Breathe Me Smith and Belle (Royals Saga #11) - Geneva Lee Page 0,20

every bit the queen she was.

“Are you to blame for this?” I asked as she sauntered forward.

“I couldn’t let my best friend have a baby without giving her one last hurrah.” She threw her free arm around me and I used the momentary distraction to swipe her champagne flute.

I took a delicate sip and groaned before passing it back to her.

“I’ll bring you some in the hospital,” she promised with a sympathetic grin. “Unless, you’re going to have the baby…”

“No, we both agreed to have her here,” I said. At least, Smith and I had agreed on that. “I think he’s going to kick everyone else out of the Lindo Wing.”

Clara laughed, but I spotted a dark shadow flicker over her face before vanishing. She hadn’t spoken much about the birth of her son, William, but I knew parts of the day haunted her. They probably always would.

“Where’s Alexander?” I asked, looking around for her husband.

“Home with the children. He won’t let anyone watch them but you and Georgia and Norris,” she admitted with a whisper, “and Norris and Georgia couldn’t change a nappy if their lives depended on it. One of them is going to have to learn or I’ll be forced to give my mother the keys to Buckingham.”

“You have me,” I said, feigning offense.

“I think your days are numbered,” she said, looking me over. “And I thought I’d finally lost you to the country.”

“We’re back for a while.”

“You just left two days ago!” But she looked nothing but pleased by this revelation. “Elizabeth misses you. She threw a tantrum when Alexander told her where I was going.”

“I’ll come by tomorrow.” Life felt right back in London. Here I could make spontaneous plans to visit my godchildren, grab a bite with my best friend, and go home to a quiet house with my husband. “Is Edward here?”

I suddenly realized why he’d hesitated when I asked him to come along. He’d known about the baby shower and managed to keep it a secret.

Clara flinched, shaking her head slightly. “I thought he would come...especially, when I messaged him that Alexander wouldn’t be here. I guess he’s avoiding all of us.”

I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I’d seen him this afternoon. They would work this out with time, but I heard the pain in her voice. She loved him like he was her own brother. Him choosing not to come told her the thing she feared the most: he wasn’t just avoiding Alexander, he didn’t want to see her either.

“He was probably busy. I mean, I don’t see your sister here either,” I pointed out, trying to distract her as we walked arm and arm into the living room where dozens of delicate pink roses had been used to decorate the mantle and window sills. The table in the corner was laid out with platters of sweets, including a five-tiered stand showcasing mini petit-fours each featuring a sugar tiara. Clara picked up a champagne flute filled with orange juice and passed it to me.

“Parties are less fun when you’re pregnant,” I grumbled.

“You can have as much cake as you want, though.” She pulled me toward the corner, lowering her voice conspiratorially. “Lola is in Silverstone.”

“Again?”

Clara’s sister, Lola, was also my business partner. Given that our company, Bless, was almost entirely online and now boasted five employees to handle the work of shipping and stocking, she and I were free to work wherever we wanted—and lately, Lola had been doing double time working with Anderson Stone, who, apart from being a world-famous race car driver, was also Alexander’s half-brother. Lola had been dispatched to help acclimate to the sudden frenzy of interest from the media when the truth was revealed. Neither Alexander nor Anders had known about one another, there was a lot to tackle, and Lola had taken charge of it.

“If I didn’t know better…” Clara let her thought trail off, her eyes flashing wickedly.

“But she hates him,” I said with a laugh, knowing exactly what she was thinking. “She told me so herself.”

“It’s a relief to have her there,” Clara confided. “With everything else going on. But we are not talking about that tonight, because there are sweets and presents and this mama has the night off!”

“I can’t believe Alexander let you out of his sight,” I admitted.

“He sent Norris.” She tilted her head to Alexander’s longtime friend, bodyguard, and advisor who was busy chatting with my Aunt Jane. Jane was making no attempt to hide her