A Right Royal Mix-up
Here we go! This chapter's taken a while, because I wanted to make it longer than the previous one, I hope you don't mind. Please check out the fics I wrote for my writing competition, 'Problems with Potter' and 'The Right Path'. I need advice as to whether to develop them into longer fics (after finishing this one and 'Pitch it Like Pendragon') or to leave them as they are…
Hope you enjoy them, and this chapter…
Chapter 26
The king was pacing the floor with a fierce scowl on his face. He confronted James angrily. "It's about time you came home. How could you just disappear like that when scandal is threatening the monarchy? What am I supposed to tell people?"
"The truth." James's eyes glinted with amusement. "That with deep regret and out of love for our countries, Gabrielle and I forced to sever out engagement."
"That's utter rot! You could have perfectly healthy children."
"I hope to – a whole houseful of them, but not with Gabrielle."
The king suddenly noticed Lily. She had been lagging reluctantly behind James. "Who is that woman? Don't tell me you were off having a fling while I've been left to deal with an out-of-control media. This is absolutely unforgivable, James!"
"Lily is not a passing fancy. She's your future daughter-in-law."
"What kind of nonsense is this? Is she the real reason you broke the engagement?"
"Actually, Lily is the woman I became so publicly engaged to."
"Impossible! That woman was an impostor brought in by Claude to deceive us."
"I'm truly sorry about that," Lily murmured.
A puzzled look replaced Damien's anger for a moment as he gazed at her face and hair. The jeans and T-shirt she was wearing added to his confusion.
"I don't understand. You don't look anything like Gabrielle," he said. "You couldn't have fooled us so completely."
"Makeup, clothes and hairstyle can work wonders," Rosamund remarked. She had been sitting quietly in the background. "I should have guessed. You weren't anything like the Gabrielle I remembered," she told Lily. "But you seemed so much in love with James that I just accepted our good fortune."
"I do love him, but I don't know if that's enough for you," Lily answered wistfully.
"It most certainly is not!" the king stated. "We don't even know your real name. Who are you? Where did you come from? What is your background?"
"My name is Lily Evans. I'm a British witch and I work – " That was as far as she got.
"I don't need to hear any more," Damien interrupted. "James is a royal prince, in line for the throne of Grandalia. Surely you can see that an alliance between you two is impossible."
"I'm not making an alliance," James said. "I'm getting married."
"Not to her. I forbid it!"
"I'm sorry you feel that way, but it won't stop me."
"You would defy your king?" Damien thundered.
"Don't pull rank on me, Father. I let you use that excuse to pressure me into marrying Gabrielle, and look how that turned out. I should have stood up to you then, but obedience had been drilled into me from the time I was a child. I can't regret following your orders because otherwise I never would have met Lily, but from now on I'm making my own decisions about who I marry and what I do with my life."
If James had gotten angry and shouted, Damien would have known how to deal with him. They'd clashed often in the past. But the king was shaken by his son's calm statement of fact.
Damien tried reasoning with him. "I'll admit I was wrong to arrange a marriage for you. You have a right to choose your own bride, but she must be someone suitable to share your throne when the time comes. The people will never accept a commoner – and a foreigner at that!"
"The world is changing, Father. Royals are no longer regarded as gods. We're human beings who fall in love like everyone else. If the people want me as their king, they'll accept my wife as their queen."
"And I tell you they won't! Are you prepared to renounce the throne for this woman?" Damien demanded.
"If necessary," James answered firmly.
"No!" Lily said explosively. "I love you too much to let you do that. It's too high a price to pay."
"Listen to her," Damien urged. "She understands, even if you don't."
James ignored his father. "You mean more to me than any throne," he told Lily tenderly. "If I can't become king, I'll still serve my country. You and I together will work to make Grandalia and the world a better place to live in."
Rosamund rose and crossed the room to kiss her son. Then she beckoned to Lily. "Come with me. We have a wedding to plan."
"You support James in this insanity?" Damien asked his wife. But the fire had gone out of him.
"If I don't, he might not let me play with my grandchildren." She smiled. "A wise general calls retreat when he's lost the war, Damien."
Lily followed the queen out of the room in a daze. Would the king really give them his blessing – or at least, his permission to marry? She put the question to Rosamund when they were in the queen's sitting room.
"Damien isn't used to being challenged. It's one of the perks of being king," Rosamund said mischievously. "He'll be difficult to live with for a few days, but he'll come around. Especially if we can think of some way to make him believe he changed his own mind. That's what I do when he issues edicts I have no intention of following."
"Ordinary wives do that, too," Lily remarked wryly.
"Most happy marriages are the same."
"You and the king are very fortunate to have fallen in love with each other. I don't suppose every arranged marriage turns out that happily."
"Our marriage wasn't arranged. That's what makes Damien's indignation so foolish. We met at an embassy ball and fell madly in love. Admittedly, I was the daughter of a duke, but Damien's parents would have preferred a princess. I suppose a father never thinks anyone is good enough for his son." Rosamund laughed.
"In my country it's the mother of the son who's never satisfied with his choice. It's surprising that couples ever make it to the altar."
"I hope you realise that your wedding will be an international event."
"Like the engagement?" Lily asked.
"That doesn't begin to describe all the pomp and pageantry. We'd better start planning for it right away."
James entered his mother's sitting room, smiling broadly. "I told you everything would be all right," he said to Lily.
"Did your father agree to let you keep your present status?" she asked cautiously.
"He said he had no choice. I didn't remind him that he has a younger brother."
"That was wise." Rosamund nodded. "Damien only needed a good excuse."
Lily looked at them both with dazzled eyes. "I can hardly believe it! I expected to be on a broom back to England about now."
"You're not going anywhere," James stated.
"Not permanently, but I'll have to get an apartment somewhere. We can't see each other for a while," she said reluctantly.
"Where did you get a silly notion like that?"
"We have to make sure the true story about you and Gabrielle doesn't get out. That means we can't be seen together. It wouldn't be credible for you to start dating someone else immediately. You're supposed to be heart-broken at having to call off your engagement."
"Lily has a point," Rosamund mused.
"Not as far as I'm concerned," James stated. "If you think I'll agree to be separated even for a day, you're both badly mistaken."
"You didn't let me finish," his mother chided. "I've been thinking about getting another social secretary. I can't seem to keep up with all my appointments. This time I believe I'll hire an outsider instead of choosing someone from the aristocracy," she said with an air of innocence.
"Maybe someone from England?" He grinned as her meaning became clear.
"Why, yes. I think that would be a good public-relations move. Would you be interested in the job, my dear?" she asked Lily. "It isn't very arduous except for all those parties you'd have to attend. And of course you'd have to live here at the castle so you'd be available if I needed you."
"Mother, you're a genius." James kissed the top of her head. "You can put her in the room next to mine."
"Don't push your luck, James," his mother admonished.
So! Now they need to get around the king! Next chapter – King Damien holds a press conference… will he say yes or no?
