A Royal Internship | Complete

Chapter Forty-Three

I was sipping on my third cup of coffee — or was it the fourth? — and reading up on yet another member of the charity group. The queen had invited at least a hundred people to this tea and at least 20 of them were important enough that I had to memorize their names, faces, and histories.

Normally, apparently, this would be compiled for us in neat little files and we would just memorize as much as we could. But these were not normal circumstances. Queen Adele was watching our every move and would know if we stepped out of line. We had to get this right and, more importantly, we had to make our relationship look real.

Which shouldn't be that hard considering... No!

I didn't get to battle with myself for long, because Abigail slammed a stack of files down on my desk. The desk vibrated under my arms and I briefly considered the possibility that the whole thing might topple down on top of me. Fortunately, it didn't.

"Yes, Abigail?" I looked up at her, once I was satisfied this old rickety desk would not crumble on top of me. "What can I do for you?"

"Genevieve." She glared at me. "You can start by explaining to me why none of these are filed, why I'm missing things I need, why the coffee pot is empty, and why you haven't been running files for signatures like you are supposed to."

My mouth flapped around like a fish. First of all, I didn't know I had to do any of that because no one tells me what to do around here, they only expect me to have done it. Second, I hate you. And third, I've been running around all the time learning how to be a sorta princess, so I haven't had time for paper pushing.

But instead of that, what I said was, "Sorry. Won't happen again."

"It better not." She slammed down another file, causing the already precarious stack on my desk to tumble to the ground. "Clean all of this up before end of day or I'll write you a reprimand. I won't tolerate freeloading in my department."

My face hurt from clenching my jaw and I couldn't answer her for fear of blowing up, so I just nodded and stood to clean up the files.

An hour later, I was sitting in the file room staring at the pile of paper still in front of me after putting the first half away. I was filing something under 'M' based on the company name when Clarence knocked on the door. I'd completely forgotten about him in all of this chaos, so I beckoned him to come in and then sighed into my lap.

"I'm sorry, Clarence," I whispered when he was close enough to hear. "I have to get these files done by the end of the day or I might actually be beheaded."

He laughed, but I didn't. "She can't have you beheaded. Don't worry, I'd stop her."

I smiled a little despite myself. "Ha ha," I mocked. "But I'm serious, I have to finish these or I could lose my job."

"Again..." Clarence pointed in the air as if illustrating his point on a presentation board that did not exist.

"Yes, okay I'm pretty sure she can't fire me when the king hired me. I get that. But she can make my life Hell." I sighed and Clarence ran his hand along my upper back in a small circle.

"It's okay, Genevieve. We'll figure it out."

My stomach did a little flip at the thought of us working together and then tied into knots over the thought of working with Abigail any more than I had to. I groaned. "I have to finish this. I don't want to work for someone who hates me. She already seems to think I'm incompetent, but I don't want to prove her right. I am competent!"

"That you are." Clarence stood up behind me to massage my shoulders. "But you need to relax a little or you won't make it to the end of the summer." He started to say something else but cut himself off abruptly.

His hands pressing on the sore muscles of my back made the tension melt away and the warmth from his touch spread through me like lava. I desperately wanted to give in to whatever it was that was making me want to spend all my days like this, but I had a job to do. I needed to focus on the files and keep my job or none of it would ever happen.

"Clarence," I said, pushing his hands off. "I really have to finish, so unless you want to help—"

"I do want to help, but first I have to talk to you. I talked to my father to clear everything, so no one can fire you."

"But—" I protested.

"And I promise I will personally come down here after supper and help you sort files."

It was a risk, but one I definitely wanted to take. "Okay," I said slowly. "If you promise I won't get in trouble."

"Well, you won't get in trouble with the king. I can promise that much."

I pretended to think about it for a minute. "Okay. Fine. But we have to talk about this charity tea or royal protocol while we're at it. I can't get too far behind."

"Awe, Gen—"

"No." I held my hand up to cut him off. "We do this my way or no way."

He smiled and rolled his eyes. "Okay, fine. It's a deal."

"All right, then." I dropped the files I was holding onto the floor with a sickeningly loud crack that echoed around the room like a symphony. "Let's go." I stood up and held out my hand for him to take it.

He looked at it and reached out for it and then paused, moments before touching me.

"Is everything okay?" I asked, still frozen inches from his hand.

"Yes." He smiled and took my hand. "Yes, everything is fine. Sorry, I was just thinking."

I wanted to believe him, I just wasn't sure I could.