The limo was nice at least, leather seats, a cooler full of cold drinks and our own choice of music in the back. If I wasn’t so tired I might have enjoyed it more, but all I really wanted was a long, long nap.
The countryside had not changed. Even as breakfast with Nik loomed, it was as gorgeous as it had ever been. The sky was so clear here, and as we drove along the coast, the crystal water made the green of the land pop as if it had been put through several rounds of an Instagram filter. It was impossible to describe to anyone back home how a place could be so gorgeous.
“That’s a sight that will wake you right up,” my father said, nudging me with his elbow.
“Not enough,” I groaned, yawning by accident, but it proved my point.
We got to the gates of the palace and the driver and guard conversed in rapid Italian as we sat patiently in the back. Eventually the guards peered at us through our lowered back windows and asked to see ID from everyone. We’d met this guard every time we came here. In my present, exhausted state I was not very pleased to be stopped for ID by a man who had seen me come here at least five times, but I got it. Protocol. Whatever.
We pulled forward and I felt a sudden burst of butterflies in my stomach. I was now mere feet away from Nik. He was waiting, somewhere in the palace, or perhaps in the driveway. Soon I’d have to look him in the eye, and between us would be everything we knew and had been feeling. It was going to be torture. Why had I decided to come here, again?
The car came to a stop and we waited a few seconds as the driver and other security guard both got out and opened our doors. We stiffly crawled out, and I tried to look as graceful as possible on essentially zero sleep.
And there he was, looking rested in perfectly pressed clothes. I caught a whiff of his cologne, the one that always reminded me of summer air, the ocean, and a well-tailored suit. He was in sunglasses but I knew that his eyes were on me, and only me. Probably because he wasn’t smiling.
“Welcome,” he said.
He stepped forward and exchanged pleasantries with my father, slipping his sunglasses off. I could have used that time to completely slip away and not deal with any of it. And I almost did. But my mother was watching me closely, probably anticipating that that was exactly what I was hoping to do.
Nik moved down the line, saying hello next to my mother. He lingered there for a bit, stalling the inevitable, before he eventually came to me.
“Isabel,” he said, nodding. His face light up slightly and I offered him a hand.
“Nikolas,” I said, stiffly. He looked at my offered hand with raised eyebrows and looked like he wanted to say something but kept his mouth closed as he shook my hand. “Nice to see you again.”
I only added that last part because I knew it was expected of me. There was obviously nothing nice or comfortable about seeing him again. I wondered if Selene was hiding somewhere in the palace, also invited to the coronation.
“Well,” he said, clearing his throat. “Breakfast is served on the terrace in the Fountain Plaza for anyone interested.”
“I, for one, could use a filling Heledia breakfast,” my father said.
“Here, here,” my mother added.
“I think I might try and catch some sleep. My body’s too out of whack with the time difference to eat,” I said, shrugging.
My mother looked only slightly disappointed in my decision but nodded. This wasn’t going to be easy by any means, and the best thing I could do was sleep some of my irritation off. I didn’t bother to look at Nik’s face and see what was going on in his eyes. He could keep his feelings to himself, just like he’d been doing for weeks now.
It turns out, being vengeful and passive aggressive does have its advantages because three minutes later I fell into the softest, best smelling, nicest bed I could possibly imagine. It felt impossibly good to have my head hit that pillow after almost double digits of hours on a plane. It was intoxicating, and I very nearly stayed in the position I fell down in, but decided that sleeping face first in the pillow with my backpack still on was something I would probably regret when I woke up again.
But as soon as the backpack was off and I was resettled, I was out quicker than a light and dreamed of nothing but cotton candy, I swear.
* * *
I’m not sure what time I woke up. The sun had repositioned itself in the sky slightly but I didn’t hear the sound of my parents in the next room which meant they were probably still at breakfast since they had never been napping people (my father said after ten years as an ambassador he was immune to jet lag).
I sat up, yawned, and did the first thing I thought to do: abuse my international plan and call Jess.
“Good morning sunshine.”
“I am sleeping on God’s own mattress, I swear.”
“I take it you talking about a mattress before even mentioning Nik means things are still going right as rain between you two.”
“I blew off his attempts at corralling me into a post-flight brunch. Nap won out.”
“As it should.”
I took to pacing around the room and observing my surroundings, now that my tunnel vision for a comfy mattress had abated, somewhat. The room was bathed in cream white and splashes of gold. There was a small balcony, only big enough for one person at a time. It overlooked the back hedge gardens and, if I concentrated, I could see a sliver of ocean between two hills off in the distance.
“So, how are the digs, besides heaven in mattress form?”
“The same. Less fun without you here to mock it all, though.”
“Everything without me is less fun.”
I laughed. It had barely been a day and I missed her already. I thought that maybe it was good that Nik and I never became more of a thing, because I don’t think I could handle living so far away from Jess and her snarky comments for the rest of my life. Not that I’d ever tell her that. Her ego was big enough with her own self-inflation.
“So, what are you doing for fun in the forbidden city?”
“Who knows? I might just nap some more.”
“Live a little. Show him how much fun you can have too, without looking like a hot mess on the front of a tabloid.”
“Maybe when I have more energy.”
“Speaking of energy, it is now my turn to pass out for a while. Au revoir, kiddo. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
“That’s a very small list.”
She laughed and we said our goodbyes one last time before she hung up. I thought about sending a couple of texts Jennifer’s way but figured she would probably be asleep and she was not the kind of person you wanted to wake up. I had been on the bad side of one of her waking-her-up rants once already.
Instead, I decided to take a stroll around the palace.
Everything was as pristine and elegant as before, but a warmth was missing that I knew had gone when Alexandru died. The man had been the beating heart of the palace and, no matter the time of day, he was usually laughing somewhere down the hall. That was gone. On that front, I couldn’t blame Nik for wanting to get away. I’d been walking around for maybe five minutes, and it was already suffocating for me. For him, it must have been pure torture.
I tried to remember the turns to take to get places but it had been forever since I truly worked at mapping out the halls of the palace. Hide and go seek here would be epic.
“Isabel?”
I recognized the voice but couldn’t quite place it as I turned around and saw Sonia standing there with a reserved posture but a huge smile. My first instinct was to run up and hug her, but she’d always been the more poised of the two siblings. Instead I stepped forward and let her come to me with one of her proper cheek kisses.
“I heard you were sleeping like the dead,” she said.
“I’m not even sorry, that bed is like a cloud,” I said.
She laughed.
“Well, I’m glad you got some sleep, even if Nikolas was moping,” she said, rolling her eyes.
“Moping?”
I nodded. This was getting into uncomfortable territory for me, and I wasn’t ready to pour my soul out to Nik’s sister, even if she essentially had already guessed it all. Her smile was warm; she had inherited that from her father at least, and the rest of her radiated sincerity. She meant what she was saying, no matter how paranoid and insecure I felt.
“Thank you, by the way, for the birthday card,” I said.
“No need to thank me, it was your birthday,” she said.
The knowledge of the poor excuse Nikolas sent me for a card was hanging between us, but neither of us acknowledged it. For all the emotional distress he had caused me, I couldn’t imagine how his own family would be feeling after all those weeks of reckless behavior right after his father’s funeral.
“If you’re hungry, I was going to take lunch in the green salon,” she offered.
It was like the movies, when people didn’t realize they were shot until they looked down and saw the bullet hole. That was me, except she said ‘food’ and it was my growling, empty stomach that was suddenly obvious.
“That actually sounds pretty fantastic,” I sighed, covering my stomach with my arms, but it did nothing to stop the growls from reverberating.
“Follow me.”
She led me through several beautifully polished, marble halls. Everything in here seemed to gleam in a way I had forgotten. I wondered, perhaps, if the staff were throwing themselves into making the place as spotless as possible. Everyone had their own ways of coping.
“I’m sorry,” I said quietly. “About your father. He was such a good person and I can’t imagine what you must be going through.”
“Thank you,” she said. “The pain dulls with each day but I’m not sure it will ever truly go away. Mother says time heals all wounds, but she hasn’t smiled since the day he died.”
I nodded and walked with her. I felt bad for dampening her jovial mood of a moment ago, but I would feel like an awful guest and friend if I didn’t at least acknowledge what was going on. Sonia, if Nik’s actions were any indication, was probably going through some serious mental torment herself. She was just far better at composing herself than Nik. Too bad he was born first; she’d make a great queen.
The green salon was a fancy study bathed in shades of sage and olive, and filled with books from the palace’s collection. A tray of tea was already sitting out, and the minute we settled down onto the chaise lounge, several members of the staff appeared in well pressed uniforms to bring more trays.
I would never tire of Heledia’s food. Hummus and pita, a plethora of spices, cured meats that I probably didn’t want to know the origin of, but scarfed down anyway. Blocks of cheese that didn’t come from a cellophane wrapper in the dairy section of the grocery store. An array of fruit that looked more like a painting than real life. It was hard not to dig in, but Sonia had been brought up to be a polite, dainty eater. I tried to match her pace.
“How was the flight?” she asked. Her tone was poised, even when she was just making small talk.
“Long and irritating,” I said. “I’m not looking forward to doing it again when we go home.”
“Perhaps it’s incentive for us all to pool our resources and one day invent teleportation,” she said.
“Or we could all just learn to apparate, Harry Potter style.”
We ate over light conversation about home, or weather, or even local sports. We stayed away from the topic of her father and of Nik. She asked about Jess and what colleges I was looking at back home.
“I know it’s no Ivy League,” she said. “But our liberal arts college in the capital has free tuition and has produced some very respectable alumni.”
I smiled and nodded. College was one of the last things I really wanted to be thinking about. I heard about it enough at family gatherings and once a week from my parents. Meanwhile the school was practically shoving college applications down our throats. I resolved that after this, the rest of this vacation would be a break from discussing college.
“I have to go meet with my mother. We’re going to a boat christening tomorrow. They named it for my father,” she said.
It was always fascinating to me; the way royalty spent their day-to-day lives. When not in school it always seemed like they just wandered around the halls of the palace aimlessly, picking up books to read or practicing sketching or piano or some other insanely romantic hobby. It was actually a lot of work, I learned. There were meetings and tutoring sessions and all sorts of other things. A fancy lunch in a fancy room for a half hour wasn’t indicative of how much work Sonia had done since getting up at dawn.
She walked me back to my room and this time I heard my parents shuffling about in the room next to mine. She waved goodbye, promising to find me later and went down the hall.
I gave a tiny knock on my parents’ bedroom door and waited until I heard my father call for me to come in.
“We missed you at breakfast but if your bed is anything like this one, I don’t blame you at all,” he said from his position laying on the bed, still in his full suit and tie.
“I had lunch with Sonia,” I said, walking over and dropping into one of the chairs. “How was breakfast?”
What I was really asking, and my mother’s face told me she knew, was how was Nik?
“Nikolas must have an evil twin because the man at breakfast was nothing like the face all over those tabloid covers,” my dad said. “But that didn’t stop him from apologizing eight different times for that behavior, as if it had somehow offended us personally.”
If he only knew.
“He asked about you, once,” my mom said. “About school, and how you’d been.”
“What’d you say?”
“I gave him a polite answer.”
I nodded and focused all my nervous attention on the button on one of the arms of the chair. As far as I could tell, my mom hadn’t spilled the beans to my dad, and Nik hadn’t given them any hints at breakfast.
It was only a matter of time, though, before I was faced with him again. Big as the palace was, I couldn’t hide from him forever. And hiding would defeat the purpose of me dragging myself halfway across the world to get answers out of him.
* * *
I didn’t have to wait long for him to come and find me, and to this day, though he denies it, I’m still convinced that he was pacing outside the door to my bedroom waiting for the moment to look like he casually happened to stroll my way as I opened the door.
I’d stayed in my room most of the day. I talked to Jess and Jennifer some more when both were awake and alert back in their time zone. I did my reading because, international event or not, I was still expected to get the outline for my term paper on Beloved done by the time I got back. I took another nap as well, trying to get myself as rested as possible so I wasn’t trying to go to sleep at 4 p.m. It was the only way to deal with time zone shock: force yourself into it.
By 6 p.m. the call came that we were all gathering for dinner out in the Fountain Plaza again since the early fall weather was holding up and the flowers were still thriving.
“How fancy are we talking here?” I asked my mom as I leafed through my clothes. My best dress, the one I’d worn for junior prom, was reserved for the coronation.
“Church clothes.”
“We never go to church.”
“Use your best judgment then.”
That was easy for her to say. She was a regular fixture at all sorts of state events and fancy galas. She knew how to rock even the most mundane dress with the variety of jewelry and shoes she had at her disposal. I was more of a “is it clean? wear it” kind of girl.
In the end, I pulled out a blouse that probably could have used a turn under the iron to sort the wrinkles but I was out of time. With that came a pair of nice black
pants because my mother expressly forbid me to wear jeans to dinner, and some ballet flats. I looked like a secretary at a pharmaceutical company. But it could be worse.
And then, when I stepped outside, he was right there.
“Hi. Hey. Hi,” he said quickly, clearing his throat and taking a breath. “How are you?”
“Fine,” I said, shrugging and giving him a tight-lipped smile.
He nodded a little too vigorously and shoved his hands into his pockets. I heard the sound of him nervously cracking his knuckles and he seemed intent to look anywhere but at me.
“Good trip then?” he asked.
Why was that everyone’s go-to question in awkward situations?
“As good as a nine-hour plane ride can be.”
I started walking down the hall, ignoring the fact that I didn’t exactly know how to get back out to the gardens from my bedroom but I wasn’t about to ask him for help. I heard the sound of his shoes on the marble as he began to walk behind me, and I figured I must be going in the right direction.
“I—um—happy birthday. Well, belated birthday,” he said.
“Thanks. Big one eight,” I said with mock enthusiasm. For a boy, it was surprising how well he was picking up on all my annoyed ticks. Usually with boys you had to use a bullhorn to get your point across.
“So, I was hoping that maybe—“
“There you are.”
It was Sonia, rounding the corner as if she had a sixth sense. Her eyes danced between her brother and me. She seemed to decide something in her mind and pulled my arm into hers, so we were walking down the hall with elbows linked.
“You’re going the long way,” she said. “That way, you would have wandered forever until dinner got cold.”
I mumbled a very quiet thank you to her and she nodded. I didn’t know what Nik had been about to say. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t very, very curious. But the way my heart seemed like it was going to pop right out of my chest also made me desperate to get as far away from him as possible.
Letters from a Prince: The Royals of Heledia (Book 1) Page 9
