Page 24 of Trained Royal

Not the anniversary of his mother’s death. “Yes.” Patrick sighed. “I don’t know if it’s true because it’s just scary if it is, but can we check if there’s anything on Christian’s list for that date? With it being the…anniversary, there would likely be some events happening.”

“It’s likely something is planned. It’s only five months away, and usually, events are planned well in advance, as you know.” Freddie cleared his throat. “The list is in my office. I’ll check and let you know.”

“Thanks, and sorry if I woke you.”

He chuckled. “You didn’t. I was still awake.”

Patrick shifted up the bed and leaned back against the headboard. “Anything I can help with? After all, you helped me earlier.”

“You needed it, whether or not you admit it. Anyway, we’re not keeping a tally.”

“I know, but a worry shared is a worry halved and all that.”

Freddie was quiet for a while, and Patrick knew him well enough to know he was gathering his thoughts and deciding if sharing was the best course of action. “I’m worried about Damon.”

Patrick raised his eyebrows. “How come?”

Freddie’s sigh was audible. “He’s been away more than usual. I thought his covert shit had stopped, but I’m not sure now.”

He must be worried because Freddie rarely swore. “Did you ask him?”

“Yes. He told me he was doing some jobs for Father, but they were nothing to do with what we’re doing.”

“You don’t believe him.”

“I want to.” He sighed again. “We seem to have grown apart lately. I feel like I hardly see him.”

“Could you offer to go on the job with him?”

“I could, but I have many responsibilities here. It’s not easy to just up and leave.”

“When is he due back?”

“Monday.”

Patrick mentally skimmed his diary. He had nothing planned for the next couple of weeks before the charity auction at the end of the month. “When’s he next due to leave and come back?”

“Wednesday to Friday.”

It didn’t surprise him that Freddie knew Damon’s calendar as well as his own. They were childhood friends who had been—until recently, apparently—joined at the hip ever since preschool.

“Okay, what do you have booked for those three days?”

“Paddy, I know what you’re thinking, but it won’t work.”

“Humour me.”

Freddie huffed a laugh. “I have three meetings on Wednesday, a ceremony on Thursday and an evening event on Friday. You can’t do all of those.”

“But you can?” He paused. “I’ll be over in the morning, and we can go through each of them, and you can tell me what I need to know. I’ll take over, and you can go with Damon. It sounds like you need to reconnect with him. It’s putting the universe out of alignment with you not being together.”

Patrick’s mind brought up what Oscar had mentioned a few months back. When Christian had first begun a relationship with him, Oscar had wrongly assumed Freddie and Damon were a couple, but Patrick had been thinking about it, on and off, since then, and it made perfect sense. Except for the fact that Freddie was straight. If he pushed that aside, though, they were the perfect couple.

“I’m not used to it, either,” Freddie admitted. “I didn’t realise how much better my schedule was when I had Damon by my side.”

Patrick smiled. Was Freddie as straight as they all thought? He wasn’t sure now. “He’ll be back before you know it. Then you can get to the bottom of what’s going on. Uncle Andrew knows how you feel about Damon going off on his own. I doubt he’d send him to do something dangerous like he did before.”

“I hope so, but there are many things going on at the minute. I’m wondering if it’s a case of all hands on deck. We have a limited number of people who we trust implicitly not to turn against us.”