Caught Between Two Princes

2019, March 4th

It seemed it had been pouring summer rain for months. In truth, it began only yesterday. Lady Zoey Arden's world had come together at last. Only yesterday he looked upon her as though nothing and no one could take him from her. Regardless of all the terrible things happening in the world, she could not but be happy. He had opened up her heart and not just for himself, but for everyone around her.

She would mend fences with her father, if only for the sake of the wedding. Her new life had given Zoey something she had never had before. Two somethings. A brother and a best friend. Bart held her hand as she stumbled through every situation since she arrived in Caines. She wanted to be useful to him. This marriage would remove the burden of the Arden claim to the throne from Bart's shoulders.

Knowing this made Zoey all the merrier that things had worked out for her and Aaron. After all, marriage was a sacred thing. This union had the power to change many lives but would define hers and Aaron's.

Smiling to herself, Zoey even contrived to be less sullen to Duchess Arden. For the present, she must remain the Duchess as Zoey could not yet spare her the kindness of endearment.

Lying on her bed, getting ready to call her mother, how was she to know that her life was about to change again? Zoey rolled over to smell the red roses on her bedside table. Aaron, her fiance, had had them sent over yesterday. The word fiance still made Zoey giddy.

As Zoey got lost in thought, Bart burst into her room, shut the laptop and grabbed her phone.

"Hey! I was about to call my mom," she complained.

His eyes gave way to something she had yet to see in them. Those ever problem-solving eyes. Zoey didn't know what it was, but she found it unsettling.

"Pack for a few days. I have to get you out of here."

He was stern and his tone, though always somewhat imposing, now held urgency in it. She grabbed at his sleeve.

"What is it? What's wrong Bart?"

"Now Zo!" he yelled, marching over to her window to close the curtains.

She jumped up and started packing. Moments later, Duke Arden thundered up the stairs. Heavy feet walked the hallway leading to the door of her room.

"What is this!" Duke Arden boomed.

He shoved his tablet into Zoey's hands. She looked down at the headline.

Heated Royal Elevator Kiss.

Zoey was dumbstruck. She scrolled down hastily. They had been careful not to display affection in public. This couldn't be. Her mind was racing. When had they been this negligent and how much trouble would this commotion stir?

Then she saw it and her heart stopped. Her brain stopped trying to pinpoint the moment the photo was taken. It was the last thing she wanted to know. She felt Bart's thumbs on her cheeks and heard the whoosh of a sigh leave his body.

"We have to go Zo," Bart said, more gently this time as he wiped away the tears.

"Go?" Duke Arden started. "After causing such an uproar you would have her run off somewhere? She must issue a public apology for making such as spectacle—"

"She must do nothing," Bart interrupted.

Bart's tone was firm. He did not usually speak to his father this way.

Then again, Duke Arden did not know what he thought he knew. And Bart, himself enraged, had only enough patience to be swift.

She would want some time and she would not get it here. He hardly knew how they would spin this one, but this he could do for her. He could buy her some time.

It was over for them and Bart would not let her think otherwise a second time. Not when he had gone against his instincts the first time and allowed her to be swayed.

Zoey heard them going back and forth about what to do, but she couldn't move. Had Aaron done this? On the night of their engagement?

She knew there wasn't time for this, but all she could do was fall apart. It hit her what he had done once more and she wished that she could unknow it.

"We're leaving. Forgive me, father," Bart said in parting, having finished the packing.

"I cannot understand you. This isn't like you at all. They are getting married. It's the 21st century. This may cause some embarrassment, but people will understand. You are being too protective."

"If you do think so, then you must truly not understand. She will be safe, this I promise you."

Bart took Zoey's hand and led her through the hallways she had now become accustomed to. Down the endless staircase and past his mother, who had no doubt come to the same conclusion his father had. There was no time. He would reveal it to them later, or someone would. Right now, they had to go.

(Elsewhere in Caines)

Forest green eyes. Soft, jet-black hair. A body made to look good in anything and a face chiselled by a higher power. These were the attributes of Duke James Beaumont. When he walked into a room, he made it difficult not to stare.

Add to this his fortune and it was no wonder Duke Beaumont was well-liked, despite not liking many people.

James could afford this luxury. Corporations from around the world knocked on his door in want of doing business with Copia. Famed for being a separate entity from the crown, Copia's people wanted for nothing. What they could not make themselves, they imported. That was the extent to which Copia had allowed anything past its borders in the last five years.

Newly a duke at age 26, His Grace's mother, Lady Cassandra Beaumont, was adamant that he marry. To her delight, he agreed.

He allowed himself to be confident that he might have Lady Emily Maine as his wife. The couple had gotten engaged. Despite her father needing persuasion, after seven years of friendship, it finally happened.

James convinced himself that this was his due. Now titled, he was her family's equal. His rival had proposed to another woman. This meant that they were in the clear and he might at last love whomever he wanted. How wrong he had been.

He knew the whole of it without needing confirmation. James Beaumont was such a sort of man. Though he could hardly predict how people would behave, rarely surprised by them.

James stared at the monitor, looking at the title millions had read by now. As he scrutinised the photograph everyone had seen by now, James felt his heart break one more time. It was so familiar a sensation that he almost didn't feel it anymore. Or maybe he deceived himself into thinking so. He didn't know.

He knew only what he saw. Caught in the embrace of the engaged Prince Aaron. Their lips were locked. The photo captured her in a coat. It was nighttime. Aaron's body and dishevelled clothes covered her. The lighting in the elevator was poor. These factors contributed to the woman in the photo being mistaken for Lady Zoey Arden. James knew better. He would know Emily anywhere.

Both women were blonde, attending a masquerade ball. It wasn’t such a stretch. Besides, who could imagine them doing something so stupid at Aaron's engagement ball?

James understood all too well what would happen now. The houses of Arden and Condor were already on poor terms. The House of Arden must know about the prince's betrayal by now or soon would.

It would be all about reaction and politics and the dormant feud flaring back up between the two houses. And they were both, King Henry and Duke Arden, merciless men.

Terres Somnia's darkest hour might come soon after all and there might be war. How could Aaron be this reckless? Couldn't he at least have been discreet if he had to revert to a past hubris at such a crucial time?

With one more sip of whiskey to wash down the heartache, James called for his car. He had to leave before his father found him and tried to manipulate him. He knew about the scandal that had resulted in Aaron's fiancee being born the bastard child of Duke Arden. Having been labelled a bastard before, James thought of the girl from Rosa. She would not be treated kindly.

He remembered how he'd spent his childhood being hidden away by his parents. Only to have to go on the run five years ago when The King's Guard came after him and his mother. He recently re-emerged into noble society. That too, not as his father's son, but as the infamous Duke of Copia.

With his grandfather Duke Byron's death, James came back under his mother's maiden name. He risked his now peaceful life to do so. He had done this for Emily. She who had long held his heart. Had he then not enough of hers to prevent this?

She claimed to always love him, but things were always somewhat up in the air between her and Aaron. Still, James had let go of his reservations. In return, she betrayed him.

As he drove down the quiet streets of Caines, he thought about her again. This girl whose golden locks smelled of her innocence. James met Zoey at CC's last birthday ball. And though he was spoken for, he was only a man. There was no denying her beauty.

As time went on and James caught up with Aaron, it became clear that Aaron intended to marry Zoey. Unusual as it was for Aaron to take orders, he seemed so taken with her. James was certain he had let go of his attachment to Emily. How idiotic of him, to make plans for a life based on Aaron's words instead of his actions.

Zoey's big, round, bright, sparkling hazel eyes lit up by her smile would not leave him.

Then suddenly, they were before him again. She was staring out the window of a car in the lane next to his. Her eyes filled to the brim with tears and devastation. They looked as he felt. Life on the run had taught him that his survival had to come first, but the urge to protect was strong as he looked at her.

It was like looking in a mirror. In a moment, he went mad. Being in the public eye would wreck his mother. He didn't need to be part of this war. To disappear again was wise. Yes, it made no sense and yet he could not stop the impulse to stop hiding and help her.

James told himself he was out of his mind as he cut the other car off on the quiet streets of Caines. Zoey started. Bart glared and even bared his teeth in a low, threatening growl.

And if James hadn't had the night he had had, seen the things he had seen, he might've turned back and gone home to pack. But he had seen the fruits of his faith in Aaron and Emily. He had laid eyes on her again. Those innocent eyes would haunt him forever if he didn't get out of the car.

He meant to be thinking of Emily, but Emily's face now brought him pain. Was it so bad that the girl in front of him quieted the dull ache in his heart?

Cautious not to make any sudden moves, he got out of the car and raised his hands in the air as if in surrender.

"Move Beaumont!" Bart yelled, sticking his head out of the window.

The words may as well not have been said, because he was looking at only her. This time she looked back too.

Their eyes met and in a moment Zoey's body heated up. She'd been cold, numbed by the image of Aaron kissing another woman. More than kissing for all she knew.

Those greener than green eyes drew her in until there was nothing but him. His pain, his anguish. They were all so familiar. It comforted her.

When Zoey looked away, James found he could speak again. Bartholomew, being privy to the details of James' upbringing, was justified in his suspicion. James' mouth moved on its own.

"I wish to speak to the lady if she will allow it," said James.

"This is neither the time nor the place, Beaumont. The lady—"

"Will speak with you," she whispered, almost too softly to be heard.

Still, James heard. So focused was he on her. Bart drew his fingers through his hair as he contemplated what to do. He gave Zoey a look before he got out of the car and went over to her side of the car to open her door.

"Five minutes," Bart said to James as he watched Zoey walk over to James' car.

Bart turned his head to his sister.

"I will be right here," Bart promised, folding his arms and leaning against the hood of his car.

Zoey smiled at him and nodded. Why Duke Beaumont wanted to talk to her was another puzzle to be added to the mystery that was him.

After some hesitation, Zoey got into James' car. It wasn't that they were acquaintances at best that unsettled her. It was how familiar he continued to seem despite it. This thought nagged at her.

"What is it you wish to discuss?" she asked.

It snuck up on her. Perhaps she had made a poor decision agreeing to speak with him. The familiar feeling was almost painful.

What was James doing? Even he didn't entirely know. This was new for him. James Beaumont knew which companies he wanted to do business with. What clothes he would buy when he walked into a store. He knew how to solve a problem before it had been reported to him. What he didn't know was what he was doing in a car with Aaron's fiancee. Especially on a night like tonight, when they were both sure to be missed.

He watched her fidget. She played with her fingers, looking for all the world like she would burst into tears at any moment. For the second time in his life and that night, James' mouth worked faster than his brain.

"Marry me."

The words came out, and he wished them unsaid the next moment. Her large, vulnerable, hazel eyes grew even bigger.

"I'm sorry, what did you just say?"

The words continued to flow, as though without permission.

"Marry me tonight," he said, "and I will protect you."