Page 22 of Thrones We Steal

“Miss Chapman-Payne! What are your plans? Do you think you’ll be successful in taking the throne?” A reporter blocks my path and tries to shove a mic into my face. I push past her and stumble on, my head down.

My legs are as limp as jello, but I force them to carry me past the protesters and to the back door of the Historical Society. I pray my key magically won’t stick this time. Fate smiles on me for the first time all morning, and I burst through the door and relock it behind me.

I collapse against it. The cool steel is a relief against the hot flashes taking over my body. My heart pounds like waves against a rocky cliff. Yoga breaths, I remind myself. Slow and steady. Calm and collected.

Maisie walks into the corridor from the archive room and startles when she sees me. “What are you doing here?”

“I work here. What in god’s name is going on?”

She follows me down the hall to my office. “Didn’t you see the news this morning?”

“I ran out of time.” I think of the twenty minutes I spent combing every inch of my bedroom for my missing phone, before finding it on my desk in the library. Today is already shaping up to be fantastic. “Have you called the police?”

“There are a few officers out there, but there’s nothing they can do at this point. The crowd is peacefully protesting.”

“That is anything but peaceful,” I say. I can still feel hands clamoring at me. I shudder.

“Didn’t you get my texts? I tried calling too.”

I unlock my traitorous phone to see a missed call from Maisie and four from Henry. Maybe I should start tying the thing to my body. “I couldn’t find my phone and then I was running late.”

Henry made it his personal mission to change my mind about the whole diary business and bombarded me with text messages all weekend. He must have decided to take more extreme measures. I will have his head before the day is over. What a bloody disaster.

Maisie walks over to the window and peeks through the mini blinds. “God, there are so many people out there.”

“And they’re very angry.” I blow out a breath. “What am I going to do?”

“I think you just have to ignore them. They’ll eventually lose interest and go away.”

“I mean in the long run. So much for burning the diary and pretending it never existed.”

She turns around, fear in her eyes. “You don’t—you don’t think I had anything to do with this, do you? Because I swear I didn’t say a word to anyone. You know I would never do that, right? I promised you I’d take this secret to my grave. While I think you’d make an incredible queen, and obviously I would kill to be your private secretary, I mean imagine. It would be a total dream come true. But that’s not the point. Because I would never do that to you. I can’t even—”

“Maisie.” I make a stopping motion with my hand. “I never thought you were responsible.” It took me all of two seconds to put the pieces together. “I know exactly who is to blame for this mess.”

Just like that, my plan for hiding the past has disintegrated with a pouf. Wesbourne is going to take matters into her own hands, without stopping to consider the cost to herself. How many people will be hurt by the time this blows over?

Maisie walks back to the door. “I’ll get you a coffee. We’ll both think better with some caffeine in our systems.”

“You’re a saint.”

After she leaves, I take her spot at the window and peer out at the crowd, which has grown in size and is still quite animated. Someone is giving an impromptu speech. What is the Crown making of all of this?

With creepy telepathy, Henry’s name lights up the screen of my phone, his fifth call to me this morning.

“You have some nerve calling me,” I say.

“Why didn’t you answer earlier? Don’t go to work today.”

“Too late.”

“You’re there?! Bloody hell, C.”

“I had no idea there was anything going on.”

“If you would have answered your goddamn phone—” He breaks off and I picture him pacing the room, his hair turning into wreckage.

“I cannot believe that after everything I said, you still went behind my back with this. What kind of bastard are you? This will completely ruin me. Not to mention the repercussions for Wesbourne. You’re even worse than I thought.”

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