“She invited me to Hadsby Castle for the spring.About eight weeks.Or however long I can spare.Everyone in the family will be gone from May through June and she wants support for the spring season out of Hadsby Castle.”Scottie had texted her for more details as she mulled the invitation.“She’s still struggling with GBS and asked if I’d come for the Garden Party, stay a while, attend the Rose Ball.She wants to give me a title.Lady Royal Blue.”
Dad shifted in the saddle and stared into the horizon.Dart stamped and snorted as if he sensed the tension.“What’d you say?”he said after another tick-tock of silence.
“I’d think about it.Talk to you.”
“It sounds like you want to go.”
“I do.In fact, I’m going.I already called her.”
“I see,” Dad looked over at her.“Scottie, we run a business.This is not like the college semester you wanted to spend abroad.What about the winter line?Your staff?I assume you’ve made provisions for all of this.Don’t tell me you’re presenting this grand exit without a plan.”
He was upset.But not as much as she expected.
“I have a plan.I’ve jotted down things.”
Dad scoffed.
“I’ll have a plan.You know I will.I’m sorry I didn’t confirm with you first.But the more I thought about her invitation, nothing else seemed to matter.Dad, I have a mom.I want to know her.I’ve tried to put it off, tell myself it’s too late, that I’m grown.She’s married with two sons and grandchildren.Yet I think about her all the time.I miss her.I’m restless.I lose focus during the day.I stare out my office window toward the east wondering what the Blues are doing.What if the GBS complicates Kate’s health and I can’t spend time with her?What if she dies?”
“She’s too stubborn to die.”
“I want to know my mother, Dad.”
“I know.I wanted you to have a mom when you were little.”Dad spurred Nova toward the barn.“I dated a few good women who’d have made good moms, but I couldn’t see any of them raising Kate’s girl.A real-life princess.I decided it was my task alone, and I loved every minute of it.”
“Wanting to know Kate doesn’t change anything about us, Dad.We’re the two musketeers for life.Maybe I didn’t have a mom, but so many of my classmates didn’t have dads.They were jealous of me.They thought I was lucky.”
“I was telling Remi about the day I was late to your fourth-grade class party, rushing with my box of smashed Haven’s cupcakes.Gracie Welch asked in the loudest possible voice, ‘Where’s your mom, Scottie?Everyone has a mom.’”Dad looked over at her.“You just stood there, tears in your eyes, and for the first time in your life, I knew I wasn’t enough.I felt completely helpless.I couldn’t fix the fact that your mother was four thousand miles away, raising her two princes, preparing to rule a small island kingdom.”
“Dad, you and Shug, and Fritz…you were the best trio.I have zero regrets.Best childhood ever.But now I know… Now I have a chance to know my mother.Who I thought was dead until I was thirty-five.”
“What was the reporter’s name who broke the story?”
“Leslie Ann Parker.”Her name was forever burned into Scottie’s psyche.“I’m not asking for repentance or for explanations or to change the past.I understand why Kate left me with you.For thirty-five years it was your secret.But now it’s my story.It’s up to me to change my future.I want to go to Lauchtenland, which surprises me, excites me, and scares me.Eight weeks, Dad.Then I’m back and all yours.You can take those afternoons for the golf course.”
Scottie was eight when Dad fed her the “truth” about her mother, his supposed high school sweetheart named Brenda Luck.They married young but shortly after Scottie was born, she died.When and where, how, he never said.They never visited her grave or her people.There were no pictures, no memories shared, or love stories told.When Scottie learned the actual truth, that she was the secret daughter of the Queen of Lauchtenland, Dad defended the simplicity of his three-decades-old story.
“Simple kept the lie straight for us.”
“So you’re going?”Dad said.“To become a princess?”
“No, not a princess.Just as a daughter.The title is Kate’s idea.I won’t be an HRH.I’ll be back before you know it.O’Shay Shirts is my future kingdom.Who knows, this break might stir my creativity as well as establish new business connections in Europe.”
“I don’t want to lose you, Scottie.You’re my girl.Your grandmother used to say when you were out of earshot, ‘They best not ever come for her.She’s ours.’Made me wonder if she knew something I didn’t.”
“You’ll never lose me, Dad.You gave up everything for me.Kate will never replace you.As for Shug, my grandmother drama queen is also irreplaceable.I was the daughter she never had.”
As the sun set, the air cooled, the shadows deepened, and Scottie and Dad paused at the top of a knoll.
“When you were sixteen and Kate wanted to send you a gown she’d once worn, I knew then the dam had cracked.She’d never reached out before.”Dad sat back with ease as Nova headed down a hill.“So, what’s your plan?”he asked over his shoulder.“Work from Lauchtenland?Do you really want to be Lady Royal Blue?”
“I’ve talked with Matteo and the team.I’ll make it all formal next week.Jack can handle the marketing without me.There’s always email and Zoom if I’m needed, but I want to be present for Kate.I want to explore Lauchtenland.”Scottie tightened her grip on Dart’s reins.“Matteo can steer the winter line through the final phases once I approve the designs.I’ll check the tech packs when I get back.There’s time.”
“When do you leave?”There was a calm resolve in Dad’s voice.
“End of April.She’d like me there before the May eighth Garden Party.”
“Then let’s cancel the movie and finalize this plan of yours over dinner.The board won’t like this, but—”
