Page 6 of Reign or Shine
“And the fancy bits are?”
“His Royal Excellence Lord Henry Cragnoor, 12th Earl of Caledonia.”
Ellie’s eye close. Taking a deep breath, she slowly begins to nod her head. I feel knot of tension in my gut easing slightly, believing that’s she processing this new information and coming to terms with it.
The relief that she doesn’t care about my title is refreshing, I want to shout my excitement. I want to…oh no.
I barely register what’s happening she moves so fast. From one elated blink to the next disbelieving one, Ellie has grabbed her phone and made a dash for the suite doors.
“Wait! Ellie, please let me explain—” But she’s gone before I finish my sentence. My guards enter the room, blocking my way and slamming the door behind them as they look for threats around me. The only threat to my sanity and my heart ran out of the room seconds before.
“Lord Cragnoor, are you all right?”
My resolve finally breaks with that, frustration buzzing through every vein in my body.
“Damn it, Jonas, I told you to call me Henry. None of this Lord crap.”
I can feel rather than see both my guards giving each other a look of shock. I rarely lose my cool. But Ellie, my God, in the brief time I’ve known her, been around her, she’s thrown me off my axis.
She’s thrown me right off the cliff and left me free-falling with the knowledge that she’s the something special I’ve been looking for.
Running a hand through my hair, I turn back to my men.
“I need all the information you can get on that woman.” When neither of them makes a move I let out an exasperated breath. “Now, please,” I state, waving my hand.
They both grab their phones and get to work.
Chapter Three
Ellie
Keep smiling. Just keep smiling.
I repeated this mantra in my head, trying not to break character.
On one hand, smiles were easy since I was surrounded by a bunch of kids who were twirling with me. On the other hand, I had zero doubts that Henry was watching me.
Was I even allowed to call him Henry in my head? Or did it always have to start with Lord? Or Earl?
Crap, it didn’t matter. After the complete mess up on my part upstairs, there was no way we’d find each other alone in another room. We’d probably never exchange another word.
Urg, why did that make me feel awful?
My traitorous eyes flick up and over the kids’ heads to the far side of the lawn. Henry was standing with three other men. All of them where in similar suits. All of them were stupid good looking but none of them looked as handsome as Henry did. And his eyes were on me, like I predicted.
I quickly look away, only to gaze back at him seconds later. I couldn’t help myself. He had me mesmerized.
While I was still completely embarrassed that I had waltzed into a royal’s suite like I owned the place and peppered Henry with questions, wanting a professional’s help to prepare for the party, he hadn’t made me feel dumb. At no point did he try to correct me or make me feel like the help I was asking for was a bother.
Should I have picked up on more of his confusion at the beginning? Absolutely. Yet, I couldn’t be blamed for that. No man should be blessed with looks like Henry—and with a kind heart to boot.
I had this insane urge to run my hands through his hair and grab one of his curls, pulling and releasing to see if it’s just as bouncy and silky as it looks.
I’d never seen a man pull of a sash as well as Henry was rocking his today. Damn, that just should not be legal. Royalty bending the rules again.
“Yo, Rapunzel. Earth to Rapunzel,” a voice calls softly.
Shaking out of my man-trance, I jump back into action, slapping a huge smile on my face and joining my hands together in a gentle clasp. My eyes land on a chicken standing beside me.