Page 53 of A Princess By Christmas

“It’s nearly eleven o’clock, Caro. Why are you still in bed?”

“Oh, but we were out quite late last night,” she said, and with a loud yawn, fell into a chair beside her brother, curling up on it.

“Really? Where were you?” Hollis asked curiously as she buttered her toast.

“A supper party at the, ah...” Caroline abruptly sat up.

Hollis looked up from her toast.

“I forgot,” Caroline said with a wince. “We weren’t to tell you.”

“Ah, so you were with Eliza,” Hollis said with a shrug. “I’ve told her a thousand times if I’ve told her once that I don’t expect to be invited to everything in the course of her visit. I understand, she’s a duchess, and you are a... What are you again?”

Caroline clucked her tongue.

“The point is that I know how these royal things are played,” Hollis said, gesturing with her knife. Indeed, she understood it all too well—she was no one of any import, no one but the poor sister of a royal duchess. All right, it did sting a little that she wasn’t allowed to blithely follow her big sister as she’d done all their lives. But she did understand.

“You were missed terribly, Hollis,” Caroline said.

“Mmm.” Hollis smiled dubiously at her friend. “I am certain you scarcely had a moment to think about me.”

“You’re right,” Caroline agreed. “But I’ve brought you the most amazing news to share with you.Douglaswas there—”

“What?”Hollis exclaimed, surprised. “Where?”

“Montford’s house,” Beck said, reaching for the morning paper.

“Robert Ladley!” Hollis exclaimed. Now she was offended—Lord Montford had been Beck’s friend for many, many years and Hollis knew him well. “I’m not to be included inhisinvitations?”

“Not my fault, darling,” Beck said casually. “It’s his father who wants to hobnob with all the foreign royals.”

“Douglas isn’t a foreign royal.”

“But he will be a duke,” Beck said with a shrug. “And a powerful one at that.”

“There is more, Hollis,” Caroline said eagerly. “The Weslorian king had to be helped from the supper table when he became ill.”

Hollis’s belly dipped at that news. She put down the knife. “Ill?”

Caroline nodded vigorously as she took a toast point from the caddy. “Just after the soup, he complained of feeling poorly, and he did indeed look terrible.”

“Did he faint?”

“Very nearly. One of his ministers noticed him flagging and helped him from the room.”

Good Lord, Mr. Brendan suspected something or someone was making him ill.

“The queen and her daughters, however, stayed behind and finished the meal. What do you think aboutthat?” she asked, pointing the toast at Hollis.

“It all sounds very distressing,” Hollis said. “His wife didn’t tend him?”

“She didnot.I daresay the crown princess scarcely noticed, either, because Douglas held her completely in thrall.”

“No!” Hollis cried again as the footman returned with coffee.

“Please, the two of you, no shouting,” Beck complained. “I’ve not had even a swig of coffee yet.” The footman put coffee before Hollis, then quickly moved around the table to serve Beck.

“He must be seven, eight years her senior, isn’t he?” Caroline mused. “How old is the princess?”