Page 18 of Falling for the Queen Mother

"I remember something about King Alexander's widow and child, but not much," she told him. "I'm not sure the little girl survived much past birth, if that long. I know she was never queen."

"Could the nephew have also put some form of absolute male primogeniture in place? Even though she would have been the only child of King Alexander, could his nephew have found a way to invalidate even that? Or did she find herself married to the family friend and therefore the little girl wasn't considered the child of King Alexander, though she clearly was?"

"That's a possibility. I honestly don't remember much beyond what I've already mentioned." She closed her eyes. "And none of it helps us."

"No," he answered slowly. "It doesn't. Not unless we did a deep dive into the circumstances surrounding the whole thing and came upon some caveat no one's noticed in centuries."

"Anything is possible. But I don't think it's likely."

"I don't either."

The silence settled back over them, though it didn't seem quite as uncomfortable as the walk from her office had been.

"We are going to need to talk about all of this at some point today."

Alaina still didn't open her eyes. "I know. I would rather focus on the archives for the time being, then deal with all of this later."

"Agreed."

She could hear him stand and held out her hand, knowing he would help her to her feet. His hand clasped warmly around hers and he tugged gently. Once she was on her feet, Alaina opened her eyes and looked up at him.

His soft brown eyes looked back into hers, but she couldn't let herself get lost in them. Couldn't let herself kiss him like she wanted to.

Unless she was very much mistaken, he wanted the same thing.

Instead, he gave her hand a light squeeze then let go of it.

Side by side, they walked to the back of the archives and into the office of the Royal Historian. No one else was in there at the moment, so they went on to the conference room where they found several people looking over paperwork.

"What can we do to help?" Nathaniel said the words, but included her in his question.

Just like he would have done even without the meeting in Frederick's office earlier.

So why did Alaina find herself worrying if anyone else would notice and think something was going on between them?

7

Along morning often turned into a long day, especially when trying to operate after a night of sleep that hadn't been fantastic to start with.

Nate pushed through regardless. He worked with Alaina as well as Kathleen, looking at anything that might have the slightest question about it. Nothing popped. The irregularities weren't anything of note, and often weren't even true irregularities.

By the time dinner rolled around, fatigue had begun to set in for all involved. The executive decision was made to call a halt for the evening.

While cocooned in the center of the palace, with his phone on Do Not Disturb, Nathaniel had been able to avoid whatever might be going on in the outside world. He'd expected to be called into another meeting with the king or one of the king's assistants to approve a press release of some kind. Whatever media had the photos wouldn't hold off on publishing them for long.

Once they did, the Internet would do its thing, and he would be identified in short order.

Since he knew he could have about a million missed calls and messages, Nathaniel avoided his phone for a bit longer. Instead, he asked the Queen Mother if she'd like to have dinner with him.

After the smallest hesitation, Alaina nodded. "That would be lovely. Perhaps we can dine in my suite this evening?"

The unspoken implication had to do with security, of that he was certain, and so he nodded his agreement. "That would be lovely. Thank you."

He fell into place half a step behind her, though he wasn't quite sure why. He never had before.

Her sideways glance told him she'd noticed and didn't appreciate it.

He still didn't move up to join her.