Page 38 of Untouched Queen by Royal Command

And the world did not end.

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‘What do you want done with the costume tour proposal?’ Augustus’s secretary asked him two hours later.

Augustus ran a hand across his face and memories flashed before him. Sera with a blade in each hand and total concentration on her face. Sera with a dragon on her back and her face alight with pleasure. Sera, who never failed to stand out, no matter what kind of company she was in, and who had yet to set a foot wrong in public.

Sera as a child, with a plate full of food in front of her that she could not eat. A plate that was only there in the first place because someone had seen her plight rather than turn away from an outcast child struggling for existence.

Sera’s proposal to reach out to her sisters in service had healthcare and educational elements, but first and foremost it was about acknowledging their existence.

She could have been one of them. Was one of them, for all her finery and expensive education, and he’d never met a woman more accomplished.

Her mother had been one of them. A broken one.

This was no soulless, rudderless outreach programme. Sera had this one covered. He could trust her not to make this all about him. Couldn’t he?

He dropped his hand and searched his heart and not his head.

‘Green-light it,’ he said.

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