The Crown Jewels Read Online Free PDF Page A

in my third-grade classroom at Cherry Hill elementary school, instead of here. Everything was so simple with kids. Nothing about this was simple.
    “That’s a very admirable profession, Julia,” she replied. “My mother was a teacher.”
    I nodded, smiled, spotted my full wine glass and gratefully scooped it up. Anything to take the edge off. I hadn’t looked Will’s way since I sat back down. I was terrified to face him, knowing my every emotion was probably visible.
    I should be mad at him. I should hate him. And I do, really I do. But dammit, something about the very chemistry of the man had a way of melting all my resistance, making me submit to anything he wanted.
    But no! That was the past. I didn’t have to fall at his feet anymore.
    I was a grown woman now. I didn’t need to bow down to anyone, not even the fucking Prince of Sweden. I could slay my own dragons. And if Will was the dragon, so be it.
    I hadn’t seen him in person in ten years, and I wasn’t about to let him disrupt my life again.
    I’d seen him everywhere else, though. The internet and television loved him. CNN, BBC, The Huffington Post, fucking TMZ and Entertainment Tonight didn’t seem to be able to go a few days without running a story on his excessive playboy ways.
    I’d even turned on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon last month, and there was Will’s arrogant grin staring back at me, playing the fucking ukelele with Jimmy. He wasn’t even an actor or anything! Just being a Prince was enough for all the attention. All Will had to do was show up, and everyone adored him.
    When the person who broke your heart is plastered across every electronic screen you come across, it makes it a little more difficult to forget about them and move on.
    I was hoping I could come to Sweden to see my father without running into the one person I didn’t want to see, but apparently my luck is so dreadfully terrible that I couldn’t even get through the first day here without having to face him. Seeing him was bad enough all on its own. But now this? This - this - announcement - that only makes everything even worse than it already was? I have to live with this?
    I looked across the table at my father, who had no idea how incredibly fucked up this all was and felt terrible. I’d ruined his one chance at happiness before it even began. And boy, was it ever ruined. As soon as he and Vicky found out about me and Will, the engagement would be over. And so would that smile on my father’s face.
    And it would be all my fault.
    Because I didn’t say no to Will years ago when I should have. I’d been paying for that mistake for so long already, and now, it appears the price just went way up.
    “…and the palace is so much nicer. Wouldn’t that be nice?” Vicky was talking but I was so lost in my panicked thoughts, I had no idea what she was talking about.
    “I’m sorry, what was that?”
    “The castle, darling. I said you should stay with us at Drottningholms slott,” she repeated.
    I began nodding without realizing exactly what I was agreeing to. But whatever it was made my father even happier because his grin widened and his eyes sparkled.
    “That’s wonderful,” he exclaimed. “You’ll be able to get to know the whole family.”
    “I’m sorry, what?” I asked.
    “At the castle. If you’re staying at the castle, you’ll get a chance to meet the whole Royal Family.”
    “Oh,” I replied. Did I just agree to stay at a fucking castle? Dammit! “But the hotel…”
    “Stay there tonight, darling, since you’ve already checked in. I’ll have Bertolf arrange to have you picked up tomorrow afternoon,” she said.
    “Bertolf?”
    “Bertolf is a delightful old coot that’s been with our family since I was a tot. He wears many different hats, most of all catering to my every whim,” Will said, with a wink. “You’ll get to know him quite well.”
    “I - um,” I was about to argue, to insist that the hotel was fine, but the look on