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‘I’m fine standing, thank you, sir.’
‘Please sit,’ he said.
It would be far easier to stand—especially as her heart was thumping in her chest—but she perched herself a suitable distance from him. And as she took her place on the bench, she was assailed by a memory.
It was so sharp that she felt almost transported back to happier times—not that they’d felt happy then. She remembered two little girls sitting on a bench, waiting to see what Alicia had done. The memory was so vivid that Beatrice let out a small, almost silent laugh.
‘What?’ asked Julius.
‘It’s honestly nothing.’
‘Distract me,’ he said.
‘I was just thinking how I used to sit outside Reverend Mother’s room with my...’ She faltered, unsure what to say, because she rarely got as far as saying this.
‘With your...?’
‘Well, we called each other twins, but really we weren’t even related.’
‘Oh?’ He looked over. ‘Good friends, then? Or, as my niece would say,bestfriends?’
‘Yes...’ Beatrice smiled. ‘We were.’
‘Arabella has just fallen out with hers.’
‘Poor thing.’
‘I have to say, from all she’s told me, it sounds very fraught.’
‘She’s spoken to you about it?’
‘Loudly.’ He nodded. ‘And then tearfully, when I pointed out she was in the wrong.’ He put his head back on the wall behind him. ‘Thankfully I’ve always avoided all that.’
‘Didn’t you ever have a best friend?’
‘God, no,’ he said.
‘Oh.’ She couldn’t imagine her childhood without Alicia—or rather, she didn’t want to imagine how it might have been without her friend by her side.
He removed his head from the wall and stared ahead. ‘If I had I might have spilled palace secrets or something dreadful.’
‘Well, I guess there is that to consider.’
‘Not really. I doubt my niece and her little friend give a damn about the future of the monarchy.’
He was cross; she could feel it.
And she was nervous about going into the meeting, Beatrice realised.
For him.
There was so much more going on than she was allowed to know. Her ‘Limited Access’ truly limited her access, and there was no one here who was going to enlighten a temporary employee.
It was Julius who broke the strained silence. ‘So,’ he asked, ‘was it your attitude?’
She frowned, confused by the question.
‘I mean, was your attitude the reason you were hauled in front of Reverend Mother.’
