That seems like a lot.
I can’t when dessert comes out and it’s a strange and slightly terrifying jelly mold that is five layers tall and jiggles in a precarious manner.Please pass me a piece of the jelly dessert that moves as no food should, and also, I love you.No, that won’t work.
Not during our after-dinner entertainment, either.Victoria is quite the…interesting singer.I love you more than she loves India.That’s not the best comparison.
Having something I need to tell him, but not being able to find an appropriate time to do it, is putting me on edge.I’m going to burst, like a balloon that was already full at the beginning of dinner, but that keeps getting air pumped into it whenever Leo does something that makes me love him more.
I need to release some of that air, or love, in his direction before I burst.
Aside from being an overfilled balloon, the evening is nice.Pleasant.Calmly enjoyable.
So I’m not prepared for the interruption that plows into the drawing room just as Victoria starts singing her third song.
“I have it!”
CHAPTER36
Charles bursts through the drawing room door like the water out of the geysers at Yellowstone: violently, loudly, and creating a mess that could burn me if I stand too close.In his hand is a letter which he waves back and forth with an expectant look, like we should know what’s in it and should look suitably impressed.
“A piece of paper?”Victoria’s voice is cold.“You interrupted your monarch’s lovely evening to show me a paper?”
“Your Majesty, I apologize for the interruption.”He gives a belated bow, but his eyes lock on mine on his way down, gleeful in a menacing way that makes me look for every exit in this room.
Shit.Charles has been suspicious of me since I got here and I can only think of one thing that would put that look on his face.
He has proof I’m a liar and a fraud, taking advantage of the monarch next to me.
I mean.There may be other things to put an evil grin onhisface: extracting record profits out of India, colonizing some other unsuspecting part of the world, stealing the voice of a young ingenue via a contract containing unfair terms.
Standard villain stuff.
But the evil grin is focused on me, so I’m going to make an educated guess and say this is about me.Which means I need to get back to an exit strategy.And after I just decided to give Leo a chance, too.Because a large part of my most recent plan was to be a marchionessbeforethe letter came.Or at least talk to Victoria before she could get the news in this way.
There’s no chance she’ll want to protect me, or us, if she hears the news from Charles, made to look even worse than it is, without us easing her into this.
I slide away from Leo and off the couch.Charles, who has been glaring at me since he started to bow, hurries out of the movement so he can get back to pointing and accusing.
“I knew all along she was a fraud and now I have proof!”He shakes the all-important paper again, in case we forgot how important it is to the moment.
“That is quite an ugly accusation to make towards my guest.And so late in the evening.”I don’t know if she’s madder about the accusation or the timing, but I don’t wait to find out.
Instead, I go on the attack.
“I have never been so offended!”I develop a bit of an English accent, as it is the best accent to show deep disdain in any given situation.I stalk toward the man who interrupted the serenity of my unexpected and very wanted time with Leo.“To insult my character, nay, my parentage, in this manner is inexcusable.I was led to believe that the English were a civil people.”I barely contain the snort at that assertion, considering what they’re currently doing in the world.“But this is beyond the bounds of decency.I am a guest in your country, and in this residence.”
Each word brings me closer to Charles, and to the door into the hall behind him.Leo, who hasn’t exactly realized what I’m working up to doing, is laughing at my dressing down of the Secretary of State.
“I do apologize.”Victoria is glaring at Charles.“You may return to your room while I listen to what the very rude government official has to say.”
That won’t help; he’s telling the truth and probably has the letter from the Cooch Behar court to prove it to everyone in this room.But she has given me a way out of the room that isn’t just running away.
“Thank you, Your Majesty.I am certainly not going to sit here and listen to this slander.”
I move quickly, not at a run yet, but as close as I can be without making it obvious to the entire room that I’m fleeing in guilt.I don’t look back as I fast-walk to my room, hearing Charles yelling after me and Victoria yelling at him.
I get the bag with notebooks and money, grateful that Charles or Leo didn’t follow me up (for very different reasons) and that I didn’t bother to unpack this bag after arriving here.Maybe Leo still thinks he can intercede on my behalf and make it all better, but it’s too late to help now.
In all these layers, I flinch with every step I take and sound I make.I try to hold my breath to minimize the noise I make, attempting to channel a graceful, sneaky cat but probably sounding more like a heavy-breathing, clumsy bulldog instead.Who is rustling an entire fabric shop worth of clothes.
