Page 6 of A Queen's Match

“I should think your future is rather clear. You’ll be king someday,” she replied, her tone falsely flippant.

“I think the more pressing question is, who will be the queen?”

May couldn’t help a sharp intake of breath at his bluntness.

“There was—there is—someone. But I’m not sure she will have me.” Eddy seemed to have half forgotten that May was here; he was staring into the distance again, his words quiet. “She loves me; I know she does. There are just so many obstacles.”

He was clearly talking about Hélène. May felt a wave of relief that her strategy had worked, and she’d successfully scared off the French princess.

“And now Her Majesty is trying to suggest other…options?” May asked as tactfully as she could.

“Exactly. You know what she can be like.” Eddy flashed her a grateful look.

May resisted the urge to grab him by the shoulders and shake him.I’m right here,she wanted to scream.Don’t you see?But of course, Eddy never saw much of anything, even when it was directly in front of him.

The elevator machine was still ascending. May dared a glance down at the ground, then regrettedit.

“It helps if you pick a focal point. Something distant, like that lantern on the far wall,” Eddy suggested. “Don’t look down, or it will only make you more afraid.”

May kept her gaze fixed on the ironwork lantern he’d indicated, trying to ignore her sudden prickling of fear. “Is this something you learned when you climbed the Himalayas?”

“On sailboats. I like climbing up to untie the knots. I’ve never actually climbed the Himalayas,” Eddy added, “though I did climb the pyramids at Giza. From the top you can see the Sphinx.”

“Did she ask you a riddle?”

“Who?”

Once again, May had blundered, letting her cleverness slip out. She should have known a reference to mythology would have been lost on Eddy.

“Are the pyramids haunted?” she asked, rapidly changing tack. “I’ve heard there are ghosts there.”

“You believe in ghosts?” Eddy teased.

“Of course I do. I heard them at Balmoral last summer.”

That startled a laugh from him. “I’m sure it was Grandfather.He haunts the ballroom, where all those deer heads he shot still hang.”

“Are you sure he doesn’t haunt the upstairs corridor? Because my room was absolutely frigid.”

“That’s just how Scotland feels at night. You’ll get used to it.” Before she could wonder what Eddy meant by that—did he think she’d be invited again this year?—he sighed. “Sometimes I think this whole country is founded on ghosts. We all seem to be doing things for the benefit of people who are long since dead.”

Now it was May’s turn to glance at him in surprise. That might have been the most eloquent thing she’d ever heard Eddy say.

“When you’re king, everything you do will be for the living. Mostly for people you’ve never met.”

The elevator came to a stop. May tried, and failed, to keep her gaze on the iron lantern Eddy had indicated. They were just so high. Even with walls surrounding three sides of this box, she felt like she might tumble to the ground at any minute.

“Our fearless volunteers are forty feet aboveground!” the elevator man shouted. “And now I will demonstrate the safety brakes that make the Otis model so unique.”

May’s head whipped toward Eddy. “Safety brakes?”

“It’ll be fine,” Eddy said, which wasn’t particularly helpful. “Remember when you thought it was magic?”

“That was when we were still close to the ground!”

May was too high up to see the elevator man, but later she would hear Maud recount how he had drawn a sword (“A real old-fashioned one, like my grandfather used to have!”),waved the sword with a dramatic flourish, and cut the cable holding the elevator aloft.

All she knew in that moment was that the floor had fallen out from beneath her.