Dating the Duke (The Aristocrat Diaries 2)

“If it fails?”

“It’s four weeks, Addy. Four weeks, and you come home anyway. Most of the time you’ll be in Bentley Manor, and the paps can’t get anywhere near that place. All you need is the new relationship excitement, then the drama of you moving out and you breaking up.”

Three knocks sounded at the door, and Gabi’s voice filtered through. “Addy? Your mum has called you five times.”

Eva stared at me, and I held her gaze for what felt like forever before I flopped onto my back with a sigh. “Let her in,” I said. “I’ll tell Mum what she wants to hear.”

I was so, so going to regret this.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN – ADELAIDE

There were several things I’d let my sister talk me into during my life that I’d come to regret.

I remember being fifteen and nervous for a date with my crush at the beach with some friends. She insisted a bikini would fit me, even though I didn’t think it covered my boobs. I was right; it popped out right in front of him after a wave caught me, and I could never look him in the eye again.

When we were eight, she insisted we wouldn’t get caught sneaking into the greenhouse and stealing all the strawberries. Spoiler alert: we got caught.

At sixteen, she was adamant Mum wouldn’t know if we told her we were staying at a friend’s house but were actually camping and getting drunk in a random field. Unsurprisingly, Mum found out, and we were in big trouble.

And that was only a few of the situations she’d gotten me into.

She didn’t have the best track record, which was why I was seriously wondering why I’d agreed to this hair-brained scheme.

Thankfully, Alex was a lot more pragmatic than I was. I tended to be a bit of a dreamer with my head above the clouds—hard to avoid when you had fictional people talking to you in your head—while he was very down-to-Earth, always two feet on the ground.

Once Gabi and Eva had left us alone to talk and I’d explained what was going on with the hotel, Alex had pointed out that it would be largely easy to fake a relationship. We didn’t really go anywhere together, and it wasn’t like we were in London where the paps hung out trying to catch a glimpse of people. There were no events either of us had to attend, and if the media made it to Whitborough, they wouldn’t even get close to the actual house because the estate was so vast.

We were just going to have to get his mum to play along for us. She knew we weren’t seeing each other because she, you know, lived in the same house, so we were going to need her on board for this.

As far as Elizabeth was concerned, though, we were simply letting the media believe what they wanted to believe, and we were neither denying nor confirming it.

If my parents didn’t want to tell me about the financial issues with the hotel, there wasn’t a chance they’d want anyone else to know. Especially not their friends.

I still wasn’t happy about this, but I didn’t appear to have a choice. If it bought some time for my parents, then it was a small sacrifice, really.

Besides, it wasn’t like I knew anyone outside of the cross-stitching club. They would be easy to convince since Millie had already talked me into admitting I’d snog him, so I wasn’t worried about them.

Either way, the drive from Bath to Whitborough was spent largely with Alex talking me down and us figuring out how this was going to work and laying ground rules.

Under no circumstances was Olympia to be brought into it. If there was a chance we’d be seen with her, we couldn’t be together. It was a slim chance anyway, because aside from the aquarium, we’d never been out as a group, but it was worth saying.

At least he’d always protected her privacy and the papers couldn’t print photos of her face. They had to be blurred out, so at least there was that.

Also, she couldn’t be a part of it, because kids sucked at lying.

Especially Olympia.

I wasn’t sure I’d ever be happy about the situation, but it wasn’t as bad as I could be, and I was grateful for that at least.

“Papa!” Olympia came running through the house in her wellington boots, leaving a huge trail of wet, muddy footprints on the wooden floor behind her. She launched herself at Alex, and he didn’t even have time to put down our cases before she had her arms wrapped tightly around his waist.

“Oomph!” He let go of the cases and enveloped her in a huge hug. “Hey, princess. Have you been good for Granny?”

“I’m always good!” She leaned back and grinned up at him. “Did you get me anything?”