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Which meant it would be carried out by Jameson today.
“Good. Even though His Royal Highness is stepping in at the last minute, the regatta is getting the better option. Prince Jameson enjoys rowing. Prince Julian prefers sitting in the royal tent opposite the finish line, drinking and socializing.”
Drinking and socializing. The reason his family was currently scrambling to cover up his mistakes.
“Thank you for coming. I really need your advice.” Dani gestured for Louisa to sit next to her on the large beige feather-and-down-filled sofa.
“How can I help?” Louisa asked.
“Have you seen the tabloids?”
Louisa nodded. “Hard to miss them.”
Dani sighed. The event with Catherine hadn’t been far from her thoughts since it’d occurred four days ago. “I can’t believe I let that happen.”
“One thing I learned working for the Royal Household is they don’t spend a great deal of time pondering their errors. They assess and move forward to rectify them. So, how did a simple visit to hospital go wrong?”
“I wasn’t on my A game, and I was caught off guard by the location and some news I’d received.” She grimaced. “And I didn’t read the dossier.”
“Dani!” Louisa slapped her own thigh. “What’s one of the first things I told you about these official royal engagements?”
She squeezed her eyes shut, not wanting to see Louisa’s horrified expression. “To read the dossier, I know. But everything had been going well with the events Jameson and I did together and whenthis function came through at the last minute I thought, how hard could it be?”
She knew better. She truly did. But—
Louisa bobbed her head. “You assumed it would be easy.”
“Yes, okay, I can admit that! And I thought if something tricky came up that I needed to worry about, Jameson would—”
“No,” Louisa said, holding up an index finger. “You and Prince Jameson are in two different categories. He loves you and he would never intentionally mislead you, but you can’t rely on him for guidance aboutyouractions. He’s a prince and seventh in line to the throne.Hewill be forgiven almost anything.”
Her unspoken message was explicit. That wouldn’t be the case for Dani.
The dichotomy in treatment between her and the members of the royal family was already starting to show itself. In one of the major Sunday papers, the story about Julian’s affair and the pregnancies had been removed from the front page. In its place, side-by-side photos of Dani, saucy smile firmly affixed, posing outside the hospital versus Dani, an enraged look on her face, yanking open the curtain between the beds. The disturbing—and embarrassing!—collage had run beneath a headline proclaiming:
duchess’s dark side?
She knew she wasn’t the only one who noticed the undertones.
But, as Bennie had alluded to earlier, the U.S. coverage was totally different, focusing on the underlying incident and questioning the way the British government had handled the bombings.
Just as Catherine had intended.
Dani stared out the windows, but she wasn’t looking at the beautiful greenery or well-kept lawn. “Nothing’s turning out like I planned.”
“Can I let you in on a secret?”
Dani shook her head slightly and focused on Louisa. “Okay.”
“We’ve all had that feeling here. When most of us come to work for the royal family, we do so with a bit of the fairy tale in our eyes.”
Dani huffed out a bitter laugh. “After my last experience I am well aware there’s nothing magical or enchanted about this place.”
Except Jameson.
“But you still believed you could handle it?”
“Because I’ve been handling things since I was fourteen years old! But it’s like I’m playing a game where I’ve been given a set of rules in English, but I still have no idea what they mean. There are so many different agendas. Take Catherine. I thought we were just visiting sick children, only to learn she requested my presence so I would call attention to a political issue because she couldn’t do it on her own.”
