Page 74 of Royally Wed
“Possibly.” She swallowed. “I mean, yes. Definitely. It does.”
He sat up, swept the hair from her face, and looked into her eyes for a long, loaded moment. “It’s okay if it doesn’t. But if you’re free today, there’s someplace I’d like totake you.”
“Are you asking me out on a date, Asher Reed?” She giggled. It seemed inconceivable that she could relax enough to laugh when she had a wedding to cancel and a throne to secure, but Asher managed to make her do it.
He winked. “I am.”
“I’ll be back. I promise.” She kissed him. Long and hard. But as she hurried into her clothes, a voice in the back of her head seemed to whisper.Don’tmake promises you can’t keep.
Fifteen minutes later, Amelia was situated on her mother’s floral sofa. She’d gone straight from Asher’s bed to the queen’s sitting room. “I need the pocket watch. Where is it?”
“Amelia.” Her mother looked her up and down. “What have you done to yourself? You look like a mess. The wedding is in a matter of hours!”
Amelia could see a trace of her reflection in thelarge pane windows that overlooked the palace courtyard. Her mother was right. She was a mess. Probably because she’d done the walk of shame down the entire length of Queen’s Hall.
Did it really matter what she looked like? There wasn’t going to be a wedding. As soon as she had the pocket watchback, she could formulate some kind of plan. That watch was more precious than the gold it was craftedof. It was her evidence. Her smoking gun. The Becketts could threaten to go public with their ancestor’s diary all they wanted. If they did, pictures of the pocket watch would be splashed on the front page of every tabloid in London, right next to photographs of Lady Wentworth’s engraved pendant. She’d been wearing the necklace faithfully for years. Finding a picture of it would be easy.
Ameliajust needed the watch.
She was starting to wonder why her mother hadn’t opened a drawer and retrieved it yet.
“Eleanor and I had a hen do last night. We had a bit to drink, and I slept in my clothes.” It was two-thirds true, anyway.
Amelia fully intended to tell her family about Asher when the time was right.
Probably.
Either way, the morning of her wedding wasn’t the right time by any stretchof the imagination.
“A hen do?” Amelia’s mother looked at her in horror. “You’re a royal bride, or have you forgotten?”
I wish. “The watch, mum. Where is it?”
The queen sighed. “Not here. Why would I still have it?”
A tight knot of panic wound its way around Amelia’s heart. “You told me you’d get to the bottom of things. I gave you the watch so you could figure out if it meant Holden was havingan affair with Lady Wentworth, remember?”
Her voice sounded borderline hysterical. Why was shehaving to explain this again?
“I remember, Amelia. But I never said I’d return the pocket watch to you. If you’ll recall, you never asked me to do any such thing.”
Was that true?
It couldn’t be, could it? She would’ve insisted that her mother return it. The watch was important.
Although she hadn’trealized quitehowimportant it was until Asher told her what he’d witnessed. Still, she had to get it back. Either that, or she just assumed her mother would know.
Oh no.
She’d assumed, hadn’t she? Why would she do that? She and her mother were never on the same page. Never ever.
This was a colossal mistake. The worst screwup of her life.
Don’t panic. You just need to find out where it isand get it back. You can fix this.
Everything would be okay. It had to.
She took a calming inhale and did her best not to scream. “Mum, what did you do with the watch? I need to get it back.”
