“Ma’am?” he said, obviously confused by her.
“I mean, you have to put up with so much, do so much more, be a thousand times more vigilant with me. How did you get the short end of the stick?”
“Ah, Eleanor,” he said softly. His hand snaked around her opposite shoulder, and he pulled her to him. He dropped a quick kiss on her head before he said, “I would do it for free.”
He released her, and the moment passed in such a way that she wasn’t even sure it’d happened.
“Robert,” Ele began, making a hasty decision, “why did you give Tristan the file on me?”
He chuckled softly. “I’m a soldier, Your Highness. I don’t take much stock in fairy tales. But the day you met Mr. Davenport, something changed. The second he spoke to you, you seemed to open up. From the outside, it seemed like a tether ran between the two of you. Millie felt it too.” He paused, not to gather his thoughts because Robert didn’t need to gather or think. It was like his thoughts came to him fully formed. “Then, when he pulled you out of that panic attack—something no one, not even Jamie, could do—I thought it was worth seeing what would happen.
“We all have keys to us. Some of us have more than others. I think you have one singular key that can unlock you, heart and soul. I’m not sure if it’s in the pages of the dossier I assembled. But I think Mr. Davenport might be the only one who can find out. It doesn’t mean you will spend the rest of your life with him. But right now, Tristan Davenport is the right man for you. His sole purpose in being born might have been to help you.”
“He would probably disagree. I mean, he is awfully talented with that ball at his feet.”
Robert smiled; she knew it was more for her than because what she’d said amused him. “But he needs to understand what happened to you. And you need to be able to talk about it.”
Robert looked forward again, signaling the end of the conversation. Ele returned her gaze to the window.
Now that the danger had passed and she’d managed to keep her sanity, she recalled the press conference. And she giggled.
Robert’s head snapped around so fast that she feared he’d suffered whiplash.
Her hand flew to her mouth, and she giggled harder.
“Ma’am?”
Robert obviously thought she might be cracking under the pressure. She reached out and patted his hand. As far as she knew, she and Robert had never had any physical contact. And in the last couple of minutes, they’d touched twice.
“Rowan Beckwith is not going to be happy with Juliana.”
Robert’s mouth quirked on the left side—his tell when he wanted to give in to something funny. “No, ma’am, I don’t suppose he is.”
She fidgeted in her seat. “Robert?”
“Ma’am?”
“Do you think someone has posted that kiss on the internet yet?”
19
5 July
Denver to Chicago
Robert, Millie, Harry, Juliana, and Ele sat around the conference room table. Noah hit a button on the wall, and a large screen unfurled from the ceiling. When it reached its destination, Noah took his seat in front of an open laptop. Beside Ele, Juliana shifted, her chair squeaking, providing a voice to her discomfort.
“Why do we have to do this?” she complained.
Noah grunted as he cued up the computer.
Sympathy rushed through Ele. She didn’t want to subject her sister to something that obviously made her so uncomfortable. Ele rocked her chair into Robert’s, silently pleading with him to stop the madness. Robert shook her off. He didn’t do anything without a purpose, so she stopped trying to save her sister.
The press conference started on the screen in front of her. There were multiple views of the action, six different vantage points. The first was focused on Ele, the second on Juliana, the third zeroed in on Tristan, the fourth on Rowan. The last two were wide angles, showing the entire press conference
from the left and the right. As Nicolas Ramsey answered questions, Ele took stock of her complicity in bringing this viewing about. Had she kept her curiosity at bay, she wouldn’t have asked Robert about the kiss. And they might not be sitting here, watching as Juliana shriveled with embarrassment.
Unfortunately, she’d sat through numerous debriefings in her lifetime.