Royalty Exposed

Chapter 22

I smiled at Carter after saying goodbye to everyone and looking over at him. He seemed speechless as he looked me over, but I didn't really give him time to say anything. As much as I wanted to hear what he thought of how I looked, I wanted to get out of here so we could get this dinner over with. I could also hear Mom behind me making sure that the train of my dress didn't get caught on something. And Dad was trying to stop her from fussing so much because she wasn't going to be able to make sure that nothing was going to happen to the dress while I was gone. It wasn't like I was going to purposely ruin it.

This dress wasn't mine for the keeping and I didn't want to make Carter pay for it if something happened to the dress. I was going to make sure that I did my best not to ruin it. So far I was doing a good job, but there were still plenty of time for that to change until I got home and was able to get out of the dress.

Carter grabbed onto the hand that I had held out and we headed towards the car that he had come in. There was already a guard standing next to the open passenger door. When Carter and I reached him, he let me go inside first. Thankfully the dress made it safely into the car with Carter's help and the door was shut. The guard and Carter went around to the other side of the car so that Carter could get into the car after the guard had opened the door for him.

A few minutes later the car was backing out of the driveway and for the first time I noticed that the paparazzi were standing at the end of the driveway trying to get as many pictures as they could. I wasn't surprised that they were here since they were never not here now, but I had been too focused on getting into the car. Usually, I noticed them right away so it was kind of nice that I wasn't worrying about them and about my dress. There was no need for any more stress than I already had.

As the car pulled out onto the road, I felt a hand grab mine and I knew that it could be only one person, but I still looked over at Carter and smiled at him. He smiled back while squeezing my hand, not letting go of my hand even after he had stopped squeezing it. I wasn't really sure if we were going to get any time alone tonight, but hopefully there would be small little moments where we could talk without being heard.

We didn't talk that much whenever we were in the car with the royal guards because they were never the same ones and we had no idea if we could trust them not to tell the king and queen about any conversations that we had. So, this ride was no different.

It was silent, but Carter held my hand the whole time and that calmed me down a bit. The stress and worry were still there though, but it helped to be comforted by the man sitting next to me. Once in awhile we'd catch each other eyes and smile at each other.

When we arrived at the palace, the car drove through the gates. I noticed that the paparazzi was being held back by several guards, probably hoping to keep them from entering the palace grounds. After the car had gotten through the gates, it pulled in front of the large stone staircase that led up to the entrance to the palace where the queen had watched me the last time that I was here. Apparently we weren't going back towards the guards and entering the palace like I had done the last time.

I couldn't see Carter's parents anywhere so maybe they were waiting for us inside the palace. Carter told me to wait for him to come help me before I was to get out of the car. I stayed in the car and watched Carter come around the car before the door was opened by a guard. Carter held out his hand and I moved so I could grab it, using his hand to help support myself as I got out of the car.

"Are you doing okay?" Carter asked me once we had walked away from the car and started up the staircase. I looked around and noticed that no guards were following us at the moment, but I could see some on either side of the staircase. They were too far away from us to hear our conversation though. I looked back at Carter and then said, "Yeah, let's just get this over with."