Page 57 of The Prince and the Bodyguard
“I assume everything has been uneventful on your end, considering I’ve received no updates after your trip to North Carolina?”
“Yes, ma’am. All’s good here.”
“Glad to hear it. Thank you for the call, Special Agent Puller.”
“Looking forward to hearing from you, ma’am.”
The next step was to send a text to JJ, my roommate back in DC. He was a federal agent too, though for the FBI, and while we weren’t friends, we got along well enough. If I was going to the UK, I would need my suits. I’d only brought one with me, and that would not be enough, so I asked JJ to ship a few more. He replied almost instantly that he’d take care of that. One more thing off my to-do list.
I spent the next two hours going through the preliminary security information Rebecca had already sent. Eddie’s own London apartment would have been easy enough, since it had only one entrance/exit and was in a secure building, but he was expected to stay at his father’s residence, Frogmore Cottage. And the other places he would visit were even more complex.
Take Sandringham House, one of the king’s residences and the place where they would celebrate Christmas. It was a 20,000-acre estate with multiple buildings, extensive grounds, and security measures that made me dazzle—and I was used to the White House. Keeping Eddie safe was my biggest priority, and so I studied floor plans until my eyes burned, memorizing exit routes and safe rooms, trying to anticipate every possible scenario.
This was familiar territory for me—the methodical preparation, the attention to detail, the constant assessment of potential threats. This, I could handle. It was the personal side of things that had me twisted in knots.
“You look like you’re planning a military invasion,” Eddie said, walking in from the bedroom with his hair sticking up in every direction.
“Might as well be. Your family’s security set-up is more complex than some countries I’ve served in.”
I held out an arm, and Eddie settled beside me on the couch, cuddling up against me. I kissed the top of his head. “Did you get a good nap in?”
“I slumbered a little. Had trouble falling asleep.”
He didn’t need to say more as we both knew what had kept him awake.
“Are you worried about the professional aspects?” he asked, looking at my screen.
“A little. It’s a high-profile assignment with a lot of moving parts and everything is unfamiliar to me. But mostly…” I trailed off, not sure how to articulate the real problem.
“Mostly, you’re worried about us,” Eddie finished quietly.
“Yeah.” I met his eyes, seeing my own anxiety reflected there. “Two weeks of pretending you’re just another protectee, when you’re actually…”
“Actually what?” Eddie’s voice was soft, encouraging.
The words sat on the tip of my tongue—actually the person I’m in love with—but I couldn’t quite make myself say them. Not yet. “Actually mean so much to me,” I said instead.
Something flickered across Eddie’s face, an emotion I couldn’t quite read. “I know. Which is precisely why we need to be so careful.”
We spent the rest of the afternoon going over protocols, with Eddie filling in details about royal family dynamics that no security briefing could provide. Who would be present, what the daily schedule would look like, which family members I’d need to be most careful around. It was professional preparation with an undercurrent of intimacy that made everything more complicated.
By early evening, we decided we both needed fresh air and a change of scenery. The campus coffee shop had become our usual destination, a neutral space where we could sit together without the charged atmosphere of our apartment.
We were walking across the quad, Eddie pointing out changes in the landscaping while I maintained my usual subtle scan of our surroundings, when someone called out.
“Excuse me, but aren’t you Prince Gregory?”
We both stopped dead at that distinctively British voice. My hand automatically moved toward my concealed weapon as we slowly turned around.
The speaker was a young woman, maybe twenty, with the kind of earnest expression that suggested genuine recognition rather than malicious intent. She was approaching slowly, hands visible, clearly not trying to cause trouble.
“Pardon me?” Eddie replied.
“You’re Prince Gregory, right? I recognize you from magazine pictures. My gran is subscribed toHELLO!andOK!And since her eyesight isn’t what it used to be, I often read them to her.” She looked between us, taking in my protective positioning. “Are you supposed to be incognito? My apologies, I didn’t mean to?—”
I had to let Eddie decide how to handle this. She clearly wasn’t a threat, at least not to his physical safety.
“It’s quite alright,” Eddie said quickly, glancing around to make sure no one else was within earshot. “But I’m here undercover, so to speak, in an attempt to have a somewhat normal university experience.”
