Page 73 of The Prince of New York

I crouched and lowered Angel off my shoulders. “All right, boy. Let’s go get some sleep. I have a feeling we’re both going to need it.”

TWENTY-ONE

“How long have I been sleeping through this?”

My sister’s tigers,two little girls, a husky, two cats, and a white turkey with silver barring waged war on my bed. I had no idea what the rules were, but I was the grand prize in the brawl, which took place beside me. For the most part, the cats won. Madelyn’s beloved pets took over my head and pillow, with her long-haired void beast occupying the most space.

I questioned what Kel was doing in my bedroom, but I could understand why he would shapeshift when fun could be had. Where Kel was, Eva wasn’t far behind, and sure enough, I spotted her with Madelyn, laughing over her husband’s antics.

She had their firstborn child on her shoulders, and the little boy, older than Danielle but younger than May, was hard at work braiding his mother’s hair. Once she spotted me awake, she grinned. “These nutters just let us come wandering in to take over the place. I’m giving New York top points for hospitality.”

I laughed, reached up, and gave Madelyn’s cats their owed pettings. “How long have I been sleeping through this?”

“It’s been about an hour. We had to remind the tigers they could rompnextto you and notonyou, the children have been sticking with the tigers, and the cats joined in when your aide realized you were not getting up. I’m pretty sure that dog thinks he’s a cat.”

“Angel is definitely something, that’s for certain.” As I couldn’t move without disturbing Bumble, I reached up, caught her, and transferred her to my lap, lurching upright. Bumble accepted the displacement with grace, and I rewarded the animal with more petting. Bumble’s sister, who was five years younger, slept on.

I envied Mirage’s ability to ignore her surroundings and continue to nap.

The romping, which was mostly the girls crawling over the tigers while Angel jabbed his chosen targets with his nose, remained a somewhat quiet and cordial affair, punctuated with giggles, the tigers chuffing, and the husky beating the bed with his tail.

Kel displayed his feathers, hopped off the bed, and angled for my bathroom. Eva laughed and closed the door after him. “I’m not sure why he’s bothering to shift in the bathroom. His clothes go with him unlike most of his family. I swear.”

Madelyn shook her head, sighed, and said, “You did too good of a job tiring yourself out yesterday. Your RPS agents are taking advantage of you sleeping in to work on hammering out the scheduling details for the trip to California. His Royal Highness came over to deliver something to the queen for his father, but he wanted to see the tigers before heading home. The girls had breakfast already, and they’ll likely crash out with the tigers once they finish playing. We can move them after they’re asleep.”

I placed Bumble onto my pillow with Mirage, petted both cats, and slid out of bed, grimacing as my muscles informed me I’d overdone it yesterday. “Thank you for watching them.”

The woman smiled. “This is a pleasant start to my workday, I assure you. You don’t snore, and once we convinced the girls you needed some extra rest, they’ve been happy to play.”

I had no doubt the girls knew I’d woken up, and they continued their games, likely a defensive response.

When uncertain of the situation, as a child, I had held my course while terrified I would earn my parents’ wrath. To make it clear I encouraged the idea of play, even when their play involved my bed, I circled to them, waited for a gap in the romping, and gave every participant a kiss on the brow. “Try not to fall off the bed and be careful not to pull hard on their fur, okay? Amisha, Endah, and Angel won’t want to hurt you, but they will react if something pains them, so you have to be careful, okay?”

Danielle beamed at me, and after a moment, May joined her sister in smiling. I suspected the toddler had an easier time adjusting; she had less experience compared to her sister, and age mattered.

May would battle her memories for years to come, and all I could do was be patient.

I smiled at the lot of them, praised Angel and asked him to guard everybody, and went to my closet to figure out which suit I would be destroying today. I regarded the selection with a scowl. “Eva, if I were to engage in inappropriate suit demolition, which suit would you pick?”

“The most expensive one,” she replied. “You probably spent too much money on it anyway.”

“My parents did,” I replied, plucking the offensive thing off the bar it hung from. “I have decided that I will be destroying every suit that they were involved with purchasing and replacing them with ones I like.”

Madelyn joined me, and she eyed the suit I held, and then she considered the rest of the offerings. “Save that one for the finale.”

As I appreciated her input, I returned the suit to the collection, and I pointed at a formal monster with a tailcoat. “How about that one? It’s pretty good for a suit, and I will look absolutely marvelous in it when I trash it.”

“Take that to California, and use it as your riding outfit,” she suggested, and she removed it from the rack, went into my sitting room, and waited in the doorway before handing it off to someone and instructing that it be added to my attire for the trip. “You will need at least seven different suits for the trip, and I’m certain the Californians will be delighted to help you send them to the great beyond.”

With Madelyn’s suggestion in mind, I selected eight more suits and ferried them to my sitting room, where Monty, Terry, Barb, and Celeste had a chat with three new agents wearing Hawaiian pins.

Those three agents claimed my burden, and rather curious why my sister’s agent was around, I engaged him in a staring contest. “Is there a problem?”

“There are no problems. We’re just hammering out the final details for the trip to California. Daphne and the cargo plane will be arriving in the next four hours. She’s incoming from Texas, and she’s hauling a set of four ponies and three miniature horses. The miniature horses are from the herd Eddie had given to Their Royal Majesties, and they’re potentially suitable to be service animals, so we’re going to try to have them trained. Olivia pitched that the palace should have service animals available to guests and for emergencies, and I thought it to be wise to take her idea, steal it, and see what I could do with it. I’m also to fetch Angel. Your sister isn’t feeling great today.”

I sighed. “Has anyone thought to check if she’s not feeling great because she’s been wanting to ditch her birth control? When she does not want to take medications, she finds some way to stop taking them, Terry. For all we know, she could have stopped taking her birth control two or three months ago, and we’d never know unless there was a way to test for it.”

All the RPS agents stared at me, and their eyes widened.

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