Page 175 of Drama Queen

Leaving her room, she was pleasantly surprised to see Zeke.

“I’ve got your bag, ma’am,” he told her, showing it hanging off his side. “We need to hustle, the president is already in the car and asking for you.”

Dammit, that was not the impression she wanted to make. “If this skirt wasn’t so confining, I’d get you to give me a piggyback and run me there.”

He grinned wickedly at her. “I could always throw you over my shoulder?”

Charlotte slapped his arm companionably as they started walking down the long hallway outside her room. “And make a crease in my blouse? No thank you. It’s all the press would focus on for days, rather than the important speech the president is about to give.”

“Your notes are in your bag, and there’s a copy on your tablet,” Fitz called out as they hurried away. “Have her back before midnight, Zeke, I’m not sure her glass slippers last that long.”

With that parting shot, Fitz closed the door on them, which was just as well, because Charlotte had no idea how to reply to that. She could only hope that wasn’t a theme for the afternoon.

When Zeke finally handed her into the car, tawny eyes regarded her angrily. “You need to learn to move faster,” Leonard growled.

“Yes, sir, I’m sorry. We spent too long going over the speech just one more time. The final copy is on your tablet, and it’s already been sent to the teleprompters.”

He waved that away with a distracted flick of his hand. “Other than being late just now, you did well today. Leadership suits you.”

Leadership? What she did was hardly leading. “I coordinated everyone’s efforts, but I’d hardly call that leading.”

“What else is leading but that? Utilising the resources at hand to the best of your ability, and then pulling the people together for the best outcome.”

It sounded reasonable when he put it like that, but still, she hadn’t felt like a leader. It wasn’t like she’d been telling everyone what to do — except she had, hadn’t she? She’d given them assigned tasks, followed up with their results, and sent them off in new directions when needed.

Laughter filled the cabin of the car, the president highly amused about something.

“What?” she asked.

“You had the entire cabinet eating out of the palm of your hand today, following your every whim, and you didn’t even realise you were doing it, did you? You had their complete attention, their utmost loyalty, and in some cases pure devotion — and you didn’t even notice.”

Devotion? Hardly. Who on earth could he be referring to? No, she couldn’t think about that now, there were too many other things clamouring for her attention.

“What happened with Ms Kelsing. Is she alright?”

A shrewd gaze held her pinned to her seat. He knew she was deliberately changing the subject, and for a moment she wasn’t sure he was going to allow it. Then he sighed, turning his attention back to the tablet in his hand.

“She was reassigned to Natasha’s office. There’s no large feline shifters there for her to be bothered by, so hopefully she can put her head down and find fulfilment there instead. It will also give her time to seek out some desensitisation treatment, because her reaction was rather excessive, especially given the short amount of time I spent with her.”

“Hmm,” Charlotte murmured. “I’m not sure that’s the best course of action, but you’re the boss.”

“What do you mean? It’s the same level of work, just in a different department. Plus I wasn’t the one to come up with it, Tony did, and he organised it all.”

Well, that explained a few things.

“Look, she might be getting paid the same, but there’s a certain prestige to working in The Seat. Working for Natasha is nothing to sniff at, but it’s not quite the same thing as being in the power centre for our people. Just be prepared for this to come back and bite you in the arse is all I’m saying.”

“But I didn’t do anything!” he protested.

“Did you sign off on it?”

“Well, yes, it was a transfer, and I had to because I’m the reason why she— Oh. Well yeah, fuck. That is going to come back and bite me.”

She wanted to laugh, but these things could blow up out of proportion if allowed to stagnate. “How about you make it a rotation thing? Eighteen months with Natasha, then move her between the different governors. It would be a huge opportunity for her to soak up how things are done for each category of shifters, and it would give her a considerable advantage overother interns if and when she decides to return to The Seat. With that kind of experience under her belt, she’d have her pick of jobs. Plus, the initial period with Natasha would allow her enough time to complete the desensitisation treatment.”

“That’s actually a good idea. Can you pass it along to Fitz? Get him to sort it out before we get back tonight, and I’ll sign off on it.”

That’s how she spent the rest of the trip to The Islington, emailing back and forth with Fitz, clarifying details with the president, and then finally going over the speech with him one more time.

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