Princess for Hire (19 page)

“Let’s dry you off.”

Karl pulled out his cell. “I’ll be right back. Dieter needs to pick me up anyway—I’ll have him bring a doctor.”

“I said I didn’t need—”

He held up his hands. “Just in case.”

Karl left to make the call, and I helped Nana Helga twist out of her wet clothes and into a dry nightgown. Once she was settled in bed, I found her medication and cleaned up her cut as best as I could. Karl wasn’t back, so I sat at the edge of the bed and rubbed her cold feet.

“This pillow feels like it’s stuffed with gooseberries,” Nana Helga mumbled. “Mind giving it a fluff?”

I grabbed for her pillow, but she grabbed for me, swallowing me up in a hug. “I’m glad I went on that walk,
mein Schatz
. I was…Maybe I wasn’t completely on target about the prince and other…issues. Like you wanting to be your own person…even if that means being royal. Maybe you could go to that polo match after all. You get what I’m saying?”

I swallowed back a smile at the closest thing to an apology I’d ever get. Impact number two: check. “Yeah. Sure.”

Karl tapped softly on the door and poked his head in. “Dieter and the doctor are on their way, but it might take a while because of the roads. You think you’ll survive?”

Nana Helga snorted and rolled away. “Surviving is what I do.”

I found Karl some old work clothes of Nana’s and excused myself to go clean up. I was just about to stick the brunch invite into Elsa’s notebook when my rouge timer went off. Oh no. Time was almost up, and I still hadn’t straightened things out with Karl. Eek! And what would Elsa do when she came home to find her long-lost love sitting in her living room? It was bound to be a disaster.

I grabbed my manual and rouge and was almost out the door when I had a thought. Flipping to the back of Elsa’s notebook, I jotted down a quick sub report.

Elsa,

Hey, it’s your sub, Desi. Hope you don’t mind, but I found this notebook about Karl and figured you had a thing for him. Okay, “thing” is putting it mildly. Well, he happened to come into town while you were gone (!!!!, right?), so I worked on him a bit for you. No easy task considering he has the Duchess of Dental Floss. Get it? Because she wears those bikinis?

Anyway, I did help change Nana Helga’s mind. She said you could go to that polo match you mentioned in your journal. (Uh, yeah. I read that too. All for a good cause!) You should keep on that with her. I think she might reconsider letting you be a part of the whole royal scene with enough work. And you totally should, Elsa. You’re, like,
made
to be a princess.

Back to Karl. I’m not quite sure if I’ve broken through with him yet. Sometimes he seems to let his guard down, and he obviously cares a lot about you because he keeps coming by, and he seems really conflicted—like he can’t let you go. Trust me, I know how it feels to like a guy and not be able to act on it. I really want to help. Action might just be the way to go.

More later!

Desi

Karl was sitting on the couch when I made it downstairs. I grabbed his hand and led him onto the covered porch. Dieter drove up in the limo. Time was almost up. I had to convince Karl that he wanted Elsa
and
get him out of there before she returned.

Still, despite the rush, the mood was very black-and-white movie. Two people unable to say what they really felt, time running out, and the rain…the rain was classic.

I could feel Karl watching me.

“Thanks for helping me save Nana Helga tonight,” I said.

“Of course.”

“I was kind of hoping we could finish our conversation.”

Karl lowered his gaze. “Yes?”

“Yeah, I just…I really need to know what you’re thinking.”

He looked up at me again, and the look was enough to make any girl blush. Even if he was kind of short and not quite cute, his eyes could sure smolder. “Elsa, I…I care about you a great deal. A
very
great deal. But I have other people to think about. I have an image and a country and my parents and…I can’t let my personal feelings cloud my duty and judgment.”

Part of me, most of me, wanted to cry. Everything had been so great today at his house; why was he acting so formal and stuffy again?

We stared at each other for a moment, and suddenly something clicked in me. Looking at him, it was like my own heart started whirring, started filling with this need to show him he was wrong. Until I realized the whirring wasn’t me, it was something farther off in the distance. Something like a traveling bubble about to appear. I rushed on as the rainy good-bye scene from
Breakfast at Tiffany’s
flashed in my head. “You know what’s wrong with you? You’re chicken. You’re staying with a girl because…because you’re scared to break away from the expected. Is this what you, Karl—not your family or your country or the tabloids—really want?”

“No. It’s what I…She’s what I’m
supposed
to want. So please, let’s make this as easy as possible. I know I initiated our contact, and I will cherish our time together, but everything has to go back to how it was. How it should be.”

The whirring turned into a roar, like a helicopter was above us. Karl’s hair swirled around his brown eyes, and his look was so confused, like he was smiling but sad and scared all at the same time.

There was only one way to convince him to let go of Olivia and find true happiness with Elsa. I just needed the guts to do it. “Things are not going to go back to how they were. Not once I do this.”

And right in the middle of a wind tunnel, with a bubble crashing down next to us, I leaned in and gave him a kiss.

It—kissing—was a lot better than I’d ever imagined. Even if I wasn’t in my own body, even though Karl thought I was someone else, and even though Meredith was about to wring my neck, it felt nice. Like it was only us. Karl, the rain, and me.

And Karl kissed me back! Well, for maybe five seconds he kissed me back, before pulling away and slapping his forehead.

“Elsa! That was wonder…but what are you…I thought today I…I have to think. Please excuse me.” Karl turned and ran to his car.

I rubbed my still-buzzing lips. How could I have thought a kiss from me would convince him to leave a girl like Olivia? How could I have been so far off?

The bubble door opened and Meredith marched out onto the porch. Her green hair wisped loose from a ponytail. The only makeup she had on was mascara that was clearly left over from the night before. Most frightening, her green T-shirt—oh my gosh, she was wearing a T-SHIRT—was halfway tucked into faded black yoga pants.

“Desi, what are you doing?” She grabbed my shirt and almost lifted me off the ground. “It isn’t your place to change things. THIS CAN HAVE GLOBAL REPERCUSSIONS!”

“I know, but I had to do
something
. Karl doesn’t really like Olivia. He loves Elsa. I know it. And Elsa loves Karl. I might have changed things for the better. I’m sorry, but I was only trying to help.”

“WHO CARES?” Meredith pushed me into the bubble. “Changing it for the better isn’t any different from changing it for the worse. It’s instability!”

“So…now what?”

“Now what?” A vein throbbed in Meredith’s neck. “So now this prince thinks Elsa is in love with him, that’s what. You don’t think that’s going to change things for Elsa? Plus, I have to somehow explain to her why her life’s a mess!”

“She has a Karl love
notebook
. This is what she wanted. I promise.”

“But she never acted on it. Wanting something and getting it are two different things.”

“Look, I tried to e-mail you and check on this. It did-n’t go through because the server was down, and I had to go with my gut.” Wait, maybe all wasn’t lost. Meredith said she might keep me if I had good remarks. My Princess Progress Reports
had
to have something helpful and positive in them. They could save me! “Did you get my progress reports yet?”

“No! Carol’s wedding was so crowded with subs it only jammed up the system more. I’ve never seen anything like it. Absolute nightmare. Besides, kissing Karl was a huge mistake. Big enough for them to rush your trial without PPRs. You’re probably done for.” She buried her face in her hands. “And you’re so self-centered; who do you think is going to get blamed? The same person who gets blamed for every mistake you make. The same person who made the same stupid mistake and will spend the rest of her life paying for it.”

“Wait, who are you talking about?” I asked.

“Me!” Meredith stomped her foot. “Me! Me! Me!”

Her phone rang. She checked the caller ID then dangled phone from her fingers like it was a dead rat. “Oh no.

No no no. Not this. Not yet.”

The ringing continued.

“Are you going to answer it?”

Meredith glared at me. “Yes. Plug your ears.”

“What?”

“PLUG YOUR EARS!”

I stuck my fingers into my ears, and Meredith flipped open her phone. It made no difference. The voice on the other end nearly burst my eardrums.

“MEREDITH!”

“Oh hello, darling. How is your—”

“Court of Royal Appeals. Five minutes. And she’d better be ready to plead her case.”

Chapter
22

M
eredith didn’t say a word to me as we zoomed away in the bubble. Which was so typical—send a girl to the depths of the Amazon or the middle of the Alps or the Court of Royal Appeals and give her no clue what to expect. Like I should just know. Like this was all something I’d been prepared for.

The shake, rattle, and roll of the bubble signaled our entrance into headquarters. The motion was nothing compared to the anger bouncing around inside me. Finally, when the bubble door opened and Meredith stepped out into the parking garage without so much as a glance in my general direction, I exploded.

“I didn’t do anything wrong!”

She turned around slowly. Deliberately. “Let’s rewrite that sentence. Desi, you did EVERYTHING wrong. I gave you a second, no, a third chance, and you blew it. So let’s just get this hearing over with so I can take you home.”

“Are you going to let me explain?”

“That’s what the court is for.”

We rushed up the parking garage incline. The rain in Paris was almost as thick as it had been in Metzahg. Meredith’s umbrella was only big enough for her, so of course I got soaked all over again.

“Well, help me get my…my defense ready,” I said, panting as we cut across a busy street.

“Desi, the fact that you even think you need a defense is the problem. During a normal Level Two trial, they analyze PPRs and debate whether you should advance. This is different. Another agent is assigned to investigate whether you should even remain with the agency. They show video to prove their point. The council deliberates. The end.”

I froze. “You’ve
videoed
me?”

“Oh, keep walking. Of course we did. Not every minute, but random snippets are recorded by our Level One surveillance team. Plus, your magic sends signals to us when there are moments of high emotions. We just caught the tail end of the Nana Helga disappearance and were about to intervene when you found her. Then there was the little smoochie interaction you just had.”

“And if I don’t advance?”

“They pay you for your services and send you on your way. Once you’ve been sub sanitized, of course.”

We reached the building, and cute and dry Meredith whisked us through security and the modeling agency lobby, where I got a few sneers. Sure, I was a talent, but I also looked like I’d just stepped out of a dunk tank. Again.

“Sub sanitized?” I asked once we’d entered the second lobby and stepped into another elevator I hadn’t noticed before, this one with
one
button. Down. “So I get a bath?”

“They wash your memory. You’ll be put back in the dunk tank, and you won’t remember me, or that prince, or any of this. You’ll think some rich uncle died and left you the money. You’ll go back to old Desi.”

“They…they can’t do that!”

“It’s in the contract. In the fine print. Where we say we can do whatever we want.”

I gasped. No. That couldn’t happen. That could
not
happen. I did not walk through an Amazon fire and put myself out there for Elsa and the others for nothing. I would not go back to a life of fearing Celeste and trailing after Hayden. Forgetting everything I’d experienced would lead me back to vapor.

I was not vapor.

I mattered.

I spread my feet apart and firmly planted them on the elevator floor. I stared Meredith down. “No, Meredith. No. I’m going down kicking and screaming.”

Kicking and screaming. Yes! I’d stage a protest.
I plopped down on the ground. She would have to drag me out of here.

Meredith nudged me with the toe of her shoe. “Oh, don’t be ridiculous. Get up.”

“Look, you have been nothing but rude to me.” I knocked her foot away. “You boss me around, treat me like I’m an idiot, and never say anything positive. And I’m sick of it. Lilith would have never been like this. I am not going to let you or this court or any princess take away from me what I just went through. So…there.”

Meredith stepped back against the elevator wall like she’d been pushed. “Desi—”

“Save it. I’m done talking to you.”

Meredith plopped down next to me. She didn’t say anything for a little bit; I think she was still kind of shocked I’d stood up to her. Finally, she sighed, and when she spoke, her voice was soft. “Okay. Then I’ll talk. I don’t usually say this, but I’m…sorry.” Her face pinched when she said that word. “I pushed you because I see more promise in you than I’ve seen in a long time. I knew you could take it. I was
preparing
you. You’re right. Lilith wouldn’t have treated you like this. She would have flitted in every ten seconds to tell you what to do, and would’ve never let you figure things out for yourself.”