Page 24 of American Royals

The sounds of the ballroom emanated toward them, growing softer as the night wore on. Teddy looked over at her, thoughtful. “I saw you around Boston a few times, you know, when I was home on break.”

“Really? Where?”

“At Darwin’s. I used to go there to study,” he said sheepishly. “I always knew when you were coming, because one of your protection officers would do a sweep of the place. Ten minutes later you’d pull up on your bike, hiding your face under a baseball cap, to pick up bagels and cold brew. I thought it was cool of you,” he added softly. “That you went to get bagels yourself, when you clearly could have sent someone.”

Beatrice flushed. She was aware that the baseball cap hadn’t fooled anyone, but the nice thing about college was how much people respected her privacy. Even when they recognized her, they generally didn’t bother her. “I loved biking to Darwin’s. It was a lot of work to get me there, but I never wanted to give it up.”

“What do you mean, it was a lot of work to get you there?”

“One of my protection officers would follow in a car with darkened windows, while the other—the one who’d done the sweep—would be waiting at Darwin’s to greet me,” Beatrice said sheepishly. “It was a lot of intricate choreography, just for a bagel.”

“In your defense, those bagels taste best fresh out of the oven. They would never have lasted if you’d had them delivered to the library, or wherever you were studying,” Teddy assured her.

“Police station.” Beatrice corrected him before she could catch herself.

“What?”

“I couldn’t ever get work done at the library. It was so crowded, and I don’t really like being in small, enclosed spaces, not when they’re full of people ….” Beatrice swallowed. “I used to bike to the Cambridge police station with my bagels and hang out on the top floor doing my homework. No one ever bothered me there.”

She felt a little silly confessing this, but Teddy nodded in understanding. “What was your go-to bagel order?” he asked, deftly changing the subject.

“Blueberry, with extra cream cheese. Unless I got a butterscotch brownie,” she confessed. “I used to eat those once a day during exams. They were my personal anti-stress routine.” She tilted her head to look at Teddy. “What was your Darwin’s order?”

“The Brawny Breakfast Sandwich, the one with chorizo and jalapeños. I’m addicted to that spicy kick,” he confessed, and laughed. “I worry that I’m being judged by my bagel choice.”

“I don’t have much else to judge you on. The other guys spent most of the time talking about themselves.” Beatrice had given him the opening, but Teddy refused to take the bait.

“Maybe I have less to talk about.”

“You aren’t going to brag about Yale?” she said lightly.

“I didn’t want to rub it in that I went to such a better school than Harvard,” he replied, with another smile. “Though I used to wonder why you chose not to go to King’s College.” Where America’s future kings have always gone, he didn’t need to add.

“I’m trying to set a new precedent,” Beatrice told him, skating around the question. People usually assumed that she’d attended Harvard for its academic rigor, when the truth was, she’d simply wanted to get away from the capital for four years. As far as she could go.

She would have preferred one of the colleges out west, except that her parents would never have allowed her to go all the way to Orange.

“Remind me, weren’t you on the crew team?” Beatrice asked, attempting to change the subject.

“Only my first year. And now I have proof that you’ve seen my résumé.” Teddy propped an elbow on one knee. “Do you have color-coded files on all of us, sorted in alphabetical order?”

“It’s sorted by precedence of title, actually,” she countered, attempting a joke. “How did you know?”

“Because it’s what my parents would have done.”

She wasn’t sure how to answer that, but Teddy went on. “My parents are very … opinionated,” he said tactfully. “As I imagine yours are. Right now, they’re upset that I’m not going straight to law school. All my family are lawyers,” he added, as if that explained everything.

“And you want to be a lawyer too?”

“I don’t know if wanting has anything to do with it,” he said softly.

Beatrice felt a pang of empathy. She was no stranger to that kind of situation.

“I think I saw a portrait of one of your ancestors at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Lady Charlotte Eaton,” Beatrice recalled. A wistful smile stole over her features at the memory of that night.

“The Whistler portrait,” Teddy said knowingly. “She was my great-grandmother.”

Beatrice nodded. “There must be a lot of your personal art on display at that museum. It was nice of your family to lend it.”