By the time we'd put Celeste away and said our goodbyes, the tension had settled into anticipation.
As I watched Betty walk back toward the palace, her stride less confident than usual, her hand unconsciously smoothing her hair, I realized my evaluation hadn't gone according to plan at all.
I was supposed to be determining whether she could handle royal life.Instead, I was wondering what it would be like to kiss her.
And judging by the way she'd looked at me and the way she'd seemed as reluctant as I was to let the moment end, I wasn't the only one having completely inappropriate thoughts.
This was going to be a problem.
CHAPTER 5
Betty
If I had to curtsyone more time, I was going to commit an international incident.
"No, no, Your Highness," Madame Delacroix said for what had to be the twentieth time this morning."The left foot goes back, not forward.You're not stepping on a bug, you're showing deference to your social superiors."
I bit back the urge to point out that in America, we didn't have social superiors, just people with more expensive lawyers.Instead, I attempted another curtsy, promptly wobbled like a drunk flamingo, and nearly face-planted into the priceless Persian rug.
"Perhaps we should take a break," Madame Delacroix said with the kind of diplomatic smile that barely concealed her horror at my complete lack of grace.
"Perhaps we should," I agreed, grateful for any excuse to escape this torture chamber disguised as a drawing room."My knees are staging a protest.I think they're unionizing."
The morning had been a parade of humiliations.First, the dining etiquette lesson where I'd used the salad fork for my eggs and committed a crime against European civilization.Then the "proper deportment" session where I learned that I walked like a "robust American farmhand" instead of gliding like a princess.Now this curtsy nightmare, where my attempts at deference looked more like I was trying to dislodge something uncomfortable from my underwear.
I was starting to understand why revolutions happened.Also why Marie Antoinette had been so cranky.Try maintaining a pleasant disposition when you've spent six hours learning that literally everything you do is wrong.
"We'll continue this afternoon," Madame Delacroix said, gathering her notes with the air of someone planning a military campaign against my incompetence."Perhaps by then you'll have...absorbed some of the instruction."
Right.Because clearly the problem was my absorption rate and not the fact that these rules were designed by people who had way too much time and not nearly enough hobbies.
As she swept toward the door, I noticed a distinguished-looking man in an expensive suit standing in the hallway, making notes in a leather portfolio.He had silver hair and the kind of bearing that suggested he was used to being listened to without question.
"Lord Chancellor Renaud," Madame Delacroix said with a respectful nod as she passed him.
He acknowledged her with a brief smile, then stepped into the doorway."Your Highness, a moment of your time?"
