Playing Princess

Playing Princess 1.11

There was no doubt about it; I was in trouble.

Andrew sat there, perched with an ankle over his leg. He looked blank and emotionless while I laced my fingers together then unwound them, repeating the process continuously until the man at the desk spoke up, a look of disappointment and anger on his face. He pushed his spectacles up his nose, held up the newspaper and showed us the front page. “What is the meaning of this, Astrid? Andrew?”

No reply.

I didn’t know what to say and it didn’t seem like Andrew was about to break out into a confession either. To be honest, I had no idea my picture would end up as some gossip story on the front of the newspaper as well as the Erris magazine that also sat on his desk with my mortified picture slapped on it very noticeably.

“I asked you a question, children. I expect you to answer me.”

I opened my mouth to say something and my father’s gaze slowly slid over to me, arching a dark brown eyebrow questioningly. I clamped my mouth shut, unsure of why I’d opened it in the first place. How could I explain my actions for sneaking out when he had made it clear that I wasn’t supposed to?

He sighed, rubbing his temples. “Come on, you can fess up and tell me what you were doing at the hotel.”

Maybe going to take a surprise visit to Peyton was a bad idea after all. It had seemed to harmless: leaving the manor without any guards but Allegra and Andrew’s sleek sports car to go see my little sister seemed like a good way to go considering the spare time I had yesterday.

But in fact, it was a horrible idea. I just wanted to know why the pepperoni were so interested in my little outing and how they’d found me in the first place.

“Well?”

“Well what, father?” Andrew snapped, lifting his head to stare at the man. “We slipped out, came back safe and sound and all in one piece.”

“Safe and sound?” he repeated, shocked. “You left the manor without my permission, without any guards, without any consent whatsoever to visit your little sister! I understand that you, Astrid, might miss her very much but the fact that you completely disappeared for even ten minutes had the entire household worrying about your whereabouts!”

Guilt filled my chest, building up with the shame that I also felt. “I’m so sorry.” Maybe with my mother telling me off, I would have never even dreamed of apologising but with my father it was entirely different; he was king of a country and he was absolutely furious. In a way, legitimately so, I found him much more intimidating than my mother.

His brown eyes softened but when they turned to Andrew, they hardened up again. It was scary how quickly they changed. “Andrew. You are my oldest child, the responsible one. Why didn’t you stop Astrid? Why couldn’t you both have waited to see Peyton until the tennis tournament on Saturday?”

He knew about that? I guess nothing slipped past the King.

“It’s my fault, Elliot.” It didn’t feel right to call him ‘father’ or ‘dad’, especially ‘daddy’. We just seemed so distant, especially now and especially because I’d only been here three days and I’d already stirred trouble. “I’m the one who really wanted to see Peyton and complained about being secluded from her. She’s my little sister and I felt like I needed to make sure she was all right.”

“It may be your idea but Andrew was the one who didn’t stop you and neither did Allegra.”

“Please don’t pin this on Allegra either! I had to do a lot of convincing so that they let me go in the first place.” The guilt continued to eat away at me. Andrew was sitting in the chair beside me in Elliot’s office, his dark blue eyes burning holes into the red velvet carpet. And now Allegra was also going to be punished for letting me go without any guards or means of protection whatsoever. “This is all entirely my fault and I’m really sorry.” It really was my fault. I hated to admit it, but Andrew and Allegra would be in trouble because of me. They didn’t deserve the full brunt of any punishment when they were just trying to help me out, to please me even.