to protect his daughter.
‘We have rules in Euronia, Ruby. Photographers are not allowed to take unofficial pictures of any members of the royal family. We’re strict about these things. They know they have to respect our privacy.’
‘Really?’ She spun the laptop around to face him again. ‘So what happened here, then?’
It was one of the photos from the newspapers. A picture from months ago, when he’d first taken her to the café in front of the casino.
‘What happened to respecting your privacy? What happened to respecting my privacy. This was when I first got here—how many more private pictures do they have of me, Alex?’
Her breaths were ragged, the pain on her face sending shards through his heart. This was exactly what he hadn’t wanted to happen. But these last few days his feelings for Ruby had just started to overwhelm him.
She’d been in his mind and his thoughts for ten years. Having her under his palace roof had taken every single element of his self-control. She’d opened his world again—asked him the right questions, made him question his own thoughts and feelings. She’d influenced his relationship with his daughter. It had improved beyond all recognition.
It was almost as if she’d taught him how to be a parent. How to love every part of Annabelle and, more importantly, how to communicate with a little girl who wouldn’t talk to him. Before he’d been confused and felt guilty. Now he took each day as it came. His time devoted to Annabelle was never compromised.
Ruby was still crying, the tears slowly trickling down her cheeks. He reached out and touched her cheek but she flinched.
‘I’m not the person they say I am,’ she whispered. ‘I don’t want people to write things like that about me.’
His heart was breaking for her. ‘Ruby, I’m sorry. I should never have invited you to the ball. I should have waited. We should have waited. If we’d introduced you slowly the press would have been easier. My advisors could have told you how to act, what to say. This is my fault.’ He shook his head, ‘I just didn’t want to wait any longer, Ruby. I wanted you to be part of my world—part of Annabelle’s world.’
Right now he couldn’t care who else was in the room. Right now he was only interested in Ruby. The pain on her face was tearing him apart. More than anything he wanted her to look at him and tell him that was what she wanted too. To be part of his world. But even though she was looking at him it was as if she’d switched off.
She shook her head. ‘But that’s just it, Alex. I don’t want someone to tell me how to act and what to say.’ She pressed her hand against her chest. ‘What’s wrong with just me—Ruby Wetherspoon?’
He took both her hands in his. ‘Nothing—nothing at all. We can make this better, Ruby. I promise. I can make this better. We can work together. We can find a way to deal with the press. I’ll find the photographer who took those pictures of us and he or she will never be allowed in Euronia again. This isn’t as bad as you think.’
There was a noise behind him. The tiniest clearing of a throat...the squeak of a shoe. Ruby’s eyes darted to the advisors behind him. He winced. He didn’t need to turn around to know what the expressions on their faces must look like. He’d heard them talk incessantly since they’d knocked on his bedroom door this morning.
Their solution was simple: Ruby must go. The good name of Euronia must be protected and if the Prince Regent wanted to date then it must be handled by the press team.
He hated this. He hated all of this. For the first time in his life he wished he was free of all this. Free of the responsibility. Free of the ties. He wanted to be free to love the woman he’d loved for the last ten years. He wanted to be free to tell the world that. He didn’t need to ask their permission.
‘Ruby, talk to me. Tell me what you’re thinking. Whatever it is you’re worried about—we can fix it. We can make this work. You and I can be together. I love you, Ruby. I’m not going to lose you twice.’
She sucked in a deep breath. It was the first time he’d told her how he really felt about her. But this wasn’t the way he’d wanted to do that. Telling someone you loved them should be for sunsets and fireworks—not bright libraries, with three other people listening to every word.
Ruby pushed herself up from the chair and walked over to the window, looking out over the gardens. It was almost as if she hadn’t heard his words.
‘I need to go, Alex. I need to get away from all this. I can’t think straight.’ She reached out and touched one of the ornate curtains at the window. ‘I need to get away from here. This isn’t my place. This isn’t my home.’ She spun around to face him. ‘I need to get away from you, Alex.’
It was like a wave of cold water washing over him. She hadn’t reacted to his words. She hadn’t even acknowledged that he’d said he loved her.
Doubts flooded through him. Maybe he’d been wrong all along. Maybe she didn’t feel the same way as he did. Maybe this was her way of letting him down gently.
He felt his professional face fall into place—his Prince Regent face—the one he’d never had to use around Ruby.
‘Where will you go?’ He couldn’t help it, his words were stumbling.
This time her eyes seemed more focused. ‘I’d always planned on visiting my mum and dad at Christmas. I’ll go now. They’re in France. I can get there in a few hours.’
Her shoulders straightened. He watched her suck in another deep breath and look his advisors square in the eyes. She was determined. It was almost as if now she’d made a decision nothing would get in her way. She started to walk forward.
He tried to be rational. He tried to think logically. ‘I’ll arrange for the jet to take you.’
She gave him the briefest nod and walked straight out of the door. Not a single hesitation or backward glance.
His advisors all started talking at once. But Alex couldn’t hear them. All he could focus on was the stillness of Ruby’s skirts as she walked along the corridor. The spark and joy he’d felt around her last night had vanished. Even the sway in her steps had been curtailed.
His Princess Ruby was vanishing before his eyes.
* * *
She couldn’t breathe. An elephant was currently sitting on her chest, squeezing every single breath from her lungs.
Her legs burned as she climbed the stairs and strode along the corridor to her room.
Alex had told her that he loved her.
Alex had told her that he loved her.
Her heart should be singing. Instead it felt as if it had been broken in two.
All those conversations. All those questions about whether she was sure, whether she was ready.
The cold, hard truth was that she wasn’t. Right now she doubted she ever would be. Waking up to see people she didn’t know telling lies about her, people the world over reading and believing those lies, was like being dunked in an icy-cold bath.
Was
