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“Don’t act so thrilled,” Armin said with a little grin.
“I have a couple of errands to run in town.”
“Better hurry, then.” The girls leaped from their seats and went to join him at the window. “We’ll leave soon for our surprise destination.”
She returned his smile to hide the sharp turn of her gut. “I’ll be quick.”
That, at least, was the whole truth.
Katie had gathered her purse and jacket and was out of the palace in five minutes flat.
The meeting place had been decided in advance.
She texted Papazyan on the way.
He was waiting for her when she got to the little tea house. She knew immediately that he had been scanning the crowds for her. His gaze was already locked on her when she walked in the door and moved quickly to his little table in the back.
“I don’t have much time,” she said, not bothering with preamble. Katie slipped an envelope from her purse and slid it across the table to Papazyan. “I’ve got to get back.”
Papazyan did not seem to care. He took his time picking up the envelope, opening it, and taking the papers from inside.
It was Katie’s latest batch of notes.
After a moment of examining them, while she was aching to get away, he tucked the papers into the front pocket of his jacket. “I’m not altogether impressed with this, Ms. Crestley.”
Frustration curdled. “Well, honestly, Mr. Papazyan, I don’t know what you expected me to get. The prince is a good man. There’s nothing scandalous to find out.” The sensation of his lips against hers popped up into her memory, as hot as if it had just happened. So he did recently kiss his nanny. But there was no way she could offer that information up to Papazyan. Over her dead body.
“What about the latest rumors in the papers about the secret royal love child?” Papazyan drummed his fingers on the table.
“What about them?”
“Is there any truth to them?” His eyes bored into her. “Surely, you must have heard something from the prince about it.”
Katie waved off the question. “He’s given me no reason to think the rumors are true.”
“Would you stake your livelihood on it?”
There was a gleam in Papazyan’s eyes that made her feel vaguely ill.
Katie couldn’t find the words to answer.
“Ask him about it,” Papazyan supplied. “Get him talking. Do whatever you need to do.”
“For what? They’re just rumors.” A clock on the back wall of the little shop seemed to tick louder with every passing moment.
“For confirmation.” Papazyan spread his hands in front of him and softened his tone. “This could lead to big things for you in your journalism career.”
Katie swallowed hard and stood up. “I have to go.”
He didn’t stop her.
He didn’t call after her.
It didn’t make Katie feel any better about what she was doing—and what she’d already done.
She was doing it to protect them. All three of them. Armin, Lily, and Seraphine. If she didn’t pacify Papazyan with little tidbits, he might find something big about them. She didn’t know what it could be, but there was no way she’d let him sniff that closely. She still loved journalism, still wanted to return to that career someday, but Papazyan was an object lesson in how important it was to maintain a moral center in a newspaper. Without it, you had something that was just…sordid and wrong.
Katie went into a shop on the way back to Whitestone and grabbed a few things. Sunblock. A beach towel. Random vacation things.
