The Surprise Princess (22 page)

His mouth twisted. “When this started what I wanted was for her to be Katie Davis for sure and for good.” Now he knew too much to hope that. “Now, I find myself hoping it gives her— I was going to say answers. That’s not right. Because she thinks she
has
the answers. It’s not even different answers. It’s… A shakeup. She needs a shakeup in order to start seeing straight. To see herself.”

“A shakeup?” Hunter frowned.

“Like I got when C.J. suspended me sophomore year because of my grades. I thought I had things figured out. C.J. and Carolyn had other ideas. They decided I could do more, want more, and get away with a whole lot less. They’d been saying that, but I hadn’t been listening. It took the jolt of being suspended and not getting to do what I liked best in the world to open me up to a new view.”

“Well, if she truly is Princess Josephine-Augusta, she’s going to get one heck of a shakeup,” Hunter said.

Hunter and April were with Brad, finishing breakfast at one end of the long table when Katie came down. She hadn’t slept well. She kept being awakened by dreams. Of Brad.

Of what they’d started. In her dreams it hadn’t been unfinished.

As Katie ate, April explained that Leslie and Grady had dropped her and Hunter off so their foursome could get an early start.

After farewells and thanks to the Tanners, they headed into historic Charlottesville in the rental car.”Where’s the church where you’re going to be married?” Katie asked April.

“Oh, you’ll see that Saturday. We’ll look around The Lawn and Rotunda on campus – you know Jefferson designed the University of Virginia — then we’ll widen the circle. First to Montpelier – that’s the Madisons’ house. Do you know about Dolley? She’s really fun. Then Monticello for the Jeffersons. We’ll finish up at Highland. Later owners called it Ash Lawn, but when the Monroes were there it was Highland. “

“You talk like you know these people,” Brad said.

“She does.” Hunter grinned. “Just wait. Hey, I almost forgot.” He dug into a pocket. “Special delivery’s part of our super fast-track service. So you know you have it for the basketball team’s trip.”

The sealed envelope Hunter held out to her was a little larger than a passport.

She thanked him and slipped it into her purse. She couldn’t help looking toward Brad. But he didn’t meet her gaze. He was looking at her purse.

Katie had had a lovely day and she was certain April had, too. The guys had gotten their fun from arguing at dinner who would have made a better basketball player – Jefferson or Monroe. Madison was let out of the running because he was too short.

Now the four of them were back in the rental car, with Brad driving toward Washington by the same route they’d come.

“This is the way Grady directed you, huh?” Hunter commented from the back seat.

From the corner of her eye, Katie thought she saw April poke him. But she’d been preparing to look out her side window – to ensure she wasn’t looking at Brad when they passed the entrance to Tanner Inn – so she couldn’t be sure.

Brad’s next words convinced her
he
hadn’t been thinking about last night at the inn. “You’ve got a reservation to fly back home Sunday afternoon, don’t you, Katie?”

“Yes.”
Why
? Buzzed in her head, but she didn’t speak it.

“So tomorrow’s the last day you could have the DNA test here.”

She breathed slow and even. Once, twice, a third time. “I could have the test in Ashton, couldn’t I, Hunter?”

“Yes.”

“It’s not now or never,” she said to Brad’s profile.

“You told that man back in March that you’d make up your mind by now whether to take it or not. There’s nothing keeping you from taking it now.” He shot her a glance, holding her gaze for a flash before returning his attention to the road. “With the basketball office, I mean.”

He didn’t mean that at all and they both knew it. He meant now that a passport in her married name – his name — had come through.

Was he tired of this charade? Want his freedom? She couldn’t blame him. How unfair of her to hold on to him this way.

Thanks to Brad and the passport, she had the safety of knowing she could return home to Ashton, no matter what. That’s what held her back. Only that. So, as Brad said, there was nothing keeping her from taking a DNA test now.

She looked out the passenger window again, chewing on her lip. There’d been something else in what Brad said…
That man
– not King Jozef, not the king, but
that man
. A man who’d lost his family and had a right to know … whatever there was to know.

“I’ll take the test as soon as you can arrange it, Hunter.”

She heard April release a breath. She thought Brad sucked one in.

Hunter said, “I want you to be clear about this, Katie. There might not be a slam dunk answer. The most likely result is a sliding scale of probability, not anything like a certainty.”

“You already warned me, Hunter. That first afternoon at Bette and Paul’s house.”

“Listen to it again, because I’ve got to be sure you know there’s little chance this will bring you a definitive answer. If the test hits one end or the other of the scale, the experts will give high or low percentages that you and King Jozef are related. But there’s a whole lot of territory in between. If your results fall in there…”

“Then there’s no way of knowing. I get it. It’s okay, Hunter. It won’t be any less uncertain than it is now.”

April said, “King Jozef is certain. If anyone should know, he should.”

“But DNA—” Katie started.

“Think about what Hunter’s saying, Katie,” Brad said.

She chuckled, a little rusty but not bad. “Now you’re saying
not
to take the test?”

He remained serious. “I’m not saying that. But think it through. You might be moving from certainty to uncertainty. One alternative is to accept King Jozef’s certainty now.”

She shook her head. “This can’t rely on his belief. It has to be as sure as it can be one way or the other.”

Hunter broke a silence. “Okay. Let me make a call.”

Before they reached the hotel he had the test set for the next morning in Katie’s room.

For all the thought, concern, uncertainty – drama, even — the test was entirely anticlimactic.

A swab dipped into the inside of her cheek, swirled around and that was it. Oh, they did it a couple times with multiple swabs, to be sure. And, granted, there were officials there – Hunter representing the State Department, Madame silently representing Bariavak, and three employees of the testing company on hand to make sure nothing went awry.

April was also there. And so was Brad.

The experts packed up carefully and left. Madame gave her a long look, dropped her head, then departed wordlessly.”Well, that’s done,” April said with only slightly forced cheerfulness. “Katie and I have to go, or we’ll be late for Maurice’s final fittings. And if we’re late for Maurice, we’ll be late meeting Bette and Tris and Leslie at the spa. And if we’re late for that we could be late to the embassy for dinner. And then we’ll have Madame on our case.”

“Your case, April. I’m not coming to your rehearsal dinner,” Katie said.

“It’s not a rehearsal dinner. We did that Wednesday in Charlottesville. You’re coming.” April spun around to Brad, who’d opened his mouth to say something. “Both of you.”

Hunter chuckled. “Give my regards to Maurice. If you need us, call. We’ll be at—”

“I know. The ball game. Have a great time.” April stretched up and Hunter met her for a kiss.

Their movements left Katie looking right into Brad’s eyes.

“C’mon.” April tugged on her arm. “We’ve got to
move
.”

As the front of the group began to exit the Ambassador’s office to head for the next stop on Madame’s tour of the Embassy, Bette rested a hand on Katie’s arm and said, “We’re so glad to be here with you tonight, Katie. We’ve all grown quite fond of King Jozef.”

There were undercurrents in that statement that Katie feared could drag her under.

But the other woman showed her diplomacy or her innate niceness or maybe both, by squeezing her arm and skirting a clot of kids to catch up with Paul at the doorway.

Katie watched the group move away. For an instant it seemed to her a special glow surrounded them. One made up of all the talking, the joking, the love.

“Lucky kids, aren’t they?”

At April’s question she looked up quickly. April also was looking after the departing group.

“
All
of them are lucky. Kids and adults,” Katie said.

“There was a point in my life when I thought families like that and especially kids like that were an alien species, one I had absolutely nothing in common with.”

It was as if April had read her mind … and her memories. How often had she watched other kids and felt a distance, a difference she thought could never be bridged.

“That was after my dad had died when I was little. My mother…” April sighed. “Maybe she was the alien species, doing the best she could on a planet where she didn’t belong. You know?”

Katie met the other woman’s eyes. “I think I do.”

April nodded. “I think you do, too.” She rested her hand on Katie’s wrist, an unexpectedly consoling touch. Then the touch turned to a tap, repeated three times, which felt like an exhortation to both of them to shake off this mood. “The thing is, these folks didn’t get handed happiness – well, maybe the kids have been, but not their parents. To look at them you’d think they’d all had ideal families. Michael once said to me – his parents have been married to a slew of people each and he’s got so many step-brothers and step-sisters he’d have to a hire bus if they all wanted to drive somewhere together. Anyway, Michael says you don’t have anything to say about the family you’re born into but you’re entirely responsible for the one you create.

“That’s what they’ve done. All of them. Created a family. The three best things that have ever happened to me are loving Hunter, having Leslie, Grady, and Great-Grandma Beatrice take over my upbringing, and being included in that.” She gestured toward the group, now mostly out of the room. “My family.”

Katie’s eyes burned.

April gripped her arm. “You have a chance to create a family now.”

“The
Royal
Family of—”

“I know that part sounds daunting. But it’s still family.
Family
. And you’ll decide what to make of it, between the two of you.”

“King Jozef and I aren’t—”

“Oh, I wasn’t thinking of King Jozef,” she interrupted with a sly look. “Guess I should have said the three of you.”

Katie took the only safe way out. “We’d better catch up before Madame comes back for us.”

“Heaven forbid.” April gave a mock shudder. As they started along the hallway, she added, “I don’t want you to think I missed how you changed the subject.” She looked ahead to where Brad was standing holding the door to the next room, waiting for them. “Changing a subject doesn’t make it disappear, you know.”

The Saturday departure for the wedding in Charlottesville went off like clockwork. As each guest boarded the bus, all electronic communication was turned over, sealed in an envelope with the guest’s name and filed alphabetically in bins, part of the special security.

Katie joined Sharon Johnson and her family on the bus. She’d met Sharon’s husband Ross at the embassy last night. Now they chatted easily.

She saw Brad find a seat with Derek Kenton, clearly off duty today, and from a few words that floated her way, their conversation immediately settled on basketball.

With the suburban houses barely starting to spread out beside the highway, they exited to rendezvous with a third bus, which had loaded up here for those who opted out of the downtown pickup. They entered what could have been an airplane hangar, stopping alongside two other buses. In front of them were three more identical buses. The buses in the front row started pulling out.

“I thought all the guests fit on three buses,” Sharon muttered. “What are they up to?”

Bette stood up next to the driver and spoke into a microphone. “We hope you’ll forgive a bit of deception. As you know, media interest in this wedding – legitimate and not-legitimate media – has raised security issues. So, we arranged a decoy event in Charlottesville. Decoy buses are heading there now. We’ll stay here a bit longer to be sure any followers – and there were quite a few – continue on after the decoys. We, on the other hand, are returning to Washington for the wedding and reception.”

A buzz rose from the guests. Bette answered a few good-natured questions, then started down the aisle for individual conversations. When she reached their row, Sharon asked, “What about April’s great-grandmother?”

Bette laughed. “We offered to have her driven into the city last night, but she insisted on staying in Charlottesville this morning to throw off suspicion. Right this minute her helicopter should be landing, then she’ll be whisked to the church. I think she likes the drama.”

The drive back to D.C. brought them to a historic church across from their hotel. The trip was quick, cheerful, and full of camaraderie.

The church wore its status with respectable reserve, rather like Hunter. But it brimmed with flowers as bright and welcoming as April. Shortly after the other two busloads of guests filed in, the music struck a bridal chord.

Hunter came from a side entrance to stand at the altar, with Grady beside him.

Grady and Leslie’s children, Jake and Sandy came down the aisle first, followed by Leslie, as matron of honor.

Then came the flourish that announced the bride and all turned to see April on the arm of King Jozef of Bariavak. The bride appeared to float.

Katie’s throat closed and her eyes filled, and she couldn’t have said what part of her reaction was for April and what part was for her own whirling complex of thoughts about grandfathers, weddings, brides … and most of all grooms.

Her gaze, following April’s progress toward Hunter, caught sight of Brad, across the aisle and a few rows behind her.