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Her professional smile returned. “If that’s all, I’ll see you downstairs at one.”
She left me, and I let out an excited, if muted, whoop, then trotted out of the receiving room and back upstairs, via Ossington Palace’s broad central staircase. Like most royal residences, the building was partially open to the public, but thecentral wing was entirely private. The king and his family had the main apartments on the second floor, and I had a suite of rooms a fair distance away on the third. I practically danced to it, my heart pounding the whole way.
In my rooms, I locked myself inside.
Between Raphael being here and Dori’s challenge to make the afternoon more interesting, my misery had evaporated. I had to prepare.
Chapter 12
Raphael
Under the hot sun, we walked the roped line into the botanical gardens. Princess Alexandra smiled and waved at the crowd then shook hands with members of the welcome party.
I scanned the faces, looking for anything unexpected, as well as for the paparazzi from the nightclub. The one good thing was that the princess hadn’t been announced as attending, so until the moment she got out of the car, her being here would’ve been a surprise.
Riss had walked us all through a well-put-together risk assessment and strategy, including an exit at the end of the event into a side street, rather than back into the throng.
With her at the helm, I was a lot more confident in the princess’s safety.
Didn’t stop my heart thumping every time Alex glanced my way.
When she’d emerged from the palace to meet us at the cars, she’d lowered her sunglasses and welcomed me back.
A damn arrow straight into my heart.
At some point over the course of the week, I would find a way to talk to her. I didn’t know how, but if I wasn’t getting the cold shoulder for the nightclub overstepping, I had a shot.
We entered the party, passing through a high-ceilinged brick building thick with flowers before heading out into extensive gardens with a marquee at the far end. Tall and elaborate plants bloomed all around, and peacocks strutted their stuff amongst the attendees. The guest list had been provided ahead of time and checked over by Johnnie and Will, with no red flags popping up.
Our job was to keep the princess in our eyeline but stay out of her way, so I took a position beside a stone archway and tried to blend in.
As at the art gallery, Alex sparkled. She had her hair up in pretty ringlets that I’d never seen on her, and a light, floaty white-and-blue dress.
As I stared at her, possibly more intently than I needed to, she reached into her pocket, then scattered something on the ground.
I squinted, wondering if I was seeing things.
She moved on to another group of partygoers and chatted for a few minutes before doing the same thing.
Two peacocks closed in on her and pecked the ground at her heels.
Was she feeding the birds? There was fruit juice and cake available, but she hadn’t stopped by the marquee table to get any, which meant she’d brought whatever was in her pocket with her.
I prowled the edge of the party, keeping my distance but laser focused on her actions.
Alex continued on for a while with no further rogue animal feeding, but then crossed a bridge over a tiny stream and scattered crumbs on the other side.
Two small birds I couldn’t identify but that were poultry-like pattered after her. The peacocks noticed and scurried over, too.
Riss appeared at my shoulder.
I swung my gaze to her. “Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”
“Is there a problem?”
“No, just a bird invasion.”
“They’re free to roam about the gardens. Nothing for us to worry about.” She held up her phone. “But this troubled me. Unusual activity online. Look at this.”