Page 48 of American Royals II: Majesty
Sam forced her lips to bend into a smile. She let go of Marshall, stepping back and adjusting the straps of her dress as if she hardly noticed she was wearing it.
“Nice work,” she said softly. “We put on a good show, didn’t we?”
She managed to inject the words with her usual cavalier nonchalance. It wasn’t hard. Sam was very good at pretending that things didn’t matter to her.
She’d been doing it for most of her lifetime.
“Where are you taking me?” Beatrice followed Teddy across Walthorpe’s back lawn, toward a wooden, barnlike structure that she’d assumed was a garage.
“You’ll see,” he replied, with that eager dimpled smile that seemed to light up the room.
It struck Beatrice that something fundamental in their relationship had shifted. This walk out to the barn was not at all the same as when they’d walked into Walthorpe together just a few hours ago—before they’d shared such secrets with each other.
Before Teddy had said,It’s you and me now.
He led her up a narrow staircase, then paused on the landing. “That bedroom in the main house is where I sleep, but this has always felt like myactualroom,” he explained, and pushed open the door.
The top floor of the barn had been converted into what could only be described as a rustic media room. Somehow the space felt vast and cozy at once, with the barn’s high vaulted ceilings and exposed wooden beams. Before a massive TV sat an enormous L-shaped couch of brown suede, and on that couch, playing a video game, were Teddy’s two brothers.
“Hey, man.” The younger one, Livingston, glanced up at Teddy’s arrival, his eyes widening when he saw Beatrice. He quickly elbowed his brother and jumped to his feet. “Oh—sorry, we didn’t realize you were coming up. I mean—”
“It’s okay. Please don’t feel like you have to leave.” Beatrice hated that she had this effect on people, that she couldn’t walk into a room without everyone immediately registering, and reacting to, her presence. She wondered how it would feel to be anonymous. To meet someone and actually get tointroduceherself for once.
Lewis and Livingston exchanged a glance, then shrugged and resumed their game.
Beatrice wandered over to a black-and-white poster of Half Dome that hung on one wall. “Have you been there?” she asked, turning to Teddy. She’d always wanted to hike all the way up to the peak, but the one time she’d been to Yosemite, her schedule hadn’t allowed it.
“A few summers ago, but that wasn’t why I bought the poster. I wonder…” Teddy lifted the frame, revealing a jagged, fist-sized hole in the wooden planks. Beatrice could see the building’s insulation coiled beneath.
“Yep. It’s still here.” Teddy sounded buoyant, and a little proud. “A dry-ice rocket exploded too soon,” he added, for her benefit.
Lewis chimed in from the couch. “I told you we’d get away with it! That was six years ago and Momstillhas no idea!”
“Sounds like you guys had fun up here,” Beatrice teased.
“What about you?” Teddy asked. “Surely you went through a rebellious phase at some point—got caught smoking in the cherry orchard, broke a national artifact or two.”
“I once knocked over a vase that my great-grandmother brought from Hesse,” she offered. It wasn’t especially scandalous, but she couldn’t tell Teddy about herreal“rebellious phase”—when she’d been in a secret relationship with her Revere Guard. “I tried to glue the pieces back together, but the housekeeper caught me.”
“How did you break it?”
“Long story.” It had been Sam and Jeff’s fault, actually, as so many things were. “My dad grounded me for two weeks. Not for breaking the vase, he told me, but for trying to hide what I’d done. He said that monarchs need to always own up to their actions. Especially their mistakes.”
Teddy looked over sharply, clearly worried she might cry. But to Beatrice’s surprise, and relief, she was actually smiling at the memory. It was nice to know that she could think of her dad and feel happiness, mixed in with all the sorrow.
“Can I get you something?” Teddy wandered to the corner, where a few wooden cabinets were built into the wall. He paused. “I don’t even know what your drink of choice is.”
“Um…” Champagne at formal receptions, wine at state dinners. “I’m fine with whatever’s around,” she hedged, but Teddy must have heard the truth in her tone.
“It’s okay if you’re not a big drinker.”
He was right. Beatrice always limited herself to one, maybe two drinks per night at events like that. “Not really. I can’t afford to get drunk and publicly make a fool of myself.” Hearing her own words, she realized how ridiculous they sounded. “Although…I don’t see why I can’t have a drink right now.”
“Sure,” Teddy said, smiling. “If you want toprivatelymake a fool of yourself, your secret is safe with me.”
He said it in a lighthearted tone, but Beatrice heard the truth in his words. She did feel safe with Teddy. She knew, with an instinctive certainty, that she could trust him.
“All we’ve got is beer.” Teddy knelt to explore the contents of the liquor cabinet. “And some kind of grapefruit vodka, which has Charlotte written all over it.”
