AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I cringed internally but maintained a diplomatic front. “We appreciate your letting us know, Mother. We will try to do better. Is there anything else?”
“I’m sure there is, but I do not have time at the moment.” Mother eyed us both severely before turning on her heel and walking out the door.
Once alone, I shot Grace a grin. “I can’t believe you named the dog Freddie! Thank you for doing that. It means so much.”
Grace was deep in thought, biting her lip, still staring at the door.
“Hey—don’t worry about Mother,” I said. “She’ll come around, eventually.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” she said.
“Why is that?” I asked.
“Because,” Grace said, wringing her hands and wincing. “I have no idea where the tiara is.”
Chapter Thirteen
GRACE
The missing tiara was almost enough to send me into a panic attack of epic proportions, but I mustered every ounce of strength to keep a clear head as I changed out of my purple dress and into a black skirt and white blouse for dinner. I might’ve looked like one of the palace staff, but my conservative wardrobe was the least of my worries. Oliver assured me that the tiara had to be somewhere in the palace, and that we would find it, but I continued to wrack my brain for clues.
Where could it be?
The tiara had been in the SUV with me after I had adopted Freddie. I was sure of it, and so was Marco, the driver. But had I brought it inside the palace? That was the part that was fuzzy to me.
The impending dinner with the queen loomed, just minutes away, and I envisioned the awkward moment of presenting myself without the cherished tiara. These mishaps seemed to befall me with alarming frequency, but this one was bigger than ever. Barring a last-minute miracle, the queen would surely send me packing now.
As I left my room, intent on retrieving Freddie from Adriana and passing him off to one of the palace staff who had agreed to watch him during dinner, I couldn’t help but find a small silver lining. The tiara debacle had provided a temporary distraction from the lingering thoughts of that dangerously intimate portrait session with Oliver, where the threat of a kiss had hung tantalizingly in the air between our lips.
Just as I rounded the corner, Adriana emerged from her room. A sinking feeling hit me in the gut when she didn’t have the dog with her.
“Hey, Grace!” she said. “I’m heading to dinner. Shall we walk together?”
“That sounds good, but where’s Freddie?” I asked.
“He’s with Mother,” Adriana said.
“Excuse me?” I gasped. “Again?”
“Don’t worry—he’s fine,” she said. “While I was playing with him on the lawn, Mother showed up and said she’d heard that Theodore was looking for me, then she offered to watch Freddie for me. And you know what? Theodore hadn’t been looking for me! Can you believe her?” Adriana shook her head in amusement. “Don’t think for a second she does not want Freddie, because she does. Anyway, one of the footmen is watching him at the moment, so we can have dinner in peace.”
That was where Adriana was wrong.
Showing up to the dinner without the tiara was going to be the start of World War III, and I would be the blame for it.
“Adriana, there's something else I should tell you,” I said hesitantly, my heart racing as I decided she’d be the perfect person to have on my side if things went south. “I can’t find Princess Veronica’s tiara.” I shared the saga with her, wondering how she would respond.
“That is the strangest thing,” Adriana said. “Did you check with Marco?”
“Yes, and he has no clue what happened,” I said.
Much to my surprise, Adriana didn’t seem to be worried about it. She was convinced, like Oliver, that the tiara had to be somewhere on the property.
“I can help you find it. Please don’t worry,” Adriana said with a reassuring smile. “We’ll figure this out together. Let’s just focus on getting through dinner first, then we can search for the tiara afterwards.”
“But Queen Annabelle is expecting me to bring it to dinner,” I said. “What am I going to say? I can’t lie to her.”
“You don’t have to,” Adriana said. “Just let me handle it if she brings up the subject. I’ll buy you some time. Promise.”
