I gulp in air, my heart hammering from more than the exertion as I search the gardens for the two Greek statues in motion. I come to a stop, and my heels sink into the grass.Dang it!I pull them off, hopping on one foot and then the other before I clutch my shoes in one hand and dash around a fountain in hot pursuit.
It’s not until I reach the veggie gardens and fruit trees at the back of the kitchens when I let out a defeated breath. They’re nowhere to be seen. Somehow, those half naked exercisers slipped through my fingers.
A couple of gardeners have stopped to stare at me, and I give them a brief, embarrassed wave before I smoothback the hair that’s loosened from its ponytail and pad across the grass in my now dirty bare feet.
A brown bundle of fur bounds over to me.
“Hello, Toffee,” I coo despite myself, leaning down to pet her, and she plants her dirty paws on my skirt once more.
My dry-cleaning bill is going to bankrupt me in this place.
“Oh, hello,” a woman’s voice says warily, and I look up to see Princess Amelia. She’s in a pair of dungarees over a T-shirt, her long dark hair in a messy bun on top of her head, holding the hand of one of her children.
I drop into a curtsy. “Your Royal Highness.”
She waves her hand in the air. “Don’t bother with all that here. I’m Amelia, and this is Jamie.”
I smile at the toddler’s rosy cheeks, his hair lighter than his mother’s but with her beautiful brown eyes. “Hello, Jamie. It’s a pleasure to meet you both.”
“Toffee!” he replies, pointing at the puppy and showing no interest in this frazzled woman in the garden.
“What happened?” Princess Amelia asks as she slides her gaze over me.
“I was, err, chasing someone.”
Her eyebrows ping up to meet her hairline. “In a skirt suit?”
I shrug. “Needs must, I suppose.”
“It was my brother, wasn’t it.”
I press my lips together. As much as I don’t love what Max is doing, I’m not going to rat him out to his sister.
“He’s always been the naughty one. Wonderful but naughty.”
“Mama,” Jamie says, pulling on her arm.
“I must go. I promised Jamie he could feed the chickens.”
“Do you want me to take Toffee?”
“No. She needs the run, and Max has been trying to train her. Between you and me, he’s not very good at it.”
I smile as I watch Jamie try to reach for the dog, who’s too busy sniffing the ground to notice.
As she moves away, I rush after her. “Amelia, can I say something?”
“What?”
“About what happened with you and that reality show.”
“If you’re going to tell me you had nothing to do with it, I already know. The inquiry told us as much.”
“Thank you,” I reply. It’s always played on my mind that she and her husband, Ethan, thought I was part of the plan to illegally film their every move. I may have said many things about the royal family over the years, but I’ve never gone to those kinds of lengths.
Her eyes dance when she smiles. “Now go, find that brother of mine and tell the country what he’s really like.”
I return to the palace and march up the stairs to the PR office in my bare feet, where I’m met with more curious gazes from the palace staff.
