A Royal Internship | Complete

Chapter Forty-Four

Clarence pulled me by the hand all the way down a corridor I didn't recognize. I was still dragging behind him as we passed two sets of guards and pushed out into the garden through a set of glass doors.

"Where are we going?" I asked as we ran. "I can't keep this up forever in these shoes."

"Do you trust me to have it be a surprise?" he asked, slowing to a stop once we rounded the corner and disappeared from view of the palace doors.

I weighed the possibilities in my mind. It could be amazing or it could be awful. "Oh, no!" I allowed the shock to show on my face. "You aren't taking me to learn about flowers, are you?"

"No." He shook his head and smiled. "I'm not taking you to look at flowers. But if you stay here long enough, I definitely will."

It was always so hard to read him with his stoic expressions. For a brief moment, he bit his lip and looked away from me, and suddenly it became clear he was nervous I would say no. Why was he nervous I'd say no?

I could get in trouble in so many ways for saying yes.

"So, do you trust me?" he asked again, his hand shaking a little as he held it out for me to take.

"Yes." I nodded and placed my hand in his. "I do."

And I mean it.

"Good." His face stretched into a smile that reached his eyes. I could count the number of times I'd seen that smile on one hand, so it was nice to see.

"Well, let's go then." I pointed off into the distance. "Take me to this mystery place."

"Okay." He grinned and took off at a brisk pace down a steep grassy hill.

"Um, Clarence?" I stopped two steps down the hill. "I know you aren't used to high heels, but if I go down this hill I will fall."

"Can you take your shoes off?" he asked in earnest. "It really is the quickest way and virtually the only one that doesn't get us spotted by my mother."

"Had a lot of practice sneaking out?" I asked, laughing to hide my fear of his answer.

"Yes. I really liked playing with the neighbourhood kids, but my mother was against it. I skipped out on many a nanny in my youth."

"Such a rebel," I laughed, sliding off my shoes. "I am ready to go down the hill. Slowly." I added that last part to remind him I was still in a skirt.

He carefully held my hand as I found places for my bare feet in the wet grass. As the hill got steeper, I used his shoulder as a clutch for the last few steps to the bottom.

"Okay, can we take a different route on the way home?" I asked. Home, really?

He smiled. "Yes, we can go a different way. Do you want to put your shoes on?"

I shrugged. "Might as well wait until we're off the grass at this point. I'm not sure how I'm going to explain the dirt inside my shoes to Olivia so I might have to hide them until I get Marinette on her own."

"Marinette?" He scrunched his eyes up and looked towards the sky. "Is that your ladies maid?"

"Yes." I nodded, narrowly avoiding a small puddle. "She seems to actually like me."

"A pleasant quality in staff you see every day."

"Indeed."

We continued our trek to the edge of the lawn and then slipped through a narrow section of hedge to avoid using the palace gate.

"Okay, tell me the truth. How many times have you done this?" I asked him after he found the small hole in the hedge with ease.

"A few." He smiled. "Now come on, we have a reservation to keep."

A reservation? Was he taking me out to eat? I'm pretty sure there's leaves in my hair. I brushed my hair with my hand to remove as many leaves as I could and followed him to a small stone pathway. I used a nearby bench to put my shoes back on, silently cursing myself for not finding a pair of flats earlier, and we were soon on our way.

As we walked, I admired the town whose entire expanse could probably fit into the castle grounds one or two times over. Everyone seemed to be having such a good time walking from store to store and milling about with their friends and family. A small group of children were playing some type of game with rocks in the streets.

Besides the curtseys and bows we got as we walked past, you wouldn't know there was anything weird about it. They were just people. And something about being here, in this setting, with no cameras around, made me feel like I was just a person, too. A person who didn't have to worry about where her skirt was or when to curtsey or whose hand to shake. Just Genevieve.

I wondered if Clarence felt the same way after all these years, or if being a prince was so ingrained in him that he didn't even notice it anymore.

"What do you like about this town?" I asked Clarence as we walked arm-in-arm down the street. "What makes you like it better than all the rest of the places you've been? Because you're a prince, so you must have been loads of places."

He looked away into the distance at the rolling hills glowing yellow in the mid-afternoon sun. I breathed in the smell of the flowers coming off the breeze and he sighed. Several moments passed with no words between us, Clarence silently guiding me down this street or that until we reached a small pathway.

"I guess," he whispered finally. "I guess it just feels like home."

"I can understand that." I looked up at him. "I've always felt at home with my family. Don't get me wrong, they're great. But I've never had any place that felt like home. And somehow, this one does."

"I'm glad to hear it." Clarence smiled.

I turned my head away to avoid him seeing my face as my heart leapt out of my chest and my whole body got tingly and warm. What am I doing?

"Okay," Clarence said, stopping me. "Are you ready?"

"I think so."

"Okay, then come on. It's just around this corner."

It was only following him around a corner but something inside me said I was doing something much bigger. I took a deep breath and put my hand back in his. "Let's go."