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~ London ~
It was hateful, but with no word from Caelan, no family nearby and no trusting many people, I had to put my trust in someone. So I put it in Arabella, my posh friend, who told me about the nanny she’d just let go—her kids were all in school now and a friend of hers would act as a childminder if and when her husband had a project on the go. What wasn’t in there was how much the price of everything had crept up and how, potentially, Arabella had found a more cost-effective mode of childcare. Pride and all that. Anyway, the nanny hadn’t taken a new position yet, so I swept in and she leapt at my offer.
Amy was lovely actually, very calm and centred. I wanted to say it but didn’t—how I thought only someone like Amy might be able to ply and please someone like Arabella.
For a couple of days, I worked from home and oversaw Amy’s technique, checking she had everything she needed, that she and Logan might get on, which they did. Finally on the third day I felt confident enough to go into the office for a morning’s work.
Just the morning.
Then I’d be back.
Amy had her instructions not to answer the door to anyone. Under any circumstances whatsoever. Let the canvassers and delivery men come and go. Only when I got back would we walk out together, and, with pepper spray hidden in my bag.
Nobody at work dared speak to me about anything but work. What could they say? How’s the baby?Practically fatherless.How are you?In a perpetual cycle of nervous energy.When’s he coming back?How long’s a piece of string?
I got some more ideas together for various collections and scheduled in what would need tidying up, preparing for storage or sending to other places. It often struck me how much money could be made for charity by auctioning off even just one item of clothing, but that wouldn’t be happening anytime soon, I knew. Some of the pieces were utterly priceless. Monetarily and to the family. Moreover, of historical and future significance.
It wouldn’t be until I got to the ballgowns for state dinners and foreign tours that the real work would begin. Right then, I was still on the day dresses, suits and travel clothes.
Just as I was about to leave my office and head to the break room for a cup of tea in the late morning, I got handed a note in the corridor. Some nameless boy in livery serving some page or whomever. The note simply said in scrawl:Green Room
I took a deep breath and abandoned my break time, heading through the labyrinth of corridors and tunnels. Nobody batted an eyelid even though I was unaccompanied. It was only when I reached the very door of the location itself that I was noticed—one of the pages grinning with a little bit of a crush, I thought. A feat I’d made it, really since I’d only made the same walk once before and the place was a veritable maze!
I wasn’t announced and the King wasn’t even in attendance.
It was his son, the heir.
The door was closed behind me and I realised formality had been dispensed with for the humbler and more modern prince.
“You’re looking well,” he said, clearing his throat. “Despite circumstances.”
In a blur, well, on my part anyway, we shook hands and I was gestured to sit.
I began to imagine I was going to be told he was dead. It was inevitable the prince had some experience of this, once having served himself.
“I’ll cut to the chase. I’m not meant to know a thing but a friend of a friend of a friend heard Caelan is in Ukraine and alive. Well. And busy.”
I’d expected air to rush out of me, but truly, all I felt was flat.
“Eric Holmes came to see me. So I’m not entirely unapprised. Hence my lack of reaction, sir.”
The prince’s eyes narrowed at that. Even darkened. I could see he was thinking very carefully about whether to say anything.
Hell, if my father could see me now—bowing and scraping.
He’d laugh his socks off at me, deferring to anyone.
Feeling like I had to explain myself to anyone! What had happened to me?
That’s not what my father had taught me to be.
I wasn’t a servant. Yet here I’d ended up, somehow:
Accepting my purpose was to serve other people who went about living their lives while I put mine on hold. One could argue I’d done that in my former job, too…
“Is the child safe?” the prince asked.
“Yes, he is. Caelan installed the security system. The nanny worked for my friend. She’s utterly flawless. Crime wise, I mean. Looks wise… well, my friend’s husband did have a wandering eye.”
