A Royally Beautiful Mess Read online

  He took another drink of his milk. “I guess Genevieve. I’m not really close to any of them, which is sad. My next three brothers always looked up to me. When Papa died, Benjamin became king. We didn’t really see him nearly as much after that. He was doing his king-y thing. We were all tutored at home, but he was no longer tutored with us. That left me as the biggest brother around.”

  “You didn’t go to school?”

  “No. But, starting with secondary school, the rest of my younger siblings did or do attend a private school. The twins are about to graduate.”

  “Did you have any friends?” She finally looked up, her brows pulled together in a worried look.

  “Some. Mostly children of friends of my parents and my cousins. Aunt Louise’s children were tutored with us for a while once she became Benjamin’s regent.”

  “But you and Benjamin are only about three years apart, aren’t you? Were you ever close?”

  Darius closed the flap of the cookies and stood, busying himself with cleaning up to avoid answering the question. He didn’t know how to.

  “You don’t have to answer that.” The compassion in her voice made him look up.

  “It’s okay. I’m just not sure how to.” He sat back down on the bed. “We were closer before my father died, obviously, but he was always a bit set apart. We shared a room for a time.”

  “In that giant palace, you had to share a room?”

  “My parents lived in the monarch’s quarters. There are several bedrooms in the apartment. It’s attached to the consort’s quarters, though my mother never lived in it. As we got older, the children moved over, so we were all in the two apartments. When we lived in the monarch’s quarters, Benjamin and I shared a room as did Genevieve and Evangeline. After Benjamin and the girls moved to the consort’s quarters, I shared with my younger brother for a while, but I’m the only one who’s ever shared with Benjamin.”

  “So you’re as close to him as anyone?”

  “I used to be, I guess.”

  “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a palace having actual consort quarters. Separate bedrooms maybe, but not actual official separate apartments.”

  Darius shrugged. “My parents never used them as such. I don’t think my grandparents did either. I’m sure it goes back several hundred years when the alliances were purely political, and there were no qualms about mistresses or whatever either.”

  “That makes sense.”

  “Do you miss him?”

  He looked over at her again. “My father? Of course I do. He was an amazing man, a great king, and a wonderful father.”

  She gave a half-smile. “I mean Benjamin. Do you ever look at relationships like say Princes William and Harry and wish you could be like that with your brother? Do you wish it could change?”

  “Yeah. I mean, I wish I could know my brother. I wish I could help him. He shoulders everything alone, except for Uncle Isaiah, and I don’t trust him. I don’t think anyone does, except maybe Benjamin, and he shouldn’t.”

  “So how do we fix that?”

  14

  The next morning, Esther was awake earlier than normal on a Saturday, but Louis and his sister, Vesta, would be moved in next door. During the game, they’d been told their lessons in adulthood would begin Saturday not Monday, though Darius slept later than she did.

  An incoming text from her father had interrupted their conversation the night before. By the time she finished a quick conversation with him via text, Darius was in the shower.

  Though she knew she’d lived a sheltered life, it saddened Esther that Darius wasn’t close to any of his siblings. He didn’t seem to have any other real friends either. She’d clearly been too hard on him for the last six months.

  They needed to find friends locally, even if they didn’t tell them the whole truth anytime soon. Maybe they would go to another football game or run into Samantha and Vince somewhere else. They were nice and being friends with Prince Charlemagne meant they could probably be trusted. They hadn’t shared anything that wasn’t publicly available.

  She sipped her cup of coffee in the living room as Darius wandered downstairs in his pajama pants.

  “What time are they supposed to be over?” he asked with a yawn as he ran his hand through already messy hair.

  “I’m not sure. Hour or so maybe. I have no idea what we’re supposed to learn today.”

  “Maybe they just want to find out how truly inept we are.”

  “You are not inept.”

  They both turned at the sound of a woman’s voice. Louis stood behind her as she glared at them. Esther could see the family resemblance around their eyes but that was about it.

  Where Louis was stout, his sister was thin as a rail. Where Louis was tall, she was short, even shorter than Esther’s grandmother. Esther had no doubt they were both a force to be reckoned with.

  She set her bag on the counter. “You are not inept.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Well, you could be, but you don’t know that yet. What you are is ignorant. Uninformed. That’s why we’re here. We’re going to fix that. After you learn what to do, if you are still incapable, then you may declare yourself inept.”

  Louis chuckled. “My sister will always be inept at getting things off the top shelf without some sort of assistance.”

  She glared at him. “Now, Princess Esther, Prince Darius, neither of you are a monarch, and we are not in your home country. I will not be curtsying to you every morning, using your honorifics regularly, or refer to either of you as Your Royal Highness and I will not pull punches if you are being morons.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” She and Darius answered in unison.

  “Very good. You may call me Vesta. You know my brother, Louis. Are you ready to get to work?”

  “Uh, not really.”

  Esther tried to hide her smirk as Darius glanced down at his bare chest and pajama pants.

  “I don’t think either of us have eaten. We thought we had another hour or so.”

  “Go get dressed. We’ll start with scrambled eggs and toast.” Vesta glared at him, though Esther sensed there was far more bark than bite in her. She wasn’t about to test out the theory just yet.

  Esther took another sip of her coffee.

  “You, too, princess. You’re not exactly dressed either.” Vesta’s raised brow told Esther she’d brook no arguments.

  Esther hurried upstairs and changed, walking out of the closet as Darius pulled a shirt on to go with his jeans.

  “You as scared as I am?” he asked. “I’m not sure what I expected but five feet of don’t-mess-with-me wasn’t it.”

  “I don’t think you’re being fair.” Esther stopped in front of him and rested her hands on his stomach. “I think she’s at least five-one.”

  “You did the conversion in your head didn’t you?” His hands slid around her waist.

  “Nobody around here talks in metres. You did the math, too.”

  He kissed her, though she could tell he was holding back. He backed off just a bit. “We should probably get downstairs.”

  Her stomach growled in response.

  Darius laughed as he let her go. “I’ll take that as agreement.”

  Back downstairs, Vesta had been busy, gathering what they needed to make breakfast.

  She turned to look at them, slight disapproval on her face, though Esther didn’t know why. “It’s time to get to work.”

  As the service ended, Darius stood and picked up Esther’s canvas bag she used to carry her Bible and notebook.

  “Fancy meeting you here.”

  Darius turned in unison with Esther to see Vince and Samantha walking down the row behind them. They shared greetings before walking toward the exit in the back center of the room.

  “Are you going to Sunday school?”

  Darius and Esther shared a look before he answered. “We hadn’t planned on it. It’s kind of become our thing to go to brunch after service. You’re welcome to join us.” He doubted they would,
but the polite thing was to ask them.

  Samantha looked up at Vince. “I didn’t eat anything this morning, and we’re just having a fellowship thing today, no actual lesson.”

  Vince shrugged. “I can always eat.”

  They all laughed. After agreeing to meet at the café, they went to the car where Darius called Ian. “I probably should have checked with you first,” he told the security man. “I didn’t think they’d accept.”

  “They’ve been checked out,” Ian told him. “As they said, they’ve known Prince Charlemagne for years.”

  “Will you be there?” He already knew the answer.

  “Of course.” There was a smile in Ian’s voice.

  “See you there.”

  In ten minutes, they were seated at a booth with Vince and Samantha while Ian took a stool at the bar.

  “You said you both teach at one of the schools?” Darius asked after they ordered.

  “We both teach at one of the elementary schools. I teach fourth grade.” Samantha elbowed Vince. “He does the easy stuff.”

  “Twenty kindergarteners throwing rubber playground balls is easy?”

  Samantha shrugged as Darius glanced at Esther who didn’t understand either.

  “I teach Physical Education to the entire student body. I have to learn the names of hundreds of kids. You have twenty.”

  It was clearly not the first time they’d had this good-natured fight.

  Samantha rolled her eyes. “Enough about us. What about you guys?”

  Darius took a sip of his water as Esther answered. “We’re both students at Serenity Landing University. We have about a year left unless we decided to get a post-baccalaureate degree.”

  He managed to keep his composure. She hadn’t mentioned the possibility to him, though it made sense. A Master’s Degree in International Relations could come in handy.

  “Will you go back to your home country or stay in the States or go somewhere else?” Samantha’s question was an innocent one, but one that reminded Darius that he wasn’t really allowed to return home without the permission of his father-in-law.

  “We’ll probably go to San Majoria after we’re done with our schooling, but nothing is definite yet.” Esther covered his hand with her own. “We may end up working elsewhere, but we don’t need to worry about that now.”

  Samantha’s eyes twinkled. “Don’t think we didn’t notice the rings. Decided to get some?”

  “Once it registered that we didn’t have them, we decided a couple of bands were in order.”

  Conversation for the rest of brunch came easily. Darius drove them back toward their house, but as he neared the turn into the neighborhood, he slowed for an animal in the road.

  “Is that a dog?” Esther asked, leaning forward in her seat.

  Darius put the car in park as the poor thing stopped and sat in the middle of the road. “I think so.”

  He opened his door and climbed out as the pile of fur scurried toward him, tail wagging and tongue hanging out. Before Darius could figure out what to do next, the dog jumped in the floorboard of the SUV and then onto the driver’s seat. The dirt and mud covered his fur and paws now covered the leather Darius needed to sit on.

  “Guess he’s going home with us?” Darius opened the back door and picked the dog up, putting him in the back seat for the moment. He glanced back to see Ian smirking in the SUV behind them.

  Esther twisted in her seat to look at the animal. “What exactly are we going to do with a dog?”

  “Clean him up, see if we can find his owner, and if not, keep him?”

  “You want a dog?” she asked, trying and failing to conceal a grin.

  “A dog could be fun.” His defensive tone made her laugh. “I always wanted a dog.”

  “You never had a dog?”

  “No. Did you?”

  “We had several when I was younger.”

  “Can you see a dog running around my palace? Maybe the San Majorian one seems a little less formal because it’s considered the Caribbean.”

  “It’s not the Caribbean.” She crossed her arms in a huff as he turned into the driveway.

  “I know. But the country as a whole has a more laid-back vibe than Eyjania.”

  “True enough.”

  In the garage, he climbed out of the car and opened the back door to the wiggling ball of fur.

  “You are not going to let that thing just run around the house,” Esther called as she walked through the door. “I’ll get a towel and you can take him straight to the bathroom down here. You’re in charge of bath time.”

  Darius didn’t care that his dress shirt was likely ruined. He had a thousand others. “You’ve missed people, haven’t you, buddy?”

  His answer was more excited wiggling and a pink tongue giving his face a bath.

  Esther waited for him at the door to the appropriately named mud room. After she closed the door leading into the kitchen, Darius set the dog down then wrapped him in the towel before heading for the downstairs bathroom. Once in there, with the door closed behind him, he pulled his phone out and took a couple of pictures. Once the dog was cleaned up, he’d take a couple more then see if he could get Vince to post them online. He certainly didn’t want to. His social media accounts were locked down tightly for a reason. He didn’t have any public ones and barely used the personal ones, especially since moving to Serenity Landing.

  Darius put his hands on his hips and stared at the mass of fur sniffing his way around the bathroom. “Okay, bud, you’re about to get a bath.”

  Darius was pretty sure they would both be soaked before this was over, but it had to be done. He turned on the water.

  Here went nothing.

  “Do you need any help in there?” Esther wasn’t about to go wash that muddy mess off, but she was more than happy to stand outside and smirk at the noises coming from the bathroom.

  “No, I think I got it.” His words were punctuated by grunts and squeals from the dog.

  She tapped on her phone a few more times. “Does he have fleas?”

  “I think that’s what these bugs are.”

  Esther headed for the kitchen. “Hang on.” She found the dish soap and took it back to the bathroom, opening the door just enough to set it on the counter. “Wash him in that and let it sit for fifteen minutes. That should kill the fleas and maybe the ticks.”

  “Now you tell me.” Frustration, but not animosity, colored his words.

  “Just found it online." She waggled her phone though she knew he couldn’t see it. “I was researching.”

  An hour later, Vesta stood with her hands on her hips and surveyed the mess in the bathroom. “I’m not cleaning this up, you know.”

  “I will, Vesta.” Darius looked more worn out than Esther had ever seen him. The dog apparently hated baths. “But first we need to get this guy taken care of.”

  “A boy?” Esther asked. “For sure?”

  “Yep.”

  Vesta turned back around to glare at the towel-wrapped dog in Darius’s arms. “You also need food, a collar, a crate, and a leash at minimum. You could use bowls from the cabinet for now. Tomorrow, you’ll need to take him to the vet and a groomer.”

  “After school tomorrow,” Darius promised.

  “And what do you want me to do with this thing until then?”

  “You may not have to worry about it. I already texted Vince. He’s going to post on the lost pet Facebook pages around here for me. He said he’d let me know if he got any hits.”

  “We’ll lock him in the mud room and go to the store.” Darius walked to the mud room. “Esther, could you grab a couple of blankets for him?”

  After getting the dog situated on the blankets, Darius stared at him for a minute. “I think he’s completely worn out after fighting me over the bath. I know I am.” At least he’d changed clothes. “Let’s go while he sleeps.”

  As they drove toward Serenity Landing, Esther looked at her phone. “I searched online to see what we need be
sides the things Vesta mentioned. I think that’s probably enough for starters. If we end up keeping him, we’ll want to reevaluate.”

  “What kind of food do we need?”

  “That I don’t know. How old do you think he is?”

  “I have no idea how to tell how old that dog is. He didn’t seem particularly puppy-like, though I’ve never been around puppies, but he had tons of energy.”

  “So maybe not a puppy but not very old?”

  “Sure.”

  By the time they reached the store, she’d made a list. At least Ian was with them to help if they got too far off track. Vesta made him promise not to interfere too much, though.

  Once back in the pet section of the store, they stood next to each other and stared at the variety of food options.

  “Do we get a big bag?” Darius asked.

  “Uh... Why don’t we get a small bag? That way, if he doesn’t like it, or we find his home tomorrow, we don’t have a ton of extra food.”

  “Good plan.” He pointed to a small bag on the top shelf. “How about this one?”

  Esther shrugged. “Looks good to me.”

  Darius put it in the cart. “What else?”

  They found a collar that looked like it would fit and a leash to go with it, then bowls, a crate, dog bed and a couple of cheap blankets.

  “I know he has ticks.” Darius stopped in front of some gadgets and pulled one off. “Maybe something like this?”

  Esther shrugged again as he tossed it on top of the dog bed. They spent way too long deliberating in front of a wall of dog toys before choosing a couple.

  On the walk to the cars, Ian helped carry the box with the crate in it. “You know, if you end up keeping this dog, you’ll need a doggy door and a fenced area. I don’t think Louis and Vesta will let you get by with hiring that done either.”

  “We’re reasonably intelligent people. I’m sure we can figure it out.”

  “Have you ever used a drill, sir?” Ian’s lips twitched as he tried to hide his real reaction.

  “I can figure it out. That’s what YouTube is for, right?” As he walked up to the SUV, the doors unlocked. Esther opened the rear hatch so they could put the purchases in.