Page 106 of Scandal Queen

Prince’s heartbreak at royal infidelity. The truth now out.

I watched the words as they zipped along the bottom of the screen.

“Oh my god.” I clasped my hands to my mouth, my eyes meeting Ollie’s.

A phone pinged and Oliver reached down into the pocket of his jeans. He read the screen and then handed it to me.

John: The truth will out. As they say, brother.

Our gazes locked. John had released this? Why? What did he have to gain by bringing down a media storm?

Oliver swiped on the screen and hit dial. “What have you done?”

He paused and we all stood staring at him waiting for him to speak. In the distance Peppa Pig’s gratingly high voice talked about muddy puddles.

“John. You didn’t need to do that.” Oliver slumped a little and I reached over and grabbed his hand. “We don’t all need to go on a crusade.”

After another moment of silence he hung up.

“John decided that lies and secrets weren’t getting us anywhere.” His eyes flickered to me. “He apologises that the news of our engagement has been overshadowed by our sordid past and he says he’s tried to fix it.”

I cocked my head. “He hasn’t though, has he? He’s made it worse. Now everyone will be trying to find Charlotte to discover the truth, and she won’t be bound by whatever agreement has been made because it’s already been broken from your side. She could say anything about you, Ollie.”

He rubbed at his face. The weight of the world hung on his shoulders.

“I think it’s time to go back to the palace,” I whispered the words, but in my heart, I knew the truth. The prince needed to be with his family. For the good of the royal family, for the people of the country, for all things good and proper and upstanding, things that I’d never once given a shit about, he needed to go.

And I knew I shouldn’t be with him.

Because if I was, then none of this would ever go away.

His eyes met mine again. “Don’t you dare even say it. I am not returning to London without you.”

I gave him a small smile. “Oliver. It’s the only way. You can’t deal with your father, with Marcus, with all this shit, if you are constantly protecting us too. Go and fight it out when you are ready. Daisy and I will come back and maybe all this can be done the right way.”

“Nope. Never.”

I could have melted at the intensity on his face. I did die a little bit deep inside. I reached for him, sliding my hand around his cheek. “You have to. Otherwise all of this will have been for nothing.”

Twenty-Five

Daisy and I snuggled on the sofa. Disney seemed the best way to go for now. At least with Disney I could shut off from reality; could believe in rainbows and mice that talked and happily ever afters.

Nana came over and topped up my glass of wine.

It had been three days.

Three days of scandalous gossip, and for the first time since we met, not much of it had been about me. Sure, people had asked if the prince lowering himself to be with me had maybe brought about the splurges of truth that had seemingly washed out of the palace now the dam of silence had been broken. But mostly it was about Oliver, John, and Charlotte and the bribes that had taken place to keep it a secret.

The fact that all of this had exploded into the public domain so soon after Oliver had been found to be bribing my neighbours only painted him in the worst light—people assumed that because it had been done once it was the only way.

Maybe that was the case. I didn’t know. Ollie’d never actually told me how much of a part he had in the way Charlotte Macclesfield was dealt with.

It didn’t look great either way you looked at it.

“I mean these people shouldn’t be in charge of the country. One brother doing that to another brother’s fiancée. It’s disgusting. Immoral.” One old woman dressed in a woollen coat and with a scarf on her head had told a news interviewer out on the street earlier today. I’d shouted at the television that they weren’t actually in charge of the country anymore, that was the fucking Prime Minister, and even he couldn’t do a fucking good job.

Parliament had re-opened and come back early from their Christmas break to discuss the crisis. There were those whispering that the monarchy shouldn’t exist anymore, that this was the time for the constitution to be changed.