Page 11 of Redemption of a Prince

As they walked through the halls of the executive suite in a brief tour, Robyn sympathized. “It’s a lot to absorb all at once. If you have any questions, please ask. If I don’t know the answer, I’ll find out.” She pointed to a set of stairs. “That area is off-limits without an invitation.”

“The king and queen have offices up there,” Nikki said without thinking.

Robyn raised an eyebrow. “Yes. So do the Crown Prince and Prince Gideon. Princess Karsen’s office can also be accessed from there, but she has another entrance. That’s the one you’ll use, and where my office is.”

“I’ve been here before. A long time ago.”

“A school tour?”

Nikki hesitated, though she prayed it wasn’t a second too long. “I was in school,” she confirmed.

“Well, your office isn’t on any of the school tour routes, so you won’t have to worry about that. Most school tours don’t go through the office area anymore.”

“Good to know.”

Her office was on the first floor of the palace. She did have a window, but it looked over a lower-level service entrance. Nothing exciting, but better than an office without a window.

“You have about thirty minutes to get settled in. Don’t try to get everything set up right now, but get a feel for the place. I’ll be back to take you to the conference room.”

“Thank you.” Nikki felt like she was thanking everyone nonstop, but what else was she supposed to say?

Her laptop and tablet went into her attaché case. The phone went into the outside pocket. There wasn’t enough time to set them up before the lunch meeting. Nikki looked through the drawers and found generic office supplies. The furniture clearly wasn’t some antique like the king’s, but it didn’t look like it came from IKEA either.

She stared out the window, trying to decide if there would ever be anything interesting happening outside when her new phone buzzed. Robyn’s must have been preprogrammed into the phone because her name and a professional head shot popped up on the screen. The text told her something had come up and the lunch meeting had to be postponed until the next morning. Nikki was to stay and settle in, call the IT department if she needed anything, and feel free to eat lunch and even dinner in the executive dining room. Some reports would be dropped off within the hour for her to look over.

Nikki texted back that she’d likely be there all day and looked forward to the meeting in the morning. At least Ms. Daily had showed her how to check her calendar and set up notifications.

She’d been too nervous to eat brekkie before she left her flat, so Nikki went to the dining room. It seemed more like a restaurant. A server gave her a short menu. It had a couple of choices for each course. The server brought her a cup of hot tea, and Nikki placed her order.

Every other table had more than one person at it. Some of the lunches seemed to be working meals. Others were more laid back.

They were all better dressed than she was, though she wasn’t terribly out of place. She’d need to go shopping.

The server was kind, walking Nikki through the process of authorizing the meal to her account and how she could order in to her office if she wanted.

When she finished eating, Nikki returned to her office and spent the afternoon and most of the evening reading through the files someone dropped off. She had pages of notes by the time she finished, choosing to eat dinner in her office rather than eating alone in the dining room again.

Long after dark, she packed up her things and decided to leave most of it there. She’d be sleeping virtually the whole time she was at her flat. She headed for the garrison.

This time, she kept an eye out for princes appearing out of nowhere.

Fortunately, she made it all the way to her auto without running into any member of the royal family.

Day one down.

Only a million to go.

* * *

The last thingZeke wanted to do was have dinner with his family, but his father made it clear that no one was exempt from showing up.

Zeke stayed quiet during the meal, but that wasn’t unusual for him. For the last fourteen years or so, he’d tended to keep to himself.

After the meal ended, they all moved into the living area.

“What’s going on?” Gideon asked their father. “Something is off.”

Zeke’s mother slipped a hand into the crook of his father’s elbow and leaned her head against his shoulder.

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