Spinning around, I turn the knob to my apartment. I shuffle in, expecting to be met by darkness, but I’m not. Candles are lit all over the main room. My eyes almost immediately adjust to the dim lighting.

  Agnes walks toward me with her arms open. “Drew, you’re home. How did everything go?”

  When she reaches me, she pulls me into an embrace. I want to be in her arms more than anything, but I need to understand what’s happening. Taking a step back, I ask, “What are you doing here?”

  “I’ll tell you everything in a minute, but I want to know how Felicity’s husband is.”

  “He’s being kept in a coma until some of the swelling goes down. We won’t know more until he’s conscious.”

  Nodding her head, she says, “He was in good hands. And you’re a good friend, Drew.”

  “Agnes …”—my voice sounds like a plea—“tell me why you’re here.”

  Taking me by the hand, she leads me toward the couch. Once we’re both seated, she says, “I’m here because I love you.”

  You know how in the movies there’s often an accelerated scene of the sky going from dusk to brilliant sunlight? That’s the feeling that fills my body. Sadness to joy. Uncertainty to inevitability. Darkness to light.

  “I love you, too,” I tell Agnes earnestly. “I love you so much and I’ve treated you so badly.”

  “Shhh.” She pulls me into her arms. “You’ve had a long day and you’re exhausted. You don’t have to say anything right now.”

  “I love you, Agnes. I have to say that. You have to know that I love you. I’ve only known you for a short time, and I’ve treated you badly for most of it, but only because I was afraid of the way you made me feel.”

  “You were a beast,” she teases.

  “I was worse than that. I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve your love and forgiveness, but my hand to God, I will never disappoint you again.”

  “Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” she says.

  “I’m not saying you’ll never want to throw your shoes at me. I’m just saying that I will never again suggest you aren’t good enough for me. You are everything to me. You’re the queen of my heart.”

  I pull her into my arms and just hold her. Agnes Dupuis was made for me alone. She is my other half.

  Agnes pushes me away gently until she’s looking into my eyes. “Any relationship between us will be fraught with negative press and busybodies trying to stir up trouble.”

  “I don’t care. I don’t care what anyone thinks but us.”

  “Are you sure?” She sounds uncertain, and it breaks my heart.

  “My friend’s husband could have died today, Agnes. He still might. Agnes”—I hold her hands in mine—“I’ve given everything I have to my country, but I will not give up you. I cannot.”

  “Thank God for that.” And then, like two magnets colliding, we are one.

  I kiss Agnes with all the hope I feel for our future together. I kiss her with passion and promise. The woman in my arms is the ultimate gift and I would give up everything for her.

  Thanks to Felicity’s outburst this morning, I finally saw the light—losing Agnes is not an option. And from this moment forward, I will do everything in my power to deserve her.

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  Queen Charlotte

  “Those flowers are stunning.” Charlotte says to the maid bringing a fresh bouquet into the parlor. “They don’t look like they’re from our regular supplier.”

  “No, ma’am, they’re not. There’s a note on them if you’d like me to read it to you.”

  “Please.”

  Putting the arrangement down, the maid opens the card. “‘To a rose like none other. I look forward to our reunion.’ The note is signed Arlo Hammond. I wonder who that is.”

  Charlotte approaches the arrangement and leans in to smell it. “I have no idea. Is there a company name on the card?”

  “It says Floribunda, ma’am.”

  “Please have someone call and inquire who the flowers were sent to.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” She curtsies before leaving the room.

  Charlotte is still investigating the arrangement several minutes later when her daughter Sophie walks into the room. “What a lovely arrangement.” Sophie declares.

  “It’s a bit of mystery, actually,” the queen says. “We don’t know who it’s for.”

  “Is there a note?”

  “Quite a lovely one.” Charlotte reads the card to her daughter.

  “Arlo Hammond?” Sophie gasps.

  “You don’t know him, do you?”

  Turning pale, her daughter replies, “I do.”

  “Is he a friend of yours?” Charlotte wants to know.

  “I wouldn’t call him that, exactly.”

  “Then who is he?”

  Collapsing on a nearby chair, Sophie replies, “He’s just someone I met once. A very long time ago.”

  “Where in the world did you meet him?”

  Standing up, Sophie announces, “I need to go lie down, Mum. I have a bit of a headache.”

  “But today is the Foliage Festival. We’re all getting ready to go.”

  “I’ll have to meet you there later.” Before Charlotte can ask any more questions, her daughter practically runs out of the room.

  Agnes

  “Drew, catch!” I throw a macaron at him, and it hits him on the head.

  “Hey.” He laughs while turning around to pull me into his arms.

  “You were supposed to catch it,” I tease.

  “I think I caught something better than a biscuit.” He snuggles the side of my neck before playfully biting it. If not for all the flashbulbs going off, things might have gotten interesting.

  The fact that we’re in the royal booth at the Foliage Festival, and are making quite a spectacle of ourselves, is probably all the public can handle at this point in the game.

  A reporter calls out, “So it’s true. You and Agnes are a couple now?”

  Drew turns to him and smiles, “It’s true. I’m the luckiest man alive that this lovely lady has agreed to be seen in public with me.”

  “He’s pretty lucky to have me,” I add playfully.

  “What about Chantelle?” someone else wants to know.

  “She was a real trouper, helping us keep the spotlight off of our budding romance,” Drew says. “We’re very thankful for her friendship.”

  Talk about letting Chantelle off the hook. I’m glad Drew is doing it, but at the same time, I can’t imagine ever considering that woman a friend.

  “Agnes, have you always had a thing for the prince? Is that why you went to work for him?”

  I need to be careful with my answer because I don’t want to sound like a stalker. And while I did have a thing for Drew when I was young, I don’t think that had anything to do with my wanting to work for the royal family.

  “I suppose I’ve always thought he was passably handsome, but I never considered anything could ever happen between us of a personal nature,” I announce.

  “Then how did things happen?” another reporter calls out.

  I turn to Drew. “You’d better field this one.”

  He laughs while answering, “I tried to flirt with Agnes the first time I met her, but she wasn’t having it. She kept putting me in my place and telling me that I didn’t deserve a woman like her …”

  “Is that so, Agnes?” a voice from the crowd asks.

  “Not at all,” I say while playfully smacking Drew’s arm. “I’ve always thought very highly of the prince. It just took us a bit of time to get on the same page.”

  “And you’re on the same page now?”

  “We are,” Drew and I say at the same time.

  Before we can say anything else, a man from the palace comes up to the table and says, “Your Highness, I have word from the hospital.” He hands over an envelope.

  Drew opens it so I can read it with him:

  Drew,

  Sebastian is awake and he’s acting like his old self. It looks like the surgery was a huge success!

  Love you, Fill

  “What a relief.” I sag against Drew’s arm.

  He turns to me and holds me close before saying, “Thank God.”

  “What’s in the note?” multiple voices shout out at once.

  Drew answers, “Just an affirmation that life is a gift that should not be taken for granted.”

  “Was it good news?” This time the voice comes from a little girl with blonde curls who just bought a palmier.

  “Very good news,” Drew tells her.

  “Then can I have another biscuit?” she asks.

  Drew hands her a macaron and says, “You can have as many as you want.”

  “I need forty-eight.”

  “You need forty-eight biscuits?”

  She nods her head. “I’m one of the orphans at the home. I need treats for all my brothers and sisters.”

  “Do you know Beatrice?” Drew asks her.

  She nods her head. “She’s lucky. She got adopted by your brother.”

  “That’s right, she did.”

  She smiles shyly, causing Drew to reach over and pick her up from the other side of the counter. “Come with me,” he says.

  The whole crowd follows behind him while he walks up to the stage that’s been set up for the performance the orphans are going to give later in the afternoon. He leans down and asks the little girl, “What’s your name?”

  “Charity.”

  “And how old are you, Charity?” he asks.

  “I’m about to be five.” She holds up five fingers for good measure.

  Drew leans down and takes her hand then he taps into the microphone. “My official speech is coming later this afternoon, but I thought I’d take a moment to welcome you all to this year’s Foliage Festival a little early.”

  The crowd quiets down and people move toward the stage. Drew picks up the little girl next to him and announces, “I’d like you all to meet Charity. She’s almost five and she lives at Shepherd’s Home. Charity is one of the children who’s come today in hopes of meeting her future mother and father.”

  There are whistles and applause from the audience, but Charity shakes her head and whispers something into Drew’s ear. His eyes open wide in response. Leaning into the microphone, he says, “Charity says she’s already picked out her new parents, but she has a lot of brothers and sisters who haven’t. Please see Sister Hennepin at the Shepherd’s Home booth for any questions.”

  When they walk off stage, Drew’s brother Alistair joins us and takes Charity by the hand. “Hey, little miss, it looks like you got separated from the rest of the kids.”

  She shakes her head. “I was looking for my new mom and dad,” she announces.

  “Did you find them?”

  She nods her head this time before taking Drew’s hand and announcing, “I like this one.”

  Alistair starts to laugh, and says, “Honey, that man is the future king.”

  Shrugging her shoulders, Charity says, “It’s okay. I like him anyway.”

  I decide to intervene and say, “Charity, Prince Andrew isn’t married yet. He needs to be married before you get a mom.”

  “I can wait,” she decides.

  Alistair picks her up and says, “I’m not sure that’s how it goes, little miss. Now, why don’t you come with me, and we’ll meet up with the other kids?”

  As they walk away, Charity yells out to Drew, “Don’t forget me.”

  After they’re gone, I ask him, “Why didn’t you tell her that you can’t adopt her, Drew? The poor thing is going to think it’s possible.”

  He turns to me looking shell-shocked. “Why isn’t it possible?”

  “Well, first of all, have you ever thought about adopting a child before?”

  “No.”

  “And don’t you think the girl deserves a mother?”

  “Yes.”

  “I feel like I’ve made my point,” I tell him.

  “Maybe you could be her mother …”

  I’m not sure I heard him correctly, so I ask, “What?”

  “I think you heard me.”

  “We haven’t even gone out on a proper date yet, Drew.” My head starts to spin.

  “Well, of course we have to date first, and you know, if that goes well, we’ll get engaged, and then maybe we can adopt Charity.”

  “Drew …”

  He takes my hand and pulls me alongside him. “I’m not proposing now, I’m just planting a seed in your brain.”

  “Okay,” I tell him. “But first we date and then we get engaged and then we talk about it, in that order.”

  He shrugs his shoulders, “But we’re already doing everything out of order. I mean, we’ve fallen in love, and we haven’t even had a real date yet.”

  “I want one hundred dates before you bring up adoption again.”

  “Ten,” he says.

  “Fifty,” I counter.

  He takes my hand in his and gives it a firm shake. “You’ve got yourself a deal.”

  The rest of the day is magical. By the end of the festival, fourteen different families have set up interviews to meet children at the home and more money has been raised than at any other Foliage Festival.

  As Drew and I walk hand in hand through the park toward his car, he says, “I think I’d better get a new chauffeur.”

  “What? Why?”

  “I find that I’m still a tiny bit jealous that you were willing to go out with Jones.”

  “Then maybe I’d better let you in on a secret,” I tell him. “Jones only asked me out so that you would get jealous and declare yourself.”

  Smiling down at me, Drew says, “Are you serious?”

  Nodding my head, I tell him, “He told me that you acted differently around me than the other women you’ve dated, and he thought you could use a push.”

  As we near the car, Drew calls out, “Jones.”

  Oliver steps toward us. “Sir?”

  “I’ve enjoyed having you as my chauffeur and I’m going to miss you.”

  “Excuse me?” Ollie sounds as nervous as I feel.

  Drew extends his hand and shake Jones’s hand. “Congratulations on your promotion to transportation director.”

  “Transportation director? I wasn’t aware that was a thing,” Oliver says.

  “It wasn’t,” Drew tells him. “But it is now. You see, I take care of the people who take care of me, and I understand I owe you a debt.”

  “No, sir.”

  “Yes, sir,” Drew tells him. “The promotion comes with a sizable raise in pay and much more predictable hours.”

  When we get into the back of the car, I tell Drew, “That was very nice of you.”

  “I owe the man a heck of a lot more than that, but this will have to do for now.” Then he pulls me over to his side and says, “How about going on our first official date right now?”

  “I’m worn out from the day,” I tell him. “How about tomorrow?”

  “How about tonight in the rose garden? You know, the site of our first almost-kiss?”

  “Yes,” I tell him. “I would love to walk in the rose garden with you tonight and every night.”

  “I love you, Agnes Dupuis.”

  “I love you too, Drew. So very much.”

  Epilogue

  “Tonight is a very special night,” Drew tells Agnes when he comes to collect her for their date.

  “Why is that?” She leans into him and gives him a lingering kiss before he can answer.

  Long moments later, when they finally pull apart, he answers, “We have been officially in love for two hundred days.”

  “That’s a lot of time,” Agnes tells him.

  “And tonight marks our fiftieth official date, not counting large events where I don’t have you to myself.”

  “I hadn’t been counting,” she says. “Do you think you might want to sign up for fifty more?”

  Reaching into his pocket, Drew puts one foot in front of the other and goes down on one knee. Taking her hand, he says, “I would like to start by signing up for fifty years. Agnes Dupuis, you are the love of my life, and I would be the luckiest man alive if you would agree to become my wife.”

  “I lied,” she tells him as tears start to run down her face.

  Full of panic, Drew asks, “What did you lie about?”

  “I lied about not keeping count. In fact, if you didn’t bring up our fifty-date anniversary, I was going to.” Before he has a chance to respond, she adds, “I went to Shepherd’s Home today and had lunch with Charity.”

  “And?” he asks excitedly.

  “And she suggests a spring wedding.”

  Standing up, Drew picks up Agnes in his arms and lets out a loud whoop of joy. “I can be ready whenever you are.”

  “A wedding of this magnitude will take a lot of time to plan,” Agnes says.

  “Wanna make a bet? With our mothers and Aunt Jacquie at the helm, I bet we can be walking down the aisle in a month.”

  “It might take a little longer than that, Drew.”

  “Fine, three months. Mark your calendar, woman. We’re about to get married and become parents. How does that sound?”

  Leaning into him, Agnes says, “It sounds like perfection, Drew. It sounds like perfection.”

  Coming Soon: At Last

  Queen Charlotte of Malquar has been hard at work setting up all her children, but so far, she’s been unable to find someone for Sophie.

  Princess Sophie was supposed to be the second royal sibling to marry, but she broke her engagement when she found out her fiancé was a cheat.

  Sophie has all but given up hope of finding her own fairytale ending. That is, until a mystery bouquet of roses shows up at the palace. There’s no recipient on the card, but the note is from Arlo Hammond, a man Sophie has tried hard to forget.

  Arlo moved away from Malquar after university. The only reason he’s back is to settle a bet he made with Princess Sophie ten years earlier. While he’s fairly certain the lovely lady is going to back out, he can’t help the temptation to find out if she’ll honor her promise.