Page 46 of A Royal Obligation
“Oh, come on. Aren’t you dying to know Barrett’s secrets? All of his embarrassing stories?”
“Maybe a little.” She smirked at him.
He raised an eyebrow.
“Oh, all right, tell me about him when he was younger. Any embarrassing story will do.”
Liam proceeded to tell her about the Melanie situation, and she was wiping her eyes from laughing so hard at the end of the story.
“Poor Barrett. No wonder he gets clammed up trying to talk to women.”
“All of them except you,” Liam said with a shrug of his shoulders. Silence filled the car for a moment before Liam spoke again, “If you think that’s bad, wait until you hear about what we did to father’s crown.”
Jules turned to face Liam. “Now this I have to hear.”
“Barrett was eleven and I was eight, so we were young but old enough to know what we were doing. I dared him to steal father’s favorite crown—the one he received on his coronation day that has been passed down for generations. He didn’t like to back down from my challenges, so he stole it. But when we got back to my room, he tripped on my rug and dropped it.”
Jules’s eyes widened.
“It fell onto the ground, leaving a giant crack on one side and dislodging some of the jewels.” Liam’s lips pulled into a cheeky grin. “Father was furious, but mother just laughed and laughed at the fact that Barrett, of all people, had managed to sneak past all the guards to steal it.”
“I wouldn’t have expected Barrett to break the rules.” She let out a small laugh. “Did he get in trouble?” Jules asked.
“Barrett sold me out, telling our parents it was all my idea. Father handed us each a toothbrush and made us scrub all the latrines on the first floor.”
“Latrines?”
“You’ve never heard of a toilet before?”
“Not one ever referred to as a ‘latrine.’” She laughed.
Before she knew it, they were back at the palace and Liam teased Barrett until they were safely inside. She always wished she had a sibling growing up. And listening to the brothers banter back and forth, she couldn’t help but imagine what it would be like to have a brother-in-law who was as funny and charismatic as Liam.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Barrett
Ithadbeenafew days since they had visited the apple orchard, and Barrett still couldn’t get the image of Liam being close to Jules out of his mind. He knew there was nothing going on there, but that did nothing to calm the bile turning in his stomach at the image forever ingrained in his brain.
The fact that it was all he could think about revealed a lot to him. More than anything, it showed him that his feelings for Jules had grown more than he had intended. It seemed the more he tried to stifle his feelings, the stronger they came.
Barrett tried to push his thoughts aside. He couldn’t think about Jules right now. After getting dressed and putting on his coat, he headed to the waiting cars for their trip to the Brookside Winter Market. He had invited a larger entourage for this event and for the horseback ride later in the week.
He knew Charlotte well enough to know that she interacted well in large groups of people, but he wanted to see how she did with those he was around most often. A king needed a queen who could entertain at parties and handle her own amongst the King’s Council while also being a shoulder for him to lean on.
Even though it was now December, it wasn't too cold. With a coat and gloves, they would all be perfectly content walking through the booths.
After making his way to the cars, he could see everyone had already arrived. Liam and Charlotte were chatting by one of the SUVs while his cousin, Prince James, approached Jules. Behind all of them were a few prestigious members of his father’s council.
Barrett’s bodyguard approached him.
“All of the vehicles are prepared, Your Highness. Are you ready?”
“Yes, let’s depart. Thank you, Jackson.”
A short ride later, they arrived in downtown Brookside. Their drivers dropped them off on the main street that was flooded with vendors.
Their entourage split off into smaller groups, leaving Barrett, Liam, Charlotte, Jules, and James together.