Loving the Crown (The Crown 3)

Chapter One

Liam

The whistle was loud and shrill. I looked toward the flag and saluted. My chin lifted in respect. My eyes emotionless. My family crest billowed in the wind. Standing in formation with the other men in the Royal Navy, I blended in. It was doubtful anyone would point to my row and call out the Prince of Galona. No one would shout out the irony of saluting the Marquis colors. No one would laugh at the twisted humor on display. I was camouflaged in my uniform.

The commander gave the final salute and we disbursed, scattering in all directions on the ship.

In an instant, I was no longer one of the guys. Royal agents waited for me at the bottom of the gangplank.

“Your Highness.” They nodded.

I considered pivoting back to the ship and requesting the commander add my name to the next deployment. I knew something was fucking wrong with me, if I’d rather go to war than to the palace. Maybe it was the beast inside me. The bear who was always fighting against the humanity.

“Sir, we need to move quickly,” the lead agent whispered. “This way.”

I had barely stepped two feet outside the gate. Once a month I reported to the base to fulfill my obligation to the Navy. It was a tradition my brothers and I followed after my father. Somehow, our sister skated away without even having to join the Women’s Brigade.

“What is it?” I groaned. One weekend a month wasn’t enough of an escape.

“The car is over there, Your Highness.” He nodded to black vehicle with tinted windows next to the boardwalk.

I shook my head. “I’m taking a walk before I head back to the palace,” I explained.

The men I had trained with over the weekend walked past briskly. On this side of the ship, I was no longer one of them. It fucking pissed me off. What did I expect? We lived in a monarchy-ruled country with a council that only had a partial say in the government.

On this side of the water we didn’t run in the same circles. We didn’t drink the same liquor. We didn’t fuck the same women. Our lives were night and day.

It wasn’t like we could go to a pub for a few rounds. I’d be flanked by agents. They’d have questions about the palace. They’d get drunk and ask about my sister. Undoubtedly some douche would make a comment about one of my brothers. No. On this side, a line was drawn. I was royal and they were commoners.

I watched as some of them paired off with wives or girlfriends. They had lives on this side.

Mine was staring me in the face and she wasn’t a pretty blonde. Mine was two irritated agents waiting for me to follow royal protocol.

“Sir, the king is out of town. You’re needed at the palace.”

“I know where my brother is.” He was in London with his wife for the next week.

“Then you know you’re needed in his absence.”

I shrugged. “If you could wait for my service to end then I believe you can wait as long as I need.”

The taller thinner man, Charles, cleared his throat. “We have orders.”

“We all do, don’t we? Unless Galona is under a nuclear threat, thirty minutes won’t make a difference. Are we under nuclear threat?”

They stared at the sidewalk. “No, Your Highness.”

“Of course not. I’m sure my brother is already aware of whatever the problem is. I’ll be headed this way.” I pointed to the courtyard across the street. There was a park before arbor of trees opened into another town square.

It was the oldest part of Freychon. The cathedrals had stood for hundreds of years. But on a Sunday, just before the sun disappeared behind the country’s great landmarks, it was quiet. There was an eerie silence that fell between the massive stone pillars and the cobblestone pavement.

It was the kind of quiet I needed before rushing back to the palace. Before being thrown into whatever crisis was waiting for me. It calmed my bear. Every once in a while, he needed a reminder that life wasn’t always hectic and fast-paced. Every second didn’t have to be filled with crisis and war.

I jogged across the asphalt. If the security agents wanted to tail me, that was their decision. I wasn’t going back. Not yet. I fucking dared them to try to force me into the car.

Chapter Two

Gillian

“This is only going to work if you run full sprint through the corridor. We have exactly ten minutes to capture this before I lose the light I want for the shoot. The sunset is gorgeous. I wish you could see what I see through the lens. This is truly an epic shoot. Nothing like it.”

I nodded. “I’ve got this. Run with the stake, pass the columns, and jump into the fountain. Before we lose the sun,” I added.

Lance Franks nodded. His sandy blond hair shook around his ears. He had directed the last five episodes. He was new to the show, and this was the first time we had traveled to a foreign location. But he swore, we needed gothic European beauty for this scene.

Now that we were here, I believed him. Freychon was gorgeous. We’d be in town two days and I was already in love with the city. I couldn’t get over how beautiful everything was. Not that I didn’t love our studio in Atlanta, but there was something magical about this city.

I hadn’t really wrapped my head around the fact that we were traveling for the show now. Using the backwoods of Georgia wasn’t an option for Lance. He was a purist. A true artist.