Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 116759 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 584(@200wpm)___ 467(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116759 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 584(@200wpm)___ 467(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
“Your Highness,” I greeted her with a curt tone.
My grandmother raised an eyebrow, giving me a pointed look before turning to Lily. “Are you enjoying the Royal Enclosure, Ms. Sawyer?”
Lily wet her lips nervously. “I-I am, Your Highness. Thank you for the invitation.”
Granny’s eyes darted over her, and I couldn’t help but slip my arm around Lily’s waist protectively. My mother cleared her throat, but I refused to let Lily go. Granny gave me a chiding look before asking, “Your family originally hails from Scotland, then?”
“Yes. My mother grew up in America, but my grandfather is Scottish. As are my paternal grandparents.”
“I thought you grew up in Edinburgh,” one of my cousins, Grant, interjected. “You sound like a Scot.”
I’d never liked Grant. Pretentious arsehole. I glowered at him for the way he spat the word Scot.
“Michael, perhaps you ought to have provided your children with a better education,” Granny retorted haughtily. “If your eldest son is confused by a person sounding like a Scot when they are Scottish.”
I heard Juno cover a snort behind me.
Grant huffed. “I only meant that my friends from Edinburgh don’t sound Scottish.”
“Is that what you meant?” Granny cut him a quelling look. “Well, let me educate you. Most people from Scotland have a Scottish accent, and if Barton ever heard you use that tone, you’d never be invited back for Boxing Day shooting ever again.”
My lips twitched with laughter. Barton was a stout Highlander and head gamekeeper at the Queen’s Scottish estate in the Highlands. Grant practically panted after an invitation every other year.
“I’ve only been invited once, anyway,” he muttered like a spoilt child.
“Grant, do be quiet,” Uncle Michael uttered wearily before taking a bored sip of champagne.
“Are we done then, Your Highness?” Juno popped her head over my shoulder. “I’m starving and would like to eat now.”
My grandmother peered at Juno. “I heard you said something inappropriate in front of Olivia.”
“I might have.”
Granny nodded. “Very good.” She waved her hand. “Off you go and grab me something to eat too while you’re at it.”
And just like that the interrogation—I mean, introduction—was over.
Hotels were booked to the rafters around the racecourse, so I’d hired a private car and driver to take us to our hotel a whole county over.
We’d been chatting about our day, laughing over Juno’s absolute disregard for royal etiquette and how my grandmother seemed to love her more for it.
The driver dropped us off at the hotel and Lily and I got into the lift alone. “She seemed to defend me,” Lily suddenly said, confusion coloring her tone as I pressed the button for her floor. “Your grandmother. When that man got all snotty about my accent.”
“That was my cousin Grant. He is a complete arse and nobody likes him.”
“I don’t understand your grandmother. She tried to break us up and now she’s defending me?”
“Mum says she agreed to keep out of our relationship when she learned how Zac had gone about trying to break us up.” I gestured for Lily to get off the lift first as the doors opened on our floor. “Now that she’s decided not to be a villainous royal caricature, she won’t let you be insulted. She has a strange sense of honor that way.”
“You forgive her, then?”
“Not quite. I did enjoy watching her put Grant in his place. Granny might have her own set of standards regarding the institution’s public face, but she hates people who act superior to others. And she has a lot of Scottish friends. She didn’t like his tone.” I let us into the room.
After I shut the door behind us, I stopped Lily, looping my arms around her waist to pull her back to my chest. The thick skirts of her dress rustled with the movement, and I pressed my lips to a spot on her nape that turned her to jelly.
“Oh,” she moaned softly, melting into me.
I brushed my mouth over her ear. “You know I love your accent, right?”
Lily sighed happily. “I love yours too.”
“And you know I know you hated every single second of this event and I’m so grateful to you for coming with me?”
She turned her head toward mine. “I know.”
“We never have to do it again. I am under no obligation now to attend royal events.”
“But won’t that cause problems with your family?”
“Very doubtful.”
“We can go to the events,” she replied half-heartedly.
“You were so uncomfortable, which makes me even more uncomfortable than I already was at these things to begin with.”
“They’re your family.”
“We can visit them in private.”
“Sebastian—”
“Unless twenty-nine members of the royal family are struck down by some fatal mysterious plague, there is no need for my attendance.”
“Well, if that’s what you want. But know I can pull up my big-girl knickers and attend one of these things … once in a blue moon.”