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Josiah suspected his step-father didn’t fully trust anyone else, not even his own protegè, to protect the family the way it should be. In the past, Thor had good reason not to trust anyone - as evidenced by his own predecessor taking part in the kidnapping of Josiah’s whole family, the royal family of San Majoria and one member each from Auverignon and Islas del Sargasso a few years earlier.

Looking around the living area of his apartment, he decided it might be time to redecorate. He’d never used the room much, but with Bekah living there with him for the time being, it probably needed to be more comfortable.

And have a television.

The last two nights they’d fallen asleep in the same bed while watching an HEA TV movie. He needed a sofa bed or at least a comfortable couch to use. She hadn’t seemed uncomfortable about it, but he wanted to make sure.

When the knock came, he could hear her moving around in the bedroom as he headed for the door. A staff member wheeled the silver cart with their breakfast into the room, bowed slightly and left as Josiah thanked him.

His life was weird.

He was used to it after having grown up with a father who was a king for few years before Josiah’s birth, but having lived and studied in the States for the last several years, he’d come to understand just how odd it really was.

“Is that breakfast?” An adorably rumpled Bekah wandered out of the bedroom, covering a yawn with her hand.

“Yep.” He rolled the cart over to the small table near a window overlooking the gardens.

They ate in silence for a minute before Josiah broached the subject of redecorating. “What do you think?” he asked after explaining a bit.

Bekah shrugged. “My style could always be described as hand-me-down comfortable. If it was cozy and the right price, I didn’t much care if it matched. Comfort over style. Always.”

“Works for me.” He pointed her fork at her. “Remember Carl and Ellie inUp? Their styles didn’t match, but they made it work.”

“True.” She took a sip of her coffee. “How does one go about redecorating in a palace? Are there rules to follow?”

“Kind of? We can’t just do whatever we want, but we can take the furniture in here out and put in whatever we want. We can’t demo the fancy woodwork.” He waved a hand at the trim along the ceiling. “But as far as furniture goes, it doesn’t much matter as long as we don’t ruin antique pieces in the process.”

“Makes sense, but where do we go shopping?” She took another sip and reached for a croissant.

Josiah chuckled. “There’s a warehouse nearby we can go look through, but it’s mostly antiques and Furniture of Historical Significance. Otherwise, we can talk to...” He tilted his head as he thought it through. “I’m not sure. I don’t have an assistant anymore. I bet Gen could help us. She’d be thrilled to shop. If she can’t, I’m sure her assistant could help us get samples to look at over there. We probably wouldn’t go to an actual furniture store like we would in the States.”

“That works. When?”

Josiah eyed the room. “I’ll talk to Gen about getting the room emptied out. When we can refill it will depend on how this meeting goes. It may be a couple of days, but we haven’t been spending much time in here anyway. We could also get some more comfortable chairs or a sofa for the other room.”

Before she could answer, his phone buzzed. Josiah checked it. “Benjamin says we need to be ready to go to his office in about an hour-and-a-half.”

Bekah simply nodded. Were those tears in her eyes? Had she been closer to Steve than he realized? Or was it the stress of all of it so soon after her husband had died in a similar accident? Josiah was fairly certain his accident had been car versus deer and into a deep ditch where Ian likely died on impact.

“There’s nothing to find,” he reassured her. “The only thing even remotely an issue is that we left Athmetis. That was done legally, even if they weren’t happy about it. That Steve died isnotour fault, not even a little bit. I don’t know why they’re insisting on this ridiculous investigation, but it makes me wonder if there was something else going on.”

That’s what he should be doing. Looking into Steve.

Heneverinvestigated his friends. Ever.

But this could be different.

Some of the research he did for Jonathan Langley-Cranston could be done with a simple web search. A person’s name and the city they lived in often brought up an address and other names associated with them. A search of those people’s names, especially with “obituary” if the person was deceased, often brought up a whole host of information. Far more than people would even think about. Siblings, parents, grandparents, nieces and nephews, birthplaces... all kinds of things.

But Josiah knew how to do much more in depth searches as well - and he was good at it. That’s why he worked for Jonathan.

Plus Jonathan understood the occasionally crazy life of a royal and would work with him when he had other things going on. Like now.

He could also do a lot of his work remotely, but for now, Josiah wouldn’t take on any more cases. He’d wrapped up his last investigation before leaving for Athmetis.

For the time being, he needed to focus on his wife and whatever the officials from Athmetis might want.

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