“I’ll be fine.” I glance at my watch. “I better get ready, then.”
She bows before she trots away.
Max is in the shower when I step in. While I try on the elegant suits supplied by Chloe, comb my hair and apply some makeup, he finishes and gets into a classy suit of his own.
He won’t tell me what his uncle’s present is.
With plenty of time to spare, we head to Prince Richard’s wing.
As we approach the end of a long, carpeted corridor, familiar voices reach our ears. It’s Prince Theodor and Princess Felicia. They must be just around the corner.
Max stops in his tracks and presses a finger to his lips.
Feeling like a thief, I freeze.
“Please correct me if I’m wrong, Mother, but the prophecy was about a Mount Evor royal getting the Key to the Key to help him procure the key,” Theodor says.
Prophecy? What prophecy?
“That’s right,” she confirms.
“It said nothing about him revealing our existence to her,” Theodor continues. “Nor about bringing her here.”
“Indeed, it did not.”
“Then why did you, Uncle Richard and the PM let him do that? Why did Carlo go along with your injudicious decision?”
“Because Max is certain Lucie can be trusted,” shereplies. “Carlo ran a thorough background check on her just to be sure.”
While my curiosity is more than a little piqued, given that this conversation concerns me directly, I feel extremely uncomfortable eavesdropping on Max’s relations like this.
I throw him a pleading look.
He bugs his eyes out at me and shakes his head as if to say, “Don’t even think about it!”
Theodor speaks again. “How long will she stay?”
“I don’t know, darling. Why don’t you ask Max?”
“I will,” Theodor says.
They fall silent, and I pray that they’re done or that they’ll leave the hallway for a more private place.
But then Theodor adds, “She’s a commoner, Mother. Aforeigncommoner. Haven’t you learned anything from the mistakes of the biggest monarchy in Europe?”
“The commoner duchess you have in mind, son, is more trustworthy and devoted to the crown than her husband’s aristocratic mother ever was.”
Ha! Touché! Go, Felicia!
“The commoner duchess you’re talking about is not who I meant, and you know it,” Theodor argues. “I meantthe otherduchess. The one who’s aforeigncommoner.”
Felicia says nothing.
“How’s that working out for them, Mother?” her older son asks, sarcasm lacing his deep voice.
“I wanted to discuss another matter with you,” Felicia begins.
“You’re deflecting.”
