said, falling in step with her. “I’m so fried from yesterday that I could not have done it on my own.”
“As we suspected,” she said. “Everything you and Nicholas left in Scotland will be delivered tomorrow, including your art pieces and some very odd lumps of wool.” She frowned. “Are they blankets?”
“Nick claims they’re socks.”
Marj looked astonished. “For whom? A giant?” She shook her head, then made a mark on her clipboard. “You’ve seen your other belongings are at Kensington Palace already. The Queen has earmarked her sister Georgina’s former residence on the grounds there for you and the duke, and we were going to start discussing renovations during the honeymoon, but…as you know, other issues took precedence.”
I stopped in front of another picture window, this one overlooking the less-scenic London morning rush-hour traffic. It was, aptly for my situation, a total clusterfuck.
Marj took my pause for something other than what it was. “Apartment 1A is highly desirable,” she said. “Yes, it needs updating, and hasn’t been lived in since the princess died. But I’m sure twenty-six rooms will be more than enough for your needs.”
“Oh, I’m sure it’s gorgeous!” I said. “It’s extremely generous of Her Majesty, especially after…everything.”
“Indeed,” Marj said tightly.
“Marj,” I said, touching her arm. “I owe you an apology. I cannot imagine what a disaster we left in our wake, and we—I—feel awful about how our behavior has impacted you.”
Marj’s face relaxed. “Thank you, my dear. I appreciate that,” she said. “But I’m the one who convinced you to roll the dice in the first place. I can’t believe how badly I misjudged it.”
“In your defense, it was the middle of the night when we called,” I said.
“Nonetheless, I didn’t think Clive would detonate his family’s entire relationship with the Crown over some silly vendetta,” she said. “Frederick tried to keep me out of the blowback, and I appreciate it, but I’m not sure I deserve it. I should have gotten in front of it instead of crossing my fingers that there would be nothing to get in front of, but…” She shook her head. “It’s done now. How are you?”
The cars outside had barely moved at all.
“My body is here, but my brain is still adjusting,” I said. “Yesterday, we thought the Queen was nearly dead, and today you’re giving me a mansion.”
Marj touched my arm. “My dear, if there is one thing to know about The Firm, it is this: Things move terribly quickly, and also not at all, often at the same time.”
We started walking again.
“The apartment is a bit of a shambles, but I thought you and Nicholas might want to move in anyway,” she continued. “Unless you’d prefer to stay where you are? But as newlyweds, living so near Frederick…?”
“This morning you’d never have known Freddie was there,” I said.
“He wasn’t. He slept here,” Marj said. “I could continue having him do that, I suppose.”
I thought about the strange sensation we’d experienced in Nick’s old room last night—how it felt like the remnant of a life that didn’t fit us anymore.
“We can’t evict Freddie from his own home,” I said. “I wish he felt like he could stay there with us, but since he doesn’t, we should be the ones to go.”
“I will arrange it,” Marj said.
We rounded a corner, and I chased her up a flight of stairs before she came to a halt in front of a familiar gilt-trimmed door. “And this is where I leave you,” she said.
I nervously fluffed my hair, and Marj clearly saw the tremor in my hand.
“I cannot pretend you and the duke didn’t leave us in a pickle,” she said, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. “Most people are allowed several moments of massive immaturity in their lives. Frederick, in fact, is overdrawn on that account.” She looked me right in the eyes. “But Nicholas, because of what he will one day be, hasn’t been afforded much space for that. He gets one. He’s earned one. But only one.”
She swung open the door for me. “I’ll have a footman run over the keys to 1A.” She winked. “Chin up. She didn’t call for a firing squad today.”
Walking into Eleanor’s dark, quiet quarters felt like breaking and entering, and even though I was there by invitation, I couldn’t help but tiptoe. I was so fixated on the door of her actual bedroom sitting ajar, and at the swath of carpet that would lead me there without knocking over anything expensive, that I