Thanks everybody for hanging in there with me, back from vacation and ready to continue. Thanks to my editor, I appreciate their time and effort. Thanks to you guys that are reading and commenting and voting for my story, I appreciate your time and effort too. EMD
Naomi sat in her Father's study as he paced around the room looking pensive and angry. The royal family's publicist and one of the ministers of the House of Gentry were both sitting also looking at her Father as he paced. She knew them both, the publicist, Sheila Graham was originally from New York and usually boisterous, always with something to say. Minister Killian was part of the Foreign Relations Ministry, why he was here, she wasn't sure. She'd been summoned the Sunday morning after her arrival back in Bocara to her Father's office. He was mad, angrier than she'd ever seen him. If he could turn red, he would have, but he couldn't so he just breathed deeply. It looked as if he was trying to calm himself down before he spoke. This would be first time she'd spoken to him at any length since her arrival back from Germany.
"Naomi, I must first express my deep disappointment at your actions in Germany," he said in an even but hard tone.
'Oh no' Naomi thought, not the disappointment speech, she hated this one. He could have slapped her and it would have been easier. The disappointment speech just rendered her so guilt ridden she could barely show her face in public.
King Milo stepped to the side of Naomi's chair and looked down at her, meaning to intimidate her and it was certainly working well. His dark eyes held anger but more than that they held disappointment at the poor choices she had made during her holiday. He sighed deeply his chest heaving, his head was down and his eyes closed. He was attempting to gain his composure, she wasn't a five year old anymore, but she felt like one. He was trying to treat her as any adult in his cabinet and royal household when they made a mistake, but she was his daughter and he loved her and wanted her to be happy. He could never quite understand why she always seemed so eager to snub her nose at being a royal. She played her role as Princess very well, but he knew she wasn't always happy about the life they led. She wouldn't dare say it out loud but sometimes he knew she would brood silently and especially when she did things like this that were passive aggressive to show her feelings about this life. He knew it was difficult to be a royal since as a young man, he had also had troubles with his fate but by the time he was her age he had accepted that this was his life and there was no getting out of it. It had been his fate and duty to be king of Bocara Island, he just couldn't understand why Naomi seemed bent on railing against this duty. He could see her out of the corner of his eye, she was scared, but the look on her face still held a hint of defiance. 'I'll be darned' he thought to himself she was him as a young man, all bravado with no sense of duty. Well, she must learn her duty and she will learn it now.
"This stunt you pulled during your holiday has shamed our country and the royal household deeply. I must say, I know you have better sense than this Naomi, to lie to me about the goings on in Germany, to sneak off with some commoner, a white American of all things. We have been making calls, asking for favors hoping to get this news to simmer down and not go into full scandal mode, but it's already close." He chose that time to look at her with hard eyes and Naomi just stared up, she knew not to look away when her Father spoke it would be her downfall.
"Do you have anything to say for yourself, Naomi?" it was more of a rhetorical question because no matter what she said there was no way to explain this away.
"No, sir."
"I am trying to ease tensions between us and the Duke and Duchess of Endlemen who are threatening to call off the royal engagement."
In her mind, Naomi was thinking she would have been relieved if she could get this engagement called off, but she knew the handlers would smooth that over and it would still take place.
"They are thoroughly embarrassed and are not pleased thinking that their son may be marrying a princess without purity."
"What?" Naomi almost shouted, she couldn't believe it, that tramp son of theirs, and they had the audacity to besmirch her reputation.
Her Father's eyes flashed fire at her, "What did you say? You have no right to be upset with anyone at this moment young lady. Your mother and I have to put up with the insinuations and gossip about our household and our own daughter running wild as a buck in Germany. Now is not the time for any more foolishness from you Naomi. We will go through with this engagement as planned at the end of the Festival of Feasts and you will be there for all the celebrations and you will stand, be cordial and polite and wave and keep your bloody mouth shut. Do you understand me?" his voice was rose as he gave the speech.
Naomi knew now was not the time to try out her newfound bravery, "Yes, sir I understand"
"Minister Killian and I will be giving a press conference tomorrow. You will be there. Ms. Graham will be preparing a statement for you to make. You will be apologizing most profusely in it and begging for mercy and forgiveness of the Bocaran people. Do you understand?"
Naomi looked over at Minister Killian and Ms. Graham, who both looked liked they wanted to be somewhere else.
"Yes, I understand."
"You have embarrassed this country and this family enough with this stupid dalliance of yours. It is unbelievable that you did not think beyond your own selfish desires and what this would do to your country and our reputation as the monarchy. I don't know if I can trust you now."
In her ears her father sounded so sad, she was sad too because the time she had spent with Douglas had been way more than a stupid dalliance. But she knew her father would never understand that she had fallen in love with this commoner, this white guy from America, who had the sweetest ocean blue eyes that turned stormy grey when he was full of passion, and tousled brown hair and who kissed her like she was the only thing that mattered to him. She could feel tears welling up in her eyes as her Father dismissed her from his office. She left silently, she knew in a few hours she'd be receiving the speech from Ms. Graham, words that would leave her empty and grim. She didn't want to apologize for falling in love. As she walked to the back of the palace and out to the outer grounds she let the tears fall. None of this was right or fair, she loved him and knew he loved her too but she was about to become engaged to a man she hardly knew and didn't want to know any better. She ran to the gardens and sat on her favorite bench. It was an old wooden bench with many names and sayings that had been craved into it over the years. She used to come out here in her childhood when she needed to think and to look among the beautiful tropical blooms of her island and let her mind wander. She wasn't sure what to do, she had turned something good into something tragic and now she couldn't take it back. She'd still been trying to contact Douglas off and on but he didn't answer her calls or return any of her e-mails. She put her head in her hands and just cried because she was trapped and she couldn't get out. She was never going to be happy no matter what she did she'd just have to be Princess Naomi, there was no self, only her country and her duty to it.
Doug hadn't been sleeping and tonight wasn't any different. Naomi had been calling and sending e-mails but his pride couldn't let him talk to her. It was too much, the pain was too deep or maybe it was just his ego at having been made a dumbass by some woman again. But although he felt so much anger at what she had done, he'd been keeping up with what was going on with her on her island. He'd seen that she'd given a press conference a few days ago to apologize and ask for forgiveness for her mistake. Was that what he was, a mistake on her way to the altar. It also looked like she was still about to get engaged to some guy that looked like he had been dropped from a bad pimp movie, his name was Randolph. 'Who names someone Randolph' Doug mused and he was as arrogant as he seemed distant. Doug could tell that he didn't love Naomi and she sure didn't love him. His words in the news were dismissive and hurtful towards her all the while trying to seem heartbroken at her supposed betrayal. But from what Doug had read about him he was an around the world playboy, seen with many women of every color imaginable on his arm. 'What a dickhead' he thought and she has to marry this asshole. Even she didn't deserve this kind of life, one with a husband that has no respect for her or her family.
He was mad but at the same time he was sad at the possibility of what they could have had with each other. He knew he felt sad because he loved her and something in him told him that she loved him. During the press conference she looked so lost, so sad, he saw it in her face and wondered why no one else noticed as they bombarded her with camera lights and shouted invasive questions at her. She had been gracious and elegant just as royalty should be but he could see in those beautiful coffee colored eyes that she was sad, almost like she'd been knocked out for the count.
He lay in his bed missing her, it was the middle of the night and he couldn't sleep, he kept dreaming of her. Her face, those beautiful soft full lips, that smooth sweet body that fit so perfectly with his own and those delicate hands that had caressed his body with such tenderness. He missed having her in his bed beside him although she'd never been in this bed, it still didn't seem right not to have her right beside him. Doug turned over and ran his hand over the pillow and closed his eyes to continue his fitful night of sleep.
The next day at work, he was in the lab testing some cultures he'd received regarding a possible strain of whooping cough.
