I have no idea if this is true or not. But it should be, and it is absolutely how I would behave if I was the queen.
Jamie sits up straight. “You are right! I am the queen!”
Despite my best efforts, a smile stretches across my face. Jamie grins back at me.
“Let’s go see Llywelyn!” he declares proudly.
He slides off his chair and strides towards the door. I scramble after him. “Right now?”
“Yes!”
Okay. Fair enough. It is exactly what I asked for. I’m just a little surprised that my motivational speech has had such an instantaneous effect. Maybe it is a skill I never knew I had.
I follow Jamie as he walks confidently through Buckingham Palace. I’m glad one of us knows their way around this place.
We walk and walk. And walk some more. I swear we are at the other end of the palace when we finally stop outside a pair of fancy double doors. Why are Llywelyn’s rooms all the way out here? His brothers’ rooms all seem to be fairly close together.
Jamie knocks on the door. Confidently. With no hesitation at all. I am impressed.
Nothing happens. Jamie knocks again, more forcefully this time. The door silently swings open. Like something from a horror movie. Except the hinges don’t creak. Nevertheless, it is still really fucking ominous.
Jamie looks at me. I nod, and together we step into Llywelyn’s rooms.
The first room is a sitting room. Large, light and airy. Tall windows. Impressive fireplace. Scattered with furniture. It is a lot like his brothers’ rooms. But there is clearly no one here.
Silently, we drift around the space. Where is he? It doesn’t seem likely that he is galavanting around court without a care in the world. This resyn stuff seems serious, and losing a duel surely warrants hiding in your rooms and licking your wounds for at least a few days?
I head for the fireplace. As I approach the wingback chair, I see what looks like a knitting basket. What the hell? I cannot picture Llywelyn sitting by the fire, knitting. It doesn’t make any sense at all.
I continue exploring. There is a huge bookcase absolutely stuffed with books. The titles look harmless, but I’m sure they have to be about achieving world domination, or how to be a dick, or something similar.
Gingerly, I poke my head around what I’m guessing is the bedchamber door. I find a huge four-poster bed decked in gold quilts. But no Llywelyn.
My eyes fall on a shelf. It is laden with what looks like stuffed toys. Bears, foxes, deer and other woodland animals. They have freaky buttons for eyes. Could they be voodoo dolls? Please let them be voodoo dolls. That’s a whole lot less horrifying than learning that the man I caused an awful thing to happen to, frigging collects stuffies.
I hurry out of the bedchamber and find Jamie staring down at the tabletop. I join him and see a half finished game of solitaire neatly laid out.
Solitaire. Playing a card game by yourself. In a palace. Surrounded by hundreds of people. While living with your family.
My throat tightens. Fucking hell. This sucks.
“We shouldn’t have come,” whispers Jamie.
He is right. This is a massive invasion of privacy. Haven’t I already done enough to Llywelyn? I should just leave the poor man alone.
My gaze flicks to the door that presumably leads to the rest of his rooms. Now that we are here, we should check. What if he has done something stupid and is lying there hurt?
I look at Jamie, and he nods. He understands my intention and my train of thought.
Wordlessly, I head towards the far door. I take a deep breath. But all I find is another empty room. On the other side, another door is half open, revealing a glimpse of a fancy bathroom. The type with a swimming pool sized sunken bath.
It would be stupid not to check in there.
I gulp. I take another deep breath. I step towards it. Jamie is trailing hesitantly behind me. I don’t blame him. Coming here was all my idea. Llywelyn being upset is all my fault. Going first is the least I can do.
Warily, I step into the white-tiled bathroom.
Suddenly, a blast of cold air hits me in the face. I stagger back, but a hand grabs the front of my robes and yanks me forward. Everything is black and spinning. Oh fuck. It is a portal. Some motherfucker has pulled me into a portal.
