Page 18 of My Highland Fling
Her mother stalked across the tiled office floor, her shoes clip-clopping on the hard surface.She stopped beside her husband, and as if they’d planned this moment, both turned to regard Gabrielle and Tilly.Gabrielle’s grin died a quick death.Uh-oh.
“Gabrielle,” her mother fired the opening salvo.“Your father and I believed you understood the importance of your engagement to Prince Gregor.You agreed to the upcoming marriage.Why have you created a public relations tempest by getting caught with another man?A nobody, at that.And you!”Claire turned her anger on Tilly.“You have one job, and that is to protect Gabrielle from impetuous decisions.A night on the town without her security.You should’ve kept Gabrielle confined in the hotel room.It’s what you normally do, so why change your routine this time?”
“I wanted to see the town, Mother.”Gabrielle quaked inwardly at her father’s pale, rage-filled visage.“What’s going on?Stefan and Georges always appear in the tabloid press.”
“You are not your brothers,” her father said in a cool voice.“The wedding to Gregor must go ahead.Our public relations team will release a statement saying someone assumed your name, and this man believed her story.”
Gabrielle opened her mouth to refute this plan, but the sharp elbow to her side had her glaring at Tilly.Tilly’s warning scowl had Gabrielle pressing her lips together.Tilly was right.She’d keep her indignation contained and wait until she learned what her parents wanted of her.
“You will tell Gregor you went to bed early, didn’t leave the hotel.The person the press is speculating about bears an uncanny resemblance, but it wasn’t you,” her father repeated.“You will sell this lie, or else you will not enjoy the consequences.”
“Are you spying on me?”Gabrielle blurted.
“Surely you’re not foolish enough to think my security men didn’t learn of your absence?”her father snapped, his eyes flashing.“We know what you did.That you’d lose your virginity for pleasure is idiotic and shortsighted.Your virginity was a bargaining chip worth great wealth and power.Now, you’re useless, and your drive for independence couldn’t have happened at a worse time.”
Her mother sniffed.“So much potential, and you wasted it on a commoner with no money, no standing, and from a backwater country.I mean, New Zealand, the reporters said.Who would want to live there?”
Gabrielle stared at her parents, disgusted by their narrowmindedness, their crudeness, their lack of support.She’d done everything they’d asked of her—until now.Did they care so little for her wants?
Her mother sniffed.“Prince Gregor’s people haven’t contacted us yet.If we’re lucky, he might miss the entire matter, or a famous politician or film star will cause a more memorable episode and seize the headlines.”
Someone knocked on the door, and her father fired visual daggers in that direction.“I’m in a meeting.”
The tapping repeated, and the door opened.Harold stuck his head through the gap, his expression impassive.“Your majesty, Prince Gregor is on line two.”
The king’s lips pulled back, and he bared his teeth as he reached for the handpiece of the antique phone.He jabbed a button, and after a single ring, he spoke.“Gregor, my lad.How are you?”His jolly tone was at odds with the explosive glower he winged in Gabrielle’s direction.
Gabrielle opened her mouth to defend herself and subsided at the gentle pressure of Tilly’s hand on her knee.Tilly was right.Gabrielle required further information before she spoke.
“What?You saw the English headlines?You know how they exaggerate their stories, Gregor.”He paused.“No smoke without fire?”Her father grabbed a stress release ball and squashed it in his left hand, his nostrils flaring even though his voice remained pleasant.“Gregor, my boy.I don’t know what you want me to say.”A vein ticked in his jaw as his eyes narrowed on Gabrielle.“I see.Are you sure you wish to take that path?Very well.Yes, I’ll tell Gabrielle.I’m sorry things ended this way.”
Her father disconnected abruptly and his guttural roar resounded through the office.Gabrielle froze, rooted to her chair.She eyed her father, her breath bursting in and out.Audible.At her side, Tilly tensed.
“Prince Gregor has called off the wedding.He wants no gossip attached to his bride, and you have hit the headlines in the UK and Europe.”The king slammed his palm onto his desk, the hard hollow sound echoing like a gunshot through the silence.“I don’t know what we’ll do.We were counting on his funds.Let’s hope they don’t cancel the trade agreements we’ve established with Sweden.They’re important to our country’s survival.”
Gabrielle gulped.She’d wanted out of this engagement, but not in this public way.She strove to halt her panic, even though the urge to shout and rail and demand her parents’ support whooshed through her, struggling for freedom.They hadn’t asked for her side of the story.
Not once.
Chapter 10
Strategic Retreat
Thenextmorning.
“What should I do, Tilly?”Gabrielle scowled at the pile of newspapers strewn atop the gleaming wooden breakfast table in her suite.Several had published photos of her in evening dress, taken during one of the many charity functions she’d attended.The papers had paired these photos with one taken of Ramsay as he’d left the hotel.He wore what he’d had on when they met in the pub, but he hadn’t combed his hair or tied it back.The black strands drifted around his face, giving him a mad professor visage.
It was no wonder her parents and the gossip columnists had freaked out—the photos didn’t do him justice.Gabrielle ran her finger across the newsprint page, tracing his scowling face.Although she hadn’t known him for long, she missed him.She’d liked him a lot, and he’d treated her like a normal person.They’d laughed and talked and kissed…
“If you could do anything, what would you do?”Tilly asked.
“I’d find Ramsay and spend time with him.”Gabrielle bounded to her feet and stalked across the expanse of room.She made a return trip, her focus on the papers again.“I liked him a lot.He made me feel ordinary.He let me speak and listened, asked me questions.No one here, apart from you, ever heeds my opinion.Mother and Father talk at me, give me orders, and treat me like an ornamental doll, incapable of rational thought.My parents see me as nothing more than a moneymaker.”Gabrielle grimaced at Tilly.“Did you know we were short of money?”
“They haven’t paid me for two months,” Tilly said.
“What?Why didn’t you say something?”
“It didn’t matter.I have savings, and I want for nothing.Food and lodging is included, and I have no need to dress as extravagantly as you.”
