Page 18 of A Royal Obligation
“I will make sure dresses are offered to Charlotte, too. But I’m sure she has a great variety to choose from. It’s really no trouble at all.”
“If you insist.” Jules smiled but still fidgeted with the bottom of her dress.
“I do have a small request I would like to ask of you,” Barrett said.
“How can I be of assistance?”
“As you’ve probably noticed from our phone conversation and today, I am not the best at speaking with women.” His eyes darted to the ground. “I was wondering if you would be willing to meet with me and help me gather some information about Charlotte and how to best go about all of this? I don’t need you to divulge any secrets, but I want to make sure I don’t look like an idiot in front of her again.” Barrett shifted on his feet as he looked at Jules.
She settled her gloved hand on his forearm. “It would be an honor to help in any way I can, Your Highness. She is a wonderful woman.”
He let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you so much. I appreciate your understanding. I also wanted to apologize, Jules. I don’t want anything to be weird between us and everything with Charlotte…”
“Oh goodness, don’t even worry about it! It really was nothing. Everyone has awkward phone calls. I told you I could be discreet, remember?” She gave him a kind smile. “Thanks for the tour, Your Highness.”
Jules smiled goodbye and entered her room, leaving Barrett questioning if their meeting at the school was only memorable to him.
Chapter Eight
Jules
Juleshummedanearlyhit by Taylor Swift to keep an upbeat mood as she began to unpack her three suitcases. She set her favorite picture of her and her parents—at a pumpkin patch, of course—on her end table. Once her stuffed animal, Pascal from the movieTangled, was carefully tucked under her sheets, the space felt a little bit more like home to her.
Jules started bobbing her head to the beat. She grabbed the hairbrush from her purse and held it to her mouth as she belted out the chorus.
She held her free hand to her chest with her eyes closed in concentration as she yelled out the words into the makeshift microphone. She spun in a circle as the last words of the chorus escaped her lips. Jules stopped her jam session mid-twirl when she saw another figure in the room out of the corner of her eye. She let out a small squeal as her free hand flew to her mouth.
The young lady staring back at her let out a small squeak in return. She couldn’t be more than twenty. The girl was taller than Jules, which wasn’t a hard feat considering she was only five foot two. After they had sufficiently stared at each other for long enough, the young lady broke the silence first.
“I’m so sorry to have startled you, Miss.” She gave Jules a small curtsy and then pulled anxiously at the bottom of her slightly tattered work skirt. “My name is Rory. I’ll be your lady’s maid during your stay at the palace.”
Jules’s shoulders relaxed as she laughed. “No need to apologize. I should’ve been more attentive.” Her thoughts started pulling her back to her mystery man. “I suppose I tend to startle easily.”
Rory shyly smiled at her and then her eyes shifted to the open suitcases at the foot of Jules’s bed and widened. “Were you unpacking yourself, Miss Smith?”
Jules nodded and Rory let out something between a gasp and a laugh.
“I am here to unpack for you, Miss.”
“You don’t have to help me with that. I’m fully capable of unpacking myself.”
Rory jerked her head back as if she had been physically slapped. Her face filled with a look of confusion mixed with pain. “But that’s my job, Miss Smith. You’re a guest of the Crown Prince. I’m a lady’s maid. It’s my duty to serve you.”
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you. I’m Lady Charlotte’s assistant so it feels weird to have someone trying to serve me. Of course you can help me. Why don’t we unpack together, and I can get to know you a bit more?”
Rory looked down at the ground, but Jules still caught the smile she was trying to hide.
“I would like that very much, Miss Smith.”
Jules walked over and set out her hand. “As long as you agree to stop with this Miss Smith nonsense.” She winked at her.
“Okay, Miss Jules.” Rory giggled and shook her hand.
“I was wondering if I could ask you for a little bit of insider information?”
“What kind of insider information are you wanting?” The girl’s eyes widened.
“Oh, not big secrets or anything like that. I’m wondering if you could tell me what to expect with Prince Barrett and Prince Liam. I’ve never been to Wistonia before yesterday and am not very familiar with the royalty here.”