Ten: Lucy Lark
830 Words
Ten:
Lucy Lark
I was moved to another room. But I still had to stay in the castle. When I was about to leave the next morning, I found myself blocked by a big, burly guard with auburn hair and brown eyes. He wore the traditional blue suit, with his earpiece. “Um, hi.”
“Hello, Lady Lark,” he said.
I frowned. “I’m not a Lady. I’m just Lucy. Who are you?”
“I’m Angus McGill, my Lady,” he said.
“Okay. Why are you standing outside my door, Angus McGill?”
“Because,” he said, “I’m your official guard, my Lady. Since you agreed to participate in Anam Cara, you’re temporarily part of the royal household until it ends.”
“Yes, for a year,” I said.
“Until it ends, I was told.”
“But the time frame is usually a year.”
“Yes, but Anam Cara can be reset as many times as the Prince wants.”
I stiffened. “No one told me that.”
“Yes. The Prince is the one that sets the rules. The only one that can override it is the King. That’s only if he opposes the girl who is part of Anam Cara.”
“Huh,” I said, “that’s interesting.”
Angus winced. “You didn’t know tha’ did you?”
“No,” I said, not bothering to hide the sneaky smile on my face.
“Lady Lark, please forget that. If he finds out that I told ye, he’ll have my head.”
“You don’t have to worry about anything, Angus. I won’t say a single word.”
“I hate that look. Finneas told me about this look. He said that it was the same look that convinced him to let you sneak out on your eighteenth birthday without Aiden knowing.”
I rolled my eyes. “There’s no look.”
“It’s the same look that Irene Adler usually gives Sherlock Holmes right before she robs him blind or stabs him.”
“Well, I promise you that I won’t stab you, Angus. Or do anything that implicates you in anyway. I’m simply going to tuck that information away on a rainy day.”
“That’s not going to be a rainy day,” said Angus with a frown, “that’s going to be a fecking hurricane.”
I smiled. “Come on, Angus. Let’s go. I’ve got class.”
We left the palace, and Angus drove me to Campus. I arrived early enough that I still had time to go see Edele back at our dorm. I knocked on the door. When she saw me, Edele’s eyebrows rose in alarm.
“What’s with the Irene Adler look?” Edele asked.
I frowned. “Is this a thing people say when they talk about me?”
“Well, we used to call you Good Lucy and Bad Lucy but that made Aiden uncomfortable after a while. There were too many dirty jokes that could be made.”
“Dirty jokes?” I said. “You----talk with Aiden about me often?”
“Well, we are cousins. Much to my ancient, great aunt’s disappointment. I made some comment about you looking like Irene Adler and the facial expression stuck.”
“McAdams or Dormer?”
“Dormer, of course,” said Edele, “I’m not a child. So, who’d he get for your guard?”
“Angus.”
“Oh, Angus is lovely. He can kill a man ten different ways. So, what can I do for you, Miss Adler?” Edele asked.
“Did you know that the King has to approve of whoever participates in Anam Cara?”
“I did know that,” said Edele, “which is why I made him watch The History of the Romanovs when they tried to encourage me to marry Aiden last year. The blood thing really put him off.”
“The cousin thing should have been enough for that.”
“We’re royals, darlin’. As long as you aren’t siblings, they don’t much care and that depends on where you’re at. What’s the plan? Become bad Sandy?”
“That’s exactly the whole plan,” I said. “I need to do something to make the King think that I’m terrible. That I’m the last person on earth that he wants marrying their son. Something that says, you’re not banned from Ireland. But we sure as hell don’t want you to be the mother of our future grandchildren.”
Edele winced. “The Queen already talked about future grandchildren didn’t she?”
“The minute I moved into the castle,” I said.
“Well, I’ll help you. But I warn you that Aiden doesn’t take kindly to being challenged.”
“Neither did Sherlock,” I reminded her.
“Touché.” She smirked.
“And if being bad happens to come in the form of the boy, please make sure he has tattoos and swears like an Osbourne.”
“I will do that. Are you free for tonight?”
“I will sneak out if I have to.”
“Okay. Because Ronan asked about you. He wanted to see if you were alright after the whole club thing. Niall says that he wouldn’t stop swooning over you.”
I blushed. “Really?”
“Really,” Edele answered.
“Well, okay then. I’ll go out with you and the boys again.”
“What about your muscle?” Edele asked.
“I’ll find a way to ditch him, just bring on the trouble, alright?”
“Alright.”
- Writer
