Now, when she wanted to go shopping, she couldn’t just walk to the closest mall or wander down to the neighborhood shops. A shopping excursion became more of a battle strategy. There were guards, which she told herself, Garrett would thoroughly approve of, there were state cars and flags flying from the bumpers. There were stores closed to all other shoppers and bowing deference from shopkeepers.
God, how she missed being a nobody.
Of course, her family didn’t see it that way. They were all delighted to have her back. Her oldest brother was about to become engaged, and the other two were doing what they did best. Immersing themselves in royal duties with the occasional break for polo or auto racing. Her parents were the same, though her father hadn’t yet interrogated her about her holiday and Alex suspected she had her mother to thank for that.
And she appreciated the reprieve. She just wasn’t ready to talk about Garrett yet. Not to anybody. She was still hoping to somehow wipe him out of her mind. What was the point in torturing herself forever over a man who saw her as nothing more than an anvil around his neck?
“Bloody idiot,” she muttered and kicked the stone barrier hard enough to send a jolt of pain through her foot and up her leg. But at least it was physical pain, which was a lot easier to deal with.
“Well,” a familiar voice said from behind her, “that’s more like it.”
Alex looked over her shoulder at her mother. Queen Teresa of Cadria was still beautiful. Tall and elegant, Alex’s mother kept her graying blond hair in a short cut that swung along her jawline. She wore green slacks, a white silk blouse and taupe flats. Her only jewelry was her wedding ring. Her blue eyes were sharp and fixed on her daughter.
“Mom. I didn’t know you were there.”
“Clearly,” Teresa said as she strolled casually across the terrace, “care to tell me who the ‘bloody idiot’ is? Or will you make me guess?”
The queen calmly hitched herself up to sit on the stone parapet and demurely crossed her feet at the ankles. Alex couldn’t help but smile. In public, Teresa of Cadria was dignified, elegant and all things proper. But when the family was alone, she became simply Teresa Hawkins Wells. A California girl who had married a king.
She had bowed to some traditions and had livened up other staid areas of the palace with her more casual flair. For instance, when she became queen, Teresa had made it clear that the “old” way of raising royal children wouldn’t be happening anymore. She had been a hands-on mother and had remained that way. Naturally, there had also been governesses and tutors, but Alex and her brothers had grown up knowing their parents’ love—and there were many royals who couldn’t claim that.
None of Teresa’s children had ever been able to keep a secret from her for long. And not one of them had ever successfully lied to their mother. So Alex didn’t even bother trying now.
“Garrett King,” she said.
“As I suspected.” Teresa smiled as encouragement.
Alex didn’t need much. Strange, she hadn’t thought she wanted to talk about him, yet now that the opportunity was here, she found the words couldn’t come fast enough. “He’s arrogant and pompous and bossy. Always ordering me about, as bad as Dad, really. But he made me laugh as often as he made me angry and—”
“You love him,” her mother finished for her.
“Yes, but I’ll get over it,” Alex said with determination.
“Why would you want to?”
The first sting of tears hit her eyes and that only made Alex more furious. She swiped at them with impatient fingers and said, “Because he doesn’t want me.” She shook her head and looked away from her mom’s sympathetic eyes to stare out over the palace’s formal gardens.
She focused on the box hedge maze. The maze had been constructed more than three hundred years ago, and Alex smiled, remembering how she and her brothers used to run through its long, twisting patterns at night, trying to scare each other.
The maze was so famous it was one of the most popular parts of the castle tour that was offered every summer. But the most beautiful part of the garden was the roses. They were Alex’s mother’s pride and joy. Teresa had brought slips of California roses with her when she’d given up her life to be queen. And she still nurtured those plants herself, despite grumblings from the head gardener.
Their thick scent wafted to them now, and Alex took a deep breath, letting the familiar become a salve to her wounded pride.
“Alex,” her mother said, reaching out to lay one hand on her daughter’s arm, “of course he wants you. Why else would he refuse to take money for protecting you?”
“Stubbornness?” Alex asked, shifting her gaze to her mother.
Teresa smiled and shook her head. “Now who’s being stubborn?”
“You don’t understand, Mom.” Alex turned her back on the garden and pushed herself up to sit beside her mother. The damp cold from the stones leached into her black slacks and slid into her bones, but she hardly noticed. “It was different for you. You met Dad at Disneyland, and it was magic. He fell in love and swept you off your feet and—”
She stopped and stared when her mother’s laughter rang out around her. “What’s so funny?”
“Oh, sweetie,” Teresa said as she caught her breath again. “I didn’t mean to laugh, but…maybe your father was right. When you were a little girl, he used to tell me I was spinning too many romantic stories. Filling your head with impossible expectations.”
Confused, Alex just looked at her mother. “But you did meet at Disneyland. And you fell in love and became a queen.”
“All true,” her mother said, “but, that’s not all of the story.”
Intrigued, Alex let her own troubles move to the background as she listened to her mother.
“I did meet Gregory at Disneyland,” she said, a half smile on her face. “I was working at the Emporium and he came in and bought half the merchandise at my station just so he’d have an excuse to keep standing there talking to me.”
Alex could enjoy the story even more now that she had been to the famous park and could imagine the scene more clearly.
“We spent a lot of time together in the two weeks he was in California and, long story short, we fell in love.” She smiled again, then picked up Alex’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “But it wasn’t happily ever after right away, sweetie.”