The girls come screaming into my office, running straight over to me. I make a quick last-second adjustment and push my chair back just in time for them to both land on my lap. I hug them to me, their small bodies and bony knees pummel my thighs, and I emit a smalloomphas I shift them.
“Hello, girls. What brings you in here? Aren’t you supposed to be up in your rooms playing?” I admonish. “And where are the guards who were supposed to watch you?”
“Probably searching the palace for us,” Sabrina quips, flashing me a wolfish grin. She immediately starts bouncing on my legs. My little troublemaking princess never sits still.
“That’s not safe. You were to stay there for a reason.” Today it was as if someone had reached into the darkness of my mind and pulled one of my nightmares straight from it. A man broke into the palace carrying something that the guards were concerned was an incendiary device. It turned out it wasn’t, and he’s subsequently been detained, but I have zero patience for any of this.
Not here. Not in my palace where my children are.
“But we met a girl,” she continues. “There’s a girl here in the palace.”
“A girl,” I parrot, confused.
“More accurately a woman,” Emily supplies, holding up a broken bust for me to see before setting it down on the corner of my desk. “Evidently our interloper’s daughter came to take him home, and while she was waiting for him, she accidentally broke this.”
“Hmm.” I’m not sure what to say to that. It was sculpted by Vincenzo Alrimi and is considered one of his finest works. It’s worth more than I care to think about. It’s also something I haven’t given any thought to in years, if ever. Still… “How did thissecondperson get in the palace?” I grit my teeth. It aggravates me to no end.
“One of the guards brought her in.”
My eyebrows shoot up and Emily gives me a look, telling me to calm down. Only I can’t. That will have to be dealt with. Not to mention, we’ll have to beef up our security here.
“The woman who broke it is waiting outside your door,” Emily informs me.
“She’s right out there?” I point in the direction of my door. “Emily!”
“We brought her up, Papa,” Phaedra informs me. “She’s very nice.”
I shake my head, incredulous of everything I’m hearing.
“She asked if there was some way she could pay for it,” Emily says.
“How about by not breaking into my palace?” My voice booms, but I check myself with my princesses on me. I blow out a breath, lowering my voice. “Where is her father now?”
“He’s still being held, but the woman said he meant no harm. He’s unwell.”
“Papa, you must meet her,” Phaedra commands, and I can’thelp my amused, indulgent grin at her enthusiasm despite the riot in my mind.
“Oh, must I?” I tease, only they don’t catch it.
“Yes!” they both cry. “She’s our beautiful friend. That’s what her name means. And she told me I’m a queen of Athens, and Sabrina is a legendary princess.”
“She did, did she?” I rein in my ire. “How long were you speaking with this strange woman who broke into our home and then broke our statue?”
They shrug in unison.
I glance from my girls up to Emily. “What do I do about this?”
She’s at just as much of a loss as I am. “I’ll have her wait in your study.” Emily scurries off, leaving me alone with my princesses. Zayer is finally down for a nap, though that took the better part of an hour to make happen. I’m not sure my aunt will ever be the same after taking on that charge today. He’s at the age where he’s starting to outgrow his naps but still needs one, or he’s a monster by the end of the day.
“Girls, you know you’re in trouble, right? You had orders to obey. You weren’t to leave your room for a reason. It wasn’t safe. If something had happened to you…” I trail off, unable to finish that. Today was too close. Heads will roll. First for two people entering the palace, but also for the girls getting the slip on their attendants.
“But she’s lovely! Papa, we want to keep her,” Phaedra informs me in earnest, her small hands clapping on my cheeks, and I nearly laugh.
“Keep her? How do you mean? You can’t just keep a stranger. She’s not a pet.”
“As our nanny.” Sabrina continues to bounce, and if her knee climbs any higher up my thigh, she’s going to hit something I’d rather she not.
“Sweet darlings, this is a stranger who came into our homeuninvited. She is not going to be your nanny. She’ll be lucky if I don’t have her arrested along with her father.”
