"

"I need a break from a lot of people." She rubbed her hands over her face.

"We can go anywhere you want." James grinned. "My family has a cottage in the mountains. It's cold as hell, but no one will bother you there."

"You can bother me if you want," Lily said, her hands still over her eyes. James laughed again.

"Do I bother you?"

Lily cracked a grin. "Nah, not really." She pushed herself up, "I suppose I should shower if they're coming to get me dressed in a little while."

"Yeah, I'll leave you to it." He pushed off the couch and she jumped up and followed him. He didn't seem to realize that she was behind him, because he stopped abruptly and was surprised when she ran into his back.

"Oof," She put her hands against his back and took a step away. "Sorry, though I've been doing a great job of not running into you lately, so it was past due."

James chuckled. "Your shower is in the opposite direction.

"Yes, yes, you're a smart ass I get it," She tucked her hair back behind her ear and then reached out to hug him. "I just wanted to say thank you again." There was more that she wanted to say, but maybe he needed a bit of distance from the whole thing before he wanted to talk about it, and she understood that.

"Stop thanking me," He hugged her back, pulling her tightly against his chest. She liked being wrapped up in his arms.

"Alright, then I just wanted another hug." She could feel his chest vibrate as he laughed. "Don't laugh, you're really good at giving hugs."

"I'm not upset about that." He pressed a quick kiss to her temple and then she stepped back so she could look up at him. "I'll see you in a few hours."

She nodded. "See you in a few hours."