He gave a shrug. “I have no idea. I’ve only been in here to check the place out or during occasional drills. I’ve never been moved here due to a perceived threat. I don’t think my father was either. It may be several generations back since it was used.”
Elise looked at her watch and stifled a sigh. Surely being the queen would allow her to arrive at the airport later than mostpeople but if she didn’t leave soon, she would miss her flight and there wouldn’t be another one until the next day.
Keeping her concerns to herself, she wandered around the room trying to take it all in. “Is this what your quarters look like?” She still hadn’t seen them.
“Not really. I have what my sister likes to call Furniture of Historical Significance in my quarters. I don’t believe anything in here is. Replicas perhaps, but not the actual items.” He shoved his hands in his pockets and wandered through the room behind her. “I don’t think I’ve ever really looked at how it’s decorated.”
It took them nearly an hour to look through both rooms. Elise asked questions about the paintings and portraits - all of which were likely reproductions - and found Frederick to be quite knowledgeable about most of them.
He had to have noticed her near constant checking of her watch, but he didn’t say anything. When he wasn’t looking, Elise slipped it off and into her pocket to keep the temptation at bay.
She wasn’t going to make her flight. Not unless it was already delayed for other reasons.
As they neared the other side of the main door, Elise stopped to look at a painting of the view out of one of the windows she’d seen during her stay. It wasn’t the same as a real window, but at least an attempt had been made to give some semblance of the outside.
Frederick stepped to her side. “I’m sorry about your flight. I’ll make sure you get to Europe as soon as possible. I’d send a text now to put things in motion, but there’s no communication in here except a land line for communicating with security.”
Elise looked up at him and gave him the best smile she could. “It will be all right. It’s no one’s fault.”
She went back to staring out the faux window and leaned her head against Frederick’s shoulder. This time, she didn’t try to stop it as a deep sigh made it’s way out.
The time with Frederick would be nice.
Putting the entire production behind schedule would not.
11
It had only taken a couple of days for Frederick to become accustomed to Elise’s near-constant presence.
He didn’t want her to leave.
Once confirmation came that the window had shattered for no apparent reason, they’d left the secure suite. Frederick immediately went to his office and made arrangements for the royal plane to take Elise and her security team to the next shooting location. Then he went to the guest suite where Elise had been staying.
She let him in as soon as he knocked. He could see her earbud and she held up a finger.
“I would appreciate that. There was a situation here that led to me being unavoidably detained until I missed the last flight.”
Frederick realized what she was doing. He typed a note on his phone that he had it taken care of and showed it to her.
Elise stared at it for a moment, longer than he would have thought it would take her to absorb what it said. “Actually, can you give me just a minute? I may have a solution.” A pause. “Thanks.” After hitting the mute button, she looked up at him. “What were you able to figure out?”
“My plane will take you then return.”
Her head tilted. “I didn’t think I could take it.”
“Normally you couldn’t, but the delay was caused by the security teams so it’s incumbent upon us to take care of getting you where you need to go.”
“You’re sure?” She didn’t look or sound skeptical, just needed to be certain.
“Absolutely,” he reassured her with a nod.
She took her phone off of mute. “Thank you for holding. I’ve had a solution fall into my lap. I appreciate your help.” Another pause. “I’ll talk to you soon.” They exchanged good-byes and she turned the phone off. “Thank you, Frederick.”
Were those tears in her eyes?
Frederick reached up and brushed a bit of hair off her face. It seemed she always had bits falling out of her ponytail. “You can call me Rick or Ricky if you want.”
Those were definitely tears in her eyes. “You mean it?”
