Page 60 of Royally Matched
“Now?” I ask on a laugh, because this entire experience is nothing short of thrilling—and the fact I’m having this experience with Marco? Well, I’ll admit it only adds to that thrill.
The door to the library suddenly swings open, startling us all, and Marco and I look up in shock to see Amelia heading into the room in her jeans and sneakers, looking relaxed and easy, her long dark hair falling in soft waves over her shoulders, a relaxed smile on her face.
The dogs rush over to greet her, and I freeze, my heart thudding as guilt swamps my bloodstream. Guilty of what exactly, I don’t know. Okay, I do know. Being caught alone with Marco, that’s what.
She greets the dogs, and her eyes widen as they alight on us. “Hello, you two,” she says, her eyes sliding between us. “Isn’t this cozy? What are you up to?”
“Book things,” I reply with my chin lifted as though to challenge her to question us further.
Which of course she does. She’s Amelia.
“The two of you are in here looking for books?” she asks.
“That’s what you do in libraries. Look at books,” I reply.
“What books are you looking for?” she asks, peering at the book on the table between Marco and me.
I slide over to block her view. “Books to do with—” I begin and draw a sudden blank. Why can’t I think of a type of book we could feasibly be looking for? Any book will do!
“Fish,” Marco finishes for me, and I shoot him a grateful look.
Wait, fish?
I smile, hopeful that a book on fish is a totally feasibletype of book for us to be looking for in a royal library, full of, well, books. “That’s right. We’re looking for a book about fish.”
“Like Nemo,” Marco adds.
“That’s right. Like Nemo.”
Amelia’s gaze slides between the two of us as though working out whether we’re telling the truth or not. “Isn’t that rather… unusual?”
“I don’t think it’s unusual at all. Do you, Marco?” I blink at him as though we really are looking for books about fish and not trying to solve a riddle that we have both grown to be fascinated by, given anonymously to my partner in… crime? No, not crime. My partner in adventure.
“I like to read just as much as the next man,” he says. “About fish in particular,” he adds for good measure.
I turn my gaze to my sister. Is she actually buying this load of old rubbish about fish? Although I do think we’re doing rather a good job of it.
“Really?” she asks.
“Really,” I confirm. “And you know I like to read, so from where I’m standing the real question is what areyoudoing here, Ami?”
I’m rather pleased with the way I’ve managed to turn this around. Marco and I make a good team.
“No, I meant why the two of you.” She points between us, as though we’re naughty children who’ve been caught with our hands in the cookie jar. Which, incidentally, that’s exactly how it feels. “Where’s Enzo?”
“Enzo’s been called away on business to The Netherlands,” Marco replies smoothly.
Amelia eyes the book on the table once more. “What are you reading? It looks jolly old.”
“It is old,” I reply, wishing she would leave us alone so Iwouldn’t feel quite so much like Marco and I have been caught doing something wrong. Because we aren’t doing anything wrong. We are simply solving a riddle. That’s all.
She reaches around me to pick the book up and examine it. “This has got to be at least a hundred years old. Look at the fancy font. You can barely read it.”
I pull my lips together. “True.”
“Is it in ancient Ledonian, because if it is, you could get it translated,” she suggests as she hands it back to me. “If you’re interested enough in reading it.”
“It’s not in ancient Ledonian,” I reply as Marco says with an odd expression on his face, “What a great idea, Amelia, and I bet you know someone who could do a translation for us, too. Don’t you?”