Now Presenting | Royal Misadventures #1

Chapter Five

The servant took away my coffee just as I was about to pick it back up and I glared at their back. Then I looked around in panic as Lia, Dad and Hilde started getting up from the breakfast as though there had been some secret, silent signal to do so.

"Nikolai will take you to Madame Jacqueline," Dad said as he wiped his mouth on his napkin and dropped it on his plate. "Then I'll meet you in the south conservatory."

I blinked, trying and failing to catch the last bit of my toast before the plate was taken away. "How am I meant to find the south–?"

"Nikolai has it sorted, Tati," Dad said as he walked out.

I sat in the breakfast room by myself, watching as the servants milled around doing their jobs. I huffed a stray hair from my face.

"Can I at least get one more coffee, please?" I asked anyone who wanted to listen.

"Lady Tatiana," a kindly-looking man nodded as he brought me a cup and poured what looked like still piping hot coffee into it.

"Thanks." I smiled at him and he inclined his head politely.

"Nikolai is waiting for you outside, my lady. Might I suggest that you take that 'to-go'?" he whispered as he leant past me to pick up a glass.

Because I was me, I tried replying before I'd finished drinking and only some last minute evasive manoeuvres spared me the need for a costume change. "Good idea. Thanks."

I took better hold of my cup and got up quickly, whirling around without looking where I was going. So what happened? Yeah. The coffee I had so pain-stakingly acquired ended up between me and Dmitri as we crashed into each other.

He did that super endearing thing where he muttered under his breath in Gallyrian and I breathed out as the heat seeped through my shirt. The heat from the coffee. There was no other heat between us.

"Lady Tatiana. Pleasure as always," he said in that monotone as he stepped back and shook his hands out.

I was bright red, but I still made the mistake of looking up at him. "Likewise, Dmitri."

We both stood and stared at each other, even as the servant passed him a napkin and then took my now empty cup from me. When he returned, he murmured, "Nikolai," under his breath and I finally remembered I was meant to be somewhere.

I cleared my throat. "I apparently have an appointment with Madame Jacqueline before I'm required in the south conservatory," I told him.

The look on his face told me just how much he cared. Still, I tried to be political and inclined my head while doing some odd sort of half-curtsey bob and just saw him return the head-bob as I hurried out, zipping my hoody up over the patch of cooling coffee on my top.

"Madame Jacqueline, Nikolai?"

"Yes, my lady."

I nodded and indicate he lead the way because there was no way I'd remembered all the twists and turns of the palace yet. I was starting to realise that there was some benefit to this bodyguard business. As long as I thought of him as more a babysitter than a guard. I didn't want to know if he could kill a guy with uncooked spaghetti or one finger or something. In my head, he was going to be little more than a glorified tour guide. And that made me feel better.

"My lady?"

I looked up and saw Nikolai holding the door open for me to the seamstress' room.

I smiled at him. "Thanks."

"Lady Tatiana!" Madame Jacqueline cried as I walked in. "Entrez-vous, entrez and take off those horrible jeans." Her French accent was somehow perfect for expressing her displeasure for anything but the finest. "I have some designs to try and we only have so much time."