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"It’s so nice to finally meet you, Your Grace," I say, and Ellie clears her throat

"Your Majesty," she corrects, and okay,

"Your Majesty," I repeat, and the queen smiles back at me

"It’s lovely to finally have you all here," she says, crossing one ankle in front of the other "I’m only sorry I wasn’t here when you first arrived It see your time here?"

She directs that at me, and while she keeps that soft seons and beheadings enda, but I bet she kind of wishes they were

Glynnis steps forward then, an iPad in one hand, a folder in the other, and she leans down tointo the queen’s ear

Queen Clara lifts one hand, waving that off, and then gestures for Glynnis to hand over the folder

The rooh its contents, and I squir my skirt I want to twist around and look at Miles, still wondering why he’s even here He hasn’t said anything, but I wonder if he’s in trouble for taking ht I also wonder if Isabel has seen all the news and what she ht think

Closing the folder, Queen Clara fixes me and my parents with another smile Her nails are painted the saainst the folder for a h "But such is life with teenagers, hhter on the sofa and pats irls have never been much trouble," she says, which, in my case, is kind of a lie, but I appreciate her loyalty

Queen Clara’s shtens, like someone just turned screws on the sides of her mouth "Given what I heard about An Reis, I’d say Daisy isup for lost ti in that chair, her fingers laced over one knee Alex is beside her, and I see his hand drop briefly to her shoulder, squeezing

"I am so sorry for what happened--" I start, but the queen flicksaround her head

"My brother’s wife is the one owed an apology, not er issue to deal with"

Okay, this is officially kind of du like there are pictures ofinstead of a few blurry shots of oing to leave out the out part--when Glynnis steps forward and says, "I’m sure this all seems a little silly to you, Daisy, but we have to be very careful with the optics right now"

Right Optics

Tapping on her iPad, Glynnis continues "Any kind of rus between you and Prince Sebastian has the potential to overshadow the wedding, plus it causes the kind of gossip we try to avoid"

"Has anyone said that to Seb?" I can’t help but ask, and Glynnis glances up at me even as the queen’s smile slips

"Sebastian understands his role, I assure you," she says, and, yup, really gonna be lucky to get out of this room with my head still on my shoulders

Queen Clara waves her hand at Glynnis "Montrose," she says, and I wonder if that’s soed out of here, but Glynnis just nods, tapping away again