Page 55 of Once Upon a Royal Summer
“I found her wearing it in the bath just now,” Marie said, her voice as small as Henry had ever heard it. “A bubble bath, I’m afraid.”
“Please don’t blame Marie. This is all my fault.” Lacey flew to her feet.
“Lacey, don’t,” Henry said. “It’s okay.”
The tiara was a little wet, not ruined. And frankly, Rose so rarely acted her age that Henry couldn’t help but feel proud she was finally behaving more like a child than a mini-adult.
His mother turned to study Lacey through narrowed eyes, and Lacey immediately dropped into a panicked theme park curtsey.
“Sorry,” she said, straightening. “Again. It’s a habit.”
Ava looked as if she were trying not to laugh.
“Anyway, the tiara thing is definitely my fault. It’s part of the royal rules at Once Upon A Time. ‘Never take off your crown—not even in a bubble bath.’” Lacey mimed having a crown on her head, and then slowly sat back down.
An awkward silence fell over the table, and just as Henry was about to try to say something—anything—to diffuse the situation, a footman scurried into the dining room and stood beside Marie. His face was beet red and he panted a little, as if he’d just come from running circles around the castle.
Which he apparently had. Sort of, anyway.
“Your Majesty,” he said, struggling to catch his breath.
The queen set her damp crown down on the table. “I’m almost afraid to ask, but what is it?”
“It’s the greenhouse, ma’am.” The footman’s face cracked into a smile. “I apologize for interrupting, but I know you’ll want to come see. It opens for visitors in less than an hour, and well…”
“And well…?” Queen Elloise prompted.
“I can’t really describe it, ma’am. You must see it to believe it.” The footman waved toward the dining room exit with a flourish.
“I love a field trip,” Ava said.
Henry was up for anything that would take his mother’s mind off the bubble bath incident. Lacey looked like she wanted to disappear under the table. He wanted to reach for her and give her hand a reassuring squeeze, but she was too far away.
“Let’s go.” He folded his napkin and stood.
“Breakfasts are majorly dramatic around here,” Ava muttered as they made their way through the corridors toward the palace doors closest to the greenhouse.
Henry let out a little laugh. “You have no idea.”
The sun was already high in the sky, promising a bright, clear day for the public’s tour of the palace grounds. Sunlight glinted off the diamond-shaped panes of the greenhouse walls, and maypoles festooned with ribbons flanked its wide, open entryways on all four sides.
It was lovely. While sympathetic toward his mother’s concerns about the greenhouse tour, having Lacey in Bella-Moritz had given him a new perspective on things. They lived in a seaside paradise, surrounded by beauty on every side. There was magic in the life they lived here in the palace. He’d just lost of sight of it for a while.
But what Henry saw when he walked into the greenhouse stopped him dead in his tracks. Butterflies—hundreds of them, maybe even thousands—fluttered through the air in delicate, graceful pirouettes. Tiny, colorful ballerinas.
There were so many of them they almost didn’t seem real. He squinted, but he wasn’t seeing things. They were there—bright tangerine-hued Monarch butterflies, as big as his hand, all the way down to small, vivid blue ones with lacy, ruffled wings.
“Oh, my.” His mother gasped and pressed a hand to her heart. Then her lips curved into a smile the likes of which Henry hadn’t seen light up her face in a long, long time. “It’s beautiful.”
“Where did they all come from?” Ian said.
“I don’t know.” The footman shrugged. “They just appeared overnight. It’s the strangest thing.”
“Butterfly feeders,” Ava said.
Queen Elloise titled her head. “Pardon?”
Ava pointed to a plate, suspended by thin wire from a nearby tree branch. It was one of the china plates they sold in the palace gift shop, decorated with the royal family crest and ringed with gold. The plate was covered with sliced lemons, pink sugar cubes, and tiny piles of Shasta daisies, like the ones that had lined the path where Henry and Lacey had strolled through the flower park.
