Page 66 of Appointing

“Oh, my God. Is he okay?” Elin asked, cupping her hand over her mouth.

“Ma’am, I don’t have any more information. We should leave now.”

Ingrid hadn’t even noticed that she’d placed her hand on the small of Elin’s back the moment the word ‘hospital’ had been spoken. Elin turned to her and looked terrified.

“He’ll be okay,” Ingrid assured her.

“I–”

Ingrid ran her hand up and down Elin’s back in her feeble attempt to comfort her.

“Ma’am, we have to go.”

“Ingrid, will you…”

“What do you need right now?” Ingrid asked when the Queen couldn’t finish. “Your Majesty,” she added, realizing she shouldn’t be so informal with security present.

“Can you come with me?”

“To the hospital?”

“Yes,” the woman said softly.

“Of course, Ma’am,” Ingrid replied.

“Call me, okay?” Sarah Anne said, approaching Ingrid and handing Ingrid her purse and cell phone.

“Thank you.”

Sarah Anne nodded and said, “Just take care of her.”

“Ma’am, the car is waiting.” The guard pressed.

“Let’s go,” Ingrid told him, snapping back into work mode. “Have Steven and Markus been notified? What about the Prince and Princesses?”

“Ma’am?”

“You can tell her anything,” Elin answered, sounding immediately exhausted.

CHAPTER 20

“This way, Your Majesty.”

“Why are there people in this hallway?” Ingrid asked.

“We haven’t had them evacuated yet,” a security guard told Ingrid.

“The entire royal family is about to arrive at this hospital, and we haven’t swept the floor yet?”

“Can I go in?” Elin asked.

“Of course, Your Majesty,” the guard told her.

“Get all non-essential personnel off the floor. And if any patients can be moved, they should be,” Ingrid instructed.

Elin didn’t hear the rest of Ingrid’s orders because she was walking into the hospital room, where she saw her father lying asleep in his bed and her mother holding his hand at his bedside.

“Where have you been?” her mother asked.

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