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“Yes. Exactly. My parents had one years ago… I wonder when he left? And if we can find Leif said, “It’s time to go home for dinner. I will put out the word for an agent tomorrow.”
“Thank you, Leif.” He was a blessing. If only the other advisors were as helpful. I’d find out when the time came. But for now, I sat beside him in the little vehicle, its back empty of what we’d started out with but laden with gifts from my people. They were indeed forgiving to want to give me things. “They know I wasn’t really in charge,” I mused holding a jar of golden honey up to the late afternoon light. “But I still have a lot to make up for.”
He didn’t reply, which was fine. He couldn’t write while driving, and the sounds of the vehicle rolling over the countryside would make it hard to make out anything he might say. Background noise was not my friend. His tone was one of the few I could still make out, most of the time, although I watched him speak to be sure I got it all every time. Ahead, the castle windows were beginning to glow with lights against the coming darkness. For the first time in a long time it looked homey to me. Diana and Candace would be bustling around inside, as would so many others.
“After dinner, I would like to arrange for an inventory of the wines. I understand we can send them to an auction where we are likely to get the most money for our stock.”
He nodded.
“Maybe a secretary and an estate agent?” I nodded to myself this time. “I need to review the staff we have now and see if they are in a position that works for our new kingdom or one that we can eliminate and move them to a more useful one.” I made some notes on my tablet, and when I looked up we were at the front doors. A footman took the Mule away after the got out, and I watched him leave. “Do we need footmen?”
Leif laid a hand on my shoulder and I looked up. “Let’s have something to eat and then you need rest. Tomorrow will be another day.” His smile twisted my insides. “After all, if the queen collapses from exhaustion, who will do your job?”
He got me.
I barely kept my head up during dinner, but it was worth it to be tired from actually, as he put it, doing my job. I had years and years to make up for.
Chapter Eight
“Pants?” I bounced on my heels, excited at the simple prospect.
Candace beamed back at me. “Yes, it’s a horse ride. Unless you want to fiddle and pick at a dress while riding a thousand-pound animal. You have complained about that in the past. I mean, I can pick out something else…” She turtle-crawled back to the closet, knowing the ridiculousness of what she’d just said.
“Candace, don’t you dare.” I paused trying to rehash my daily schedule in my head. I’d been bombarded with information the day before, so much so that it pinched me in my dreams and roused me when I attempted to rest. “What is it I’m doing today?”
She snorted. “Riding horses to survey your vast lands and glorious riches and, if Your Majesty should see fit, speaking to the little people.” During her explanation, she adopted a pathetic British accent and made some hand gestures.
She should’ve been the jester instead of the handmaid.
“You can’t be serious,” I groaned. “I’ve seen the vast lands. I’ve lived here all my life. I’m deaf, not blind.” My travels recently had only begun to cover the acreage. Especially when stopping all the time to visit with people.
Candace laid out my pants and chose a slim-fitting turtleneck to accompany it along with a vest that matched the pants.
“If I’m just looking at the lands, then why are you putting up such a fuss about my outfit. I’ve seen you put less effort into a royal ball. What gives?”
My best friend pooched out her lips and shrugged one shoulder. “Because you are the queen and you must look your best. You’re going to visit your people.”
“You’re lying.”
Her back now turned to me, she proceeded to pick out some riding boots. If she had answered me, I didn’t know.
She turned back. “Think about it.”
Nothing about looking at land or talking to people made it necessary to get into formal riding clothes. Hell, I could just put on some jeans and a T-shirt and be comfortable. Not that I’d ever gone out dressed that casually
“I did.”
She rolled her eyes and pushed her lips to the side. “A queen cannot just ride around unaccompanied.”
Gods, there it was. He’d been out with me before, but there was something growing between us. I swallowed against the excitement that bubbled in my throat.
Leif. He would be there. Part of me loathed the very idea. As helpful as he could be, he was also a little bossy, and when I was not with him, I wondered if he was trying to take over my job.
But the other part of me, the one that was all woman, well, her thighs clenched at the idea. There was something so intimate about the way he talked to me, smiled at me over his shoulder.
And truth be told, I wanted to reach out and pinch that ass of his. Biting was also still on the table. Quarters be damned, you could probably bounce an anvil off of it.
“Lords and goddesses above, Janis. You just turned thirty shades of blush. But then again, I don’t know. Maybe he will find a little nook between the trees and kiss you with those pouty lips.”
