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“If I’ve helped at all, that makes me very happy. I hate to think of you in that room alone,” she said. “You’re really in bed already?”

“Yes.”

“Are you going to be able to sleep now?”

“Probably,” Elizabeth replied.

“Do you want to talk for a while?” Palmer asked her.

“Yes,” she said. “Is that okay?”

“What do you want to talk about?”

“You. I’m so tired of talking about me. I feel like that’s all I’ve been doing lately.”

“Okay. I can talk about me. Give me a topic, though.”

Palmer stood, pulled back the thin blanket and sheets, and slid beneath them.

“Okay… What was your least favorite subject in school?”

“Oh, that’s easy, but you’re not going to like it.” Palmer chuckled as she settled against the pillows.

“Why not?”

“Because it’s science.”

“What? How can you not like science?”

“My dad is a science teacher,” Palmer replied. “And get this: when I was in grade school, he wasmyteacher. When I finally made it out of that school and into high school, he became a high school teacher. I literally had my father as my science teacher from second grade through tenth. Then, finally, I took chemistry, and he wasn’t a chemistry teacher.”

Elizabeth laughed and asked, “Was he a tough grader?”

“No, he was fair, I think. It’s just annoying to have your dad as your teacher. I had to ride with him to school each day and wait until he was done so that I could leave, when everyone else left after their last class. I was so happy when I got my driver’s license and this old beat-up Ford so I could finally drive myself.”

“We don’t get licenses here until eighteen, so you were lucky.”

“Youhave a license?”

“No, members of the royal family don’t get them, but we can still drive. We rarely drive ourselves places, though.”

“I never took physics. I finished chemistry, met my requirements for graduation, and left science behind in college.”

“That’s so unfortunate; science is amazing.”

“I’ll take your word for it.” Palmer laughed.

“Did you have any pets growing up?” Elizabeth asked.

“I had a dog while I was growing up. Her name was Flash.”

“Flash?”

“Yeah. She was the slowest dog in the world, lazy as could be, but we didn’t know that when we got her as a puppy. It ended up being a funny family joke.”

They talked like that for the next few hours until she could hear Elizabeth’s words slowing as she spoke more softly into the phone.

“Your Majesty, I think it’s time for bed,” Palmer said with her own eyes closed from exhaustion.