“Like Coral?”
“Yes, like Coral.”
“Would you have gone to America with her?”
“We talked about it. She had a business, of course, but she understood I had royal obligations. We’d planned for her to work out of the Port Fressa office with trips to New York as needed. But that’s all— Enough about me. What about you? Ever want to do something different? Achieve the unachievable?”
“Doesn’t everyone?” She buried her answer in a gulp of beer. “Does it bother you? Being teased in headlines?”
“You’re full of questions.”
Daffy propped her chin in her hand, a contemplative expression softening the curve of her face. “I remember the year you came home from school because the lads teased you so much. Fifth grade, I think.”
“Brock Chancellor saw my stash of junk food and started calling me Gus-Gus.”
“And John didn’t defend you.”
“He tried, but even princes want to be accepted by their peers.”
“What made you finally ask to come home?”
Gus paused, recalling the scene he considered the worst in his life. Little had he known back then what the future held for him.
“We were coming out of evening vespers when Brock and his mates called me over. This was spring term, and for some reason, they’d let up on the teasing after Christmas.”
“Can I ask why you had so much junk food?”
“Why does anyone have chocolate and biscuits and sweets? For comfort. I never liked boarding school, Daffy. If I ever have children—and that’s a big if—I won’t send them away. I missed Mum and Dad.” He raised his gaze to hers. “You.”
The color on her cheeks deepened. “What happened when Brock called you over?”
“This movie started playing on the side of the building. Me. My face…on the body of Gus-Gus, the fat mouse in the animatedCinderella. Brock’s older brother was a film student. The scene was the one where Gus had all the corn in his hands and couldn’t get away from the cat.”
“What? You’re serious?”
“Everyone laughed.Ha, ha, Gus-Gus the fat prince.” His smile was more of a grimace. “The worst part was John laughing with them.”
“Want me to slap him for you?”
“Would you?” He sat back, shoving his pint aside. “Mum brought me home the next year. We tried to keep it quiet, but the news went on about me having issues, raising questions about my intelligence.”
“I remember.”
“Yes. We played a lot of video games together, didn’t we?” His eyes warmed at the memory.
“We did.” Daffy finished her pint and watched the fire. “I never saw you as Prince Pudgy. You were always…my friend.”
“I was really upset when the new security measures changed your privileges. I begged Mum to make an exception, but she claimed she must adhere to the new protocol.”
Daffy’s soft smile communicated something he couldn’t understand. “I hated it too. But I think the queen did what she thought was best.”
Silence stretched between them for a few moments, broken only by the sounds of the fire popping and a burnt log cracking. Gus felt completely and utterly safe. At peace. Home. As if all the people surrounding them formed a barricade, sheltering him, and Daffy, from the outside world, allowing him to just be who he was on the inside.
“So who was your childhood nemesis?” Gus’s question pulled her gaze to his. “Wait. Let me guess. You didn’t have one.”
Daffy shook her head. “No, not really, but when I was ten and banned from the upstairs, that was really, really hard. I felt like I was being punished for something I didn’t… Well, whatever.”
“I’m sorry. I never really considered it from your side. Did the queen ever speak to you about it? Tell you why?”
