Page 47 of Royally Arranged

Clutching my coffee cup tight, I debated turning and going back inside before he could reach me. But he was a big man who took long strides, and he was on me before the guards had pivoted to begin their next routine.

“Hawthorne,” he said, lifting two fingers to his forehead in a salute.

I saluted back, but it was impossible to hide the mocking laziness of it. “You know, some people just drink coffee to wake up in the morning.” I showed him my cup. “We don’t all need to yell at a bunch of men to get ourselves going.”

Glen laughed, looking back at the group as they marched crisscross over the gravel, their rifles switching arms. “I don’t drink coffee, never liked the stuff.”

“More for me,” I said, shrugging.

Glen considered me with his eyebrows smoothing in a friendly way. “We haven’t gotten to talk much, you and I.”

“There’s a lot going on,” I said, deflecting. “Besides, I’m not planning to take your place at running the royal guard,orjoining, no offense. What would we even talk about?”

“I’m not so two-dimensional that all I can talk about is being the head of the guards,” he said, his laughter a low rumble. “In fact,” he said, his voice going quieter, “I’m surprised you haven’t asked me anything about your father.”

Hairs rose on my neck. “Why would I ask you about him?”

“Because he and I were childhood friends. Because this is the first time you’ve been in this country, the first time meeting me. It just seemed ... Well, I think I would ask if I were you.”

“But you’re not me.” I regretted saying it the second it came out of my mouth.

Glen didn’t look put out. Crossing his arms, he took a step closer. He was so big that my head only came up to his shoulder. He was bulkier than my father, who was the biggest man I’d known until now. What did they feed the people in this country? “Hawthorne, I know that you must be going through a lot. The pressure you’re under, I can’t even imagine. But there are people here who are more than happy to help. People who believe in you.”

“People like my father?”

“Of course. Your father chose you to be the king.”

“He didn’t choose me,” I said, staring at my coffee cup. “I was just the only option he had left.” I poured out the last of the dregs—bitter grounds that no one would ever touch.

“Don’t say that. Your father believes in you.”

“That’s not what he said last week,” I mumbled. Glen looked surprised. “Yeah. I heard you guys talking about me in the rose garden. I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop. In fact, I almost stepped out to talk to you both. It seemed a good time to get whatever information I could on this country, it felt like the right thing to do if I was going to wear the crown like everyone keeps asking me to. But then, well.” I shrugged, trying to take the sting out of the memory. “Dad doesn’t think I’m fit for the job. It’s not really surprising. The guy never thought I was fit for much.”

Glen was staring at me, thick eyebrows furrowed into tight knots. I stared back at him, noticing the thin scar on the left side of his jaw that his beard mostly hid. The massive calluses on his loosely curled fingers. This was a man who took his job seriously, and I felt the weight of his judgment as he watched me. I regretted telling him that I’d overheard their conversation. I regretted coming outside to watch the guards.

Both of his hands came down on my shoulders, holding me in place. “Your father is a hard man,” he said. “But he wasn’t always this way.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m not sure if you would believe me, but it’s like I said when we first met. You remind me a lot of him.”

That gave me the strength to break away. I took three steps back, lifting my head high. “Now you’re fucking with me. Or maybe it’s been so long since you’ve seen my dad that you remember him differently.”

He held his hands in the air, hovering where I’d been. Slowly they fell to his sides. “I have to get back to the guards. They need to be ready for the coronation.” He started back, pausing to speak over his shoulder. “Your family is arriving today. You’ll be too busy to speak to me like this for some time, I think—but if you ever want to, I’ll be here.”

I watched him go, unsure how to respond.I forgot everyone would be landing at the airport today.They’d have almost no time to settle in before they had to watch me marry a woman none of them knew. One I still didn’t really know.

Nova and I had spent some weeks together now, but the situation was so dire that it was like a sheet of paper was constantly passing between us whenever we got too close. I could see her shadow, I could hear her voice, and sometimes I could even feel her touch. But there was something that I couldn’t quite name that was keeping us from reaching forward into a real relationship.

Maybe it was the fact that this wasn’t ever supposed to have happened. If my uncle hadn’t died, there’d be no marriage. I might have never come to Torino at all. Ever.

At least Nova was fun to be around. She knew this country, she’d shown me many things as we wandered. She even spoke fluent French, which blew my mind.

I wondered if my siblings would like her.

And then I wondered if it mattered.

At five on the dot, my siblings arrived in two separate white Rolls-Royces. Both vehicles rolled up, bumper to bumper, stopping at the top of the long driveway. Drake and a few servants hurried over to open the doors, more men setting to the task of unloading the luggage from the trunks.

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