After a while she noticed that Louise was multitasking, swiping nonchalantly at her phone even as she chatted with the others. When Louise saw her looking over, she edged the phone toward Beatrice.
“What do you think, is he attractive?”
Princess Louise was on a dating app? “You’re not seriously going to meet up with this guy, are you?” Beatrice blurted out.
“Why not? This conference is boring. And I doubt anyone would recognize me. Your people only care about their own royals. Which makes sense, since you’ve got enough drama for at least five families.” The way she spoke, it sounded oddly like a compliment.
“As if you’d really go out with a stranger.” Alexei turned to Beatrice. “Louise just likes to get on the apps for fun.”
“It’s not my fault they make the whole thing feel like a game!” Louise protested. Bharat reached eagerly for the phone so that he and Sirivannavari could study the screen.
“Ooh, I like him,” Siri said approvingly. “He’s got a total brooding-and-sensitive thing going on.”
Alexei shook his head. “If you’re bored, Louise, we should throw a party.”
She visibly perked up. “Good thinking—we should throw a party! After the next state dinner, at my place?” Louise offered, as if the guest cottage really did belong to her. She quickly began doling out orders to her friends. “Alexei, you can handle drinks, can’t you? Siri, you’re in charge of getting the word out.”
Sirivannavari nodded as solemnly as if she’d just been entrusted with the nuclear launch codes. “On it.”
“Bharat, you’re in charge of music. Whatever happened to that DJ we heard in Ibiza back in March? That was a fantastic night,” she added wistfully, and Alexei made a funny noise in the back of his throat.
“I’ll see if we can fly him here by then,” Bharat said, as if it was no big deal.
Beatrice stared down at the remains of her turkey sandwich, willing herself to look normal, but then Louise’s gaze landed on her. “You’re coming, aren’t you, Béatrice?”
The pinch of loneliness in her chest melted away. “I’d love to.”
“Perfect. Bring your fiancé. And your sister and her boyfriend! Marshall, right?”
Beatrice nodded. “We’ll be there.”
Louise flashed her a smile. Beatrice wondered, suddenly, if this lunch had been some sort of test—if Louise had wanted to see how Beatrice fit in with her group of friends.
If it was, then Beatrice had passed.
* * *
That evening, as she was getting dressed, Beatrice heard movement in Teddy’s room and hurried to open the connecting door. They still didn’t technically share a room, for propriety’s sake.
“Teddy! How was your day?”
“I was going to take the boat out.” He gestured to the windows, where the rain still pattered gently. “I ended up reading instead. There are a ton of old mystery novels in the library; did you know that?”
Teddy had taken the boat out every afternoon of the past week, so that now his fair skin had turned a golden tan from the sun. He had also started swimming laps in the downstairs pool, watched an entire TV series about Lord Alexander Hamilton, and started cooking—or at least he’d started making peanut-butter-and-banana smoothies every morning when Beatrice came back from her run. They were heavy on the peanut butter, which made them taste more like dessert than breakfast, but Beatrice wasn’t complaining.
Yet as much as he professed to enjoy his forced time off, Teddy was clearly growing restless. He was too smart to enjoy sitting around without stimulation, without any kind of purpose.
Things would get better once the League of Kings conference was over, Beatrice reminded herself. They would carve out a clear role for Teddy.
She took a step forward, trailing a hand over the doorframe. “I had lunch with Princess Louise and her friends today. You know, Bharat, Alexei, and Siri.” Beatrice felt a little silly using Sirivannavari’s nickname, but the rest of them all had.
Teddy gave her an encouraging smile. “That’s great, Bee. How was it?”
“I really liked them. Even though they’re all best friends, they made me feel included.”
“How did they become best friends when their countries are so far apart?”
“They all went to that boarding school in Switzerland, the one with a summer campus and a winter campus.” Beatrice, meanwhile, had been in the capital, at the same all-girls private school that generations of Washingtons had attended before her.
You don’t need to be at school with other royals; you should surround yourself with your future subjects, her father had said when Beatrice brought it up at her first League of Kings conference. You may be an American princess, but you’re an American first, and a princess second.
“It seems like they’ve all been close since they were kids,” Beatrice went on. “And they jet-set all over the place, to Louise’s family’s house on the Riviera, or skiing in Verbier.”
Teddy grinned. “Verbier, huh? I’ve never skied the Alps. If your new friends want to invite us this year, I’m willing to make the trip.”
Beatrice stepped forward, lacing her hands in his. “Oh, are you?”
“I promise to win them all over with my triple-cheese nachos and my chairlift banter. I’m an excellent chairlift buddy,” Teddy assured her. “I have great jokes.”
“You have dad jokes.” Beatrice laughed, shaking her head. “Actually, you’ll get to spend more time with everyone this weekend. Louise is throwing a party and she wants us to—” At the look on Teddy’s face, she broke off. “What is it?”
“I was going to tell you—I want to head back to Boston. I’ll stay for Louise’s party,” he said hastily, “but after that, I need to head home. I have to deal with a few things.”
“Is everything okay?”
“Just some stuff related to the duchy.”
Beatrice felt a pang of guilt. Several months ago, the Eatons had begun training Teddy’s younger brother Lewis as the future Duke of Boston, since Teddy would be forced to relinquish the title. Unlike Teddy, who’d been studying the ducal responsibilities and finances practically since birth, Lewis had grown up like Samantha or Jeff: assuming he would never have to carry the burden.
“It sounds like Lewis needs me,” Teddy added. And you don’t, Beatrice silently finished for him.
“Of course you should go,” she assured him.