Quantum (18 page)

N
o big surprises. Walking through that shabby wooden door in my Manolos and tiara, I hadn’t been expecting anything less than the over-the-top setting in front of me; I was supposed to be royal, after all. All the same, I surveyed the mini-ballroom with trepidation. The light sparkling from the two crystal chandeliers illuminated the crowd gathered before me. There must have been at least fifty people in the room. A very good-looking crowd, not a hair out of place. Everyone had stopped talking, as they turned to stare at me. I offered them the best princess half-smile I could muster, as Luna took my elbow and led me through the guests. As I passed them, they nodded in gentle bows.

Well, no surprises until I was led to a chair that looked suspiciously like a
throne
. I looked over to Luna.

“It’s just for the photographs,” she said reassuringly.

 
Ah, well! That makes it all better then, doesn’t it? Sheesh. “So what happens now?” I asked Luna, trying not to roll my eyes. “Where are Simla and Justin?”

“They should be here any moment, they were supposed to have arrived before you. I would like to introduce you to a selection of our most prominent Sigma-W-Pi members. They’ll want pictures. I hope that’s okay with you.”

I nodded. It’s not like I had any choice. I was surprised at the number of people in this room. I had assumed that the rogue group was much smaller than this. “Luna, who are all these people?”

“There are a handful of Sigma-W-Pi’s here, you’ll meet them shortly. The rest of them are ancillary staff–regular humans who assist us with day-to-day operations. They would all like to meet you, too, but since there are so many we held a raffle earlier and the winner will be presented to you later.”

Just peachy. I couldn’t figure this out at all. Why on earth was I being presented as royalty? Even if I had been royalty, this was insane. I was clearly not a Sigma-W-Pi, so why expose all these people to me and put them at risk? I would have their descriptions in my head and could reel them off once I got back home. The only explanation was that they must exist in a different dimension from mine, so they had no fear of me going back and blabbing about them. “Luna, why are we doing this? It makes no sense….”

“Your Highness, Potomal asked me to entertain you the best I could. What’s better than a ball?”

I was thinking some ice time would be better, but didn’t voice that to Luna. So, all this because Luna felt obliged to entertain me while she babysat me for the next couple of days.

“Enjoying yourself?” a voice asked from behind my throne.

“Your Highness, may I present Potomal’s son,” Luna muttered, clearly taken aback. “I wasn’t aware
you
were coming,” she said, rolling her eyes and moving back as he pushed past her.

“I had an unexpected break, so I thought I would come over and meet Her Highness myself. I’d like some time to speak with her,” he said, clearly indicating that he wanted Luna to make herself scarce. Charming–not. She practically stuck her tongue out at him as she moved away. Wow, in one moment she’d gone from being this super-polished mademoiselle to a brat, who’d have thought!

“Hey! May I call you Arizona?” he asked, perching down on a stool next to me.

“Sure, I’d rather you did. What’s your name?”

“Please call me Stan.”

“Stan?” I asked giggling. He didn’t look like a
Stan
. He was tall, dark and incredibly handsome. His green eyes were mesmerizingly charming, as was his generous smile. I would have picked
Damon
or
William
for him. Not Stan.

“It’s short for Stanford, but I prefer Stan.”

Ah, that suited him a lot better. “So, Stan, you’re Potomal’s son?”

“Yes, I am indeed. Son of the infamous Potomal. Well, one of his sons.”

“Big family?”

“I’ve got two older brothers, an older sister and a younger sister.”

“Yup, big family,” I smiled. “So, are the rest coming tonight as well?”

“Just Luna, but you’ve already met her.”

“Luna? She’s your sister?”

“Yes, she’s my baby sister. Really annoying at times, but you know all about that, you’ve got Ella.”

“Oh, Ella’s okay,” I said defensively. So, Luna was his little sister, which explained their interaction. “Luna is clearly in charge of babysitting me, why are you here?”

“I wanted to see what all the fuss was about,” he smiled. “One doesn’t get to meet the granddaughter of Spencer Darley everyday. I am very pleased to make your acquaintance.”

Spencer
Darley? Who the heck was that? Not my
granddad
, that’s for sure. Both my parent’s fathers had long passed, way before I was born. I had never met either of my grandfathers. Actually, I had never met either of my grandparents on Dad’s side of the family. The only grandparent around had been my grandma, mom’s mother. Besides, a
Darley
couldn’t be my grandparent. I didn’t say anything, though. Probably best not to volunteer any information. I would have to find out more about this
granddad
by gentle prying.

“Arizona?”

“Oh, sorry. My mind wandered for a moment. How is Granddad?”

He smiled. “You call him Granddad?”

I shrugged a smile at him. I gathered that it was less than customary to address Spencer Darley as such.

“To answer your question, I have no idea. When was the last time you saw him?” he asked.

“It’s been ages,” I said, being as nonchalant as I could, “and he’s been busy, I guess.”

“I suppose. But you’ve seen the Queen very recently though, right? I believe she was with you when we transported you?”

The Queen? This boy–cute as he was–had some serious delusional issues. In fact, all of them seemed to. They were quite mad. Thankfully, Luna rescued me.

“Your Highness, are you ready to get your picture taken?”

“I guess. Bring it on.”

Luna shooed her brother away and proceeded to usher a group of five guests to come up to meet me–three ladies and two men. They were fairly old, I’m guessing about my parents’ age. The two men were chubby, dressed in black suits and bow ties. I noticed that both their jackets had the design from Luna’s pendent embroidered on them. Two of the women looked
French
–petite, very simply but elegantly dressed in dark suits. The third one, well she could have been ripped right out of
Jersey Shore
–big hair and all, and when she spoke, she confirmed it. All three of them were wearing the same pendant as Luna’s. Luna carefully introduced me as
Her Royal Highness, Princess Arizona
to them, while I tried not to collapse into a heap of giggles as each of them bowed. I noticed how Luna failed to introduce any of them to me. Not a name or rank. Each of them stood beside my throne for a picture. Then Luna beckoned to another lady to come meet me. She was much younger, maybe in her early twenties. She was clearly French, too.

“Your Highness, this is Isobel. She won the draw to meet you.”

Isobel bowed and beamed out a dazzling smile as the cameraman took yet another picture and then she promptly left me alone with Luna. She wasn’t wearing the Luna pendant. And she was the only one who had been introduced to me.

“I take it that the first five were Sigma-W-Pi members?”

“Yes, they were.”

“Is that why you didn’t introduce them to me?”

“Yes. I’m sorry, Arizona. We must seem a bit rude, but I don’t have permission.”

“From your dad?”

“Pardon?”

“Your brother told me that you are Potomal’s daughter. I’m guessing that’s who you get your orders from.”

She narrowed her eyes, looking around, most probably to give her brother a what-for for blabbing. A set of double doors opened up, and Luna nudged me to get up and follow her.

“It’s time for supper. After that, there will be dancing through here. You will need to stay for the first six dances–with selected dignitaries–but then we can leave.”

“Luna, I’ll escort Her Highness to dinner,” Stan said from behind me, as he took my elbow and led me to my seat at the long oak table.

Dinner sucked. The food was flipping gross–snails, frogs, yuck. I picked at my veggies as Stan prattled on about the various
delicacies
.

“What do you
do
exactly?” I asked him.

“Do? I’m a student of economics, in my third year at the London School of Economics. So, I study and go pubbing a lot,” he laughed, taking a gulp of his wine.

“What about Luna?”

“She studies history of art at the University of Paris. She’s just started. This is her first term.”

That explained her keen interest in the historical aspects of the city. Must be a hoot being a history major who could travel back in time to gather data for projects. Seemed kinda unfair to the rest of her class. Just then, I noticed Justin and Simla come walking in as the double doors opened momentarily to let them through. They were accompanied by a woman and a man, Madison and Olivier, I supposed. They were older than I expected. After having met Luna and her brother now, I expected Simla and Justin to have been assigned younger guards or whatever they were. I guessed both Madison and Olivier to be around thirty. They were both well built, like they’d been working out, perhaps with the help of a generous dose of steroids. Madison’s biceps did look disproportionately large. They were both dark haired and looked
hard
, like they had smoked for years. Perhaps they were ex-smokers turned fitness fanatics. Strong and fit as Justin was, he would be no match for Olivier. Olivier and Madison didn’t stay. They showed Justin and Simla to their seats at the other end of the long table and then left quietly after bowing to me ever so slightly. It was hard to decipher Simla’s and Justin’s moods. I wondered what they had been doing while I walked over here via Notre Dame de Paris. They certainly weren’t dressed up for the occasion. They were both wearing all-black workout clothes, and Simla looked out of breath. Her expression was very guarded; however, that could just be due to her being dumped among all these people. Justin looked a bit more relaxed and delved right into a conversation with the lady sitting next to him, while helping himself to the food as it was presented to him. I could see that Simla
was not particularly smitten with the food selection and I couldn’t resist a smile when the snails were brought to her.

“Are those your friends?” Stan asked, looking in the direction of Simla and Justin. “The girl does not seem to favor the escargot?”

“No, we’re not used to some of these dishes in the U.S.” I explained.

“There’s a McDonalds not far away, I will be happy to take you…,” he offered.

I’m ashamed to admit that my face must have totally lit up at the mention of McDonalds! A burger would be just the thing–I was still hungry. I remembered my manners just in time and smiled at Stan. “That’s really thoughtful of you, but this food is delicious, thank you,” I said, as I swallowed an escargot and tried my very best not to choke and hurl it back up on Stan.

“What are your friends’ names?” Stan asked. “Are you close friends?”

“No, we’re more acquaintances than friends. Justin and I play hockey together and Simla
used
to be a friend.”

“High school drama?” he laughed.