Pictures

After leaving the lake house they headed back to the Castle to shower and change. Karmen's parents should be arriving in about a hour. Alex noticed Lexi and Karmen seemed excited, but Jackson was beginning to get a little nervous.

Alex texted Julie to have a maid assigned to Queen Victoria ,he also told Julie to have the maid escort King Charles and Queen Victoria to the west wing garden when they were ready to come back down stairs.

When they stepped into the grand entrance the older couple parted ways with the two younger couples to go back upstairs to their bedroom. Everyone took a quick shower, however the younger couples took a bit longer.

King Charles and Queen Victoria were the first ones to arrive in the garden, escorted by a young human maid named Harper. After escorting the King and Queen to the West wing garden, she bowed her head and politely spoke to King Charles, "Your Majesty is there any thing else I can do for you before I leave. "

" No young lady, I think we will be fine." King Charles replied.

Harper bowed her head, with a polite smile." Have a good afternoon. Your Majesty "she said ,turning, she walked away leaving the King and Queen alone in the garden.

The next couple to arrive was Lexi and Alex, Lexi smiled sweetly at Alex and hung onto his arm ,occasionally kissing around on his face . After a few kisses she immediately started telling Alex what she wanted from the kitchen." Alex, can you please get me a soda, and a brownie."

When Queen Victoria seen Alex whip out his phone she rolled her eyes.Even though Lexi is an only child and the Crown Princess of a large kingdom." She and King Charles have always been mindful not to spoil Lexi, and not to cater to her ever whim .

And now it seems all there efforts have gone to waste, she's noticed Alex spoils and dotes on Lexi from the time they get up until they go to bed at night.

," Would you like a drink or something, Alex ask, before he sent the text.

" Sure I'll take a lit Beer and get Vicky a glass of extra dry red wine." King Charles replied.

Just as Alex was sending the text, Jackson and Karmen arrived. Jackson shouted their drink orders out to Alex before he put his phone away. " Alex get me an old fashioned and Karmen a ginger ale with some Almonds.

The younger couple stepped over to the table and took a seat .Jackson pulled Karmen's chair over close to him. Just as soon as Allison brought the drinks in .

Before he could open the almonds and start shoving them into her mouth she

tugged on his shirt pointing up to the balcony " take me up there real quick, When the maids moved us , I didn't think to tell them to get my new jewelry . I bought it to wear for Lexi's Wedding. It's in that dresser in Alex's old bedroom room."

Standing up he scooped her into his arms and jumped to the balcony above.

Queen Victoria gasped, coughing and choking on her wine, " Momma are you okay," Lexi ask, patting her mother on the back.

" Oh, my lord how did he do that." She cried out , feeling slightly dizzy and a bit confused.

Alex and King Charles chuckled at the same time,

" I guess no one has told you yet , that your grand children could be quite a handful." Alex cackled, with an amused smile.

"Charles we will need to turn Lexi's old dance studio into a tumble room. With lots of mats." Queen Victoria muttered, taking deep breath's while fanning her face with her hand.

———-

Upstairs in Alex's old bedroom. Karmen pulls the bottom drawer of the dress open and takes out a black velvet box. Before she closed the drawer she noticed an envelope pushed into the corner, one like pictures come in . The type of envelope that one of those quick photo places use .

She picked it up and handed to Jackson "Someone might be looking for these." She nonchalantly told him.

Jackson shrugged his shoulders ,"There probably mothers, she's the only person that has been stayed in this room since Alex has moved out. Alex never lets anyone stay in this room because it's still connected to my room through the secret passage in the closet. " he explained, opening the envelope to take a quick look at the pictures, he pulled them out flipping through them. " Babe are you sure these aren't yours?" He said, holding the pictures down so that she could look at them.

Peeking over at the pitchers in his hand she seen they were picture of Lexi. " No I didn't bring any pictures with me. Can I see those? "She ask, holding out her hand.

" Sure Babe" she flipped through the pitchers pausing occasionally recalling some of the events that she and Ethan had also been present. But some of the photos where taken in King Charles's office and other places around the Castle when She and Ethan were in school.

" Maybe Ethan brought them to Lexi and forgot to give them to her. You know he was pretty drunk when he got here."

"You could be right Babe, here put them in the box with your Jewelry and we will give them to her."

Before she stuck the pitchers back in the envelope, she fanned threw them again, noticing something a little odd.

"I wonder why he didn't bring her some pictures of the three of us together, and why he only brought pictures of her when she was eighteen?"

" Babe how do you know all these pictures where took when Lexi was eighteen?

Taking one of the pictures from the stack she pointed out to him, how she could tell all these pictures had been taken with in a very short time frame." Look at her hair, we both had the same hair cut that year. And some of these pictures where taken when I was with her."

Taking another pitcher from the stack of Lexi wearing a beautiful blue sequenced evening gown she held it up pointing at the dress, telling him exactly how she remembered the time when the pictures was taken. "This one here ,was taken at my coming out party, I remember the dress she was wearing that night."

That did seem a bit strange to him, and thoughts started to run through his head some good and some not so good.

" Babe don't say anything about these pictures, let's just keep them to ourself right now."

"Why?"

Holding his hand out for her he lead her towards the bed "Come sit with me Babe, Something just seems odd to me about these pictures. don't you think so?" He ask, looking into her eyes trying to gauge her expression.

" Well I've already pointed out the obvious. I think my brother didn't use his head and just grabbed a bunch of pictures and didn't even look at them."

He nodded his head in agreement with her also giving her another scenario.

" Well Babe that could be ,or he could have even been drunk and grabbed the wrong pitchers."

"Well of course,we both know that's a possibility."

Really not wanting to go into the darker scenarios that ran through his head briefly. Like maybe one of their brothers could possibly have been a stalker, which the thought made his own skin crawl ,and he really had a hard time with it himself.

He thought of one of the lighter more romantic ones that ran through his head.

"But Babe, there could be other reasons to.

Hypothetically let's say, Ethan didn't bring these pictures, maybe they belong to Alex he stayed in this room about three years ago when they put the voice command center in the other side of the the Castle.

I don't think he was talking to Lexi then at least not openly. You know Babe ,they might have been sneaking around. And we don't need to bust them out in front of Lexi's parents."

" I really don't think so, Lexi would have told me. She told me about the first night she talked to Alex with Uncle Charles. She

couldn't shut up about how hot Alex was."

Becoming slightly excited , he held onto her hand, tilting his head to look into her eyes. " Yeah Babe, didn't you just hear what you said. Her dad knew about Alex then." He said, making her question herself.

" well you could be right Lexi's had a crush on Alex for about six years. When she was sixteen she used to hold onto a pitcher of him and kiss it. So I guess I'll just hold these for now."

"There's only one thing we know for sure they were put in that drawer by ether Alex or Ethan. But I do have an idea how to casually give them to Lexi. Without anyone asking questions."