A Royal Internship | Complete

Chapter Twenty-One

I didn't wake the next morning until Marinette came into my room and pulled open the curtains, causing the light to stream into my room and right into my eyes.

"Good morning, Miss!" she sang brightly. "Your breakfast is in the sitting room and then we have to get you ready for the day."

"We're sorry to wake you." Olivia trailed in behind her. "We left it as long as we could. You have a meeting with His Royal Highness and members of household staff in just over an hour. Would you like us to select an outfit for you?"

I rubbed some sleep out of my eye and nodded. "Yes, please. And is there any coffee?"

"Yes, Miss." Marinette curtseyed and walked into the sitting room, returning moments later with a cup of coffee. "Janet insisted you get some coffee before your meeting."

"Bless her," I mumbled, inhaling the delicious scent of caffeine in the morning. I blew on the coffee until it was cool enough to drink and then downed it in one gulp.

It was not cool enough to drink. "Ow!" I shouted, waving my hand in front of my open mouth and breathing out in quick pants, trying to cool it down.

"Water." Olivia pointed out the door and Marinette dashed out without curtseying. I guess they're allowed to skip those in emergencies.

"Here, Miss." Marinette flew into the room and handed me an ice cold glass of water.

I drank the water while Olivia and Marinette watched me from the foot of my enormous bed.

"I'm okay," I said, hoping to mask my pain. "I just burned my tongue a little."

Owing to my burnt tongue, we didn't speak much as I ate some toast, drank a lot of cold water, and got dressed to start the day. Just as a guard arrived at the door to escort me, Olivia handed me some pain medication and a glass of water. Thank goodness for these two.

The guard led me into a part of the palace I didn't recognize. Though there were a lot of parts of the palace that I didn't recognize. Like all of them. So it was hard to say exactly where we were compared to everything else.

When we got to our final destination, Clarence opened the door before we knocked.

"Thank you, Benjamin. You may go now."

The guard bowed and left.

"You're late," Clarence said before turning around and returning to an ornate wooden desk in the center of the room. The window behind him had a stunning view of a field blooming with multicoloured flowers and a mountain peak.

"Why do you face away from that when you work?" I asked, pointing out the window.

"Because I'm here to do my work, okay?" He put his head in his hands. "I'm sorry," he said after a moment. "I'm just tired of everyone thinking I don't care about this country because I'm..." He waved his hands around as if searching for the words. "I don't know. Bad with women?"

"Bad with women?" I quipped. "Is that what you call what you've been doing?"

"It's not what it looks like." He walked around his desk and sat in the large leather chair. "I was schooled mostly at home and then an all boys boarding school. No one thought to teach me how to talk to girls, I guess."

I drew my eyebrows together and tilted my head a bit. Sure, that's the problem.

He looked up at me and threw his hands down on his desk. "But why should anyone believe me when there're tabloids about, right?" He rubbed his temples and stood, pacing the floor behind his desk.