Page 36 of The Prince of New York

I nodded. “He does, but he tries to make certain Rachel doesn’t feel left out.” I lifted the bottle. “This will work fantastically well at that. We’ll just have to be careful to not grab the wrong bottle by accident.”

“We’ll be making special labels for the non-alcoholic wine so it’s easy to tell. We’ve applied a tape border in red for the moment to make it easy to tell which ones lack alcohol. We’ll take care of loading the SUVs with the crates while you enjoy the rest of the bottle.”

To my amusement, the man fled, issuing orders to make certain we were properly cared for.

I put some serious thought into hugging the bottle. “It didn’t try to kill me, Dr. Stanton. It’s been twenty minutes, and I’m not dying yet.”

“You’re not going to die,” she promised, smiling at my antics. “Please don’t mind him, Madelyn. Alcohol has been a significant issue for him for many years, so this is quite liberating for him. He can enjoy a good wine without consequence—and it will solve more than a few problems at the palace, especially among some staffers who developed addictions. I’ll be making sure to get a supply so they have an extra tool to help them conquer their demons.”

My parents held responsibility for that, too.

They’d driven more than a few staffers to alcoholism, and my sister worked hard trying to help everyone in the palace lead happier and healthier lives.

“Do you think I can order a few bottles for myself through the palace?” Madelyn asked.

If I had my way, she’d have a limitless supply of the drink and someone to share it with her. The reminder she had an ex, one who had abused her in some fashion or another, bothered me. The instant I got a chance to speak with Terry alone, I’d do some investigation of the man to find out what I needed to do to protect Madelyn from him.

While the RPS would do its best, especially now that Terry headed my sister’s detail, I wanted to be involved—or at least be familiar with him so I could act if he was foolish enough to come near Madelyn.

“That won’t be a problem,” Dr. Stanton replied. “I’ll be making certain the palace is aware that you both will need to be kept supplied with the non-alcoholic wine. If it has the health benefits of wine without the alcohol, I’ll be recommending that you share a bottle every day. When you exclude the alcohol portion of the wine, it has a lot of good things for you in it.”

I poured us each another glass of wine before handing over the remainder of the bottle and the cork to Dr. Stanton. “There should be enough left in there you can get it lab tested.”

She accepted the bottle, returned the cork, and handed it over to one of the RPS agents. “Get them to give you a sample of the alcoholic version so we can do a full evaluation. If the alcohol is the only thing missing, we’ll have a better idea of how to approach the situation. If there’s a secondary substance missing, I’d like to test them for a reaction.”

As always, I wondered how my family would have changed if only we’d been surrounded by people like Terry and Dr. Stanton from the start—and if we would ever truly recover from our past.

Only time would tell.

TEN

I foresaw a successful assault on my wallet.

On the wayback to the palace, Terry took us to a camera store, the kind snooty royalty liked to shop at, to purchase everything I’d need to feed Madelyn’s photographic creativity. The store employee, an older man named Josh, helped me understand my new toy with admirable patience.

Madelyn did not need any such help, and she spent twenty minutes scrutinizing her phone before deciding she could afford a point and shoot to stick in her purse. When she was safely out of hearing range, I whispered, “The duplicate bodies are so she can use them. Really, I’m getting this nice one so I can hand it to her when she kills the batteries on the other cameras. I’ll use it a little, but I suspect she’ll be using it more than I will.”

“Ah. You’re one of those. In good news, this camera is designed to make photography accessible for any skill level. The automatic mode will serve you justice, and if you decide to photograph birds, you can mostly make use of the shutter mode and control the shutter speed manually while allowing the camera to handle the rest of the details. I recommend getting extra memory chips and swapping out your chips for a set for her.” Josh led me to the accessories area, pointing at a pair of hardshell cases smaller than my wallet. “Those can fit in your pocket and hold twelve chips each.”

I foresaw needing many memory chips to keep up with my aide. I kept an eye on the woman, smiling when one of the store employees helped her free her new baby from its box and set it up. “Can you sneak in a couple more of those into my order?”

“Sure. Those are actually really nice little point and shoots. She’ll be able to get at least five hundred shots out of a single charge. The downside? She won’t be able to switch the batteries in that specific model. We have battery banks that can recharge them, however. It’ll take forty minutes to charge.”

If two extra cameras didn’t keep her trucking along while the first one charged, I’d have a problem on my hands. “Give me three of them, two for her, one for me. Do they come in different colors?”

“They do. I have purple, pink, blue, green, black, and silver.”

She’d selected the silver one for herself, and I suspected it was due to the store’s sale on that specific color. “I’ve changed my mind. Get me one of every color. I’ll keep the black one for myself and hold on to the rest for her.”

While I understood I went to excessive limits, I could distribute the cameras to RPS agents, and thanks to the camera’s size, they wouldn’t be losing much of the pocket space to my plan to make certain she had cameras always available for her use.

“You’re going to need a bag.”

“Get me something that can carry my camera, all of her stuff, and the extras.”

He pointed at a black bag made of leather. “You want that one.”

The bag, while larger, appeared professional enough, and I appreciated its sleek lines. “Make it so. She managed to run numerous cameras out of batteries during an outing to the vineyard, so I want to be prepared.”

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