His Royal Favorite Read Online Free PDF Page A

James fretted over was really nothing but a prig. The queen . . . Ben couldn’t quite pin her down yet, but she’d listened to reason. He worried more about the frightened, distrustful stare Indigo had given him.
    Shy of strangers, of course. Afraid of new people, even. But James had already told her about Ben’s role in his life, and still she’d been unable or unwilling to come up with a word.
    Until now, Ben had wondered whether James was exaggerating his sister’s difficulties—not consciously, but as part of his belief that every burden was his to bear alone. Instead it looked as though James might have downplayed the problem.
    “Do we have a few minutes?” Ben said as they stepped out of the car and headed back into Clarence House, through twin lines of servants and security staffers all pretending this was business as usual. But it so, so wasn’t. Ben knew that right now he and James badly needed some time to themselves, a chance to reconnect with the wild, boundless hope that had buoyed them last night.
    But James shook his head. “You’ve got that meeting with Kimberley. And I know you’ll want to be at your flat tonight, getting things ready. Unless you want me to send someone to pack for you?”
    “I’ll do it myself,” Ben said hurriedly. The idea of strangers pawing through his things, deciding what to take and what to leave, horrified him.
    So he was already slightly unnerved as he walked into Kimberley Tseng’s office and took a seat. With only a few careful touches of decoration—a vase of fine Chinese porcelain, fresh flowers on a tabletop—Ms. Tseng had managed to make this small space feel both feminine and individual. Yet the relatively spare furnishings and the direct light made it clear that she did not see femininity and fierceness as mutually exclusive.
    Ms. Tseng smiled politely, shut the door behind him, locked it, and said, “I need you to answer this first question truthfully, and in confidence. Your answer will remain between us.”
    “All right,” Ben said, not sure where this was going.
    Ms. Tseng sat in the chair next to him, her dark eyes meeting his unsparingly. “Do you love the Prince Regent?”
    “Of course.” Was she about to give him some absurd relationship pep talk?
    Instead she said, “If you do, then I want your word that you’ll abide by my recommendation at the end of the vetting process.”
    Vetting?
“I’m not sure I understand.”
    “His Royal Highness is about to spend virtually every ounce of political capital he has to retain his place in the succession. He won’t have any left over to defend you. Do you understand?” From her designer tote, Ms. Tseng withdrew a laptop and an audio recorder, but the laptop remained shut and the recorder remained off. “We are about to review your entire background. It is absolutely critical that you be completely honest with me. I’m not about to go tattling any of it to the Prince Regent, the press, or anyone else, so you should feel free to be candid. If we reach the end of this process, and I believe that there are elements in your past that would create extreme and unnecessary controversy, any hints of a scandal that could threaten the Prince Regent’s position, then I shall say that I think you should walk away from this, immediately, for his own good. And if you love him, you’ll do it.”
    So now he had to get a seal of approval first. “Is this the normal sort of thing you do?”
    “If you mean, am I overreaching my role? I am. If you tell the Prince Regent I’ve said any of this, he’ll probably give me the sack. But the next consultant he gets will say the same, unless they’re incompetent, and he can’t afford incompetence right now. Or scandal. In other words, Mr. Dahan, neither of us can fuck up.”
    Simultaneously Ben felt insulted and as though, in slightly different circumstances, he would greatly like Kimberley Tseng. “I won’t make any promises. But I’ll listen to what you