Page 77 of Reign
“That’s it!” she cried out. “You can help me remember!”
Teddy frowned in confusion, so she jumped to explain. “You were with me the entire time I was queen, weren’t you? You know what I did better than anyone; you saw my victories and my mistakes. You can help me navigate the political landscape until I get my feet under me.”
“What do you mean?” Teddy asked, seeming confused. “Should we re-create a timeline of the past year?”
“Just help me avoid all the errors I keep making. Like in my press conference, or all the excruciating conversations I had at Jeff and Daphne’s engagement party—I could have avoided so many missteps if I’d known more context. Can’t you coach me through everything, remind me what I’ve forgotten?”
Teddy still seemed hesitant. Beatrice couldn’t imagine why until he asked, “Does this mean you won’t ever admit the truth?”
“What, announce to the world that I have amnesia?”
“Yes, exactly.”
“Why would I do that when Madison is gearing up to take me down? Then everyone would know he’s right!”
“Just because he’s right about your amnesia doesn’t mean that he’s right in saying you can’t be queen,” Teddy said gently. “If it’s going to come out, it’s better the country hear it from you than from some reporter who goes digging into the hospital records. People will forgive you for your amnesia—of course they will, it’s not your fault—but they won’t forgive you for lying about it.”
There was truth in Teddy’s warning. It felt eerily like what her father would have said if he were here right now.
But—publicly confessing that she had retrograde amnesia and had forgotten the past year? It would be tantamount to handing her enemies a round of ammunition and saying,Here I am; please take aim.
Beatrice reached for Teddy’s hand. She felt him startle at the contact, but he didn’t pull away.
“You said we were friends. Right?”
Something flickered across his expression, but he nodded. “Of course.”
“The best way to be my friend right now is to help me hide my memory loss.” She saw him hesitate and pressed heradvantage. “Prompt me when I’ve forgotten an important detail, make it seem like I’m back to full health. Steer me away from conversational pitfalls. Keep me from making a fool of myself again, like I did at the press conference. Please,” she begged, her voice nearly breaking.
Teddy flipped his hand beneath her palm, his fingers warm as they laced through hers. Beatrice’s head was suddenly full of a dizzying tangle of thoughts. Her entire awareness seemed to center there, where their hands touched.
“For the record, I think this is a terrible idea and will only come back to hurt you,” Teddy stated. “But, yes, I’ll help.”
“Thank you,” she breathed.
They sat there together, hands clasped, as the last rays of the sun disappeared behind the city’s skyline.
Nina laced her hands above her head and stretched, soaking in the quiet of the library. She’d been working on her application to the Oxford program all morning, and couldn’t shake the sense that it was missing something.
She looked back at the second question on the application:Describe the coursework you have done at King’s College which will prepare you for the rigorous academics at Oxford.Nina had answered,My coursework in British literature is extensive. Most recently, I wrote a final paper for ENG531: Gothic Literature on the paradox of multiple narrators, and how untrustworthy narrators could articulate the unspeakable….
Forget it. There was no way she could revise on her computer screen; she needed to work the old-fashioned way, by writing in the margins with red pen. Nina sent her application to the nearest printer bank, then began scrolling through her phone while she waited.
Jamie had texted:Are you finished with your application yet, because I found an arcade in the bottom of Samuelson Hall. Come race me in the go-cart game?
Nina replied, amused:You just now discovered the arcade?That was a rite of passage for freshmen.
Last night in rehearsal, she and Jamie had kissed for so long that they’d gotten wolf whistles from the rest of the cast. A part of Nina worried about the attention—she, of all people,knew the downsides of dating a prince—but something about Jamie kept pulling her in. When she was with him, the world seemed brighter somehow, dense with adventure and with possibility.
And she knew where she stood with him. Jamie was direct about his feelings, which hadn’t always been the case with Jeff.
So far, no one at school had sold them out, and Jamie had been right when he’d promised that no one at the Maple Leaf would alert the tabloids. Perhaps the type of people who frequented Canadian-themed bars in Midtown simply had no interest in photographing the Canadian prince. More likely they’d been too invested in the hockey game to even notice.
Nina started toward the printer bank, walking past long tables of students finishing up their final papers. When she turned toward the room that housed the two printers on the Blevel, Nina almost didn’t believe who she saw inside.
“Nina. Hey.” Somehow, Jeff didn’t seem surprised to see her—but the library was her home turf, after all.
“What are you doing here?”
