Page 91 of The Beach Hut on Plum Island
“It’s going to be okay, Princess,” the bodyguard who was still hanging onto her told her. “The team has told me that Doctor Thornton and Doctor Westmorland are on the way. Doctor Westmorland used to work for the CDC, so he’ll assess the situation.”
Harriet felt like she was drifting through a terrible nightmare state as she listened to the man who held her prisoner in the lift. She hardly noticed when it dinged to the ground floor, and she was whisked off out of the hotel. Harriet did know the protocol for potentially hazardous diseases—protect the royal family at all costs.
“Harriet!” Alex’s voice broke through the haze that had settled over her.
Before Alex could get to her, three bodyguards stepped in his way.
“Let him through!” Harriet’s father snapped.
Harriet stood feeling like she wasn’t really there as Alex flew toward her but was pulled back before he could touch her.
“Young man, you know the drill,” Pat told Alex. “Until Harriet has been tested, this is as far as we’re allowed to go.”
Harriet frowned when she saw her father, and her eyes scanned the faces gathering around them as the code red protocol started locking down the hotel.
“Where’s my mother?” Harriet asked, and something in her father’s eyes hit alarm bells in her system.
“Can we get the princess to the clinic?” Pat commanded. “I’ll meet you at the clinic, sweetheart.” He turned to Alex. “You wait here and keep me informed of what’s going on.”
“Okay,” Alex nodded and looked at Harriet. “Are you okay?”
All Harriet could do was nod as she wasn’t quite sure how to answer that question. Physically, she was, but inside, emotions were churning like the sea during a bad storm.
The next hour was torture as Harriet had to be disinfected. As she put it, she ended up back in a pair of peach scrubs with wet hair. Even her wallet, jewelry, and watch were taken. While she was scrubbed and had her blood taken, skin swabbed, and so on, no one could tell her what was going on with her brother, Finn, or Trinity.
“And where is my mother?” Harriet mumbled. She’d seen her father pop up at the window a few times while she sat in her isolation box.
Harriet glanced at her bare arm. Her watch was gone, which meant she was no longer being monitored or tracked. An idea took root as she looked around the isolation room she was in and wondered if the door had been locked. Harriet slipped off thebed and walked to the window through which she was stared at like a goldfish in a bowl.
There was no one in the passage. She tried the door handle, but it was locked.
“Nice. I’m a freakin’ prisoner,” Harriet muttered, touching her pulled-back hair. “Shoot. Not pins.”
Her eyes scanned the room. There was nothing she could use to pick the lock.
“This is what it must feel like to be in one of those rooms but without the padded walls.” Her voice was filled with frustration.
Voices alerted her, and she turned as the door was unlocked, and a nurse she’d never seen before stepped into the room.
“Good news, Princess Harriet,” the nurse smiled. “You’ve been given the all-clear.”
“Oh, good, so I can go!” Harriet looked at the nurse, hoping the woman knew that was a statement, not a question.
“I’m just waiting for the doctor,” the nurse told her, marking off something on her tablet. “But it won’t be long long now.”
Harriet nodded and watched the nurse walk out of the room, pulling the door closed, which Harriet managed to stop before it clicked closed automatically locking the door. She waited for the nurse to walk away, too engrossed in her phone to check whether or not the door had shut.
“You’ve gotta love technology sometimes,” Harriet mused as she pulled the door open and stealthily slipped out of the room.
Harriet made her way to the reception area and waited until it was clear before making a dash toward the front door, only to be stopped by Alex.
“Just the person I was coming to see,” Alex grinned, then looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “Wait a minute. Are you making a hospital break?”
“I was trying to until you blocked my exit,” Harriet pointed out. “Do you have any news about my brother, Finn, and Trinity?”
“Finn is fine,” Alex assured her. “There was nothing contagious.”
His face fell, and Harriet’s heart lurched. “But…” she prompted.
