Sophie smiled, but I saw the tension in her eyes. “I can’t promise that I’ll only keep you two minutes, but I’ll do my best to have you off to work in time.”
I followed her into her office and shut the door behind us. “What’s up, Sophie? You seem as though something’s bothering you.”
“Ah ... well, a little, maybe. Actually, trite as it sounds, I have good news and ... not so good news.” She gestured to the chair in front of her desk. “Have a seat.”
I sank down, crossing my ankles and folding my hands as I’d just been practicing with Lady Marjorie. “Give me the bad stuff first. Lay it on me.”
“All right.” Sophie sat down behind her desk and leveled her gaze at me. “A story broke this morning in one of the rags that you’re pregnant.”
My mouth dropped open, and forgetting the calm and decorous mannerisms I was meant to be practicing, I leaned forward. “What? Why the hell would anyone say that?”
Sophie rolled her eyes. “Kyra, you know the answer to that as well as I do. These papers don’t worry overmuch about reporting the truth. They just want to sell copies.” She paused. “There was a picture of you from the visit to Brixton—well, two pictures, actually. One was of you with a small child, and the other was of you standing near the door, just before you went inside. Unfortunately, the angle of the second photo and the way the dress hung made it look as though you might have a baby bump. The tabloid ran both, saying that, uh, ‘sources’ at the palace confirmed that you’re expecting and are begging the Queen to let you move up the date of the wedding so you don’t have to walk down the aisle eight months along.”
“Oh, my God.” I sagged back in my chair, all of the wind knocked out of me. “Just when I think I can’t be surprised by anything the media does, something like this happens.”
“I know.” Sophie’s brow wrinkled. “I’m so sorry, Kyra. I feel like I’ve let you down, allowing something like this to happen. It took me utterly by surprise, too.”
“Not your fault.” I twisted my engagement ring around my finger. “What do we do about it? Aside from burning that dress, that is.” I shuddered. “And here I thought it looked so nice.”
“It did, Kyra. Please don’t let this nonsense take away any of your joy in that day. This was simply a bad bit of luck and unscrupulous people doing horrible things.” She hesitated. “Unfortunately, there’s nothing we can do. The Palace only issues denials under the most heinous of circumstances. I already spoke with Aline, who runs the Press Office, and she said the best thing to do is just to ignore the rumor and move on. The only good part about false pregnancy stories is that they are inevitably shown to be wrong, when a baby doesn’t come along in due time.”
“I suppose so.” I frowned, glancing up as something occurred to me. “Sophie, was it Garrett Smith?”
Her eyes widened. “I beg your pardon?”
“Was it Garrett Smith who wrote that story? You know, you’re always telling me how horrid and obnoxious he is. It sounds like something he would do.”
“Oh. No, it wasn’t Garrett.” She cleared her throat. “I know that for a fact, because he’s the one who tipped me off about the story in the first place. He texted me this morning.”
I cocked my head, staring at my press liaison, whose face was turning a becoming shade of red. “Garrett Smith texted you? Since when does that happen?”
She drew in a deep breath. “Well, actually, that brings me to the second bit of, ah, news. It’s rather a long story—”
I sat back and crossed my arms over my chest. “I have time. Do tell.”
She blinked. “I thought you had to get to a meeting.”
“I do.” I waved my hand. “It’s okay. They won’t start without me.” My lips curved into a wicked smile. “Besides, this ismuchmore interesting.”
“Fine,” Sophie huffed. “When I left on Friday, I planned to go straight home and collapse into bed.” When I quirked an eyebrow, she added, “Alone. By myself. But for some reason, I began to feel that was a very lame thing for a single woman to do on a Friday night, so I had Harold drop me at a pub, and I texted a bunch of my friends to meet me.”
“Sounds like fun.” I nodded.
“It would have been, had any of them been available. Sadly, none of them were, so I took myself off home. Or I tried to, anyway. The weather had turned nasty by the time I went to get a cab, and I was standing there in the freezing rain, trying to wave down a taxi, when a car pulled up and the driver offered me a lift.” She waited a beat. “It was Garrett.”
I let my head drop back and laughed. “Of course, it was! The one man in all the universe whom you didnotwant to see.”
“Right?” Sophie shook her head. “That was exactly what I told him.”
“You didn’t!” I wriggled in my seat. “Oh, Sophie, I’d have paid to see that! What did he say?”
“Essentially, he used my innate British terror of causing anyone inconvenience to force me into the car, and then we ended up getting caught in a terrible traffic snarl and having to stop for fish and chips.”
“Youhadto stop for fish and chips? He forced you to?” I couldn’t help teasing her.
“Well, my growling stomach did that for me, I suppose.” She threw up her hands. “That’s beside the point. In the course of our conversation over said fish and chips, Garrett told me a little more about himself.”
“Did he, now?” I grinned. “And let me guess. There’s more than intriguing tats and muscles on top of muscles to this enigmatic reporter.”
