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But she hadn’t had much time to spend in her room. The girls were busy, and she went wherever they went. She spent all day on high alert. There was no room for error in this job. She felt it more keenly after the way she’d lost her position in entertainment journalism. She was going to do this job by the book, without a toe out of line. The prince and Ms. Mirzoyan had been crystal clear that the schedule was to be followed to the letter, so that’s what she did.
It hadn’t been much of a struggle…until today.
Lily perched in a window seat in their nursery, gazing mournfully out the window at the springtime sunlight streaming down outside Whitestone.
“Why so sad? Your piano lesson starts in half an hour. Aren’t you excited?” Katie kept her tone bright as she sat down across from Lily.
The little blonde girl’s eyes were huge, and the corners of her mouth tugged down in a frown. “No. Not at all.”
“We’d rather play outside,” chimed in Seraphine. “It’s so lovely out.”
“We’d rather play at the park,” said Lily with a glance at her sister. “It’s not very far away.”
“No. Close enough that we could walk there. But we always have to drive,” said Seraphine.
Her heart ached for the girls. They had a demanding schedule, it was true. And Mrs. Mirzoyan had been explicit about following it.
And yet, with those big eyes on them…
“Oh, all right. Let’s get your jackets and we’ll sneak away to the park for a little while. It’ll be our secret.”
The cheers from the two girls almost gave them away, and for a second, Katie was besieged with second thoughts…but it was too late—she was committed. She bustled them out a side door of the castle with purpose in her step. Nobody stopped them—not even the bodyguard who always hovered near the girls. Within five minutes, they were at a beautiful little park, carefully maintained, with a playground that had a climbing castle in the center built to look like a smaller version of Whitestone. The girls ran to it, hair flying behind them, and quickly climbed up into a tower.
Katie took a seat on a nearby bench, welcoming the break. She kept her gaze firmly on the girls. She’d broken one rule, but she wouldn’t dare look at her phone or anything else. The bodyguard wasn’t in her line of sight—he tended to be pretty discreet—but she knew he could see her.
The sisters were so close. Katie could see it even from where she sat on the bench. The two of them played together in a kind of dance, their movements mirrored or nearly mirrored, one following the other, then switching like birds in flight.
A man sat down on the other edge of the bench and spoke to her. “The girls seem to be doing well,” he said.
Katie stole a glance at him. It was a pretty intimate comment to make. Goose bumps rose on her skin. But who was he?
“Yes,” she said neutrally. “Pleased to meet you, Mr…”
He extended his hand. “My name is Ciril Papazyan. I’m the editor for the Stolvenian Defender.” He added the name of the paper in Stolvenian—E Pashtpany.
“Oh.” Tension rose at the base of Katie’s spine. “I know about your paper. And I have nothing to say to you.”
She could see his grin out of the corner of her eye, and it was more than a little unsettling. “I’m not surprised,” he said. “You know about my paper, and I know about you.”
He
r jaw clenched, Katie watched the girls go over a miniature drawbridge and back into the castle. “Oh?”
“I’m surprised you’re a nanny now,” Papazyan said lightly. “How would that happen, for a woman with your particular notoriety?”
Katie stood. It was past time to get away from this man. “Goodbye,” she said firmly.
“Look, Ms. Crestley, Stolvenia is undergoing a transformation. Surely you’ve seen that with your own eyes. And with your position at Whitestone, you have a rather enviable front-row seat.”
“My position has nothing to do with you.”
He leaned back against the bench, his arms spread over the back. “It has everything to do with the prince and his family.”
“So?”
“So, I’m offering you an opportunity.”
“I don’t want it.” Katie wanted to leave, to run away, but she couldn’t abandon the girls and she didn’t want to make a scene.
