Royalty Exposed

Chapter 26

After I had taken a shower and gotten dressed for the day, I decided that I wanted to go for a walk just to think about what had just happened and probably everything else that had happened since I had met Carter. No one had been waiting for me when I had come out of the bathroom and Emma hadn't been in my room when I went to get dressed. I found everyone in the kitchen, but no one asked me what had happened as I grabbed something to eat and then told them that I was going for a walk.

Since no one stopped or came after me, I figured that they all had decided to give me some space. Maybe they already knew what had happened with the queen. The walls of this house weren't exactly that thick. Voices could travel a bit as long as you weren't whispering or speaking in a low voice.

I left my house by exiting out through the back door after checking out the windows to make sure that there wasn't any paparazzi lurking about, waiting for someone to come out. They usually weren't behind the house since that was considered private property, but sometimes that wasn't always the case. It was why I always checked by looking out the windows just in case one of the paparazzi happened to be out there.

When I wanted to leave through the back of the house, it meant that I didn't want to be followed. And there was no way I was going to let any of the paparazzi find out that I snuck out of the house. Those were the only times that I could be alone without cameras flashing everywhere that I went.

"Miss Branson," I heard someone call my name when I had gotten across my backyard and onto the pathway which would lead me to many different places that I could hide out for awhile until I was ready to come back home. The voice belonged to a man, but I did not recognize it. I didn't think it was one of the paparazzi though. My picture would have been taken a hundred times already and they would have been in my face, asking questions about why the queen had visited.

When I turned around, I was shocked to see Carter's father standing there, alone. No royal guards and no wife, just him.

"May we talk?" he asked me.

"Yeah, sure. I was just going for a walk," I said.

"I don't mind joining you. It'll be nice to have a change of scenery. My walks all happen on the palace grounds," he replied walking over to me.

"That's fine with me. The pathway might be a little rougher than you're used to, but it's quiet out here and you hardly see anyone," I said smiling at him as we both started walking.

It was quiet for awhile after we had started walking so I took that chance to eat the bagel that I had grabbed. My stomach was growling and I didn't want to keep on carrying around the bagel for the whole entire walk. I didn't want to be the one to start the conversation anyways since I had no idea what to say to Carter's father. We had never had a conversation before and I was more curious to see why he wanted to talk to me now.

"I know that my wife paid you a visit just now. It's why I'm here, not because I wanted to talk to you about what she wanted to talk to you, but because it gave me a chance to get out of the palace. She would have just followed after me if she knew that I wanted to talk to you. My wife likes controlling things, as I'm sure you've figured out," the king said as I pointed him down a pathway that veered off in a different direction after we had walked less than halfway down the pathway that ran behind my house and couple others.

"I know this is probably rude of me to ask, but I'm too curious not to ask you. Why don't you stand up to her? You're the one who's really royalty. She's only royalty by marriage," I said watching his face carefully. He didn't seem surprised by my question.

"Because I used to be just like her, full of the sense that because I hold a title that I'm better than everyone else. That's how royals in my family were raised. Things changed though after Carter was old enough to start finding him a suitor. I don't know what it was but seeing all the choices that my wife was making for him, I wanted him to have something better. I wanted him to have what I never got. The chance to marry someone he fell in love with," he replied.