Page 28 of Scandal Queen

We didn’t go through the main doorway. Oliver, with his hand still holding mine, led me around the side of the building where a plain looking door held a security pad which he placed his thumb against.

“Remember to get Leia security clearance please.” He threw over his shoulder to Freya, who seemed, rather annoyingly, to be following us. I wished she’d just go do one. I was having a moment here. I was about to walk into St Mark’s Palace which had every chance of being my home for the foreseeable future, maybe forever. I shut that thought down, let’s not get carried away here.

As if reading my mind, he turned to Freya. “If you could liaise with Bill and discuss security. I’ll have a briefing with you both at four in the library.”

Her face fell for a moment and then, being the true professional she was, she cleared it and smiled, nodding her head. “As wish, Your Highness.”

She turned to leave and he called her back. “Thank you, Freya. I appreciate all you’ve done today.”

Her smile tightened. “I believe, Sir, you’ll be thanking me for the days that follow too.”

He just laughed though, water off a duck’s back. “Remind me to buy you something wonderful for Christmas.”

She laughed, her disgruntlement dissolving with the drop of her shoulders. “You will.”

He shooed her away with his fingers and we both watched her long legs swing from side to side as she loped gracefully back around the corner. When I turned back to him, trying to wipe my scowl off my face, I found his gaze watching me carefully. “Ready to enter the lion’s den?”

I giggled; breathless and gasping. “You aren’t making this any easier, Oll—” I screeched as he swept me up in his arms. Daisy clapped her hands and laughed with delight.

“What are you doing?” I managed to say. Words, thoughts, speaking, became almost impossible when held tight into his arms, my body pressed close against his, his burning gaze intently watching my face. “I’m ticking things off the romance list.”

“We aren’t married. You aren’t carrying me over the threshold to our matrimonial house.”

Something in his eyes made my stomach tighten. “Still doing it.”

Using his foot, he opened the door and then shouldered us through. I stared beseechingly at Daisy, but she’d clearly taken up camp on his side. His lips glanced over mine, sweet but firm. “Come, let me show you both the apartment.”

“Please don’t carry me the whole way; you’ll put your back out.”

“We are already here, Leia.” He chuckled and pecked another kiss on my mouth before setting my feet carefully on the floor. I grabbed onto him anyway, my knees knocking together. I turned, almost expecting his family to be stood there waiting for us: the Queen in a ballgown with a crown on her head; his father, stern and small in a tuxedo, his long pointy pole in his hand—what was that bloody word again?

Instead, I found just what I’d come to see as ‘Oliver decor’. Pale wooden floors and grey walls led away from us into a hallway. On the right, an open plan lounge housed some leather sofas and a wall full of books. Other doors led off from the hallway.

“These are my private apartments,” he told us as he edged us down towards the lounge. “I haven’t been using them much, but they will have plenty of space for us when we are in town.” He nodded to the doors down the corridor. “Daisy, you can choose from the last two doors on the right and the one on the left. If you let me know which one you want, and which colour you’d like, we can get it organised.”

“Really?” Daisy looked up at him, wide eyed.

A door opened, closer to us. Daisy and I both jumped but Oliver chuckled. “Not this room, this one’s mine.”

Nana grinned and held her arms out wide to Daisy who launched herself into them like a rocket. “Nana! I missed you.”

“I’ve missed you too. I’ve been so bored without the school run.”

I flinched a bit, remembering my last school run with Daisy. The press, the walk… the papers. That reminded me. I needed to find out who I was meant to talk to about testing pollution on the school run. Okay, maybe it wouldn’t be that easy, but I filed the thought away for a later time.

Nana stepped up and grabbed me in a tight squeeze. “What have I told you about wearing those awful pyjamas?”

I flushed as hot as the sun. “Lesson learned.” I checked her over. It had only been a few days since we’d been together in the hospital at Daisy’s side, but it felt like a lifetime had passed since then. I guess in a way it had. I’d changed my life, my path now. To what, I didn’t quite know.

Daisy who’d slipped off to look behind the other doors hollered for me and I quickly ran to where she called. “What?” I barged through one of the white doors. “Oh.”

I huffed out a breath. Daisy stood in a room that looked like it should be in a style magazine; a style magazine specifically dedicated to how to make a fairy tale bedroom. Billowing white gossamer hung from the ceilings, like the sails to a ship. A pretty white four poster stood against one wall, while the pale wooden floor, like the rest of the hallway, had been covered in pink and purple rugs. Chiffon curtains blew gently in a breeze that came from open French doors.

“Ah, you found it.” Oliver slipped his arms round my waist, resting his chin on my shoulder. I stared back at him.

“You did this?” I tried to get my words to make sense. “I thought she had to choose a room. Didn’t you just say that?”

“Well I did.” His lips curved. “But then I also thought she might choose this one, but then she might not. No pressure.” He shrugged but didn’t release me from his hold. “I’ve never decorated for a six-year-old before.”