Page 101 of Royal Icing
“Yes. But it seems like a lot of the duties include shoveling excrement.”
“Huh. It would be great exercise. And I’d love to know how enclosures are built. Keep it on the list.”
“Great. How much is your monthly trust payment again?”
He told her, and she grimaced.
“You might need a roommate.”
“That bad?” He looked scandalized.
“All the jobs are in Avolis. The city is expensive.”
“So I’d have to leave the village?”
“Well, there is one apartment available in the village. But I don’t know that it would suit your…needs.”
She turned the laptop so that he could see it. A studio apartment with only the barest of amenities, but it was charming nonetheless. It would be an uncomfortable adjustment for someone coming from a two-thousand-square-foot suite in a castle though.
He clicked through a couple pictures, then pulled out his phone. He dialed a number and disappeared into the hallway.
Emma and Lisa made eye contact, and Emma shrugged.
He came back a moment later. “Right, that’s settled.”
“You took the apartment? Without going to see it first?” Emma raised her eyebrows.
“Of course. I’d like to still be near Ruby before she leaves for school. It’s only a year lease.”
“What’s your mom going to say when she learns you’re living in a studio apartment?”
“I don’t care what she thinks. They’ve controlled everything for long enough. What I do, where I live, who I’m allowed to date. I don’t want it. Any of it.”
She sat up straight. “What are you going to do? Renounce your title? Is that a thing?”
“Maybe,” he said thoughtfully.
“Can you run for parliament? Or local office?” Lisa asked from the living room. “I’ve been reading up on the Lynorian government. Really boring stuff.”
He frowned. “I actually don’t know. No member of the royal family has ever held a nonroyal office before.”
“And who better to be the first than you? You don’t need them,” Emma said, pointing generally east toward Lynoria. “We can get your project built without the crown’s money.”
“How? I’m cut off, remember?”
She leaned back and pulled out her phone. “We call in the big guns.”
“The big guns?”
In a moment, Lola was on-screen.
“Oh my god,” Lola said. “Leo in the flesh. You’re real. I can’t believe it. I thought Emma was having wet fever dreams.”
Leo smiled. “I’m real.”
“Great,” she said. “Now what’s going on? Are you getting married? Because I will absolutely be your maid of honor. How’s October?”
“Whoa,” Emma said sternly. “We’re just calling for some advice, because you’re a brilliant genius grant writer and fundraiser.”
