AllFreeNovel
Share Us
A shopping expedition for myself on my first full day on the job? I don’t think so.
“I’m really okay with my suits,” I tell Magnus, following him out of the room. I look at Ottar for support, but he just smiles and nods, as if this is a normal thing.
“Nonsense,” Magnus says, then raps his knuckles along the wall and points to the room next to mine. “This is your lady friend’s room,” he says, then glances at me over his shoulder. “I don’t have to tell you to keep it in your pants, do I?” Before I can even respond to that, he continues. “Good. Just wanted to make sure.”
Oh fuck. Why would he even bring that up? Maybe he thinks that sleeping together is a predetermined thing just because she happens to be stunningly attractive. Or he thinks we’ve already slept together and he wants to warn me that we’re not allowed to do it again. Or he knows the truth. We slept together, things blew up in our faces, and now we’re mortal enemies.
“Don’t worry,” Ottar says to me with a wag of his brows. “He’s warning Lady Jane to stay away from me all the time. She finds me irresistible.”
“Speaking of Lady Jane,” Magnus says as we step inside a large country-style kitchen, “here she is. She’s been part of Ella’s life as her personal assistant for such a long time, she’s one of the family.”
A woman I assume is Lady Jane is sitting at a table in the corner, the biggest mug of tea I’ve ever seen in her hands.
She looks up at me in surprise and smiles, lowering the bowl of tea. “The fresh blood is here!”
Lady Jane is a robust woman with a round face, big smile, and bright eyes, her dark blunt bangs above them acting like a frame. I already like her, even though she’s only said a few words.
She gets out of her seat, the chair moving back noisily on the tile floor, then comes over to me, both hands out to shake mine. “I’m Jane, Ella’s lady-in-waiting. You can call me Lady Jane, or Jane, makes no difference to me since I’m not an actual lady,” she says in a Liverpool accent as she looks me over with a wry twinkle in her eyes. “My, aren’t you a handsome one? And Scottish too. Oh, Ella and I had a ball when she was studying at St. Andrews. I have to say, it’s a relief to have someone from the UK here among all these Europeans. Even if it is Scotland.”
“Nice to meet you,” I tell her, but she’s shaking my hand more than I’m shaking hers. “The name is James.”
“James Hunter,” Magnus supplies. “So now we have to figure out whether you want to be called by your first name or your last name.”
“I’m fine with either one.” When I worked for Eddie and Monica, they called me James. When I worked for the Belgian royal family, back in the day, they addressed me as Hunter.
“Aren’t you agreeable,” Magnus says, then looks over his shoulder. “Ella! There you are. Where have you been hiding?”
I turn to see Princess Ella standing in the doorway to the kitchen. She’s wearing skinny jeans, a Fair Isle sweater—the super-itchy-looking kind—and big fluffy socks, her blond hair braided to the side. She’s very delicate-looking, like a fairy princess instead of an ordinary one, but I can tell from the lift of her jaw that she’s a force to be reckoned with.
“I was working,” she tells Magnus as she walks toward us, fixing her blue eyes on me.
“So you’re James,” she says, her voice soft, a mixture of a British and German accent. “It’s nice to meet you.”
I already know she has a different approach than Magnus does. I bow. “It’s an honor to be serving you, Your Majesty.”
“Well, thank you,” Ella says.
“I told him to knock it off with the formalities,” Magnus tells her.
“And I’m glad he didn’t listen to you,” she says. Then she smiles at me. “But Magnus is right. We’re pretty relaxed around here, and we like it that way. Please call me Ella.”
“Very well, Ella,” I tell her.
“Where are the boys?” she asks Magnus.
“Out front with Laila,” he says.
She gives me a wary smile. “Have you been properly introduced?”
“To the boys? I’m afraid not.”
Her eyes go to Magnus for a moment, then come back to me. “That’s right. You already know Laila, don’t you?”
I’m starting to think that Laila has said some not-so-positive things about me.
“I do,” I tell her. “We lost touch after she left the Fairfax household. It’s nice to be working with her again.” I say that all so smoothly, finishing it with a charming smile, that I have even nearly fooled myself.
“Great,” Ella says, and then beckons for me to follow her. She glances at me over her shoulder and frowns. “Are you going to be warm in that? You should at least get some gloves in case the boys cajole you into a snowball fight.”
