Courting Royal

Chapter Twenty-Four

The next day, there's no urgent email or voicemails from Kensington Palace (at least, not yet), so I take a deep breath and start writing an email to both of my HuffPo editors.

I've been trying to figure out how best to tell them about my invite to Ascot. I didn't want to alarm them by setting up a conference call and it seemed unfair for me to tell Alistair to his face and email Rachel. So I decided the most diplomatic thing I could do is write an email at a time that I know both of them will be at work.

I get to it, weaving the fictional tale of the invite that the royal PR team and I agreed on: Georgiana Pemberton and I have become friendly and she is bringing me as her plus one to the royal enclosure.

It's a weird story, especially since I've met the Davenport cousin just once, but she's not a prominent enough royal to demand the same constant media attention that the Davenports receive, and it is plausible.

Besides, if they don't believe me, what's the worst they can do? Even if they ask if I'm lying, it's not like they actually know better.

As I'm re-reading the email, an alarm goes off on my phone, alerting me that Liam's final engagement in Kenya is starting. I quickly login to Twitter and scan to see if any of the royal reporters in the traveling press pool have begun coverage. One of them shared a link to her live feed, so I click through and pull the feed into a separate window while I finish proofreading this email.

Once I hear the audio change from murmurings to the shockingly loud sound of people starting to pay attention, I switch my attention to the live feed and smile when I see boyfriend walk into the shot.

A journalist with heavily accented English yells, "Prince Liam! Who are you dating?"

This is notable for several reasons:

1) Royal reporters generally do not shout questions at the royals while they're on a visit. They observe and report, and if they need a question answered, they ask a personal assistant or PR person.

2) If they were to shout a question, they would most likely say, "Your Highness".

3) If they were to shout a question, they definitely would not shout "Who are you dating?"

There's a gasp and Liam stops in his tracks.

"Please keep walking," I say to the screen, knowing that Liam didn't have a lot of sleep last night after a dinner that went very late, and was cranky when I spoke to him earlier. It's exactly the kind of mood that could lead a person to yell at another person over something silly.

But Liam doesn't keep walking. He turns, smiles in that ridiculously attractive way of his, and then says, "Wait and see. Maybe I'll bring her to Ascot."

My jaw drops. I pick it up my phone in order to text Liam, but the phone starts ringing in my hand. I reflexively go to hit the ignore button, but when I see that it's Olly I answer.

"Oh my God," I say instead of hello.

"OH MY GOD," he yells into my ear.

"I can't believe he just did that."

"I know," Olly says. "I know. But. Isn't that exactly the type of behavior he's known for?"

My heart is beating wildly and I realize I'm breathing heavily, too.

"Yes," I say, taking deep breaths.

"He just turned Ascot into even more of an event than it already is."

"Yes, he did," I say, knowing now that every royal reporter and royal watcher on the planet will be on high alert to see who Liam speaks with at Ascot and then broadcast their predictions as to which of those women he might be dating.