Page 67 of Scandal Queen

Isabella’s face scrunched into a tight ball. “Please don’t call me that, it makes me feel like a complete idiot.”

Bernie’s mouth flapped open until she snapped it shut. “You know, Leia, if you keep sending me royal family members all the time, I’m going to need to invest in a bigger building.” She got up and stepped towards me, pulling me into a tight hug.

“How you doing, girl?”

“Uh, well you know. Different.”

“What with having yourself a fancy pantsy royal boyfriend?”

I flushed. “Yes, that.”

Bernie shuffled around, her braids swinging, and the beads on the end of the braids clacking together.

“Miss Lawrence here tell you how we met?” She motioned her thumb between Isabella and me.

Turning to the princess, I dragged in a deep breath. “The night my mother died I didn’t have anywhere to go. I’d been stuck in the police station for hours waiting for them to decide whether to take me into the system or not. While I’d been loitering, I found Janine’s card just randomly left on a table. I called and she came, somehow managing to talk them into transferring me into her care.”

“Janine can’t take in all the waifs and strays though, so she brought her here for a couple of days.” Bernie added for me when my words trailed off. I pointed to a chair in the corner. “I sat there for hours, scared out of my bloody life. It was evening and the place was full. There were complete nut jobs in here.”

Bernie nodded and crossed her arms across her chest. “Everyone’s welcome here, but everyone is safe, even little girls who have nowhere else to go.”

Isabella stared at the corner where I’d pointed. “I can’t imagine how scared you must have been.”

I shrugged. I’d long ago locked those desperate memories away. “Yeah, well. I don’t think I knew what scared me more, Norman the toothless drunk with his can of Tennent’s Extra or the fact I had a baby in my tummy.”

Bernie reached over and squeezed my arm. “Am I allowed to touch you now you are royal?”

I poked my tongue out. “I’m not a royal yet.” I shook away the thought. “So anyway, we’ve got a couple of hours until I’ve got to grab Daisy from school. What can we do to help?”

Bernie looked with keener interest over the princess. “Can you make a curry?”

Isabella sucked her teeth. “Uh, no.”

Bernie chuckled making her giant boobs lift. “Can you, Princess Leia, make a curry?”

I snorted loudly. “Uh, no. I don’t know why you even ask.”

“Make beds?”

Isabella and I both looked at each other and started to giggle. “I think we can manage that one.”

Bernie glared at me, but laughter lit her eyes. “Don’t you go getting all soft up there at the palace, Leia!”

“Me, soft? As if.” I hammed up my affront. “I’d like to say, I’ve no staff up there at all.”

“No staff?” Bernie shook her head slowly. “How are you surviving?”

“She really hasn’t, there was laundry everywhere this morning.”

“Gah, get away with you. Linen is in the cupboard, beds are obvious. I’ll make us a brew. Then maybe you could meet some of the people here?” Bernie eyed me with interest.

“That’s not really why we are here. We wanted to come and help.”

Bernie shook her head as though my statement edged towards one of the most pitiful things she’d ever heard. “Girl, that is how you help. What they been teaching you up at that palace?”

Isabella met my eye, pulling her lower lip in between her teeth, but I gave her an encouraging smile.

“Come on, let’s make beds. Oh and Bernie, don’t try to pull that make a crap cuppa so we never ask again malarkey, it won’t work.”