Jamie: Ah, Jules, call me.
Jamie: Juliana, call me.
Ele: The queen is losing her ever-loving mind. Call me.
Jamie: Call one of us.
Ele: Rowan Beckwith???
Jamie: If the queen doesn’t throw you in the dungeon, I will.
Lil: This is Margaret. She wants to know what in the queen’s name you have gotten yourself into.
TDav: Is Rowan really there? Tell him I’m going to kick him in the other knee when I see him.
Ele: Jules????
Jamie: When I get there …
TDav: Tell him to caption this.
TDav: *Picture of the middle finger.*
TDav: Your sister is starting to freak out a bit. Pls call her.
Juliana pressed Ele’s name and waited for the phone to connect, only it went straight to voice mail. She definitely should have answered her phone earlier in the day. But she was glad Noah had told her about Robert’s phone call.
She hurried to the shower. As quickly as she could, she lathered, rinsed, dried, and dressed.
She knew Rowan was probably completing his last physio session of the day. She needed to alert him. As she darted across the room to leave, someone knocked. Fearing she was too late to warn him, she flung open the door. Her eyes widened slightly before she masked her response.
Tatiana, Lacy, Bela, and Meena strolled into her suite. Tati held a bottle of wine in each hand, Bela a small picnic basket. Lacy had a cloth bag dangling from her hand.
Meena paused in front of her as the rest of them strolled to the table. She squeezed Juliana’s arm. “We thought you could use some fortification.” Then, she followed the rest of them.
Juliana closed the door, knowing an inquisition was on the menu along with the wine. She tried to look at it as practice for the encounter with her siblings. So, she turned and joined them. Tati already had the bottles of wine opened and five glasses poured.
“I don’t think this will be enough. I’m going to ring Sylvia.” Tati stood and presumably went to see about wine.
Lacy and Bela pulled two loaves of bread, a selection of cheese, some fresh grapes and sliced apples, and fig jam from the basket and arranged it on a board. The display was completed quickly and looked like an award-winning charcuterie. Meena was like the fairy godmother, orchestrating everything without seeming to break a sweat. Juliana sank into one of the chairs and picked up a glass of wine.
Tati rejoined them with a triumphant, “More wine is coming.”
Then, Bela lifted her glass and turned to Juliana. “To Her Royal Highness Juliana. Either the most cunning politician I’ve ever met or the best liar on the planet.”
It could have sounded mean or even accusatory, but there was a lightness in her tone, and Juliana knew Bela was letting her know she wasn’t mad at the deception. When Bela laughed, they all joined in.
Meena soothed. “We all know Juliana couldn’t say anything until the news came out.” Meena winked at her.
Jules had spent only a few random hours with these women and one very memorable day. And yet, she wanted to know if they’d forgiven her.
“Yes,” Juliana explained. “I wasn’t intentionally lying to everyone. We’d kept it secret for a long time, and Rowan wanted to tell his mother before the news hit. We’d stopped seeing each other when he was injured. He needed space. And honestly, I didn’t even know he was here until I showed up a few days ago.”
“What a shock that must have been. To think, you were seeing a footballer in secret, but really, you were dating a man in line for a dukedom. And apparently, a rash of other titles.” Meena summed it up quite nicely.
Tati scoffed. “You must make him pay for lying to you. Diamonds or something equally expensive.”
Everyone laughed. Ah, mercenary Tatiana, cutting to the heart of the matter.
Lacy took a dainty sip before setting her glass down. “What does that mean for Frederik?”
Juliana hadn’t thought much about Frederik. And she had no idea what it meant. It seemed odd for Rowan to inherit, given the circumstances of his birth.
“I really don’t know. When I tell you I just found out about Rowan’s history, I am being honest. And with trying to work our way back to each other, I haven’t even thought to ask.” Sounds reasonable.
“You seem a bit young for Rowan. Rumor has it, he only dates older women,” Bela said.
Juliana looked to her, trying to hide her curiosity. “Really? Is that true?”
“You don’t know?” Tati asked.
“We haven’t really spent much time talking about the past.”
“Well, you really don’t have one, do you?” Tati pointed out.
Everyone laughed.
“Quite right. And discovering the idiosyncrasies of our lovers, both in bed and out, is half the fun,” Meena declared.
They all raised their glasses in a toast.
In that moment, Juliana was terribly alone. She hadn’t felt the weight of her youth when she was with them in town the day before. Their similar upbringing was a kind of bond, more unifying than the disparity in their ages and experiences. But she didn’t want to get into the intricacies of sharing the intimate details of lovers past and present. They had excused her youth, her superior title, her supposed lying. If they started talking about lovers, Juliana would have nothing to add to the conversation. Based on the information they shared about Rowan’s past lovers, he always went for more experienced women.
They might believe he’d fallen for a princess, but if they knew she was a virgin, they would surely call her bluff.