Her Royal Secret

Chapter 1: Part 2

Of course, thanks to my shoddy old luck, I turned out to be right.

Tweedledee and Tweedledum, also known as Penelope and Maribel stood outside my bedroom door. I had once found them inside with measuring tapes when they thought I'd get kicked out of the place on account of not being the King's biological daughter. But Liam and I were too valuable of an asset to the people and to the Palace to be removed, so my cousins were miserably disappointed. I watched them approach me, and considered asking James to physically remove them but one look at the man told me that he was ready for some amusement.

"Oh Len, we've been waiting for you for hours." Penelope exclaimed as she and Maribel snatched up each of my hands. I tugged them free and strode towards my sanctuary, but they were hot on my heels.

"You have to save us! Father's going crazy." Maribel whined, "He's obsessed with leaving behind a legacy. He's had twenty different sculptors came in and try to make a bust of his head. We had to stand still for five hours so some fancy artist from Paris could make a portrait. He won't even let us leave the palace!"

Dear old Uncle Cyrus was losing it and while I could have attempted to pity the two, I didn't. I was exhausted, emotionally and mentally drained and had a very pressing matter to take care over. My phone burned red hot in my palm.

I let them be and made a run for my room but they found me again. "Look, we understand that he may or may not be dying but that doesn't mean that he's allowed to go absolutely bonkers."

"No my dears, that's exactly what it means. You wanted so badly for him to become the King of England? Well, I hope you're enjoying yourselves."

With that, I slammed the door on their faces.

"It's awful what Cyrus is doing to those girls."

"Yes Your Highness, I would have to agree." James added dryly. He had followed me into my room, something he only did when he had something on his mind.

I waited for him to tell me whatever it was that that he wanted to say and he hesitated a little before he continued.

"Your Highness, forgive me if it's not my place but regarding your relationship with Frost..."

I felt my expression harden, my spine stiffen and eyes turn to steel. Historically speaking, being told what to do in any manner did not sit well with me.

"Be very careful of what you say next James."

"People talk, Your Highness, and I won't be able to stop them for much longer. Frost has been very lucky so far to still have his job and his freedom but any kind of fraternization with members of the royal family could have very sever repercussions for him. Ted Pryce may have looked the other way but I can assure you, his replacement will not."

"Thanks for the lecture my friend, but if you aren't aware of this already, I don't particularly like being told what to do."

Underneath the veneer of my devil may care attitude, anger boiled and it was only because James had come to be someone I trusted. In a world where I trusted very few, I had come to realize that I needed to hold on to the people who mattered. That was probably why I didn't have him hauled out of my room and kicked out of the palace before he realized what was happening. The fact that he had picked a particularly bad day for his little warning made the case worse.

"I just considered it my duty to inform you. But please know that I will do my best to protect Frost, he's one of the good ones and we could use more like him around here. I may not agree with his choice but that doesn't mean that I don't respect him."

With that he left.