The dossier briefed us on royal protocol, including meeting a royal and how to address them. The Winterbournes aren’t as formal as some sovereign families, so all that is required is a slight bow, really more a bob of the head and Ladd extends his hand to her.
She takes it to shake without hesitation as he says, “I’m Ladd McDermott from Jameson Force Security. I’ll be helping lead a team for your perimeter security on all your stops in the States along with Cruce Britton and Dozer Burney.”
When he announces their names, he tips his head to them and the princess gives each a short smile of acknowledgment.
She then turns those pretty blue eyes my way. “And you are?”
I don’t bow, bob, or offer my hand. “Jackson Gale. I’ll be your personal bodyguard during your trip.”
She takes the higher road, stepping toward me and extends her hand. She doesn’t chastise me for not showing her proper respect, and I’m shocked by that as we shake. “I’m Camille.”
That’s it.
Just Camille.
No Princess Camille. No Her Royal Highness Princess Camille of House Winterbourne, or whatever bougie titles they give themselves.
She releases my hand and turns back to Dmitri who has entered the room and closed the door. “I still don’t understand why you can’t head up my security. You’ve always done so in all my travels.”
Dmitri is one cool son of a bitch and doesn’t hesitate to lie to the princess. “You’ve never been to the United States before, and the American government insists on providing security for your trip. Jameson will cover your cousin’s wedding in London as a means for us to judge their worthiness.”
The lie is that the American government is in no way insisting on providing security. We’ve merely been offered as a kindness, which was accepted, but come to find out today, the reason we were so gladly accepted by Dmitri and approved by King Thomas is that Camille doesn’t have the biggest threat potential right now.
What Dmitri shared with us—and which we’ve been forbidden from revealing to the princess—is that her father has a very active threat of assassination hanging over his head. This was picked up not by the Bretarian security forces but rather by Interpol who caught chatter about a plan forming to take out the king.
Apparently, the status of the royal throne isn’t as concrete as one might assume. When the royal charter was enacted in 1682, an obscure clause was included that provided for stability should a monarch die before his or her heir was sufficiently mature enough to take over duties of not just the throne but more importantly, the ruby mines. Specifically, the charter decrees that if the ruling king or queen predeceases their heir apparent before said heir reaches the age of twenty-five, then the heir is not qualified to assume the monarchy. Instead, the title will pass to the next in line to inherit.
In this case, it’s one of the king’s cousins, who lives in Brussels, although the cousin hasn’t been explicitly implicated in the plot yet. Rather, Interpol picked up vague chatter—assassination of a monarch to disrupt the succession to the throne.
Out of the current list of existing kings, queens, emperors, and emirs, it was easily narrowed down that the Winterbourne family was the most likely target of the plot. Camille will turn twenty-five in four and a half weeks. If her father were to die before her, the cousin in Brussels could make a play for the throne because it’s at age twenty-five Camille is formally named as the heir apparent. It’s not a guarantee the cousin would prevail and it would be fought out in the Bretarian courts, but having Camille out of the way would pave a very clear path for the cousin.
It was all a crapshoot, and the family was never mentioned by name, but it was enough of a threat that Dmitri felt it imperative that he not leave the king’s side for any reason. He told us that the solution was to cancel Camille’s trip and hold her on the island until her birthday. But Thomas is a kind man who loves his daughter and didn’t want to collar her any more than has already been done. She’d been planning this US trip for over a year.
Considering all the factors, it was decided Camille could go on her trip and that Dmitri would focus on the bigger threat to the king’s life.
After Dmitri told us this background, I felt compelled to point out, “Camille could be an assassination target as easily as her father.”
“True,” Dmitri had agreed with that thick roll of r’s from his Russian tongue. “But that is why we have you involved—to protect Camille.”
“Assassination is a lot different from kidnapping,” Cruce added. “You have to get up close to kidnap someone, but you can take someone out from a thousand yards with a high-powered rifle.”
Dmitri gave a sound nod. “Also true. But again, this is why we hired you. Mr. Britton, you were Secret Service. You managed to protect your president from getting killed. I expect the same for Princess Camille.”
“Yeah,” Cruce said with a wry smile. “Our resources were vastly greater when protecting the president.”
“And you shall have whatever resources you need,” Dmitri countered. “King Thomas has authorized an unlimited fund for his daughter’s safe travels through your country.”
“You seem very confident in our abilities,” I said, my eyes narrowed on him. “If that’s the case, why are we here for you to test us first?”
Dmitri laughed low, his eyes flashing with mistrust. “King Thomas is confident in your abilities. Your government spoke very highly of you. I, on the other hand, reserve judgment.”
Yeah… this guy was a piece of work. He was mistrustful and had lied point-blank to the princess that her father could be in danger, but you had to give him bonus points for being absolutely loyal to his employer by carrying out his wishes to engage our services.
I’m jolted out of my memories when Camille gives a weighty sigh. “I still don’t understand why you’re not going to be involved, Dmitri. There’s something you’re not telling me.”
She’s savvy. But just because she has sharp instincts doesn’t mean she won’t be a pain in the ass to watch.
“You’re being told all you need to know,” Dmitri responds icily, and in such a way if a former KGB officer said that to an ordinary person, they might faint from fear.
But Camille narrows her eyes. “We’ll see about that. I’ll have a talk with Father, and he’ll tell me what the hell is going on.”
“By all means,” Dmitri says with an easy incline of his head. And that tells me King Thomas has no intention of worrying his daughter. He’ll lie to her as well.
I hate that this makes me feel bad for my charge. While I’m seeing some of the haughtiness I’d been expecting from this royal, I’m actually seeing more concern for someone other than herself. I hate it because it means I might have misjudged her.
Not that I’ll beat myself up about it too much—we still have a long time ahead of us. Her initial impression so far has been benign, but it’s been a period of less than five minutes. You can’t really tell anything from that.
Without a word of farewell, she turns on her heel and marches for the door, apparently intent on taking Dmitri up on his dare to go to her father.
When her hand touches the knob, he says, “Tonight, Mr. Gale will be accompanying you to the Enovia gala.”