Royal Court

by Jenny Frame

  When they’d returned, they’d agreed to have dinner together while George caught up on work. Lali said she would organize dinner.

  “She’s probably caught up with Cammy,” Bea said.

  Holly rolled her eyes. “No doubt. Honestly, she spent months insisting that she wasn’t interested in Cammy, and now she can’t keep away.”

  Bea laughed. “She was always interested—Lali just didn’t want to admit it. Now on to important matters. What are you going to wear for dinner with Story St. John?”

  Holly’s head hit against the back of the sofa. “Don’t ask. I’ll need to go shopping. Maybe on Thursday when we’ve got the day off, Lali could come with me.”

  “And what about me?” Bea said.

  “I thought you’d want to spend it with George and Teddy,” Holly said.

  “I do, but this is your big date with Story St. John, Holls.”

  Holly took Bea’s hand. “I’d love it if you came. I’m so nervous. I know I’m going to say or do something stupid.”

  “Holls?” Bea said seriously. “Why have you never explored this side of yourself before?”

  “What do you mean?” Holly said.

  “Oh, the fact that you’re attracted to women. You are, aren’t you?”

  Holly nodded. She couldn’t lie to her friend. “Yes, I have always been.”

  “Why did you never tell us? I mean you’ve always made comments about women, and I’ve seen the way you look at some, but it’s always been men you’ve chased.”

  Holly sighed. How to explain this? “I found men didn’t often expect a lot from me emotionally, and that suited me. A few wanted to take things further, but I just broke it off then.”

  Bea looked confused. “Why did you?”

  “I didn’t want to fall in love. I was in love once, and she broke my heart. Remember, I met you guys at the LGBT group on campus. You advertised for helpers for an event?”

  Bea looked as if she was thinking hard for a minute. “Oh yes, you came with that gorgeous looking girl, what was her name—”

  “Sade, that’s her. She dumped me right after that meeting. She had been seeing someone else. I was so in love with her. I vowed that was the last time I’d fall like that.”

  There was a knock at the door, and Lali led in a couple of hotel staff with food for them. Once the staff left, Lali said, “Sorry I’m late. What did I miss?”

  Bea said, “Holly’s bi.”

  Quick as a flash Lali replied, “I already knew that.”

  It was so good to laugh with her friends.

  ***

  Quincy slammed the door to her room. It was only in the safety of her room that she could let her feelings rise to the surface. She sat on the bed and held her head in her hands. Her anger was simmering inside of her, while a feeling of impotence and frustration paralyzed her.

  Her mobile beeped and her heart sank. When she picked it up she read: I’m watching and waiting.

  She threw the phone on the floor in frustration. Why were these threats so personal to her? What the hell was going on?

  Why could no one see what she could? There was a threat, a clear threat to Queen Beatrice’s safety, and no one was doing anything. As she sat with her eyes closed, movies of fire burning flesh and the screams that haunted her played across her mind. When the fire started, burning heat spread across her body, and she jumped and opened her eyes.

  Quincy tried to take deep breaths to calm herself. Would these episodes ever get any better? Would she always be this defective? That was how she thought of herself. A marine who couldn’t control themselves was defective. She managed to fake her wellness to the psychiatrist, but she knew herself that she didn’t only have scars on the outside of her body. Months of trying to keep these episodes under wraps during her close protection training had been hard but doable.

  Now that she was on the job, a job with stress and lots of other staff members making things harder, keeping a lid on the episodes was difficult. Stress amplified her problems.

  Her gaze fell to the computer pad on her desk. Maybe speaking to Helen would help clear her mind. She walked over to her desk and made the call.

  Helen’s face appeared on screen. “Hi, Quin. It’s great to see your face.”

  Quincy let out a breath. “It’s good to see you too.”

  She had always envied that strong bond of love that Helen and Jacob had. Since he had been injured, Quincy was sure that Helen’s love was the only thing keeping Jacob alive.

  “How’s the tour?” Helen said. “We’ve been watching it on the news at the hospital. Princess Edwina looks the sweetest.” Quincy was silent in response, but Helen must have seen the tension on her face because she added, “Is everything okay? Are you coping, Quin?”

  “Of course…well, I can’t really talk about it,” Quincy said.

  Helen smiled. “I’m well used to military secrets, living with Jacob. Tell me the gist of it.”

  “There’s a certain threat to the royal party, I think, and no one is taking it seriously. The security team appear to know all about my disciplinary incident and think I may have a screw loose, it seems.”

  “I see. Well my advice to you would be to use your initiative. You have lots of resources. Use them,” Helen said.

  Quincy had never thought of that. “You mean Blade?”

  Helen smiled. “I’m sure she could help you with some non-official enquiries.”

  Blade, a hacker, had been an officer in military intelligence when Jacob and Quincy first met her. Now out of the military and working freelance, she could be called on for help.

  “Thanks, Helen. That’s a great idea.” Quincy’s stomach churned with guilt as she contemplated asking the next question. She looked down and said, “How’s Jacob?”

  Helen gulped hard and put on a smile. “He’s doing as well as could be expected.”

  The shame slithered around inside her body. It should have been me.

  “How are you doing, Quin?” Helen asked. “Are you sleeping all right?”

  She couldn’t lie to Helen. “As well as could be expected.”

  “It doesn’t help Jacob when you don’t sleep, you know.”

  Quincy didn’t want to reply, so she just said, “I better go, Helen. We have an evening engagement tonight. Thank you for talking to me.”

  “Anytime, Quin. Take care.”

  “You too. Goodbye,” Quincy said.

  As soon as the call ended, there was a knock at her door. It wasn’t usual for anyone to come to her bedroom.

  She went to the door and opened it to find a smiling Holly Weaver. Bright and smiling Holly Weaver, that’s how she thought of her.

  “Good evening, Ms. Holly. How can I help you?”

  “Queen Beatrice asked me to come and talk to you about a day out we’re planning. We promised we wouldn’t spring anything on you without notice again, so here I am.” Holly had been expecting to be asked in, but Quincy hadn’t as yet. She tried to look over Quincy’s shoulder and saw a room sitting absolutely perfectly. Almost like there was no one living in it. Holly’s room was a mess every day until the maid service came, her bed sheets all over the place, computer pad and mobiles strewn around the room. But at least it had personality. She’d added pictures of her mum and dad, her brother, her life, basically. From what she could see, there was none of that in Quincy’s room.

  Yet another mystery about Captain Quincy.

  “Where would the Queen Consort like to go?” Quincy said.

  “Well, you know I’m going out with Story St. John on Friday night? I have nothing to wear, so I thought we could go shopping to one of the amazing department stores here. Maybe Saks or Bloomingdale’s, although I don’t know if I can afford the prices there—”

  “No,” Quincy said firmly.

  Holly stopped midsentence, not quite believing what she was hearing. “Excuse me?”

  “I said no. Going to a department store is absolutely out of the question. I did say I would work wi
th you to try and enable Queen Beatrice to have some normal days out on this tour, but a shopping trip cannot be made safe.”

  Holly was furious. How dare Quincy say no to her as if she was in charge. She took a step into Quincy’s space and said, “I don’t know what you think is going on here, Captain I’m in charge of everything, but this is not the marines. You can’t just command me and I’ll do what you say, and you most certainly can’t command Queen Beatrice, so I would start making plans if I were you.”

  Holly stopped speaking and expected Quincy to shout back at her, but instead she just stared into Holly’s eyes like a statue, her jaw clenched tightly.

  She waited and waited, but Quincy said nothing. “What is wrong with you? Say something.”

  Holly was getting angrier by the second. What would it take to make Quincy loosen up and act like a human being?

  On impulse she grabbed Quincy’s tie, pulled Quincy the few inches towards her, and kissed her. She gave Quincy the deepest, most passionate kiss she could muster, but after a few seconds Quincy’s mouth softened and Holly got the same feeling she’d had the first time she had ever seen Quincy at the polo match. Her stomach flip-flopped and twisted and turned in the most amazingly delicious way. Then she remembered she was angry and who she was kissing and pulled back right away.

  Quincy appeared shocked, but everything about her was softer looking. Her body had relaxed, her jaw and face were not hard like a marble statue, and her eyes didn’t look dead any more. There was a glint of fire and passion there, she was sure of it.

  They both stood there saying nothing. Finally, Holly couldn’t stand it any more, so she said, “We’re going shopping on Thursday. Make plans for it.”

  Then she walked away, without looking back.

  ***

  Quincy strode purposefully to the Queen’s dressing room. She had called Cammy and asked if she could have a word with the Queen.

  Her whole body was thrumming with anger, and something else she hadn’t encountered before. She was sure Holly had kissed her simply to annoy and torment her, but as soon as Holly’s lips touched hers, a fire was lit low in the pit of her stomach.

  Did all kisses make you feel like that? Whether freely given or simply to annoy? Quincy had no idea, and no experience—well, apart from some kisses shared with her friend at school, on a camping trip. That had been nice, but terrifying too.

  Quincy got to the Queen’s dressing room and nodded to the guards on the door. She knocked and was told to enter. Cammy was holding the Queen’s suit jacket while she slipped into it. Tonight’s program was a formal event for the arts, and another black-tie affair.

  “Come in, Quincy,” George said.

  Cammy started to use a clothes brush on the Queen’s jacket.

  “Thank you, Your Majesty. I wondered if I might have a quick word?” Quincy said.

  “Of course. Fire away.” George walked in front of the mirror and fiddled with her bow tie.

  “I’ve been informed that Queen Beatrice and her friends, Ms. Weaver and Ms. Ramesh, wish to go shopping on Thursday.”

  Queen Georgina smiled. “We had heard something about that, hadn’t we, Cammy?”

  “Aye. Holly’s big date with Story St. John.” Cammy rolled her eyes. “The lassies are all aquiver about it. What they see in that boyish floppy-haired actor who plays at soldier, I’ll never know.”

  “Quite right,” George agreed. “She needs a good haircut and a dose of a ten-mile march, up to your knees in mud, with a hundred-pound kit bag on her back. Then she’d know what being in the military was like. Anyway”—George smiled—“there’s no accounting for taste.”

  The Queen didn’t seem to see the seriousness of the matter, and Quincy couldn’t impart the information about the text threats. “Ma’am, a New York department store is swarming with people. It would be impossible to make secure and keep secure.”

  George seemed to see the problem. “Yes, true. But I would like Bea to enjoy our days off and have as normal a time as she can.” She turned to Cammy. “Is there a way to make it safe?”

  Cammy blew out a breath. “We could do it. Quincy, if you and I work together, we could organize it with the store’s cooperation.”

  “We don’t have much time.” Quincy wished she could tell her comrades the truth about the threats, but she was bound by the chain of command. The knowledge would be her burden to carry, and she would keep the Queen Consort and Princess Edwina safe, no matter the cost, or what people thought of her. “Yes, ma’am, I’ll start on preparations with Cammy tomorrow. Excuse me. I have to meet with the protection squad before we leave.”

  When she walked out of the Queen’s dressing room, she spied Holly exiting the consort’s room, holding her large make-up kit.

  They looked at each other silently for around ten seconds before Holly turned away and walked off. Quincy got that same excited feeling she’d experienced before, when she kissed her, and she had no idea what to make of it.

  Chapter Eight

  By Thursday, all the arrangements had been made, and Bea, Holly, and Lali were in the car, on their way to Saks. Holly drummed her fingers on her bag nervously while Lali read out Cammy and Quincy’s instructions.

  “From the car we will be met by the store manager and senior store staff. We will then be conducted to the designer floor, which will be closed off to the public for the duration.”

  “I hate causing all this disruption, Lali,” Bea said.

  “At least it’s not the whole store,” Holly said pointedly, looking at Quincy sitting in the front seat of the bomb- and bulletproof vehicle.

  Originally Quincy had wanted the whole store closed off, but Bea insisted that she didn’t want to inconvenience the shop that much, so a compromise was reached. The designer floor would be closed off, with members of the protection squad at each of the elevators and staircases, stopping any unauthorized visitors.

  Lali continued, “I wouldn’t worry, Bea. The store bosses will be overjoyed at the publicity. News clips of you shopping here will be broadcast all over the world in seconds. I also understand that some of the staff and other well-wishers are waiting behind barriers at the front door.”

  Holly raised an eyebrow. “And this is meant to be your day off?”

  Bea smiled. “I’m getting used to it. As George puts it, the royal team are always on parade, and as the Dowager Queen says”—Bea imitated George’s grandmother—“We must always have a bright smile and a wave for anyone we meet.”

  Lali laughed, while Holly went back to drumming her fingers. “I don’t know why I came up with this idea. I don’t fit in a place like Saks, plus I’ll probably only be able to buy a scarf at their prices.”

  Bea covered her hand and squeezed. “You fit in as much as me. I’m only Queen Consort because of George, and you will get the most beautiful dress in here. It’s a gift from Lali and me.”

  Holly was shocked. “What? No, you can’t buy my dress. Bea, you already bought me the auction date.”

  Lali took her other hand and said, “It’s our gift to you. We want you to explore this side of yourself and find happiness if you can.”

  Holly looked nervously to the front of the car and saw Quincy looking right back at her in the rear-view mirror. If only her friends knew she had already started exploring, with the most unlikely of candidates. What she had done was impulsive. She was used to doing impulsive things, but kissing Quincy, which she had done out of pure frustration, had started impulsively, but then she found herself melting into Quincy’s lips.

  She had imagined it would be like kissing a statue, since that was how Quincy presented herself, and she’d insisted she didn’t feel anything, but the kiss was anything but.

  Holly quickly dispelled the thoughts from her head. She was going out with the most gorgeous charismatic film star, and she couldn’t wait.

  ***

  They arrived at Saks, and as much as the Queen Consort had promised to keep to the plan Quincy had devised with Camm
y, it immediately broke down. As soon as Beatrice got out of the car, she didn’t simply wave to the crowds—she walked over to them, making her way down the crowd, shaking hands and receiving flowers. Quincy was on high alert and kept extremely close to the Queen Consort.

  Her gaze darted around the crowd, her heart thudded, and her breathing became heavy. Every person could be the one who sent the messages. The one who could hurt the consort and show what a failure Quincy was.

  They made it into the store, and Quincy breathed a sigh of relief. She was in command today, since the Queen and Inspector Lang weren’t with them. Everyone knew where they had to be positioned, but she visually checked all the entrances and exits as they made their way to the elevators.

  She looked to her side and saw Clayton’s eyes roving around the luxurious store, rather than on the principal.

  “Eyes front, Clayton.”

  “Sorry, ma’am. I’ve never seen anything like this,” Clay said.

  Quincy could quite understand Clay’s excitement and awe at all these new experiences she was having. It was a world away from East London where she was from.

  Once they got up to the designer floor, the party was taken to a comfortable seating area, with two changing cubicles and a raised podium between them.

  Quincy and Clay took position at the back of the room close to the door and watched as the staff fawned over Queen Beatrice and her friends, bringing them drinks and nibbles.

  Never in a million years would she have thought that a highly trained marine would end up here, in a dress shop, protecting the Queen Consort, while her friend chose an outfit. How her life had changed.

  Quincy’s gaze was meant to be trained on the exits and the consort, but she couldn’t help as her scrutiny drifted to Holly. Surprisingly, Holly appeared nervous. She had expected the excitable life and soul of the party to revel in this, yet she wasn’t.

  She remembered what Holly had said in the car, that she wouldn’t fit in here. Quincy didn’t know why she could ever think that. She was beautiful, bright, and would shine anywhere she went. Had no one told her that before? Had no one told her how beautiful she was?