Page 9 of Close Protection

10:49 p.m.

Yeah, they left about twenty minutes ago. I don’t know how Uncle Jonathan stayed so calm, Grandma was a mess

Me

10:51 p.m.

Agh, I’m so annoyed I couldn’t be there I wanted to go tonight but Daddy cancelled last minute.

Isabella

10:55 p.m.

Wait, so you’re not coming at all? I didn’t know if you were planning some weird fashionably late thing lol.

Why did Uncle George cancel?

My fingers pause over the phone keypad, wondering what I should say. Do I tell her about Milosh? Do I tell her about the break-in at Daddy’s office? Even though Bella is my closest cousin, she’s terrible at keeping secrets, and my better judgement tells me this is too important to share. My phone vibrates again but I place it face down on mydresser, overwhelmed by the whole situation.

I unclip the clasp of the necklace that I’ve kept hidden under my clothes all day, and place the locket in the palm of my hand. The dull gold glimmers and the ornate filigree design shines as it catches the light. I instinctively open the locket, revealing faded pictures of me alone on one side, and me and my mother on the other.

Somehow over the years this has become my nightly routine: skincare, change my clothes, morbidly obsess over a piece of jewellery that once belonged to my mother, read a few chapters of my book, then go to bed.

I open one of the drawers in my dresser, revealing something close to a shrine made from her belongings and old family photographs.

Following my routine, I place the necklace in a gold dish next to all her other jewellery, and pick up her old perfume bottle. Lifting it to my nose, the fragrance takes me back to the time when she was still here. Her smell was always so distinctly her. Warm but fresh, clean but sweet.

She smelled like my memories. Cosy yet distant.

After she died, Amelia used to spray her perfume on my pillow at night to help me sleep. When it started to run out, I began searching for a replacement. I couldn’t find it, so I took a small sample to a perfumer to have it recreated but it never smelled the same. So for the last few years I’vebeen rationing the remainder of her perfume, not wanting her memory to fade away with the scent.

I pick up my favourite picture of us as a family and smile weakly. It was my fifth birthday, and we were at my fancy-dress party. I was sitting at a table blowing out the candles on a cake that was almost as big as me, with my parents stood behind me. My mother was dressed as Princess Tiana, I was Sleeping Beauty and my father was Robin Hood, as if he’s not the very man Robin Hood would most likely be stealing from.

I hear a faint knock at my main bedroom door so I shut the drawer, quickly hiding the memories of my mother, and look at my watch. 11:04 p.m. Charlotte already turned down my bed an hour ago, so who in the world is knocking so late?

Turning the lock on the drawer, I walk out of my dressing room and open the main door to find my father standing there, looking exhausted as per usual, but smiling warmly at me nevertheless.

‘I just wanted to say goodnight, darling,’ he says, hovering in the doorway.

‘Yes, that’s definitely the only reason you’re here.’ I smile, opening the door wider to let him in.

‘I wanted to check in to see how you’re doing after today?’ He walks over and collapses onto the plump reading chairnext to the window as I sit on the end of my bed to face him.

‘I’m doing fine, really.’

He raises an eyebrow.

‘It’ll just take some getting used to, that’s all,’ I try instead.

‘Think of him as another Henry around the house, just closer to you in age.’

‘And proximity,’ I mutter under my breath.

‘I know it’s not ideal but it has to be done. I’m sure I’m just worrying for nothing and this will blow over shortly,’ he reasons. ‘Hey, did Isabella tell you what happened tonight at the engagement party?’

‘Yeah, Auntie Harriet’s waters broke! How crazy is that?’

‘I told her to stay at home but of course no one wants to listen to me.’ He faux-sighs.

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