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His gaze searched us.
Dad and I murmured a promise, but Raphael leaned in.
“I’m a stranger to ye, but I know well how family secrets have to be managed and how they have the power to destroy. Ye can be assured of my silence.”
King Philip took a deep inhale and nodded. “In March, not long after our fourth child was born, Helena informed me that she wanted a divorce. This was not from a lack of love, but from the pressure and intrusion from the press that was relentless. Every photograph of her analysed the natural strain of motherhood, and this last pregnancy had been her hardest. She couldn’t cope, and could not thrive as a parent or just simply as a woman, none of which, to my shame, I’d understood until she told me. My shock was all-encompassing. To this point, I’d celebrated how well she tolerated the constant invasion of our privacy, and it had made me complacent. I could not lose her.”
Emotion rolled over his tightly controlled façade, and I felt the recoil in a wave of sadness. They were divorcing. That was the tragedy of a century. Their love had been everything. My inspiration and childish dream. For that to have been destroyed by others was horrible.
“I’m so sorry,” I said.
King Philip tried to smile. “Not all is lost. I have spent the past five months in desperate search of a solution. With time, therapy, and significant change, I’m very glad to say Helena has given me a second chance. She will be withdrawing from public life for some time with my approval. It can be forever, if she prefers. The press can do with that what they like. I see the damage that happens when we try to lead them, but far worse, the damage that can be done to individuals if we indulge them.”
I hated what the queen consort had suffered. The king, too. If Sir Reginald knew some part of this, or suspected it, no wonder he was so desperate to keep another member of the family in the headlines.
A memory hit me. Back weeks ago when we’d spoken, the private secretary had reacted when I’d asked if there was anything the matter. He’d picked on me as a solution to his son’s problems and the king’s. What an asshole move, but at least now I understood. The queen consort’s news would go live eventually, and my drunken, or drugged, exploits would’ve been the perfect foil.
The king settled his gaze on me. “I apologise for what Sir Reginald attempted in order to distract the press from my side of the family. It was unthinkable and not done with my approval. I would never have ordered that, and the threats he made about defunding your father’s living are meritless.”
Dad huffed. “I could’ve told her that. I have never taken from the family coffers. Nor were you ever a burden, daughter.”
I gave them both a tight smile.
The king turned to Raphael. “I understand a threat was made against you, which must have been a deeply unpleasant way to familiarise yourself with our family. I have spoken to Sir Reginald’s team. They researched you and discovered a name change via restricted deed poll records. Not normally accessible to most, but the word of the king goes a long way, and Sir Reginald abused that in order to do his digging. Beyond that, he did not go. I can assure you of that team’s discretion ongoing.”
Which meant they didn’t know about his father. I wilted. Raphael’s hand claimed mine.
“Thank ye for the explanation, Your Royal Highness,” he said.
“Philip, please. My uncle informs me that you will join the family in due course. I’m glad we haven’t put you off.”
I glared at my father whose eyes gleamed at the tease. Raphael half crushed my fingers.
King Philip braced his hands on his knees. “I’ll take my leave now. Alfred, thank you for contacting me and allowing me to put right what my office got so badly wrong. Alexandra, I’ll no doubt see you at Christmas. Raphael, I appreciate your understanding. Next time we meet will be under better circumstances, I am sure.”
We all stood as King Philip did. He walked to the door which magically opened, Perkins and other courtiers waiting just outside and armed guards visible beyond them.
Raphael ran an arm around me. “Did that really just happen?”
I shook my head in bewilderment. Sir Reginald and the photographer were in the hands of the police, Barrington’s team in tatters, and the threats to us were over. The mysteries had been solved.
An idea jumped into my mind, and I took a breath. “Philip, one more thing,” I called, then I came back to Raphael. “I wantto ask him a favour, but it means sharing information on you. Is that okay?”
Raphael’s dark eyebrows merged, but he nodded, that trust right there in his eyes.
I ran for the door. Outside, the king had paused. He lifted a greying eyebrow at me, and we stepped into a quiet space in the hall.
“The threat Sir Reginald made to Raphael was to use his birth name as blackmail, though he didn’t know the impact that would have. Raphael’s father is a dangerous man. A criminal. Raphael escaped him with his brother and younger sister, but he believes that one day the father might come after them. Now I’m on the scene…”
I chewed my lip, wondering what the heck I was asking.
My cousin tilted his head. “Did you know that Helena’s uncle is in a maximum security prison?”
My lips parted. That gossip had never hit the tabloids.
“Like this father of Raphael’s, he was an unsavoury element who threatened his niece after she became associated with me. We ignored and monitored, then one day he came to Ossington Palace. Armed.”
I clapped my hand to my mouth.