Suddenly Royal (8 page)

Press Denied Access to Campus

—
WXCV Dale Gordon

The lights from video equipment and the flashing of cameras blinded me. Duvall put his hand on my elbow as we walked down the stairs. People hollered my name, screamed questions, and waved their hands to try to draw my attention. I kept my gaze down, not wanting to make eye contact, and forced myself to continue smiling.

As soon as I saw the car come into my line of downturned vision, I was relieved. The trek from the front of my house to the car had been the longest walk of my life. Duvall opened the back door for me, letting me slide into the car before he took the front passenger seat.

“
They are likely to follow us, my lady. I wouldn’t do anything you wouldn’t want them to see until we are ahead of them.” Duvall looked back at me with serious eyes. He had put on sunglasses and for some reason it made me want to giggle.

“
Okay.” I pulled on my seat belt and slid my bag next to me. “I thought you were going to call me Sam.”

“
In private. In public we must maintain courtesy.” He turned back to the front and nodded at the driver. “This is Parker. If I’m not with you, Parker will be.”

“
Hi.” I smiled at the face in the rearview mirror.

“
Nice to meet you, Duchess Rousseau.” He nodded his head at me. He was close in age to Duvall, with gray streaks in the hair at his temples.

“
Technically, I haven’t gone through any ceremonies. I’m just Samantha.”

“
Ceremonies are only a formality. You were born a duchess.”

I took a deep breath and looked out the window. I tried to not look behind us, not wanting pictures of me staring out a rear window to end up on the news. A car similar to the one we were in had taken the lead and I was pretty sure another had followed us.

“
Do you think they’ll follow us to the school?”

“
It’s likely, though the dean was notified and promised they would not be welcome on campus.”

“
The dean?” My heart stopped. Who had called the dean?

“
It’s a common courtesy to let the staff know when there may be an issue with media. Plus the duchess is visiting a couple of the programs while in town.”

“
Oh.” It wasn’t a long ride to my school. We had rented a house nearby. As if he could read my mind, Parker pulled into the parking lot for the Natural Sciences building.

Parker pulled the car up to the curb and Duvall hopped out immediately. He opened my door and I slid out. A man exited the car in front and a woman from the car behind us. They each took up a place behind me as I walked to the office. Duvall didn’t take the time to introduce us as we hurried out of the cold. The people in the news vans and cars were all scurrying to try to follow us. We entered the building quickly and I flashed my student ID to the security guard. He waved us through and I took everyone up a flight of stairs to the floor with the offices.

We could hear the security guard telling the reporters they weren’t allowed in the building as we climbed. When we got to the office I shared with several other graduate students, I sighed in relief. I turned and looked at the three people in suits.

“
Samantha, this is Terrance Ross.” Duvall nodded at the man. He was tall with a shaved head. I held my hand out to shake. His palm engulfed mine and his smile was very formal.

“
A pleasure to meet you, Duchess.”

“
Sam or Samantha.” I sighed when Duvall cleared his throat. “At least when we’re alone, please.”

“
And this is Rebecca Meyers.” The woman was younger than both of the men. Probably close to my age. She was wearing slacks and a button-up shirt under her winter jacket. Her blond hair was trimmed into a pixie cut that suited her face and friendly smile.

“
Nice to meet you.” She shook my hand firmly. “Please, call me Becca.”

“
Nice to meet you, Becca.” I looked over my shoulder at the door and saw the shadows of my co-workers leaning toward the door. “Well, might as well let you meet the idiots I work with.”

“
I heard that.” Mary’s voice hollered from the other side of the door as the shadows cleared out of the way.

I opened the door to find Mary and two other graduate students staring at us. I moved aside so the others could come in and waved in their direction. “Guys, meet the suits. Suits, meet my co-workers.”

“
Are you really a princess?” Mary leaned forward. “And please tell me we’re going to meet the prince.”

“
What? No.” I set my bag down on my desk and opened it to find my notes for the next class. “And no.”

“
But you’re royalty, right? Your face was all over the news this morning.” She reached over and turned the monitor of the guy next to her so we could see they were watching a live stream from one of the local stations.

“
Turn that off!” I walked over and hit the monitor button.

“
Geez, you can’t blame us for being curious! We’ve known you for years and you never told us.” Mary crossed her arms. I ground my teeth and counted to five before answering. Mary was not my favorite person in the program.

“
I didn’t tell anyone. Because I didn’t know.” I frowned at everyone. “C’mon, guys. Don’t be weird. I’m the same ol’ Sam. I just have a royal ancestor.”

“
Leave her alone, guys. We’ve all shoveled crap with her and spent hours studying manuals.” David, one of the doctoral students, said from the back of the room. I let my breath out in relief. David was a good guy and the others listened to him. I smiled at him and he nodded in return. “We’ve all got enough to focus on.”

I looked over at Duvall and lowered my voice. “Could you guys wait outside?”

“
When is your class?” His accent drew the attention of some the closer people.

“
About thirty minutes.”

“
Very well. I’ll wait outside with Ross. Meyers will stay with you. She tends to blend in and make people less uncomfortable.”

“
Why can’t you all go?” I hissed the words between my teeth.

“
Lady Rousseau, someone will be with you at all times in public. I must follow the duchess’s instructions.” His face was impassive and I knew our whispering was making everyone even more curious so I gave in.

“
Fine. Becca stays. Everyone else goes.” He started to say something so I cut him off. “Becca stays and everyone else hangs out in the background. No flying-V formations or people circling me like a mama bear protecting her cub when I go anywhere.”

“
Yes, my lady.” Duvall bowed his head before exiting the room.

“
I’m going to do a few things before I leave. Intro to Wildlife isn’t for thirty minutes and it’s in this building, so won’t take but a minute to get to.” I jerked my head toward my desk.

“
Sounds good to me.” One thing I had noticed right away was Becca had an American accent. A Southern accent, to be exact, and it made everything feel a little less foreign and crazy.

I dragged a chair next to my desk for her and pulled out some papers, thumbing through my notes for today’s lecture, but my attention kept being pulled to the manila folders. I opened the one Rose had sent and studied the first few pages of notes. There were copies of birth certificates, a ship manifesto, and a few deeds for property in New York. Then I found the family tree. It was very generic-looking, no picture of a tree or fancy calligraphy. Just a chart, listing descendants. I traced down the lines until I found my mother’s name. There had been other branches but they had all ended in one fashion or another. A blank space was next to my mother with a line that led down to my full name.

Tracing the line down to me, I looked at my name and frowned. Samantha Ellen Frances Rousseau. I’d always hated having four names. It seemed so silly growing up. Everyone else had managed with just three. I flipped through some more of the paperwork, looking for anything that caught my eye or seemed familiar. Copies of my mother’s thesis and first write-up in a journal made me smile. She had been a brilliant scientist.

I looked up at the clock and decided I had enough time to look quickly through the other folder. The noise in the office soothed my nerves. The clicking of someone typing, the whispers of Mary as she flirted with David. David telling her to hush. It was nice to have a little normal for a few minutes.

Alex’s folder had several paper-clipped articles from medicine journals about homeopathic solutions for cancer and dealing with chemo along with information about a new drug that seemed to be helping ease the pain of some cancer patients without affecting their quality of life. The articles were fascinating and I felt hope swelling in my heart. Maybe jumping the pond wouldn’t be so bad. Especially if I was able to help Dad. Or at least make him more comfortable.

In the very back of the folder was a note in slanted text and a sticky note with a website address. Apparently this was a link to a doctor that worked strictly with patients suffering from prostate cancer. Alex wrote that the doctor lived in the UK and might be persuaded to give my father an in-depth examination.

Becca cleared her throat and I looked over to where she was sitting.

“
Your class starts in five minutes.”

“
What?” I looked at the clock on my desk and frowned. The time had flown by. I grabbed my stuff and put it in my bag before jerking my head toward the door. “Let’s go.”

The lecture hall was on the other side of the building, so we took the back stairs. I hesitated just inside the door when I saw all the people in the room. Almost every seat was taken, which was unusual for such an early class. Duvall looked at me with a blank face from near the stage and I wondered what was running through his mind because I sure as hell didn’t know what to think. My fingers tightened on the strap of my bag and I walked forward purposefully. Fake it ’til you make it would be my motto of the day. The room quieted except for a few whispers.

I set my bag down and turned toward the room. My eyes picked out familiar faces amongst a hundred or more that I had never seen before. “It makes my heart all types of bubbly to see so many people excited about the chapter on ornithology.” A faint ripple of amusement spread through the room. “For those of you that didn’t wake up this morning with a newfound love of birds, open your books to chapter twelve.”

I pulled my notes out and grabbed a dry erase marker. While the true students rifled through their bags, I quickly outlined some key points on the whiteboard. I turned back to the class and swallowed. I’d never spoken to this many people before and it was intimidating.

Hopping onto the small desk on the stage, I decided to focus on what I was supposed to be talking about and forget that most of these people had only come to stare at me. “Who can define a bird?”

A young undergrad’s hand shot into the air. I couldn’t remember her name, but I tended to refer to her as Hermione in my head. I nodded at her.

“
An animal whose body is covered in feathers and forelimbs that modified into wings.” She smiled proudly.

“
Yes, but that isn’t all that defines a bird. Anyone else?” I looked around the room. Someone I didn’t recognize raised their hand and I waited a beat before nodding for them to speak.

“
Are you really a princess?”

“
All little girls are princesses, didn’t you know that?” My heart sped up in my chest and I narrowed my eyes. Titters erupted around the classroom and I sat down on the top of the desk. “Now, who can tell me about birds?”