Panic hit Count Parrott all over again and he dove for the papers sitting on the sofa.
Prince James laughed softly under his breath as he passed me, sailing out the door. I fell into step with him as we left, Count Parrott’s butler opening the door and ushering us back out.
“And that,” Prince James noted with satisfaction, “is the last person I had to convince.”
“You mean blackmail,” I corrected with another snort. He was so incorrigible.
“I’ve been very good now,” Prince James said without paying any heed to me. “I deserve a cookie.”
The statement was so ridiculous I started laughing. “Absolutely, blackmailing people successfully gets cookies in reward.”
Prince James winked at me with a grin, showing no signs of remorse. Absolutely none.
We had a single knight with us for protection—a necessity whenever royalty went anywhere outside the palace—and Dame Temperance bit back a grin too as she opened the carriage door for us.
“A successful meeting, Your Highness, always warrants cookies.”
Prince James clapped a hand on her shoulder. “See, Edwin? Dame Temperance agrees with me. Let’s all go get cookies. Where’s a good pastry shop?”
Our driver, Greg, gave us a nod. “Know just the place, Your Highness. It’s on the wharf, though.”
“That’s fine, lead on.”
I was glad to see his appetite back. Even if it was sugar, at least he was eatingsomething. Dame Temperance rode with us instead of holding on to the back of the carriage. Prince James encouraged people to ride with him. He was strange that way. So delightfully strange.
I’d barely talked him into riding in the carriage, as apparently he disliked them, but he’d been willing to do so as a show of wealth.
“Your Highness,” Dame Temperance said easily, “I must ask something. Do you realize you’ve got quite the following among the citizens?”
Prince James froze for some reason, looking dismayed. “What do you mean following?”
“Word’s gotten out about you. Not only that you’re insisting on the seawalls being fixed this year, but also that you’ve secured financial backing to cure salence.”
“Helena secured most of the funding for salence research!”
“The people only heard about you.” She gave an elaborate shrug. “You already had a good reputation since you’re generous with your money and time, and we’ve all reaped the benefits in some way. But now that you’re putting the royal name to work? People speak very highly of you.”
“Shidteus’s balls,” he cursed under his breath. “Already?”
Why wouldn’t he be happy about this? “Isn’t this a good thing?” I asked.
“No.” Prince James sighed, head falling into his hand. “No, it’s not, for many reasons. Main reason being I haven’t actuallydoneanything yet. I’ve only started doing things, and that’s enough to make me popular with people? How desperate are they for actual change that they’d latch on to me so quickly?”
Oh. Well, put like that...
“They’ll start a movement to make you king next,” Dame Temperance said.
Prince James made a sour, unhappy face. “They can try, but as part of my adoption agreement, I cannot be made king.”
Dame Temperance’s head jerked back in surprise. “I thought that was rumor.”
“No, I had it put in deliberately. I refuse to take the throne. Or be pushed into it.” He groaned some more, sounding theatrical. “Eeeeeedwin. Make them behave.”
This silly man. “What do you expect me to do?”
“I don’t want people to like me so much. Talk to them.”
“You want me to stop people from liking you?”
