“Eloise. Darling.” Anne kissed both her granddaughter’s cheeks. “You look lovely. Though did you have someone tailor that dress? It doesn’t hang on you right.”
The strain in Eloise’s smile was slight, but I caught it.
“Yes, Grandmother,” she replied. Grandmother. While Theo called her Grannie. It didn’t take a genius to see who the dowager preferred.
Eloise’s gaze met mine, understanding in them. “Do you mind if I steal Spencer from you? Countess Stephanie would like to meet her.”
“Of course.” Anne tried to hide her scowl when I bolted up, already heading for El. “We’ll have to finish our conversation another time, then. It was a pleasure meeting you, Spencer.”
“It was all mine.” I dipped in respect, Eloise tugging my arm, pulling me away from her grandmother.
“You’re welcome,” she whispered, both of us swiftly moving across the room.
“Bloody hell. I need a drink.” I grabbed a glass off a tray.
“My grandmother is a lot.” Eloise snagged one for herself. “Some might say a bitch.”
“You guys don’t get along?”
“No. Never have. Maybe if I came out a boy.” She shook her head. “Theo can do no wrong, where I can do no right. Theo is the only one who gets away with calling her Grannie. Guess she’ll put up with anything from the next in line. Me? Not so much.” She shrugged. “Just makes what I do on the side that much more fun. She thinks she beat me into a perfect mold. The princess of perfection. Oh, Grannie, if you only knew.” She wiggled her eyebrows, a spark of mischievousness showing through.
“Thank you for saving me.” I took a huge swig of the bubbly liquor. “I was about to drown myself in her martini glass.”
“Sadly, you are going to run into many who act like her. Snotty, entitled. If you aren’t in the top circle, then you aren’t worthy of being here.” El rolled her eyes. “As if any of them did anything to be here except be born.”
A laugh sparked out of me. It was refreshing to hear a princess say the very things I had thought.
“Is this where the cool girls are hanging out?” Hazel stepped up to us, her blonde hair braided over one shoulder, her blue gown making her eyes pop. “I need a bloody drink.”
“Haz! You made it.” Eloise snatched a flute from a server. “Join us in getting drunk until this party is fun.”
“Oh, I doubt even the king has enough champagne stocked for that.” Hazel grinned, taking the glass from Eloise and holding it up. “But a mission I’m all in for.”
“Cheers to that.” I nodded, El following, our glasses clinking together.
Chapter 12
Exhaustion hit me like a wall. After hours of meeting lords and ladies, Prime Minister Joseph and his husband, Paul, I was done. My feet ached, my false smiles no longer pinning to my lips. Small talk was torture for me. I loathed the awkward conversation social etiquette forced on you so you didn’t come across as rude and when every face blurred and the only thing you wanted was to take your shoes off and go to bed.
“I’m going to turn in,” I whispered to Theo, who was in full debate with Lord John about a recent footie match. Ben, Charlie, Hazel, and the prime minister’s husband, Paul, were also in on the discussion.
“Oh no. Stay.” His eyes were slightly glossy from drink. “I promise, just one more hour.”
I couldn’t stomach the idea of another hour after he already promised me we’d leave two hours earlier.
“You stay.” I patted his arm. “I’m fine. It’s not like my room isn’t right down the hall.” That was still a sore point for me. I had asked Chloe again about finding me a place, but she brushed it off. I really felt being outside these walls would help with the adjustment to all this. A place that was just mine, where I could relax and recharge myself.
“You sure?” he slurred slightly.
“Of course.”
“I can come to your room later,” he rumbled, his eyes lowering on my body. “Make sure you are tucked in.”
Since I had come here, we had no time to be alone. One night he had come to my room, and after some kissing, we both fell asleep from fatigue. I missed him, the thought of sex always playing in my mind. But doing anything else but sleeping tonight wasn’t going to happen.
“I’ll see you tomorrow at breakfast.” I went up on my toes and kissed his cheek. Tomorrow was going to be long and stressful. My family would be coming, meeting the king and queen at the polo match and garden party. “Love you.”
“Love you too.” He kissed me before facing back to the group, picking up right where they left off. Quickly waving goodbye to them, I scurried across the grand room, counting down the seconds until I could rip off my shoes.
The rooms and hallway were quiet, the press long gone, only a few stewards were attending the doors. The instant I got outside the ballroom, I tugged my heels off with a groan, my toes curling in the soft carpet. “Bloody hell, that feels good.”
“If men only knew how easy it was to make a woman moan.” A deep voice rumbled behind me, causing me to jump with a startled yelp, circling to face the figure slinking out from the shadows.
“Holy shite!” I cried, my hand going to my chest. “You scared me.”
Lennox’s presence this week had been far in the background since I never left the palace. He was a figure in the distance. It had been so pleasant not having him right there, another person displeased by my presence here.
Tonight he was dressed in a perfectly fitted black suit and dark tie. His hazel eyes popped in the glimmering light of the chandeliers above our head, forcing a hitch of air up my throat.
“Then I guess I’m doing my job well.” He crossed his arms together in front.
“What are you doing here?” Irritation bristled over my skin, jutting my chin up.
“Working.” He eyed me. “Thought being so smart, you would be able to put that together. Don’t let anyone tell you your upper education wasn’t worth it.”
“You are an arse.” I folded my arms. “Since I’m still technically in the palace, there is no need for you to be protecting me. Hence the reason I’m questioning why you are stalking me.”
Stepping closer, a smirk twisted his mouth, his huge figure towering over me. “You know the world doesn’t revolve around you, right?”
His form barely grazed mine, but I couldn’t stop the gulp of air, the need to step back. Danger and hate pulsated off him in violent surges.
“I don’t sit around watching telly and wanking off.” A blush moved up to my cheeks and down my legs at his blunt speech. “I have a job, my lady. Not that you would understand that.”
My shock turned to fury in a snap.
“You know nothing about me.”
“You are a baroness; growing up with so much privilege you don’t even see the real world. How some of us have to work to feed ourselves. Survive.”
My jaw locked down, my nose flaring. He had no clue about my life, but at the same time, I couldn’t deny that compared to so many, I had grown up with privilege. He made me feel like a horrible person for circumstances I had no control over. Plus, my family barely held on. We were the lowest on the totem pole.