Page 4 of Prince She Shouldn’t Crave (Royal House of Halrovia #2)
‘My colleagues wanted a more traditional approach. A few formal engagement photos. Talk of the joining of two long-term allies. I thought the moment was more important than that—’
‘More important than the hundreds of years of history between the House of Santori and the House of Montroy?’
His voice was as brittle as the first winter ice cracking in spring. It sounded a warning. She ignored it.
‘Yes, and Her Royal Highness agreed.’
When Lena had made her pitch about what she’d thought should happen with the royal announcement, no one had been much on board with her suggestions. Except Cilla. She’d been Lena’s greatest supporter.
‘The event required something more, because it was a story about love,’ she said.
So clearly in Lena’s mind, since everyone had believed that Prince Caspar had been going to marry Cilla’s older sister, Anastacia. Princess Priscilla was a huge surprise, until you saw the couple together. Then you knew. There could be no doubt that theirs was a relationship meant to be.
Lena wasn’t looking for a relationship at all .
She had trouble trusting one. As far as she was concerned, they seemed like a trap after what had happened to her mother, ostensibly for love.
Then her father, and how he’d treated his wife.
In the end, he’d really betrayed two women.
Sure, she’d dabbled at university with a few boys her age when they’d asked her out, but none had appealed because she’d been so focussed on her studies.
Then there were the older men who wanted to possess her for no other reason than she was young, and they thought her beautiful.
She’d had limited but enough experience of those sorts too.
Particularly some customers in one of her jobs.
The things said. Notes left for her… Her skin crawled at the memories as if there were spiders trapped underneath.
Lena was looking for a future she was in control of.
Not one at the behest of a man who supplied fleeting moments of himself, and money, but nothing else.
She was enough. Lena Rosetti, on her own.
All she needed to do was catch this job as if her life depended on it. She narrowed her eyes. There was a role here. She just had to convince Prince Gabriel she was the best person for it.
‘Other members of the team all talked about the past. But it was also a story about Isolobello’s future .
I wanted a behind-the-scenes view of the new couple.
Featuring the woman who was going to become our queen one day.
The royal family’s social media sites showed a significant increase in engagement but, most importantly, there was overwhelmingly positive feedback from the younger demographic. ’
‘I’ve no great story about love or any betrothal to improve the Montroy royal family’s metrics. My future is about ensuring Halrovia’s future.’
‘But everyone has a story. You just need to know how to tell a good one.’
You need me…
Where had that thought come from? She was manifesting, that was all. Taking what his sister had said and running with it.
Prince Gabriel sat back in his chair, held his arms out. ‘How would you tell mine, better ?’
He had such an aura of authority. There was no way you could mistake this man for anything other than a leader but there was more to it than that.
It almost hurt your eyes to look at him, he was so imposing, so…
breathtaking. His looks alone would be enough to garner a following with the right kind of posts, if that were the audience the family were after. A few shirtless shots and…
No. She wasn’t here to sell him as some kind of thirst trap.
She’d done her research. She knew about his work .
His past as a young football player leading his country to an international championship.
That was the sort of thing that people could get excited about.
Even her blood had pumped a bit harder and the room had got strangely warm when she’d looked at the photographs of that long ago win.
But he hadn’t really answered where that man had gone.
Sure, everyone grew up. But a lot of people continued to celebrate their past achievements.
Had he disappeared under the weight of his role?
It was hard to tell. Though it was clear, the future of the royal family was this man in front of her. Still, one thing stood out to her…
‘To date, the story hasn’t been about you, though. It’s been about your role within the royal family. People only see you as part of a whole. A cog in a wheel.’
Something about him changed with those words.
She didn’t know what it was, but it seemed as though the man in front of her had been wearing a mask, which had suddenly melted away.
She caught a glimpse of something more. The glint in his eyes of a person excited by possibilities.
Because that was the first thing that had struck her when this role had been suggested to her.
The world needed to see the man, not just the prince in official photographs from the palace. Maybe he wanted that too…
Her mind began working at capturing him in a more casual way.
Behind the scenes. She loved taking photographs on her phone of the unscripted moments in life.
Not just shaking hands with some foreign dignitary but turning Prince Gabriel into the sort of person everyone would clamour to know.
He’d been that once, in his late teens and early twenties. They just had to tap into it again.
Except she wasn’t sure how. People often froze when she held up her phone to take a photograph.
Put on fake smiles. She’d checked the Halrovian royal family’s social media accounts and they were all formality and fake smiles.
Which was why her aim was to ensure that people were comfortable enough not to care about her being around them.
So she tried to blend into the background, not to stand out.
Lena wondered if the man in front of her did anything less than formal, ever. He looked as if he were born in a suit. Maybe she could get him to loosen up a bit? Except there were no maybes. Her whole future depended on it. If she wasn’t successful here, what was left for her?
‘What changes do you propose?’
Prince Gabriel’s question brought her back to the here and now. Not a future that she hadn’t yet secured.
‘You need your own social media accounts, to showcase yourself in your role as Crown Prince, not as part of the royal family.’
He checked his watch. A slender gold timepiece with a leather band.
Not so showy, but something that screamed elegance and restraint.
Ancient money. He was going to wind things up, she was sure.
Her heart pounded a sickening, panicked rhythm.
What if he sent her on her way without this job?
What then? The role back in Isolobello didn’t pay enough to support her and her family as it was a junior position. She needed something more .
Lena took a deep breath and settled her thoughts.
She’d never really been to an interview like this before.
Jobs had come to her because people perceived she had a talent.
Yet she believed that the universe had been kind to her, given her opportunities.
This was one now. Time to try being a little bold again.
‘Your upcoming trip to Lauritania. May I ask what the royal family’s social media team have planned?’
She’d seen the press announcing the trip. It hadn’t all been positive, for some strange reason.
‘It seems you’ve already asked. However, I’m unable to answer your question.’
‘It’d be a perfect opportunity to introduce you , sir . Whilst I don’t know the itinerary, I’m sure there’ll be opportunities to show your life a little less scripted.’
Prince Gabriel narrowed his eyes. ‘Let me be frank. I spend my life doing what I’m able for my country. That’s the role I was born into. My consistent hard work for Halrovia should speak for itself…’
Lena’s stomach dropped. He was going to let her go.
What would she do now? Was a marriage of convenience to a rich man who saw her as a trophy whilst she mouldered in some grand home, dying inside every day, all that was left to her?
Or perhaps a life like her mother’s, mistress to a man who looked after her but didn’t love her enough to be with her?
Only catching snippets of the person you loved, yet not having all of him because that was the deal you’d struck with the devil.
Her hands twisted restlessly in her lap.
She tried to hold them still. Her prospective employer’s face told her nothing.
‘Yet it appears that my hard work and dedication doesn’t mean anything at all. That I need more.’
He shuffled through some papers on his desk, straightened them. Clasped his hands on the desktop. He needed more?
‘He needs you…’ That’s what Cilla had said.
‘I’ll give you a chance, Ms Rosetti, only because you come highly recommended by Princess Priscilla. Come on my tour to Lauritania. See what you can do. You’re on probation for two months.’ He fixed her with a stern, frigid gaze. ‘Impress me.’