“Yes, and if you recall, I was very sexy,” he said. “But listen. Mum and Father went on a tour of someplace or other right about a year after they got married. I can’t remember where. It would be a better story if I could. But regardless. We should do that. Let’s get out of here and find our Bex and Nick bubble again.”

“But you just said you didn’t want to be a runner-awayer,” I pointed out.

“Aha! This is not running away!” His sense of triumph nearly knocked him over. “We’ve never tried a bubble where we’re also being the Duke and Duchess of Clarence. This bubble wouldn’t be running away from something. We’d be running to something.” He clapped his hands. “It’s the best of both worlds. A fresh start, doing work together that isn’t about deflecting headlines. So we’re on the job, but we can be in a bubble at the same time.” He looked at me hopefully. “It’s worth a shot, yes?”

“It’s worth every shot,” I said. “But we need to talk about Freddie. Part of the problem is that we didn’t talk about him last time.”

Nick looked contemplative. “Let’s do that part when we’re more sober.” He clambered to his feet and hauled me up gracelessly. “I solemnly swear we will not do anything rash, nor leave anything unsaid. Not again. Do we get to kiss yet?”

I took his face in my hands with a wicked grin. When we came up for air, he teased, “I hope this doesn’t scandalize Gran.”

“All due respect to Her Maj, I don’t really care.”

He swept me into another kiss that was interrupted only when Marta shouted out Daniel Craig’s name in her sleep. Nick extracted himself from our embrace to tuck a blanket up around her body, then turned to Eleanor and touched her hand.

“Happy New Year, Gran,” he said.

Eleanor’s eyes flew open and locked on mine.

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER THREE

History will likely tell it that when Eleanor came back to us, order was restored—that she woke up surrounded by her family, that her indomitable spirit had won the day, that she was undiminished and regal from the jump, that we all held hands around her bedside and offered thanks to the God that returned her to us, and that her first words were…well, anything other than what they actually were. What really happened: She awoke and started murmuring, Nick screamed and slammed his hand down on the alarm button on her nightstand, and then he called Richard while the palace medical staff elbowed us aside to buzz around her. All the while, Eleanor’s gaze flicked blearily around the room, as if clocking her surroundings and deeming them wanting.