Her other siblings.
Or maybe none of the above and it was a spam call.
Her luck couldn't be that good, could it?
Victoria pulled her phone out just enough to see she who she wasn't going to talk to.
She'd been in front of a hotel when she'd been cornered by the press. She'd used the lobby to facilitate her escape.
No one, with the probable exception of Cap, knew how long she'd been in the capital city of Caledania. A couple of hotel staff members knew but she paid well for their discretion. She'd chosen this hotel for a reason.
Finally at her suite, she let out a sigh of relief as she sank against the freshly closed door.
"You couldn't have said something a little less potentially awkward?"
As far as anyone else would know, there wasn't supposed to be anyone in her suite, but the male voice didn't surprise her. Neither did the amusement in his tone.
"I don't know. It just came out." Her eyes remained closed.
"I get that you felt you had to say something but engaged?"
"Please don't." Her words were barely audible. For the first time, hot tears began to form behind her eyelids.
A gentle tug on her hand pulled her forward until her forehead rested on his chest. His hand came around to rubbed up and down on her back.
"What do I do now? How do I fix this?"
"I don't know. It's possible your brother's surgery will overshadow it enough that no one will notice."
Her head snapped up and searched his eyes for reassurance. "Surgery? Which brother? Ricky is the only one that might be a big enough story to eclipse my alleged engagement.”
“He’s fine. Appendectomy. They were able to do it at the palace, not even the hospital. He and the queen have returned to a bungalow near the Queen Mother’s residence.”
Victoria breathed a sigh of relief, but totally different from the one a moment earlier.
“But it won’t hold the press back forever,” he went on. “Someone will pick up on it as soon as they’re assured the king is on the path to recovery. Everyone will want to know who you’re engaged to, when the wedding is, where you’ve been, and why you’ve avoided royal responsibilities for so long.”
“I know.” Victoria walked away from him, toward the kitchenette on the other side of the room. She opened the refrigerator and reached in to grab a fizzy water. “Maybe there’s a way to make it go away.”
“I doubt it.”
Her phone rang again. Another glance at the screen told her she didn’t want to answer it, but knew the longer she put it off, the worse it would be.
She swiped across the screen. “Hello, Mum.”
“Victoria, what’s this I hear from the PR department? You’re engaged?”
Taking the fizzy water with her, Victoria flopped onto the sofa in the living area. “I’m not engaged, Mum. It just sort of... happened. They asked one question after another, and I thought just agreeing with them would be the best way to get them to go away. I didn’t even realize they’d asked if I was engaged until after I’d confirmed it.”
“Victoria.” Her mum’s word was more like a sigh, a frustrated sigh.
“I know.”
“We’ll have to put out a retraction as soon as it really hits the media. So far, your brother’s surgery is still the lead story, but it won’t be long until someone pushes this to the forefront. We need to meet with the PR team as soon as possible.”
We.
Victoria hadn’t felt like part of awein years - if ever.
