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“Her Majesty wanted me to deliver an apology. She was unable to pick you up from the airport and asked thatwebring you to the palace instead,” Magnus told Palmer.

“Oh, okay,” Palmer spoke. “I just talked to her before I took off. She said she’d be here.”

Elizabeth could hardly contain herself. She wanted so badly to get out of the back of the SUV, but she couldn’t resist playing this tiny prank on Palmer.

“Miss Honeycutt,” Magnus said.

Elizabeth sat back from the slit in the window she’d rolled down in order to see her prank play out.

“I’ll put your stuff in the back for you,” Magnus added, opening the door for Palmer.

Palmer then appeared in the open doorway, seeing Elizabeth immediately and smiling.

“Oh, you’ve got jokes now?” Palmer said, laughing.

She climbed into the car, and Magnus closed the door behind her. Elizabeth wrapped her arms around Palmer’s neck, pulling her as close as she could get her.

“I couldn’t resist. Hi,” she said. “I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you, too.” Palmer leaned in and waited.

“What are you waiting for?”

“Magnus; he’s putting my stuff in the back. I know he knows, but do you–”

Elizabeth leaned in the rest of the way and kissed her hard.

“He’s going to put your stuff in the following car. He knows we need a minute.”

“Thank God,” Palmer replied, leaning in again and kissing her more deeply. “How long do we have?” Her lips moved to Elizabeth’s neck.

“Notthatlong.” Elizabeth laughed at her.

“I meant when we get back to the palace,” Palmer said, pulling back a little.

“I have a few meetings I can’t skip today. We have a lot of last-minute planning to do. We still can’t tell which way the vote is going for certain, so we must plan for both eventualities.”

“After the meetings?”

“I was thinking, we could have dinner with Victoria and David, if that’s okay with you.”

“Sure,” Palmer replied, sitting back as soon as Magnus entered the car.

“As a couple, Palmer. I was thinking of it sort of as a double date.”

Palmer smiled at her and said, “I can do a double date.”

“I meant to ask you; a man named Lynch reached out to my office asking for a meeting. He said he works at your paper. He mentioned you by name.”

“Yeah, my editor gave him the piece on the vote.”

“What? Why?” Elizabeth took Palmer’s hand.

“The article I wrote while I was here was okay, but it wasn’t exactly what he was hoping for. I mean, I couldn’t include a lot of what I saw and heard here, so it was pretty surface stuff, which is what everyone else wrote.”

“I’m sorry. It’s my fault. I asked too much of you.”

“You’ve never asked anything of me I haven’t been willing to give, Elizabeth.” Palmer leaned over and kissed her cheek. “It’s fine. I’ll be on this campaign when I get back.”