Invisible
Flicka von Hannover
I felt invisible.
I have never felt so invisible
in my life.
Flicka and Raphael fed Alina an early supper and put her to bed. The time change from the western US to Europe had made the toddler cranky, and she probably needed a few days to get over the clock shift. One of the Mirabauds’ housekeepers, a Finnish woman named Kyllikki, wastasked with sitting in the guest suite’s living room in case Alina woke up because Flicka was not going down to supper if it meant leaving Alina with no one but those Russian guards.
Earlier, Flicka had picked through the box that had been delivered and found that the clothes were pretty close to her size, though the taste was a tad more conservative than her own. She dressed in teal silk trousersand an ivory blouse, both with designer labels. Sophie wasn’t throwing castoff clothes at her, not that Flicka would have been choosy at all. Yet, she appreciated the sentiment.
A few minutes before nine o’clock, Raphael donned his suit jacket again and offered Flicka his elbow, and they went down to supper.
The supper in the formal dining room felt odd to Flicka.
AtSchloss Marienburg,thecastle where she’d spent the first five years of her life, her father dined formally and late, like this. She hadn’t been invited to the table as a child, of course. When she’d gone back there during high school, she’d occasionally been offered a seat at the long table in the ostentatious dining room in the palace, where servants rotated through with trays and served five or more courses on the porcelainplates. Glistening silverware and glasses stretched to the sides.
The Mirabauds also ate a formal supper.
And so Flicka would dine with them, her jailers.
During supper, Flicka smiled and made pleasant conversation because she had been trained to do so since she was a child. A princess must be sophisticated and serene at all times, of course. She was the serenest person in the whole room, perhapsin all of Geneva.
Below the table, she strangled her napkin and tied it into knots.
She strained her hearing, listening to make sure Alina didn’t wake up frightened in a new place without her unicorn mural that she had said goodnight to at every bedtime in Nevada.
Valerian Mirabaud, seated at the head of the table because he was the patriarch, also made polite conversation. His questions seemeda bit more on edge than when he’d chaperoned his nieces to the Shooting Star Cotillion or when Flicka had seen him at other events. His chin and nose wove in the air a bit more.
Haughty.He washaughtierthan before, now that Flicka was under his control.
“And what did you do with yourselves all day?” Valerian asked.
“Sophie was kind enough to give us a tour of the house,” Flicka said, herfingers jabbing her napkin.
Valerian smiled. “Sophie has done a lovely job with the decor, for all I know of these things. What did you think of it?”
“I like your house very much. It’s elegant,” Flicka said. She wasn’t lying. Everything was carefully, tastefully done with expensive fabrics in shades of dusty pastels and ivory. The furniture was all clean lines and restrained modernity. No onecould ever criticize it, which Flicka suspected was the point.
“Oh, Flicka is too kind. You must be used to castles and palaces,” Sophie said, but she smiled.
“Not really. I’m used to hotel rooms, musty apartments, and boarding school dormitories. That’s where I’ve lived most of my life, but I certainly know good taste when I see it. Alina enjoyed the tour, too.”
Raphael looked away from hisfather and glanced at Flicka. “Alina wandered around the house with you?”
“Why, yes. Sophie insisted, and she behaved so well. I think it’s so nice that Alina is getting to know her grandparents. It seems like she likes hergrand-maman.She’s trying to learn every word of French that anyone says around her becauseGrand-mamantold her to.”
Sophie’s small smile seemed like she was pleased bythis tidbit of information. “I have a few grandchildren from my daughters, but they’re all older now. Teenagers just aren’t the same as babies, not nearly as fun as the little ones. I didn’t think I’d get a chance to have another baby granddaughter.”
Flicka pounced on the chance to recruit more allies.
“Oh, yes. Raphael—” Flicka remembered to use the correct name, “—mentioned that he has threesisters. Will they be around the house at any point? I’m sure Alina would love to meet her aunts.”
Sophie dropped her gaze to her lap.
Valerian’s low voice seemed perfectly nonchalant when he said, “They’re very busy with their own families and their careers at the bank. I doubt they’ll have time to drop by.”
