Summary: To ensure that the kingdom will accept Liam’s choice, The Royal Public Relations team and Jade’s press secretary create a strategy to show the country why Jade is the best option to be Cordonia’s next Queen.
“So that’s the plan?” A small wrinkle forms between Jade’s eyebrows.
“Yes,” Liam smiles broadly.
“But that’s basically what we do every day.”
“Precisely. The way you behave around each other is usually highly discouraged because Royal couples traditionally can’t have public displays of affection. However, you both have an undeniable chemistry that can do wonders for the Royal Family image and your own. You’ll be our own Kate Middleton.” Justin explained.
“Don’t you mean Megan Markle?” Jade queries.
“God, no! She can’t even bow properly. That woman needs some serious work on courtly manners.” Justin chides. “You’re smarter and much more poised when you’re under the public eye. Jade, your mission is to keep the fairytale alive in people’s minds. King Liam could’ve married a woman he didn’t love because he was looking for a queen to Cornodia. But he fell in love with you, a woman like every other, yet so unique and capable of anything you set your mind on. You’re an inspiration to other women. We all know about it. Now, we just have to work for the world to know it as well,” he boasts.
“And the best part of selling our fairytale story is that we just have to be ourselves,” Liam’s eyes sparkle as he speaks.
“Maybe not so much,” Justin corrected. “I’ve seen you to you together. We have to keep the images family friendly.”
“We’ll try,” Jade smiled coyly, making Liam look away to hide his blushing cheeks. “When do we start?”
_______
[A week later]
“Hello, my darlings! Welcome back to the Bridget Banks show! For our hot topic of the week, we have a special guest. Please welcome my darling and friend, the famous photographer, fashion designer and entertainment reporter, Ana de Luca.”
Ana gets in the studio waving to the audience, greets Bridget and the crowd applauds. She sits down and smiles. “Thank you for coming, my darling!”
“Thank you for inviting me. It’s an honor to be here.”
“Can we get down to business?”
“Let’s do it.”
“Soooo… The Royal Couple. You’ve been following Court everywhere since King Liam’s social season. Did you see the break up coming? Did you sense any lack of… you know… heat between them?” The audience laughs.
“No, I thought the King would go through with the wedding. Lady Madeleine was the most adequate choice to be queen at the night of King Liam’s coronation and they promoted their engagement like the great rulers we all expected them to be. I’m not aware of anything lacking in their relationship as a couple.”
“Then why do you think they broke up?”
“King Liam already gave his statement, B. Let’s not read between the lines.”
“Why did he choose a new bride so fast?”
“He had to ensure the stability of the kingdom. A king is nothing without a queen and a loving family to support him.”
“You’re being very diplomatic today, Ana darling. I don’t like you that way, so we need to discuss the juicy part of the topic.” Bridget winks.
The audience claps and yells “Yeaaah!”
Ana de Luca smiles and nods. “Fire away.”
“Lady Jade: The mystery woman, the outsider, the latina waitress who got herself caught in the middle of a scandal with King Liam’s teenage friend Tariq. You’ve seen her rise and fall during the social season and her attempt to crawl back to the top during the engagement tour. What can you tell us about her?”
“Lady Jade is an outstanding woman. During the social season, she won all the challenges, she is poised, elegant, very eloquent and smart. Regardless of what some might have said, she is just more than just a waitress. She was the only lady in the competition with a college degree. She is a Music Bachelor from one the most prestigious music schools in the world and she was a music tutor for children while she was a waitress and a bartender. She played piano and sang at the Beaumont Bash and I have to say she’s quite talented.”
The audience nods and applauds.
“And let’s not forget that there is no shame on being a waitress. She was a struggling woman like all of us. By the way, she must be an excellent one. She kindly helped a servant to pick up a dish he nearly dropped on the floor during the picnic at the Applewood Manor. The lady has good reflexes, quick thinking and also is kind. We all like that, right?”
The crowd claps and shouts “Yes!”
The host rolls her eyes. “Okay, okay… I get it, you like her. But can she be a good queen?”
“Bridget, she was a commoner, a woman of the people. She knows our everyday struggles because she wasn’t born in this life. She is not Cordonian and has no ties with our country whatsoever, but it says a lot about her personality. She chose to come to Cornodia, leaving everything and everyone she knew because of her love for our King. Unlike the other suitors, she got into the competition with no previous preparations about it and still managed to succeed. She is his most devoted subject. Aren’t love and devotion to the King the most important requirements for a Queen?”
The audience claps vigorously for seconds. The show host fakes a smile. “You’re clearly hashtag team Liade, aren’t you?”
“Actually, I prefer hashtag team Jaliam.” Ana smirks and the audience laughs. “At least, that’s the hashtag I’ll be using when I release their engagement photos at Trend’s social media profiles.”
Bridget looks at Ana de Luca for a moment, displeased with her behavior during the interview and with the audience reactions to her answers, but when the cameraman signals to her, Bridget shakes it off and smiles. “We have some pictures of our newest Royal Couple. Can we take a look at those?”
The widescreen shows different photos of Jade and Liam. The host touches the screen to widen a photo and motions for Ana to describe it. “That’s our king and future queen at a bakery three days ago. It’s their favorite bakery because it’s only one in Cordonia capital that sells cronuts, one of Lady Jade’s favorite pastries. She got King Liam and her closest friends addicted to it.”
…
The waiter takes notes of their orders, bows stiffly and leaves. “You’re having coffee in a public place, Your Majesty?” Jade mockingly gasps.
“Irish coffee, precisely,” Liam smirks.
“You spend too much time with Drake,” she shakes her head. The waiter comes back with a tray: a cup of apple tea and different flavors of macarons for Jade and a cup of coffee and cronuts for Liam. “Your cronuts look delicious.”
“I’ll trade one cronut for all your pistachio macarons.”
“What? But they’re my favorite ones.”
“Mine too. Trade with me and you can have one.”
“No!” She grates.
“Too bad,” he shrugs taking a bite of one the cronuts. “Mmmm…” Liam smiles.
“I’ll give you half of the pistachio macarons.”
“And I’ll give you half of a cronut.”
“You’re mean,” she pouts.
“If you want a better deal, you have to work for it, my queen.”
She narrows her eyes at him as he savors another bite of the cronut. “Half and I’ll show you one of the pieces I got as an engagement gift from Delilah Parsons.”
“Who’s that?”
“Victoria’s Secret CEO in Cordonia,” she toys with the strap of her dress, takes a macaron to her lips and bites it, moaning a little. “Oh, these are so good…” she closes her eyes and nibbles her bottom lip. Liam swallows hard. “They’re waiting for your decision, my King. Tick tock.”
“Deal.” He says without hesitation, staring at her lips. She smiles handing him the plate and Liam takes two of her four pistachio macarons. He offers his plate to her and she takes a cronut.
“I was a pleasure doing business with you, King Liam.” When she’s about to bite the cronut, Liam leans on the table and bites the other end of the cronut. The photographers outside snap pictures of them and laugh. She stares at him wide-eyed and he simply grins.
…
The audience laughs. “A little The Lady and The Tramp moment. Cute.” The host comments dryly.
“It’s a classic. You have to give him props for that.” Ana adds. The audience nods and claps.
“Let’s check out another photo.”
“This is a picture of them walking at the park with Lady Jade’s corgi, Bowie. She named him after one of her favorite rock singers. King Liam got him blue dragon toy in reference to her favorite of Cordonian legend. They call the dragon Dom.”
…
“Catch!” Liam throws Dom away and Bowie darts out to catch it. The corgi trots back to him, placing the toy at his feet. “Good boy!” Liam bends down and scratches the dog’s chin and gives him a snack. “You taught him well.”
“Wait until you see this.” Jade stands up from the bench and walks closer to them. “Sit,” the dog sits down. “Up.” Bowie lifts his front paws up and rests his weight on his back paws. “Greet.” He extends his right paw to Liam and barks excited.
Liam greets Bowie and grins. “Hello to you too, Sir Bowie.” Bowie jumps and licks Liam’s face. “You’re as adorable as your human owner,” he laughs and gives another snack to the dog. A photographer snaps a shot from afar.
“Aww… He never does that with me.”
“Maybe he likes me best.”
“Bribing him with snacks, even Bertrand could do it,” Jade shrugs.
Liam stands up smiling. “I’m sure he likes you better than anyone else. I know I do,” he leans in to kiss her and Bowie starts barking at Liam and pulling the hem of his slacks. “Hey!” He scowls at the dog.
“I guess he really likes me best,” Jade grins proudly.
…
The audience swoons at the image of Liam playing with Bowie, but Bridget is restless. “So the King likes dogs. But still, it’s his fiancee’s dog.”
“Then I guess you’ll be elated to know he intends to adopt a female corgi to keep Lil Bowie some company and raise a small lineage of royal dogs.”
“Because of his fiancé.”
“Not really, he always loved dogs. His mother used to have a Basset Fauve de Bretagne and Liam took care of him after Queen Elise passed away. When the dog died, he was deeply sad and didn’t want to have another dog. But when Lady Jade adopted Bowie during the engagement tour in Italy and he saw how happy she was to stroll around the city with her trusted companion, his passion for dogs bloomed again.” The audience gets visibly touched after hearing the story.
“Alright, next photo… This looks interesting.”
“It’s actually a small video. The Royal couple went to a dive bar with their friends to have a small get together and the bar had an open mic that night.”
…
Maxwell bows as the crowd cheers and whistles. “Thank you, my adoring, fans. I love you all.” He steps out of the stage and goes back to the table.
“Woohoo! Way to go, Max!” Jade lifts up her arm and they give a high five.
“Very bold choice, Maxwell. Well done!” Liam beams.
“That’s the understatement of the year,” Drake scoffs and Liam jokingly glared at him. “He sang Pony and did the Magic Mike routine, Liam. That’s not bold, it’s insane.”
“What’s Magic Mike?” Hana asks.
“You don’t wanna know,” Drake grimaces.
“Oh, sweetie, you certainly will want to know,” Jade smirks. “I’ll add it to the movie list of our sleepovers.” Drake scowls at Jade, who simply shows him her tongue.
“Okay, who’s next?” Maxwell drums on the table excited.
“I’m not very good at singing,” Hana replies apologetically.
“Don’t look at me.” Drake scorns. “Liam can do it, he’s the one who likes singing.”
“I’d rather see my fiancee up there. She is a professional after all,” Liam takes Jade’s hand and kisses her knuckles.
“I don’t know…” Jade smiles timidly at Liam.
“Come on, Jade! You sang so beautifully that night we played piano together,” Hana begs.
“You played piano with Hana, but never even hummed next to me?” Liam places his hands on his chest, pretending to be wounded.
“Look who’s talking… I know you had a date with her where you both played piano too and, for all I knew, you only played guitar,” Jade purses her lips.
“Hana, you can’t kiss and tell people about it,” Liam’s mouth sets into a hard line.
Hana’s jaw drops open.”What? We did not kiss!”
“It’s an expression, sweetie,” Jade expounds.
“So… is charming people by playing piano your thing?” Drake murmurs to Hana and she flushes crimson.
“Focus, everyone. I need someone on that stage right now ’cause those guys at table four are killing it and I can’t lose face,” Maxwell gestures impatiently.
“I stand by my word and my vote still goes to Jade,” Liam squeezes her hand gently.
“Me too. Go, Jade!” Hana beams.
“Definitely, Bourbon,” Drake replied. Jade stared at him shocked. “We all know you like the attention and I’ll do anything to get him out of my hair. It’s a win-win,” he shrugs.
“I guess it’s you, Little Blossom,” Maxwell grins.
“Guys…” she bites her lip nervously.
“Jade! Jade! Jade!” They all begin cheering, drawing the attention of the people next to them, who starts to encourage her as well.
“Fine, I’ll go. I don’t even know what to sing, but whatever.”
“Oh, you should sing that song you wrote back in Ramsford,” Maxwell suggests.
“I don’t know…” Jade replied, her cheeks turning pink.
“Did you write a song?” Liam raised an eyebrow.
“Oh, you see? He’s curious…” Maxwell grins.
“Stop that… Besides, I don’t even have the music sheet to give to the band.”
“I already took care of it,” Maxwell’s grin gets wider.
“Maxwell!” Jade glares.
“Just go up there and make the family proud. You can thank me later,” Maxwell winks. Jade glowers at him, but stands up and walks to the stage, she talks quickly to the band and sits by the piano.
“Hi! I wrote this song for the man of my dreams. This is for you, Li.” Jade smiles shyly at Liam, feeling her cheeks heat but focus on the music sheet and begins to play a lively song. Liam stares mesmerized at the stage, watching her fingers expertly run along the piano keys and she starts to sing.
“How long did you know about this, Max?” Liam asks, his eyes still fixed on Jade playing at the stage.
“Since the morning after your first date with her. She woke up early as usual, but instead of going outside and jog around the estate, she went straight to my mom’s grand Baldwin. She spent the month away from court writing it.”
The crowd at the bar began to film to film the performance.
“The weight of a mountain / the skin off your knees / from climbing back to me”
“Aww, it’s a beautiful love song, Liam. You’re so lucky,” Hana gleams.
“I know,” Liam says as pure joy takes over his features. The crowd stands up and dances to the song. Liam walks towards the stage and the rest of the guys follow. As the song ends, she rushes off the stage, he pulls her into his arms and they kiss deeply as the crowd cheers and takes several pictures of them.
“I can’t believe you wrote it for me,” his glossy eyes gaze adoringly at her.
“I told you. You inspired me to keep on going when I felt like giving up.”
“I can’t say I was expecting something like this,” he smiles shyly. “Do you mind letting me know next time?”
“Too much PDA for you?” she teases.
“When it includes making me emotional in front of people in a dive bar with smartphones? Yes.”
“Sorry,” she looks sideways smiling sardonically.
“No, you’re not,” Liam shakes his head. “I love you, my Queen.”
“I love you too, my King.” They share another passionate kiss, not caring if anyone could be filming or taking pictures.
…
The audience applauds completely smitten by the video and the photos. “And this is why the Royal Couple was on trending topics last night. The photos and the video spread worldwide and they have been already tagged in many relationship goals posts in various social media apps and websites,” Ana comments.
“I guess they have A factor that brings the appeal to them. Do we have any other news about the happy couple?”
“I already told you guys about the engagement photo shoot that will happen this afternoon. Tonight, King Liam will officially grant Lady Jade her title as Duchess of Valtoria. I’ll be there to get every detail and live tweet on Trend Magazine social media. And the Five Kingdom’s Festival is upon us. We will surely have more adorable moments of the Royal Couple.”
The audience stands up and applauds vigorously. “That was our hot topic of the week. Thank you for coming, Ana. We’ll be right back after the break.” Bridget leaves the stage escorting Ana out. When they arrive in the hallway, she turns to Ana. “When did you become a Royal kiss-ass?”
“Said the woman paid by the Duke of Karlington to roast the country leaders. At least I support Liam and Jade because I believe them.” Ana says bluntly. “Now I have business to attend to. Have a good day, Bridget.” She storms out of the TV studio.
…
“Yaaaaay!” Maxwell and Hana root for them and Drake smiles at Liam and Jade quietly sitting on the L shaped couch at the Palace lounge and beaming as they hold hands.
“Excellent strategy! The kingdom could use another loving couple to inspire the people.” Constantine smiles fondly at Regina.
“Bravo, indeed!” Regina praises them, gently patting Liam’s shoulder.
“Thank you, everyone,” Liam nods. “The PR team did a great work with the coverage this week,” he gestures to Justin and the Royal Communications Director and everybody applauses. “Let’s celebrate at the Homecoming Ball. I’m sure it’ll be an unforgettable night.”
“Yeah. Now, if you excuse us,” Maxwell stands up and offers his hand out to Jade. “I need to get the lady of the hour to the spa and get her ready. Hana?”
“On my way to the boutique to pre-select our new duchess the best dresses,” Hana stands up, bows gracefully and leaves.
“I’ll see you later, my Queen,” Liam kisses Jade on the cheek.
“See you then,” she smiles and takes Maxwell’s hand.
“Let’s go, Little Blossom. I have a feeling tonight will be a blast,” Maxwell beams.
“Yes, it will…” Justin smiles passing by them. “It will blow you away.”
