So really, I thought as I struggled to hold everything together that week, they had no idea.
My parents, my grandmother and my sisters had arrived en masse ten days ago, and they were all staying on one floor at a nearby hotel. For security reasons, that floor had been cleared for their use, and my sisters were excited about the novelty of exclusivity.
“Every time we go up to our room, a security guard goes with us in the elevator. It’s crazy,” Bria reported.
“And in the lobby, it’s like people know who we are. Like we’re celebrities.” Lisel laughed. “We’re getting a taste of your world, Ky.”
Honey was having the time of her life, too. She and my mother had been to Buckingham Palace to have tea with the Queen and Nicky’s mother, the Duchess of Westhampton, and they’d also been escorted to several tourist spots in London ... including the Tower.
Although I had been busy beyond belief, I’d insisted on taking the time to accompany Honey to the Tower, both of us making the trip in honor of Handsome.
“Do you think somehow he knows that we’re here for him?” I leaned with Honey against a stone wall, watching the famous black birds strut around the lawn.
“Oh, absolutely.” Honey smiled. “I know he’s here with us. I don’t have any doubts.” She covered my hand, where it rested on the edge of the wall, with her own. “Do you think he’d miss your wedding, sweetheart? Nothing, including death, could keep him from being here in spirit.”
I blinked back tears. “I hope he knows how much I miss him.”
“We all do.” Honey sniffed. “Though I will say, if he were here in body, he’d be bossing all of us around within an inch of our lives and telling us where we should go and how we should get there.”
“That’s true,” I laughed. “And we’d all be allowing it.”
“Ah.” My grandmother gave a little kick as one of the ravens wandered a bit too close to us for her comfort. “Kyra, I’m happy to see that you seem a little more settled now. A little less anxious, even during this very stressful week. I take things have smoothed out with the Palace?”
“I think so.” I sighed and lifted my face to the sun. “It helped that I found the Tottenham Gardens and begun to put together that program to be my platform. It’s a perfect fit for me. I’ve settled into a comfortable routine balancing both engagements and work at Honey Bee, and the staff at the Palace have begun to trust me just a little bit. They had to eat a healthy helping of humble pie when it came out that the leak was actually Aline’s assistant, and not someone who worked at Honey Bee.” I smirked. “It also helps that I haven’t done any other interviews.”
Honey laughed. “You’re drawing your own boundaries, sweetheart. Good for you. You’ve found love, and with him, you’re establishing the right life for both of you. And I won’t pretend that I wasn’t ridiculously proud when I saw you just now outside the Tower, shaking hands and greeting the crowd as though you were to the palace born. You were so confident and relaxed—and most of all, you were yourself. How could they help but fall in love with you? I think, Kyra, it’s safe to say that you’ve taken London. What’s next?”
I exhaled and grinned. “I don’t know. What’s left? The world?”
“Maybe so.” Honey stood up and stretched her back. “Which reminds me that you are on a schedule that doesn’t allow too much time for long sentimental chats with your old grandmother. You have things to do. A final fitting for your gown. The rehearsal at St. George’s. Parties galore. Getting ready for a wedding that’s going to be broadcast around the globe.”
My stomach turned over, and I grimaced. “On second thought, maybe this princess-to-be isn’t quite ready to take on the world.”
“Ky, where’s my robe?” Nicky shouted down the steps to me, as though I might not hear him within the cozy walls of our little cottage.
I frowned. “You have a robe? I’ve never seen it. What does it look like? And why do you need it?”
He appeared at the top of the stairs, peering down at me. “It’s blue—royal blue, actually—and I haven’t worn it in a long time. But I need it at Windsor, because I’m going to be staying with my family, and they frown on me showing up for breakfast in my boxers or nothing at all.”
“Well, in my opinion, they’re missing out,” I replied with a saucy wink. “As for your robe, I have no earthly idea. Maybe check the closet where we moved all the clothes you didn’t want in our bedroom after I moved in?”
“Oh, good thinking. I’ll go look.” Nicky began to walk away and then stopped. “By the way, I heard from Granny’s secretary today. The final choice for our title has been made. Do you want to hear it?”
I clung to the newel post and gazed up at him with wide eyes. “Of course, I do! Are you kidding? This is only how I’m going to be known for the rest of my life—how history will remember me! Tell me. Did Her Majesty go with Leeds?”
“No, actually, as of our wedding day, I will be the Duke of Kendal. And if you show up at St. George’s as planned and say the right words, you’ll leave the church as Her Royal Highness, the Duchess of Kendal.”
I tried the title out in my head. “Kyra, Duchess of Kendall. Hmm. I think I like it. Did the Queen tell you why she chose that one?”
Nicky chuckled. “She had her secretary send a very lengthy explanation, along with a history of the title—the note says, ‘Because Kyra will find this interesting.’ See, my grandmother is already impressed with your love of history.”
“Oh, I can’t wait to read it. To be honest, I’m just relieved and grateful that Her Majesty granted you a dukedom. Otherwise, I’d have been known as the Princess Nicholas, and that just felt wrong.”
“Darling, you know they’d all call you Princess Ky even though that would never be your title.” Nicky rolled his eyes. “But the Duchess part should forestall that.”
I thought about it for a moment as he went in search of his robe. When he didn’t appear again within a few minutes, I jogged up the steps and found him in our extra bedroom, digging through a box.
“Did you find it?”
