Page 105 of Scandal Queen

“Certainly, Sir.” She backed away, her eyes to the floor.

When she was gone, he leapt out of bed.

“What’s going on?” I watched him, pushing my hair out of my face so I could see him better. “What’s a Code Amber?” I thought over a million more questions. “Why are there staff in the house?”

He blinked at me, clearly deciding which needed answering more. “My personal staff have security clearance at all my residences.”

“Okaaaay.” Not quite answering the elephant in the room here.

“And Amber means something massive has gone down. It won’t be safe for Daisy to go outside because the press will be everywhere.”

“Ollie.” I chuckled, relaxing. “We are in a gated and fenced property.”

“Ever heard of a helicopter, Leia?”

My memory skimmed to standing in the old school playground way back when we first met, and that awful mother asking if I’d seen the pictures of Ollie on holiday in his swimmers. Oh.

“But we knew about the press break last night; everyone knows about our engagement. Did we need Freya to wake us up?”

He looked at me, running his fingers through his wild waves.

“Amber is worse than last night, Leia.”

Oh.

He gave me a concerned smile and then walked for the door, his shoulders set and his princely mask back on his face.

For a second I just sat there missing the warmth of us snuggled together under the duvet, tied together in blind hope and security.

I could only think of one new item that would make him worry about Daisy; if Mrs Patten had gone to the press. Maybe seeing us in the news yesterday, all lovey-dovey and engaged was too much for her. Maybe she didn’t believe my sincerity when I’d said that I wanted us to find a way in the new year to sort everything out.

Marcus Cartwright would be having a field day. I might never be let back into the palace.

With my heart banging against my ribs, I slipped out of bed and made my way to the kitchen where Freya and a couple of members of her team were primed for some form of military operation. Bill was there, unsurprisingly. He’d followed us here the night before; his family were staying in one of the cottages on the estate. He’d follow Oliver anywhere, I knew that.

I checked on Daisy, giving her a quick kiss and waved at my practically redundant lady-in-waiting, Vanessa. “Sorry.” I cringed. “Guess you weren’t expecting to get dragged out to the depths of Surrey on Boxing Day?”

She nodded her head. “All in my job description, Ma’am.” Her job description sucked. I might ask Bella if she wanted to take her on; there really was no need for me to have someone hanging around waiting to see if I needed anything. Literally, she was a woman who waited.

I turned to where Ollie was leant against the kitchen counter, a deep frown chiselled between his dark brows. His face was deadly serious, more so than I’d ever seen it. My heart clanged and bashed until I thought I might puke.

I glanced between him and Daisy.

“How the hell did this happen?” He kept his tone low, but it barely hid his untamed fury.

Oh God. It could only have been something to do with me. Maybe I knelt in the wrong way yesterday? Maybe I shouldn’t have spoken to that little girl or accepted her present on behalf of the shelter.

Shit. Maybe it was the kiss. Ollie and I had snogged in front of everyone—more than once.

A kiss to bring down a monarchy.

I stepped to his side and stared at the iPad. Then I stared some more. I could see the words running along the bottom of the screen, but I couldn’t make sense of them.

“Charlotte must have sold out when she saw the news yesterday.” Freya’s face looked pained. “If people find out the palace paid her off then I don’t know what will happen.”

The words I stared at blindly started to form themselves into sentences and my mouth popped open.

“This wouldn’t be happening now if the truth had been told at the time,” he said.