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“Oh. Ah.” There was a question that posed a bit of a dilemma, as there was nothing to rush off to when one did nothing but await her next audience with Queen Victoria. “I mean to fetch Amelia,” Justine said, seizing on the idea. “That was badly done on her part.”
“Wonderful! Mind if I join you?” Lady Aleksander scrambled to her feet, leaning over her plate to take one more bite of eggs.
A small swell of panic seized Justine. “Why?”
“To see London, of course. I haven’t been here in ages. It’s been what...ten years? No, eleven, I think. Well,” she said, waving a hand, “ten or eleven. I’ll just fetch my—”
The dining room doors suddenly swung open and Bardaline sprinted inside. “Your Royal Highness,” he said breathlessly, bowing low, “you should—”
“I’mfamished,” Amelia announced, sweeping in behind Bardaline. She handed her cloak to him as if he was a footman and proceeded into the middle of the room. She was wearing a dress Justine had not seen before, which made her wonder if Amelia had purchased it. Or borrowed it.
Her sister went to the buffet, her hair bound in a loose knot at her nape. She didn’t seem to notice Lady Aleksander until she almost collided with her. She startled and bounced back a step. “Who are you?”
“Amelia, you have the pleasure of meeting Lady Aleksander,” Justine said.
Amelia gasped. “Thematchmaker?”
Lady Aleksander curtsied to Amelia. “It is my great pleasure to make your acquaintance, Your Royal Highness.”
“But when did you come?” Amelia asked. “Why weren’t we informed? We weren’t informed, were we?” she asked Justine, just to make sure her indignation was warranted.
Bardaline, perhaps sensing a line of questioning he did not care to answer, chose that moment to exit the room with Amelia’s cloak.
“We weren’t informed theprecisemoment her ladyship would arrive,” Justine said. “And I would have told you straightaway the moment I learned of it...but you were having a lark at Stafford House, weren’t you? Really, Amelia, what were you thinking? Can you imagine the sort of talk that could spark?”
“Why shouldn’t I stay with Lady Constance? She’s quite a lot of fun.”
Justine was gearing up to tell her sister that it didn’t matter how much fun Lady Constance was, that it was theappearanceof things that mattered, and God help her, it felt almost as if her mother was living in her head, because she never would have said such things before her own little scandal.
“Good morning,” a deep voice rumbled.
Justine and Lady Aleksander turned toward the door at the same moment. Amelia did not.
William Douglas casually strolled into the room as if he lived here and had just come in from his morning constitutional. He did pause to bow—a generous interpretation of the slight dip of his head—and then he straightened and smiled directly at Justine with the expression of one who’d happened upon a theatrical street performance and was delighted by it.
“What are you doing here?” Justine demanded. “Where is Bardaline?”
“The last I saw him he was in the cloak closet mumbling to himself.”
“You walked in without announcing yourself to anyone?”
“I wouldn’t say that, no.” He glanced at Amelia, whose attention was solidly on the buffet. “I am returning your sister to you, as you see. I was very clear with your butler about that. And the groom who came to tend the horses. And, of course, Her Royal Highness herself. But I think all of them are a bit undone by all the flowers. I pray no one has died.”
“I didn’t want to go with him. His escort was decidedly against my wishes,” Amelia said at the buffet. She suddenly gasped. “Didsomeone die? Was it—”
“No,” Justine said firmly. “I would have come to fetch you and tell you myself if that had happened.”
“Oh. Of course. Then whyarethere so many flowers?”
“They are the gift of an admirer,” Lady Aleksander said.
“What?” Justine asked at the same time Amelia whirled from the buffet, her face illuminated with pleasure. “For who?”
“Her Royal Highness, Princess Justine,” Lady Aleksander said.
Amelia made a sound of disapproval and turned back to the buffet.
An admirer? What admirer? And what about William sauntering in here? There was suddenly too much to absorb.
