Royal Stripper Page 18

  "I really wish I could help you." Candace walked over and sat next to me on the couch, placing a comforting hand on my shoulder. "She honestly didn't tell me where she was going. I wouldn't even have the first idea where to look."

  Ally was going to have my baby. And she thought she had to do it alone. The guilt hung around my neck like an iron yoke, but that wasn't the only thing compelling me. It was my fault that she felt that way.

  Veronika seated herself on the other side of me. "Perhaps you should discuss this with your parents before making any decisions."

  "It's my life," I reminded.

  Her expression tightened, but she just nodded.

  Veronika always felt like I needed my parent’s permission to do anything. It didn’t help that it had been their idea to send her here with me and I hadn’t objected. Still, I would have thought by now that she would realize that the whole reason we were here was because I wasn’t willing to let them continue to make my decisions and rule my life.

  They weren’t bad people, I loved them both, but they could be very controlling. It was simply the nature of being a royal and having hundreds of years of tradition and obligation to conform to. Sometimes I wish my family had been more like Ally’s. More a sense of security for me, a place I could run to when I had a problem instead of a place I felt I needed to run from.

  I suddenly leapt to my feet. Candace was startled but Veronika looked wary, eyes scanning the room for any potential threat she may have missed.

  “What’s wrong, your Majesty?”

  I wouldn't be "your majesty" for some time yet, but I didn’t bother correcting Candace. My mind was racing along with my heart.

  “I believe I know where Ally is.”

  34

  Ally

  The morning sickness had been steadily fading away, though I still got a bit of nausea here and there. My mother kept dumping herbal remedies down my throat, but I'm not sure whether they helped or not. Either way, it was nice to have someone looking after me. Even if her medicine did taste a little bit like dirt.

  I was glad for the reduction in symptoms, especially since today I was trying to find a job and knew that would be a much easier task without the risk of vomiting on my potential employer.

  Huntswood was a small town, but they did have a library. I figured that was my best bet as a place to start, giving working at one was pretty much all the experience I had to call upon.

  Mrs. Brooks, who hadn't been quite so old the last time I visited her library, was about as much of a historical feature in the town as the statue in the town square. I'd grown up under her watchful eye. She had sensed my love of reading from a young age, and had turned a blind eye when I took out books that were a little older than I should have been reading at the time.

  I suspected Mrs. Brooks was now in her seventies. She loved this library, and I figured that one day she'd just curl up under one of the shelves to die. I remembered her as sharp eyed and witted, quick to shut down would-be chatterboxes and always ensuring everything was perfectly organized. But as soon as I stepped through the doors I could tell she needed some help. Things weren’t quite as well maintained as I remembered them.

  "Ah, do my eyes deceive me or is that little Ally Dylan?" Her voice was like crinkled newspaper.

  I smiled and approached where she was stacking books onto a trolley. "Hi, Mrs. Brooks. How have you been?"

  She chuckled lightly. "Better since those Greer twins went off to college."

  I laughed. The Greer twins had been notorious troublemakers a couple years younger than me.

  "I’m back in town and thought I’d check in here to see if maybe you could use a hand running this place."

  Mrs. Brooks narrowed her eyes at me from behind her thick spectacles. Her hair, dyed dark brown but clearly white beneath, reminded me of a fluffy, dark cloud.

  "I thought you moved down to California?"

  My jaw tensed. "I did. But I'm back home for a bit. I just needed some time away."

  Mrs. Brooks' wrinkled face surveyed me from head to toe. "I remember how much you liked to read, dear, but you need more than a love of books to know how to take care of a place like this. Although, truth be told, I would love to go have a sit down and rest my old knees."

  "I'm actually a librarian back home now, so I actually have a pretty good idea of what you need done around here." I smiled.

  Approval glinted in the old woman's eye as a wide grin split her face. Her teeth were too perfect to be still genuine. "Are you now? Well, if that’s the case then consider yourself hired."

  Relief flooded through me. Life in a small town was a lot simpler than a big city. I watched as she trundled off to the back room, where I knew she had a cozy armchair and a kettle for tea. She'd let me read back there on more than one occasion when the library was busy.

  I set to work immediately on re-shelving the returns, feeling just like I was still in Hampstead—despite the fact that this library was smaller and much less busy. After clearing my trolley, there wasn't much to do except go around and make sure everything was tidy. Some of the shelves were more unorganized than I remembered, especially on some of the lower shelves where I figured Mrs. Brooks had more troubled reaching these days. But fixing them was mindless busy work, given my experience.

  Which left a lot of time to think.

  I really missed Matthias.

  He was the reason I left, though, so there was little point in stewing in regret. I had to simply keep reminding myself that leaving Hampstead was the only way to make sure he wouldn't find out about the baby. If I stayed, there would have been no way to keep it from him and then he would have been trapped in the exact situation he had hoped to avoid by leaving Caspierre.

  I was doing good by being here. Maybe not so much for myself, but definitely for him. I was keeping the man I loved from falling into a life he never wanted for himself. The exact kind of life he’d actually run away from home to escape. Hell, he hated the idea of it so much he was willing to give up being a real, live, king.

  I only focused on that for a moment before I realized something.

  The man I loved.

  Shit.

  I loved him.

  Well, that wasn’t going to make forgetting him any easier…

  After a few hours, Mrs. Brooks emerged from her little den looking recharged. "It's time to close up," she announced. "But I can take care of that on my own. You can scurry along home, and tomorrow you can help me open. I'll have the tax forms and everything ready for you then."

  "Thanks, Mrs. Brooks."

  She smiled warmly. "You can call me Rowena now, darling."

  I waved, heading for the door. The sky was a deep blue through the front windows. I couldn't wait for the stars to come out.

  "Oh, Ally," Rowena called after me.

  I turned around. "Yes?"

  "Are you staying with your parents while you're in town?"

  "I am, yeah."

  She put up a finger to signify I should wait, then scurried into the back. She re-emerged a second later, holding a folded patchwork quilt. She handed it to me.

  "Please give this to your mother for me."

  I looked at the strange gift. Since when had my mom and old Mrs. Brooks become friends?

  "Will do," I said, taking the quilt.

  Rowena smiled. "And please tell her that the cookies were delicious. Whatever recipe she used this time, I could barely taste anything at all."

  I tossed the quilt down onto the dining room table, where my mother was poised over a crossword. "You're selling weed to the librarian now?"

  Mom looked up and smiled, eyes crinkling at the corners. "Oh, did Rowena give you this?" She unfolded it, beaming. "It's beautiful. What a lovely woman."

  I sighed and pulled out a chair, the wood scraping against the tile. When I sat down, my mom patted my hand.

  "I didn't sell Mrs. Brooks anything, you can relax."

  "Right, you traded," I said, using air quotes.

&nb
sp; Mom chuckled. "No, the cookies I send her are gifts. She's an old woman and her knees aren’t what they used to be. She's in a lot of pain, you know."

  I rolled my eyes but couldn't help from smiling.

  Dad stepped into the kitchen from the living room, a hen under one of his arms. She was clucking softly. He rooted through one of the cupboards for a glass, apparently not noticing my stare.

  "Dad?"

  He turned to me and smiled, revealing the empty spot in his mouth where he'd had a tooth knocked out by the donkey, Amos. "Yes, pumpkin?"

  "Why are you carrying a chicken?"

  He put the glass down and scratched the hen's head. "Amy likes to sit on my lap while I'm at the computer." Looking down at the chicken, who I did have to admit looked quite content, he added, "We got thirsty."

  I was in a house with crazy people.

  It didn’t stop me from loving them to pieces, though.

  I caught my mom staring at my dad with such love in her eyes that it nearly bowled me over. I'd forgotten how much they cared for each other. How much it showed. My friends growing up had always gotten a little weirded out by how affectionate my parents were, but it had been normal for me from the start. Maybe that was why I'd never viewed marriage as a bad thing. Look what it had done for them.

  God, I missed Matt like crazy. Part of me wondered if I'd made the right decision by leaving, but what else could I do?

  It wasn’t like growing up I hadn’t had the occasional dream of being a princess. What little girl hadn’t? But having a real-life prince interested in me was another matter entirely, and unfortunately that didn’t automatically mean everything was going to end up happily ever after. Life wasn’t always so easy. Choices weren’t always so black and white.

  There was a knock on the front door.

  "That must be Mabel," Mom said.

  "I'll get it." My dad put down his glass of water and walked out into the front hallway. He still carried Amy.

  I was too preoccupied by my own thoughts to listen in on why Mabel had come to visit. Besides, the less I knew the better in case the DEA came to raid this old farmhouse.

  But when two sets of footsteps returned to the kitchen, the other set was too heavy to be little old Mabel.

  "Hey," Matthias said, smiling impishly. "Did you miss me? I think you forgot to say goodbye before you left."

  35

  Ally

  "What-what are you doing here?" I sputtered, frozen to the chair by Matt’s gaze.

  "Oh, you two do know each other." My dad smiled, transferred Amy to his other arm, then extended his hand to Matthias to be shaken.

  He couldn’t even put the damn chicken down? I could have died of embarrassment, but Dad didn't know Matthias was a prince.

  Then again, would he have acted any differently if he did know? Probably not.

  To his credit, Matt didn't hesitate, despite the small, downy feather still stuck to my dad's palm. "I'm Matthias," he said as they shook.

  Mom dropped her pen onto the table. "You're... Matthias?"

  Yep. He's the guy I came all the way up here to avoid. I had given her a brief recap of our relationship the day I’d shown up, minus most of the details. I didn’t tell my father anything. They were laid back and mild mannered about most things, but they could be very protective of me at times. Please don't embarrass me.

  "Can we talk?" he asked.

  I looked between my parents, who both wore expressions of confusion. Even Amy seemed uncomfortable.

  "Maybe we better go outside," I suggested.

  My mom placed a hand on my arm as I stood. "You don't have to do anything you don't want to do," she said.

  I smiled and patted her hand. "I know. It’s fine, mom."

  I led Matt out into the back garden. It was a bit chillier than California would be at this time of night, but I'd grown up in this kind of climate. The tingling of my skin in the breeze felt like home.

  "This is a nice little place," Matthias said, breaking the silence. "I can see why you would want to come back here."

  We strode under the wide arch my parents had put up to renew their vows just before I moved out. Ivy had taken over the frame, twining around the wood like a lover's caress. Beyond it, there was a small gazebo they had erected for the band and then never taken down.

  It was the best day of our lives, my mom would often say. Why would we take down any of the reminders?

  "How did you find me?" I stopped on the steps of the gazebo and sat down. Matt lowered himself next to me, but kept his distance.

  "Well, I remembered what you said about your parents offering you a place to stay if you needed it. I tried to think what I would do in the same situation, and then did the opposite."

  "I run to my parents, you run from them." I chuckled. "But that doesn't explain how you found me. I know I never told you where this place was."

  "Candace helped. She couldn't remember the address, but she did know the name of the town you grew up in. From there..." He grimaced. "I basically went door to door asking for you, but it didn’t take long. Apparently your mother is very popular in this town. Especially among some of the older residents."

  My heart filled with giddy warmth. Enough, even, to temper the embarrassment about my mother’s new hobby leading to a growth in her popularity. Still, just because Matthias was here didn’t really mean anything. He still thought I was just Ally, a fun girl to pass the time with or whatever it was we were doing. Once he learned the truth he’d realize this was a wasted trip.

  "Well, you found me."

  "I'll always find you. As long as you'll let me." His voice was dark and low, like the wind rustling through the trees in an empty forest. It sent a shiver up my spine.

  "Matthias..." God, I didn't want this to end. I hadn't prepared myself for heartbreak today. But I couldn’t keep this up any longer. He came clean with me. I owed him the same respect. "There's something I need to tell you."

  "I know." He reached over and grabbed my hand, which surprised me. It felt wonderful to have him touch me again. "You're pregnant. I found the test in your trash."

  I was shocked into momentary silence, but then I shook my head. "Wait, you went digging through my trash like a raccoon?"

  Matthias smirked. "That's Prince Raccoon to you."

  His hand continued to cover mine in his warmth, and I had to fight the urge to lean in closer. If I did, I knew I may never get up the strength to pull away again.

  He knew I was pregnant? It was a shock, but it didn’t really change anything. Did it?

  "I think I know why you ran," he continued. "But I want you to know that I would have never told you all that I did if I'd known."

  “Exactly,” I nodded, pulling my hand back. The moment was over. I was plunged into the ice bath of reality. “And that’s why I had to leave. Me not knowing your true feelings wouldn’t have changed any of them.”

  Matthias' expression was stern as he shook his head. "Those feelings don't apply anymore."

  This was what I'd feared would happen. Out of a sense of duty, my dashing prince was willing to forsake his own dreams to slide back into the one that had been cut out for him from birth. The one that he had run away from everything for.

  I couldn’t let him do that for me.

  "Matthias..."

  “No, Ally, let me speak." His handsome face grew hard with determination. "Why do you think I came here, even after learning you were pregnant? If that fact was so terrible to me, I could be sitting on a plane back home right now, feeling completely justified and guilt free, given that you were the one that disappeared without warning or easy way to track you down. But you know what that would have meant? It would have meant never getting to see you again. And that would have driven me crazy. I wanted, no… I needed to find you even before I knew about any baby. That knowledge changed absolutely nothing. "

  "But—"

  He placed his finger over my lips, silencing me. "No buts, chérie. Just listen. I’m not done." />
  I slumped down a little, quietly dreading the part where I was going to have to tell him goodbye.

  Matthias continued. "It’s true, finding out you were pregnant was a shock. But what was more of a shock was how it made me feel. Not scared, or trapped, or anything like that. I felt ecstatic.”

  He saw the look of doubt on my face, but he shook his head again and I kept my mouth shut.

  “I understand your fear, given what I told you—that children and marriage weren’t what I wanted in the past. But things are different now. You made them different. I realize now that it wasn’t marriage or being a parent that I was afraid of at all. It was the fear that I would be pressured into it with someone that I didn’t love. Or worse yet, someone that didn’t return my love. At home, I was convinced that I would never find that because I could never really be sure of someone’s true intentions.

  “That’s not the case with you. From the moment we met, I knew there was something about you I'd never be able to shake. You are true, and pure, and I trust you more than anyone else I’ve ever met. If you left my life now, I would spend the rest of it mourning the loss. It’s true that having a baby binds us even closer, but I no longer think of it as a trap. After all, you cannot trap a man that wishes to be caught.”

  He looked deeply into my eyes, his irises so large in the darkness that they nearly swallowed me whole. "I want you in my life, Ally. In any way that you’ll have me. Whether that means spending the rest of my days in America, or returning to Caspierre, as long as you’re by my side I will be the happiest man on Earth.”

  "What are you saying?" I think I had an idea, but it seemed too good to be true and I needed to hear it.

  "I'm saying that however you want your future to look, it will." He reached for my hand again. I let him hold it. "I've got the means to support whatever you want to do in your career, and I'm happy to do so. I'm happy to do anything." He paused. "As long as we're together. Because I love you.”