Royal Court

by Jenny Frame

  Anyone who saw Beatrice in her jeans playing with the princess on the floor would never believe she was a Queen Consort—they would think she was a normal mum. In the short time she had worked for Beatrice, she had seen what a great mum she was.

  She turned her gaze to Holly and stopped breathing for a second. The sunlight coming through the window was hitting Holly’s beautiful reddish-blond hair, giving it a golden warmth that made Quincy want to run her hands through it. Holly was beautiful.

  “Quincy, we want to make a slight change to the visit to the museum,” Beatrice said.

  Now Quincy was starting to worry. Changes to the schedule were never good. “What change, ma’am?”

  Bea looked to Holly and smiled. “It was actually Holly’s idea. We thought it would be a much better idea to go to the zoo than a museum. I think Teddy is a little bit small to appreciate dinosaur bones.”

  Quincy tried her utmost to keep her tone light and not show her annoyance and worry. “Ma’am, the museum has been finalized and fully checked for security. Every one of the staff has been background checked. The police dogs have been through it, and I myself have personally checked the entire building.”

  Beatrice turned to Holly and said, “Maybe she’s right.”

  Holly furrowed her eyebrows. “No, Bea. Don’t let Grumpy here dictate how you spend your free time—you get little enough as it is. Teddy’s only one year old. She’s not going to be interested in a pile of dusty dinosaur bones.”

  Holly picked up Teddy and said, “You want to see the lions, don’t you, Teddy?”

  “Lions!” Teddy replied excitedly.

  Quincy could hardly contain her annoyance and frustration. “Ma’am, the zoo is an open-air site, packed with members of the public. I can’t—”

  She was cut off by Holly who stood up and walked over to her quickly. “Listen, I want to keep Bea’s and Teddy’s lives as normal as possible. The zoo is the perfect place for a one-year-old.”

  Quincy used everything she had to say as calmly as possible, “It is my job, Ms. Weaver, to keep Queen Beatrice and Princess Edwina safe. Need I remind you that the King and the Crown Prince of Denbourg were assassinated last year. The world is a dangerous place.”

  “No one is a threat to Bea and a little child,” Holly said furiously.

  Strangely, the angrier Holly got, the harder Quincy’s heart beat. She decided to say nothing. She wasn’t going to win this fight with either of these two women, and she wanted to calm the tension she was feeling inside.

  “As you wish, ma’am. I’ll get the team organized.” Quincy bowed her head and walked out as calmly as she could muster.

  As she shut the door she heard Holly say, “What is wrong with her? She just gives in and stomps out, after I’ve been arguing in her face…”

  Quincy turned to Clayton, who stood guard in the corridor. “Clayton, stay here. There’s been a change of plan. I’m going to brief the team Inspector Lang left us, then I’ll be back.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  ***

  Quincy walked down the corridor towards her bedroom. Hopefully most of their days wouldn’t be as chaotic as today had been. The stress of not having done reconnaissance before the zoo visit was really intense. Quincy’s need for order and control was ripped to shreds.

  Holly Weaver was obviously going to be a bad influence and a problem on this tour. She lived life without rules and expected everyone else to do that, but Quincy couldn’t let Holly’s influence affect Queen Beatrice’s safety.

  She turned the corner and bumped right into Holly coming the other way. “Evening, Stompy,” Holly said.

  She had now gone from grumpy to stompy. Quincy didn’t know which one was more annoying. Quincy took a breath and said, “Good evening, Ms. Weaver.”

  Holly didn’t seem happy with that. Unlike Quincy, Holly couldn’t hide her displeasure. She sighed with annoyance and walked off.

  About ten seconds later, Holly came hurrying back, looking really peeved. “What is wrong with you?”

  “Excuse me? I don’t understand, Ms. Weaver,” Quincy said.

  Holly growled. “Oh, stop calling me Ms. Weaver like we’re in some sort of Jane Austen novel. I argued with you today, and you just stood there like a statue. I say good morning to you every day, and you stand staring forward like a statue. Have I done something to you? Why don’t you show any sort of emotion? Anything, even anger, shout at me, anything. It’s so annoying. Show what you’re feeling, even for a good morning. Look at me at least.”

  Quincy saw fire and a passionate anger in Holly’s face, and felt her own body react to it. Her heart sped up and heat radiated through her body. No matter the cause of Holly’s passionate reaction, Quincy enjoyed basking in its warmth and heat.

  Holly awoke a longing Quincy didn’t know she had. She wished she could let herself truly feel and show emotions the way Holly did, and Quincy admired that quality in her.

  She took a moment and a breath to calm her hammering heart, then looked Holly right in the eyes and said quite coldly, “I don’t let myself feel, Holly.”

  Holly looked at her searchingly. She obviously hadn’t been expecting that response.

  Quincy had to get away, so she simply said, “Goodnight, Holly,” then walked away leaving Holly standing there. When she lay in bed that night, Holly’s fiery, passionate eyes were stuck in her mind.

  Holly’s fiery eyes morphed into real fire in her mind as she drifted off to sleep.

  Quincy coughed and spluttered as she desperately tried to find her men and women in the smoke-filled warehouse. She could hear their screams, their desperate shouts, and she felt powerless as she tried to navigate the smoke-filled rooms.

  “Jacob?” she shouted, hoping her friend would reply.

  The smoke and the heat of the flames licking around the structure were becoming overwhelming, and she had to fight the choking feeling and her instincts to run the other way.

  She shouted again and followed the cries of pain closest to her. She found the room and saw someone she didn’t recognize because of the effects of the blast and fire lying on the floor. The entrance to the room was on fire and she needed to run through to get him.

  Quincy didn’t think, she just acted. She took off her jacket, held it over her head, and ran into the inferno. She screamed as she caught fire, the pain and the panic so intense.

  Until she woke up gasping.

  “Jesus.”

  Quincy grabbed for her water, to try to calm herself. Her hands and her whole body were shaking.

  “Keep control, keep control,” Quincy said like a mantra.

  She couldn’t lose control again.

  Chapter Six

  Another day, another aeroplane journey, that’s what it felt like to Holly, and this was only the start of the tour. They had been to Toronto, stopped briefly in Washington to be greeted by the president, and now were on to their main engagements.

  Holly was in the bedroom area of the plane helping to dress Queen Beatrice before landing in New York.

  “This is really beautiful, Holly,” Bea said as Holly zipped her into her dress.

  “Thanks. I hoped you’d like it. I know Jaq Dillard is a really new designer on the block, but her designs are stunning, I thought.”

  Bea smoothed her hands down the sky-blue dress and sat at the dressing table. “It’s perfect and fits the brief I gave you. British designers, and especially up and coming designers. If every picture of me on this tour is going to be captioned with, Queen Beatrice was wearing…we might as well give some publicity to our home-grown talent.”

  Holly leaned on Bea’s shoulder. “I bet you never guessed when you were studying so hard at university, that you’d end up being a fashion icon.”

  Bea laughed. “Never in my wildest dreams. I wasn’t the least interested in fashion back then, but it’s all worth it if we keep raising as much money as we have been.”

  Holly opened her make-up kit and started to prepare what she
would need. “I don’t envy you, Bea. You have to keep up this pace for the rest of your life.”

  Bea sighed. “I know. At least we’re going to be in New York for a whole week. Besides, we’re doing good, and I’m doing it with the love of my life.”

  “You’re lucky,” Holly said with a hint of sadness in her voice.

  “What’s annoying you?” Bea said.

  “How do you know anything is annoying me?” Holly said defensively.

  Bea raised an eyebrow to her friend. “Holls, we usually can’t shut you up, and you’ve been really quiet on the plane journey.”

  Holly let out a breath and started to retouch Bea’s make-up. “It’s something that happened the other night. I met Quincy in the hotel hallway, the day we went to the zoo, and I confronted her about the day.”

  “What did you say?” Bea asked.

  “I was just frustrated. No matter what I said or did that day—cracked a joke, be angry at her—she just gave me nothing back. She’s like one of those Greek statues.”

  “And what did she say?” Bea said.

  “Nothing at first, which made me even more frustrated. Then I shouted—Just show me you feel something, anger even, just something. She looked at me directly in the eye for the first time and said she doesn’t let herself feel.”

  “Nothing?” Bea said.

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought. It’s a really strange thing to say. How can you not let yourself feel emotions? They just are—they just happen.”

  “I shouldn’t really say this Holls…” Bea said.

  Holly stopped dead in her tracks and sat on the edge of the dressing table. “What? You know something about her?”

  Bea looked as if she was struggling with what she could say. “I don’t know all the details, but you know she won the gallantry medal?”

  Holly nodded. “Yes, I know all the security people really look up to her.”

  “Well, all I know is that she went through a lot to get it. Quincy was in hospital for a time after her mission. George says she was a real hero. She saved lives in the face of danger. I think that’s why George asked her onto our team so suddenly. Something happened, and she had to get away from her regiment.”

  “Wow,” Holly said, as her mind was imagining all sorts of situations.

  “Promise you won’t say anything to anyone, Holls?” Bea said.

  “I promise, Bea. You know you can trust me,” Holly said.

  Holly remembered the incident in Toronto, when the boy lunged at Bea. Afterwards at the hotel, when Quincy didn’t think anyone was watching, her hand was shaking uncontrollably. There was something under that stony façade, Holly thought, and she was going to find it.

  What she didn’t tell Bea was when she confronted Quincy, and she gazed back at her, Holly had observed that Quincy’s eyes looked as if they had seen more than anyone ever should.

  She feels. I know it and I’m going to coax it out of her.

  Holly was nothing if not determined and persistent, and it felt like a challenge to unearth the emotional side of Quincy. No one who tried to take care of others and was prepared to die for her comrades felt nothing. There was a torrent behind those steady controlled eyes, and Holly had to unleash it.

  ***

  George was sitting with Teddy on her knee in the seating area of the plane, going over her schedule with Cammy. Sebastian approached the table and showed her some papers.

  “Ma’am, these are the amendments the foreign secretary would like to make,” Bastian said.

  Nanny Baker got up from the seats across from them and said, “Would you like me to take Teddy for you, ma’am?”

  To anyone else, her situation would have seemed absolute chaos. She was reading important documents and making notes while Teddy was singing along with the characters she was watching on her computer pad, but this was what George had always dreamed of. She remembered taking part in these tours with her mother and father, and she had never ever been pushed aside for official business.

  “It’s okay, Nanny Baker. Teddy’s being as good as gold—aren’t you, Teddy?”

  Teddy just continued singing, and Cammy laughed. “Teddy and Queen Beatrice are the only ones who can get away with ignoring you, ma’am.”

  George chuckled. “Very true.” She turned back to Sebastian. “These changes are fine. Thank you, Bastian.”

  As he walked away, she glanced over at Captain Quincy. She was looking at her phone and appeared agitated. Then Quincy got up and quickly walked to the front of the plane.

  “Cammy, is Quincy settling in all right?” George said.

  “I think so. The team respect her as far as I know. I’m sure she probably finds this a big change from military life.”

  George smiled. “I can imagine. This is organized chaos compared to what she’s used to. Guarding a family isn’t easy, I know. You manage well, Cammy, but Quincy is so much more reserved.”

  “She’s had a hard time, but being with her friends can only help,” Cammy said.

  ***

  The quickly arranged meeting was frustrating Quincy. Neither Garrett nor Inspector Lang seemed to be taking her worries seriously.

  During the flight she had received what she perceived to be a threating text message to her phone: Can you keep Queen Beatrice safe? We’ll find out…

  Inspector Lang said, “There are no serious threats against Queen Beatrice. Military intelligence keeps us abreast of any internet chatter, and there’s nothing. We’ll keep an alert eye on this, but the threat seems more personal to you, Quincy. We’ll have this looked into when we land and get set up.”

  “Sir—” Quincy started, but Lang walked out of the meeting room, ready to land.

  Garrett walked up behind her and laughed. “A bit jumpy, Quincy, aren’t you? We haven’t even started the tour, and you’re already causing trouble.”

  “Listen, Garrett. I don’t care what you think of me. I care about keeping Queen Beatrice and Princess Edwina safe. Keep your feelings of job disappointment away from duty, okay?”

  Garrett gave her a dirty look and walked off.

  ***

  The plane door opened, and Holly watched as the security team waited to lead the way. She couldn’t help but zero in on Quincy. Despite her neutral facial expression, she could see Quincy’s breathing was heavier than normal, and on instinct she looked down to Quincy’s hands. The one she could see was balled into a tight fist, but she was sure she could see a slight tremor.

  You feel too much, I think.

  They travelled to the hotel, and once the royal party were taken up to their rooms by the manager, the staff were taken upstairs by a very officious assistant manager with a computer pad.

  “Follow me, please.”

  He set off at a rapid pace. Holly nudged Lali. “Remind you of anyone, Lali?” Holly joked.

  Lali nudged her back. “Oh, shush.”

  He led them through the grand marble entrance of the hotel. The hotel felt out of place in a modern New York, a hotel from a bygone era when the rich and famous were treated like royalty themselves.

  The assistant manager led them to a set of gold elevators. Inspector Lang was already placing men and women at the bottom of them, and she presumed there were guards on the floor where they were staying.

  When the elevator opened onto their floor, it was already busy with staff milling about. It reminded her that she had still so much work today, after a long day of travelling. There was Bea’s and Teddy’s luggage to deal with, and Bea’s clothes to be steamed for tomorrow.

  She saw Captain Quincy and Cammy organizing their security teams. Quincy looked up from her computer pad as she passed.

  What was going on behind those eyes? Holly wondered, but her mission on this tour was to work Quincy out. A national hero, someone who would think of others before herself, could not be this stony person she presented. To care and to risk yourself for others—you had to care a lot.

  ***

  Holly ate her dinner
in her room, checked her email, and called Greta back in Britain with all the news. She had already set out Bea’s clothes for tomorrow morning. It was a dressed-down visit at a kids’ program in the city, before two more formal events in the afternoon and evening, so there was a lot to get ready.

  She decided to go and check out the lounge area the other staff had told her about. The rec room, as it had been christened, was a meeting room situated on this floor, and re-allocated for their use.

  The corridor was quiet, with only the guards on night shift at the floor entrance. The rest of the staff had gone out for a night in the Big Apple.

  It was nights like tonight when she felt the loneliest, and her thoughts turned over and over in her head. Mainly she thought about her sexuality and questioned if she was ready to start dating women again. Could her heart take more heartbreak? She would get a chance to test her theory on her dream date with Story St. John at the end of the week.

  She wandered into the rec room, spotted a coffee machine, and made her way over. She heard a noise and looked around to see Captain Quincy sitting on the couch in the far corner of the room, doing something or other with a paintbrush.

  Quincy looked up and said, “Good evening, Ms. Weaver.”

  Holly had to admit that her low upper-class accent was quite sexy. It was just a shame it belonged to such a frustrating person.

  “Hi, Stompy,” Holly said, just to be annoying. Aggravatingly, Quincy gave her a small smile in return.

  Holly looked around the room. People sat here and there, talking and sharing stories, and she felt sorry for Quincy sitting all by herself. These were her colleagues, yet she sat alone.

  Don’t do it, Holls, she told herself, but in spite of that, she poured another coffee and started walking towards Quincy’s table.

  Quincy stood politely when she saw her coming. “Can I help you, Ms. Weaver? Is there something wrong?”