“Well, I’ve a surprise.” A sweet twinkle lit Mum’s eyes. “The Royal Travel Porter has booked you in the royal car.”
Daffy made a face. “Really?” Such a treat didn’t seem likely. “Thank you.”
“He mentioned the car would be empty, so I suggested you could keep the plush purple chairs company. He agreed.” Mum turned to Lucy. “You can book first class but I didn’t want to push my luck with the royal car.”
“I love first class. Wouldn’t know what to do with myself in the royal car.”
Daffy selected a box for the gown Lucy brought from a deep cedar drawer. “I thought you were here to scold me about last week.”
Mum’s twinkle sharpened to a laser. “The queen knows it was Leslie Ann’s doing. Which Prince Gus confirmed.”
“He spoke to her about me?” First Prince John and now the queen. Lucy took over assembling the box while Daffy arranged the gown—the Princess Dauphine from 1924—on the worktable. Dauphine was the younger sister of Princess Amelia. “I’m sorry about Leslie Ann, Mum. I had no idea—”
“I know.” Mum patted her hand. “It’s over. Let’s move on.”
The same words she’d said eighteen years ago when Daffy, and thus Ella, had been removed from Perrigwynn’s upstairs and thus the company of the princes.
“The queen and her security team deemed it necessary.”
Mum knew Daffy had been caught in the queen’s dressing room. In hindsight, a rather poor choice for a hiding place. She also knew that she’d tried on one of the queen’s gowns. And that Daffy had stumbled upon a secret.
From that day to this, they never spoke of it.
“Do you really blush around the prince?” Lucy looked at Mum, then Daffy. “Your Mum told me.”
“So it seems. Though I don’t know why I only blush around him. Seems a rather odd quirk. Mum, you started it with your teasing. Created a Pavlov’s dog sort of thing.”
“Then create a newdog. Think of something else when you see him.” Mum laughed. “And I did not make it up. You blushed the first time you saw him—and every time after. Have you sorted things out with Leslie Ann?”
“A little. She can be so self-focused.” Daffy began folding the Princess Dauphine’ssimple skirt. “The whole blooming mess ruined our holiday. Every time I thought of Prince Gus barging into our cottage, I wanted to tear her to strips all over again. She was proud of herself. You should’ve seen her smirking, sipping her tea, lording her scoop over us.”
“What about your sister? She’s quite repented of her part in it all.”
“She’s naïve—and a geek. I don’t blame her, except she blindly admires Leslie Ann. But I’ve forgiven her.”
“Work it out with Leslie Ann.” Mum smoothed a wrinkle Daffy missed. “She’s one of your oldest friends, and good friends are a treasure. Even selfish ones.”
“There’s always Blink,” Daffy said. Another one of her friends from A-levels. Blinky, the exuberant one of their group. But a flake, according to Mum.
“I’m not sure I’d put my eggs in Blinky’s basket. You never know what she’s going to do.”
“I know she’d never betray me.” Lucy helped Daffy settle the dress in the box and folded the bodice and sleeves. “Mum, you should’ve seen Gus’s face. One of absolute betrayal. And after what he’s been through, with not one, but two women, I don’t blame him.”
“He’s an adult, Daffy. And a royal. He’s grown up in a world where the paparazzi is always pointing a camera at him or trying to find the next story. Preferably something negative. Scandals sell papers. I’m sure he’s used to it.”
“Why should he have to be used to it, Mum? It’s a crummy world to live in, if you ask me.”
When she was a girl, the palace was a marvelous playground with real-life princes as her mates. She had no need for fairytales. She’d lived in one.
Until she was discovered. Then she learned not all fairytales had a happy ending.
“There’s one more thing.” Mum aided the packing by stuffing tissue around the dress, stabilizing it for travel. “Prince Gus will also be at Hadsby. He has several things on his diary, as well as finalizing wedding ball details.”
“What?” Was the drumming of her heart echoing in the room as loudly as in her ears?
Try as she might, Daffy couldn’t get Prince Gus out of her head. Up until the day they’d lugged their packed bags to the motor and locked the cottage door, she watched for him on the beach. Or Adler. Or him with Adler.
She’d even wandered, oh-so-casually, past theCaptain’s Hideaway’s back deck, customers overflowing and spilling out onto the beach, where Helene had set up plastic tables.
