“Sounds good to me.” Nina didn’t bother watching as Sam shut the door behind her.
She fell back onto her bed, pulling her hands up before her as she curled into the fetal position. The tattoo was mere inches from her face.
She remembered what she’d researched, when Sam had decided they would get that particular image. The Chinese character was more nuanced than the simple translation of friendship. It derived from an older symbol that combined the words for two and hands—meaning not just a friend, but a friend who helped you out in times of need. A friend you could lean on.
Nina tucked her tattooed wrist beneath her pillow and shut her eyes.
SAMANTHA
Samantha tapped frantically at her controller, willing her lime-green animated car to go faster. She always beat Jeff at this game. That was her favorite part of playing it: the look of shocked dismay on her brother’s face when he lost.
Jeff was hunched over in the armchair next to her, his dark eyes gleaming with the reflected glow of the TV screen. Sam gritted her teeth, whipping her car around the curve of the track, only to collide with the wall in an explosion of cartoon flames.
She expected Jeff to jump to his feet, at the very least to give a low whoop of victory, but he just turned to her with an uneven shrug. “Neither of us is playing all that great,” he pointed out. “Maybe we should call it a day.”
Sam set aside the video-game controller and turned to her brother. “Still no word from Nina?” When he shook his head, she sighed. “She isn’t really talking to me, either.”
“Really? I figured you guys would have made up by now.”
Slowly, her throat nearly closing over the words, Sam related what Nina had said on campus yesterday. That it hadn’t been easy on her, spending so much time with the royal family through the years. How they’d inadvertently shuffled her aside, made her feel inferior. Treated her like an afterthought.
Her brother’s expression hardened, and he muttered a curse. “I can’t believe she felt that way and I didn’t realize ….”
“It’s my fault too. She was my best friend long before she became your secret girlfriend.”
Jeff glanced over, alerted by something in her tone. “Are you angry that I didn’t tell you?”
“Not angry,” Sam admitted. “Just … hurt, I guess. I thought you trusted me with this kind of thing.” Even as she said it, Sam squirmed at her own hypocrisy, because she hadn’t told Jeff about her and Teddy.
Well, she definitely wouldn’t tell him now, given that Teddy had just gotten engaged to their sister.
The overhead motion-detector lights flickered on as their mom strode into the media room.
“There you two are!” the queen proclaimed, her voice laced with impatience. “Samantha, I’ve been looking for you. I need you right now.”
“What for?” Sam asked cautiously.
“Wedding prep. Come on.” Adelaide turned on one heel and led her daughter along the hallway, then down multiple flights of stairs. Sam’s fishtail braid swung back and forth like a pendulum with their steps.
Wedding prep. Last night, Beatrice had announced the news of the engagement to the gathered family—with Teddy at her side, of course. There had been a lot of hugging and champagne and planning of a full-court engagement party, all of which had made Sam feel slightly ill.
When they stepped into the hallway that led beneath the palace, Sam almost halted in her tracks. “We’re going to the vault?”
The queen cast her a puzzled glance. “Is something wrong? Usually you can’t wait for an excuse to come down here.”
While the Crown Jewels technically belonged to the state, the right to borrow them was granted only at the discretion of the monarch, which meant that right now, the only people with access were the queen, the princesses, and the Queen Mother—and, occasionally, Aunt Margaret and Aunt Evelyn. They usually scheduled a visit before each black-tie event, to coordinate which jewels each of them would wear. Sometimes the queen would bring her favorite dress designer along, so that he could make a gown specifically to showcase a particular item of jewelry.
They were probably here to pick out their jewels for Beatrice and Teddy’s big party. Another occasion to celebrate Beatrice, Sam thought dully. What else was new.
She wondered what her mom thought about Beatrice’s lightning-fast engagement. Maybe she was the one who’d pressured Beatrice into it.
“I can’t believe the news about Teddy and Beatrice,” Sam began, testing the waters. “Don’t you think it feels a little fast?”
The queen shrugged. “When you know, you know. I knew that your father was the one by the end of our third date.”
Sam lifted an eyebrow skeptically, but her mom wasn’t finished. “Beatrice clearly felt certain enough in her choice that she didn’t need to wait any longer. She’s always been sure of what she wanted.” Unlike you was the silent implication.
“I guess so,” Sam muttered, unconvinced. It was easy to be decisive when all you did was obey your parents’ orders.
They stepped into a shadowed underground hallway. The air was especially cold down here; Sam hugged herself, trying not to shiver in her thin black sweater. A pair of security guards stood to either side of a heavy metal door.