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“They won’t,” she assured them. “Unless you’re too worried.”
“Worried about what?”
“Ruining your only pair of pants by playing in the grass.”
Armin stared her down, eyes alight, and Katie’s heart ran wild in her chest. This kind of familiar banter was far enough outside the lines of their relationship that it was a risk. She knew if she stepped too far over the line, he’d fire her, and that would be that.
But Armin wasn’t the kind of man to back down from a challenge. And as mild as it was, she had challenged him.
“My only pair of pants,” he said, screwing up his mouth into something resembling a grin.
At that moment, the girls came back out into the hallway, running straight for her side. They tilted up their faces to look at Armin, who towered over all of them.
“Now,” he said, authority ringing in his voice. “You’ve got piano lessons in less than an hour.”
“Yes,” answered Lily solemnly.
“I thought we could make an alternate plan.”
“An alternate plan?” Seraphine echoed.
“Yes.” Armin glanced up into Katie’s eyes. “I thought…well, Ms. Crestley had the idea—”
“Oh, no. It was your idea, Prince Armin.”
“What idea?” asked Lily, her voice bright with excitement.
“To spend the afternoon together instead of going to lessons,” said Armin. “If there was something else you’d rather do instead…”
“The gardens!” cried Seraphine. “Let’s play in the gardens.”
The afternoon was warm, and the gardens were already beginning to brighten with spring blooms. The girls ran ahead through the winding paths, stopping at fountains and benches and one hidden pond.
It was, Katie thought guiltily, relaxing enough that Armin might share something with her.
Her first priority was protecting the girls…and the prince. But in order to do that she needed to keep Papazyan at bay. The editor was not making it easy. He had brushed off the surface-level information she’d given him about their lifestyle and some details about the living quarters within the palace.
He wanted more.
And if she wanted to keep this job …
She needed something.
“Find us! We’re going to hide!” shouted Lily, disappearing somewhere into a hedge.
Katie glanced at Armin, expecting him to put an end to the game. He’d surely find some reason, even with the bodyguards in the background, to say it was too risky. But with a conspiratorial glance at her, Armin boomed, “Here we come…ten…nine…eight…”
A chorus of giggles rose up from the hedges, the sound spinning in nearby circles. Katie readied herself to wend her way through the paths and find the girls. When she had, they could all come back to where Armin waited.
But when he got to one, he burst into motion, taking big, loud steps.
“Where are my girls?” he called, and thundered off through the hedges, Katie close behind. It took no time at all to hear little feet in flight, giggles escaping them every so often, but Armin played it up, letting them think he couldn’t find them. Finally he caught them crouched beneath the lip of a fountain, and then the girls declared that it was Armin’s turn to hide.
To Katie’s utter shock, he did.
The three of them prowled the gardens, Katie giving pointed suggestions now and then, and in the end, Armin jumped out from the middle of the hedges. The girls shrieked so loud it turned into laughter.
He was a different man, out here in the garden, counting off for game after game of hide and seek and pretending not to see where the girls ran to hide each time. Armin thought nothing of climbing into the hedges again and again.
