That icy formality was the creepiest thing she’d ever seen Maxence do.
That curt wave of Max’s hand must be a signal for Dree to catch up, so she swung her backpack over her shoulder and trotted after him.
They walked through the small terminal of the heliport, a utilitarian little building with vending windows for selling tickets for the helicopter rides and large posters of scenic Monaco, and out the front doors where a line of limousines was waiting for them.
He didn’t look at her the whole time.
A rear door was already being held open for Max by a chauffeur in a black hat.
Maxence muttered under his breath, “You’ll ride with the other staff.” He folded himself into the back seat of the limo.
The chauffeur slammed the car door behind him and gazed down at Dree impassively with a blankness that bordered on a sneer.
Dree was so lower-class that she didn’t even fit in with the royal servants.
She plodded toward the rear of the line of limousines, her thumbs hooked under her backpack straps.
Even the license plates on every car had that squared-off, checkerboard shield that was on his arm. It waseverywhere.
She found a seat on the minibus sent for the security guys.
The lower-ranked bodyguards filed onto the bus and crouched as they walked toward the back, joking and talking to each other as they collapsed onto the bench seats.
Dree sat directly behind the driver, her arms wrapped around her backpack resting in her lap in case somebody needed to sit on the seat beside her.
The minibus rumbled to life and jerked as it accelerated in the small traffic circle in front of the terminal. Dree swayed as it drove on the exceedingly narrow streets past soccer fields where children were practicing. The young kids out there, probably eight or nine years old from the look of them, were significantly better than the varsity team at her high school.
An enormous sports stadium loomed on the other side of the street, just feet away from the whizzing traffic. A sign on the front readStade Louis II.
A tap on her shoulder surprised Dree, and she flinched.
When she turned, the guy behind her was smiling. “So, are you to be quartered in the palace?”
Dree shrugged and hoped she didn’t look too much like a wide-eyed country bumpkin, even though that’s what she was. “That’s where I was told I would be staying, but I have no idea what I’m doing.”
The guy chuckled. He was about her dad’s age, maybe fifty, although he was a heck of a lot more fit than her dad was. “That’s where they’re dropping us off, too. I know where the staff office is. I’ll make sure you get there.”
The minibus rolled through the narrow, winding streets of Monaco. Dree was glad that she was in a large, safe vehicle. Cars that she had only seen in James Bond movies like Lamborghinis and Ferraris whipped through traffic, attaining ridiculous speeds in only a few hundred feet before slamming on their brakes. Other low-slung cars that she could not begin to identify clung to the pavement as they snaked around corners.
The engine of the minibus labored as it climbed hills and sped through traffic. Even though it was nearly January, most of the trees lining the street or in the gardens were green and lush.
The guy tapped her shoulder again and gestured out the window. “That’s the palace.”
Outside her window, a sheer cliff rose from the ground as if the road were winding along the bottom of a canyon. Dree craned her neck to look up. Medieval fortifications perched on the top of the cliff, a literal castle on a hill.
She twisted to look at the guy sitting behind her. “This bus isn’t going to be able to climb that road.”
The guy laughed. “There’s no way to drive up from this side. We’ll go through the tunnels. There’s an area below the castle where we’ll get out.”
Just then, the sky turned black as the minibus dove into a tunnel and sped deep into the earth.
Dree held onto the back of her seat and a pole beside the driver as the minibus navigated the flying traffic. One quick turn led them into a small side tunnel.
The security guys all stood and grabbed their packs, so Dree did the same.
The bodyguard led Dree up a stairwell to a small office and explained the situation to the people there.
A reed-thin man wearing a pale gray suit pursed his lips and looked Dree up and down. “And who told you that you would have accommodations in the palace?”
