Page 106 of The Dandelion Princess
Her lips curve with the shadow of a smile. “I only meant—”
I reach across the table, lacing my fingers with hers. She lets me touch her still. “The deal is that, when you have a couch to move, the people who love you are going to show up.” I want to say more, but there are too many briars between me and this princess to hack them away in one afternoon.
“Those sound like the words of a man who’s going to let his sister help manage his ancestral home,” she says, brushing her thumb across mine. These marks of affection are unconscious to her, but I’m like an overheating server room with no kill switch. When they open up my insides, everything will be melted.
Ella is right, though. I can’t palm Alix off with farmer’s markets when she could be doing more. “Okay. I’ll do it. I’ll accept my sister’s offer to help if you accept mine.”
“I don’t need—”
“Or I could send her to America. I’m sure Alix will find fulfillment sitting on the board of an HOA in Miami, handing out citations for improper lawncare.”
She clicks her tongue and I tighten my fingers. “We both agree that the prime minister needs to be taken down a notch,” I insist. “You need help.”
She rolls her eyes, but she doesn’t let go of me. “I thought you said it was insane and reckless to consider toppling a democratically elected government, which (a) is weak sauce—Torbald’s governing coalition controls more than 57% of parliamentary seats, and they aren’t in danger of anything but boorish leadership—if anything, I’d be doing them a favor; (b) we live in a constitutional monarchy, and he’s undermining the monarchy part; and (c) you don’t really want to help.”
I grin and glance away, my eye caught by a piece of framed artwork hooked to the wall. The bright red embroidery floss looks like a string of fate. It curves and tangles back in on itself in a bold, graphic typeface.Home is where them haters ain’t.
I release a laughing breath. From a narrow cot in Seong, to an oversized bed in a Handsel flat, to the cozy antique in Lindenholm, Ella has been with me all along.Home.When her walls are under attack, my scruples about what I owe my government and my oldest friend evaporate.
“You’re getting help whether you want it or not,” I say. She gives another lighttsk. “I could execute a series of assignments tailored to my unique skill set.”
“Youarea very good kisser.” She winks.
I love her.
“Anytime, of course,” I say, rocking our hands. “I mean that I can hide your digital footprint behind so many firewalls and false leads that they’ll still be looking for it when the glaciers melt.”
“Alright,” she surrenders, giving me a teasing two-fingered salute. “Do your duty. In the meantime, I’ll close out mySquadRunaccount and wrap up this business of Torbald’s whereabouts. Tonight, if possible.”
“How?”
“I’ve got an idea.” Her brows pucker and she takes a sip of coffee. “I wonder if Dahlia is in town.”
I take notes of our plotting in an app, giving her editing privileges (practically a declaration of my intention to love her forevermore, if she cared to notice), when a text message pops up on my phone. “PM Announces Noon Presser to Reveal Identity of Trash Panda Princess”. I turn the screen around to show her. We have less than twenty-four hours and we can’t afford to waste time. When I drop her at the doors of the Summer Palace, I resist the urge to press a kiss on her lips.
Before my car makes it onto public roads I’m on the phone with Alix. “Listen closely,” I say. “The woods next to the walled garden are to be regarded as hallowed ground—untouchable. Otherwise, you have the go-ahead to develop this hotel idea.” She squeals and I punch the volume down. “Celebrate later. I have a bigger problem and I need your help.”
“I’m suited up,” she laughs. “Tom, too, of course.”
“Ella is in trouble. Her online activities are about to be exposed. Can you convince her team to mop up herSquadRunhistory?”
“How did you know—”
“You know the anonymous runt who keeps running interference in the castle sequences?”
The silence stretches and stretches until she makes a strangled sound.
“Alix,” I break through her questions. “One more thing. I’m trying to convince Ella to be my girlfriend, so any brainstorming you can do in that direction would be great.”
33
Counterpoint
ELLA
Well?
Send.
