The Royal Couple: A Christian Romance (Royals Book 1) Read online

  He thought about his agreement to simply be friends with Barbara and wondered if God would consider him deceitful – because technically he did want to be her friend. He wanted to be her best friend.

  But he wanted to be more than that to her. He wanted to be all that a man could be to a woman. He wanted to be her husband and lover and confidante. He wanted to be her hero and protector and provider.

  William sighed. Was he prepared to wait it out patiently? Do things Barbara’s way until she realized that it was safe to love him back? Like Jacob could he wait for seven years for her and love her from afar? Perhaps if he knew for certain that one day she would be his. Did he have that assurance, though, or had their unfortunate breakup and her own failed marriages caused her to build walls around her heart?

  ~*~*~*~

  “I can’t believe you invited him to lunch. Couldn’t you see the look of disapproval on my face?”

  Erin Dickson tasted the pot of simmering stew and barely glanced at her second born. “Get me a garlic pod please, honey. I’m going to add it to this stew and then it’ll be all done.”

  Barbara obediently fetched the garlic and peeled it but did so with a sigh of impatience. “Mom, are you listening to me?”

  Erin inserted the garlic into the garlic press her daughter thoughtfully handed her. “Yes, I am listening to you. But, most importantly I’m listening to the Holy Spirit and He told me to invite that boy to lunch and I was just being obedient.”

  Barbara groaned inwardly. She had certainly lost that argument. Who could argue with an explanation like that? All she could feebly say was, “He is not a boy.”

  Erin smiled “Yes. Correction – man. And the way I’ve seen you watching him it’s clear you’ve noticed just how manly he is.”

  Barbara rolled her eyes. “Mom that is seriously not funny. You’re getting as bad as Ronnie.” She sighed. “I’m telling you it’s not like that. William and I are just friends – nothing more.”

  Erin kept smiling as she shrugged. “You don’t need to convince me, honey. Yourself maybe – but not me. Now,” she said in a voice that brooked no objection as Barbara began to protest, “…why don’t you give your ‘friend’ a tour of the house while I mash these potatoes. And tell your sisters to come and help me finish up and set the table.”

  Give him a tour? Really? Barbara was about to argue but changed her mind, knowing how futile that would be.

  As Barbara approached the living room she heard laughter erupt from Dana and Ronnie. William had obviously said something funny. When she reached the living area she hung back so that she could observe their interaction for a minute or two.

  Barbara could see from the look on their faces that they admired William and were enjoying his company immensely. She knew first hand that there was something about him that just drew people to him. It was hard to describe. Sure, he was physically attractive but apart from that he exuded charisma, power, and strength.

  Dana said, “I’m sorry that Bobby isn’t here. He would have loved to meet you.”

  “I’m sure that I’ll have the pleasure of meeting your husband someday soon, Dana. So, why isn’t he here with you?” William replied, a smile appearing on his lips as Alex ran into the room to complain that her brothers were hogging the Wii in the family room.

  “Alex, what do you say when you want to interrupt a conversation?” Dana asked.

  Alex thought for a moment, “Excuse me, Mommy, Aaron and Adam won’t let me get a turn.”

  “Okay, go tell your brothers that if they don’t give you a turn I’m going to send them to their rooms for a long time out.” Dana said to her dark-haired child who, like her siblings, was the image of her handsome husband.

  She turned back to William as Alex gleefully darted from the room. “He actually left for Hawaii a few days ago to shoot a couple scenes of his new film, the latest installment of Mission Impossible,” she sighed. “I really miss him but he should be back home in two weeks and then he’ll be off to London to shoot a few more scenes.”

  “It must be a challenge to your marriage spending that much time apart.”

  “Yes, it can be,” Dana said wistfully, then glanced up and spotted Barbara. “Hey, there.”

  Barbara pasted on a smile. “I’m going to have to borrow William for a few minutes. Mom instructed me to give him “The Tour”. She also asked me to tell you two that she needs your help getting the meal on the table.”

  Soon they were on their way as Barbara led William around the four-bedroom home that Dana had bought their mother over a decade earlier.

  The tour ended in the study. Just as they were about to return to the dining area, William spotted a picture of Barbara and her sisters as kids on one of the shelves.

  William picked it up and smiled. “I’ll bet I know which one you are.” He identified her correctly. “You’re the cutest one here,” he said, softly running his finger over her image.

  Her heart skipped a beat but she said lightly, “I’m sure that Dana and Ronnie would have something to say about that.”

  “Just stating the facts.” His gaze bounced around the room. “Hey, are there other photos of you here?”

  “Yeah, mom loves taking photos. There are volumes of albums here.”

  “May I see them?” He asked.

  “Sure. After lunch we can come back and look at them. That should be fun. I haven’t looked at those old albums in years.”

  Chapter 15

  During lunch, Erin turned to William.

  “I understand that you’re on vacation in New York right now. I hope that Barbara has been taking you to see the many attractions our city has to offer.”

  Before William could reply, Barbara interjected, “Mom, William is no stranger to New York. In fact, he has taken me places in the last week where I’ve never been.”

  Erin persisted. “Still, I’m sure that there are places a native New Yorker knows that a person who visits occasionally wouldn’t be familiar with. Don’t you agree, William?”

  William grinned. He was falling in love with Barbara’s mother more and more each minute, she seemed to be on his side.

  “I absolutely agree, Mrs. Dickson. Even though I do visit New York occasionally, I’m still a tourist. I’m also on vacation and would welcome an opportunity to really see your fair city.”

  He didn’t look at Barbara but busied himself cutting a piece of chicken with his knife and fork while everyone else turned to look at her expectantly.

  Barbara threw up her hands in defeat. “Fine. Fine. I’ll show him New York. No one’s going to accuse me of being inhospitable.”

  “What’s inhisspitable?” Aaron asked through a mouthful of mashed potatoes.

  ~*~*~*~

  After dessert, William reminded Barbara of her promise and she took him back up to the study and retrieved three large albums. They sat on the carpeted floor, their backs against a large couch, and pored over the photos for over an hour.

  There were a couple of photographs which included her parents together. Ronald Dickson had been a tall, handsome man with light brown skin and curly dark brown hair.

  “Your father was very handsome, and tall, I can see where you and your sisters got your height. I think, though, that Ronnie favors him the most, am I right?”

  Barbara nodded in agreement. She looked at her parents. They seemed so happy together in that photo. She looked at the date. It was a year before her dad had been killed while on his trip to war torn Bosnia.

  She turned the page. There was a photograph of Barbara smiling up at an attractive man with curly brown hair whose hand was draped around her shoulders.

  Barbara didn’t want to linger over that photo. She reached out to turn the page when William stilled her hand.

  “Who’s that?” he asked.

  “Jacques Annuad, my first husband,” Barbara responded.

  “May I ask why you broke up?” William asked quietly.

  Silence yawned between them for several beats as s
he considered how she should respond. Finally, she said carefully, “He cheated on me and I divorced him.”

  “Why did you marry him in the first place, Barbara?” William blurted out.

  Barbara’s head jerked back and she looked full in William’s face. His eyes looked angry. Why would he be angry? “What do you mean?”

  “What I mean is that I thought you loved me and then I learnt that you had gotten married to the director of your movie. We’d not been apart for even three months when the two of you got married. I questioned whether you really loved me at all.”

  Barbara felt all her blood rush to the top of her head. No, he did not just say that!

  She was so outraged she almost stopped breathing. She got to her feet and walked to the far side of the room. She felt that she had to put some distance between herself and William right then. She looked out the window and into the backyard for a moment, then she turned back to him. He was now sitting on the edge of the couch.

  “I can’t believe what you just said to me. I don’t even know how to respond to that right now. You are one to talk William Lamport. You proposed to me and then broke it off in the same hour, remember? You were the one who claimed to love me yet easily made the choice to marry someone else. I would say that I was free to marry whomever I chose, wouldn’t you? Or maybe you expected me to wait around for the rest of my life in the hopes that maybe something would happen to change your mind. The more I think of it I’m just bowled over by your arrogance.”

  William was silent for a while then he said quietly, “You think that choosing Victoria over you was an easy choice? Do you still believe that, even after what I told you at Prudence’s wedding?”

  Barbara closed her eyes and expelled a long breath. “No, I don’t believe it was an easy decision for you but that doesn’t give you the right to judge me.”

  “Will you come back over here, please?”

  “Only if you admit that you were out of place suggesting that I didn’t love you and that’s why I married Jacques.”

  He looked down at his shoes, abashed. “That’s how I felt I’m not saying I was right. I’d broken up with Victoria and I wanted you back.” He glanced up at her. “You do know that I broke up with Victoria a few months after you left, don’t you?”

  “Yes, Prunes enlightened me a few weeks after my wedding. I was amazed that after you told me you had to marry her in the end you didn’t. I found it quite…interesting.”

  Barbara still recalled the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach when Prudence had told her the news that William was free. She on the other hand was no longer free. She’d cut her off immediately. “I don’t want to hear any more about William Lamport, I know that he’s you’re cousin but he can drop dead for all I care.”

  She moved back over to sit beside him, albeit with plenty of space between them. “Why’d you break it off with her?”

  “She miscarried. I broke off our engagement several weeks later. Didn’t Prudence tell you?”

  “Our break up was very painful for me. I didn’t encourage Prudence to talk about you,” Barbara allowed, looking away from his blue gaze. “I knew the two of you had broken up. I just didn’t know why.”

  “I see.”

  She pulled her eyes back to his. “When did she miscarry?”

  He gave a deep sigh and then sat back and stared off in to space as he told the story.

  “Victoria had a miscarriage three weeks after I agreed to marry her. It was bad enough that she had lost our child I didn’t want to make it worse by also jilting her. We limped along for two months and continued making wedding plans, but I just couldn’t fake it. I didn’t love her. I loved you. Anyway, I broke it off. I decided it was better to do that than to be stuck in a loveless marriage for the rest of my life. The first thing I did when I broke up with Victoria was to call Prunes to get your number. That was when she told me that you had gotten married a few days before.”

  He paused for a minute. “Did you love him?”

  Barbara took some time before she responded. Finally, she admitted, “I was fond of him, but I can’t say I was in love with him. Our marriage was an impulsive mistake.”

  Barbara remembered exactly how the mistake had happened.

  ~*~*~*~

  Three weeks after her break up from William, Barbara began the movie Joan of Arc.

  Of all the directors she had ever worked with in Hollywood, before and since, she had to admit that Jacques Annuad was the best. They worked on two films together and both were critically acclaimed. The Lady had been the first.

  Professionally, they were great together. Like Barbara, Jacques was a perfectionist. The difference between them was that he understood what perfect was. She didn’t. She was still new to acting and figured that if she gave everything she had in a scene then it had to be perfect. This wasn’t always the case.

  Jacques taught Barbara how to fine tune her raw talent. At 30, he was young to be such a successful director, but he was extremely talented and intuitive about what worked and what didn’t. That ability had quickly propelled him from little known indie films to major Hollywood studio-backed movies in the space of ten years. The Lady was his first major film.

  It made Barbara’s career and cemented his.

  It wasn’t surprising, then, that when he was asked to direct the major motion picture Joan of Arc, he asked that Barbara be considered for the lead role. She auditioned and was successful.

  Jacques was well aware of his genius and, as such, was extremely confident to the point of arrogance. Barbara was also aware of her own abilities, but she understood her inexperience as an actress. They had worked well on The Lady because Barbara had willingly submitted to Jacques leadership and was happy to learn from a master.

  On the set of Joan of Arc, though, they clashed.

  Barbara was still reeling emotionally from the break-up with William and, although she didn’t want to admit it, it was having an impact on her performance.

  She wanted to play Joan as fierce and aggressive. She had a lot of pent up anger from the break up that she planned to use to great effect. Jacques, on the other hand, had a different image of Joan of Arc. He wanted her to have quiet, understated strength. He asked Barbara to tone down the attitude and play Joan as more subtle and controlled. Barbara was defiant and resistant. Jacques soon recognized that the Barbara whom he’d formerly known to be cooperative and pliable could also be self-opinionated and headstrong.

  Jacques, though, was not a man to be intimidated by any woman.

  They fought for the first three weeks. He would make Barbara redo a scene several times until he wore her down and she did it his way.

  It was taking a toll on her, on him, and on the budget.

  Finally, he took her aside and asked, “What is going on? I can see you are not yourself. Are you trying to destroy your career and mine with it?”

  Barbara was exhausted and emotionally weary. She broke down and, without naming names, confessed to Jacques that she had been in a relationship that had gone south. He comforted her, soothed her, and told her that the man, whoever he was, was the biggest fool alive for letting her go.

  That was what Barbara needed to hear.

  She finally accepted Jacques’ direction. When she watched the dailies she realized he was right. Playing Joan of Arc with such an air of controlled power was cinematic genius.

  “See, chérie, this is what I was telling you. You will get that Oscar this time I promise you,” he said.

  Barbara knew that Jacques was attracted to her. He had made no attempt to hide it on the set of The Lady. He had pursued her then, but she had easily resisted his obvious charms.

  Jacques was an attractive man with thick, curly brown hair and beautiful brown eyes. His physical attractiveness combined with his success and charm meant that he never lacked for female attention. She observed how he happily flirted with every attractive woman who crossed his path and knew instinctively that he would not be a faithful partner
.

  On the set of Joan of Arc, though, something changed between them.

  After the fallout from William, Barbara was very vulnerable and was seeking reassurance that she was still of worth. Jacques provided that reassurance. She felt valued by his comments and his attention.

  They had been filming at a grueling, break-neck pace for several weeks trying to keep to the schedule. Consequently, the crew was tired.

  Jacques, ever the astute director, knew that mistakes happened when people were pushed beyond their limits. He decided to take the entire crew down to Las Vegas for a few days to unwind.

  During that time, it seemed to Barbara that he was more charming than ever. When he invited her out to dinner alone on the second night there she didn’t refuse.

  At dinner, the alcohol flowed and Barbara ended up drinking too much. Jacques suggested that they go for a stroll in the night air to clear their heads.

  They were walking, giggling like teenagers, along the Las Vegas Strip when they stumbled upon the Graceland Wedding Chapel. They entered the chapel, sat in the back and watched a wedding ceremony.

  Tears came to Barbara’s eyes as she thought of what could have been with William. Jacques turned to her and, guessing correctly why she was crying, said, “Don’t cry, chérie, forget him. Marry me and make me the happiest man in the world.”

  Without really thinking it through, Barbara accepted Jacques’ proposal. It numbed the painful memories of William. She just wanted to somehow show William that while he didn’t want her someone else did.

  The next morning they got a marriage license and were married by an Elvis impersonator at the Graceland Wedding Chapel.

  But the honeymoon didn’t last very long.

  By the time the movie was released to critical acclaim a year later, Barbara had already come to the realization that she had made a colossal mistake marrying Jacques. She realized that she had been naive to think that because Jacques was married to her it meant that he would leave his flirtatious ways in the past.