window.
“You chose the escort well,” he observed.
“According to your instructions, sir,” Helmut observed. “They're all young, cheerful and every one speaks perfect English. As far as Her Royal Highness knows they're simply there to keep her company. We might be doing Prince Harold an injustice. He'd be mad to try anything.”
“But if he does,” Randolph murmured, “We're ready for him. Protect her, Helmut. Nothing must get in the way of that.”
“But sir, there's a rumor that she'll be leaving soon.”
“Just do as I ask, Helmut. Protect her at all costs.”
It was time for her first official public appearance, which would establish her in the eyes of the world. There had been a photographic session, with the pictures designed to stress her likeness to Queen Dorothea II. The palace PR office had been working overtime getting the news out to press agencies.
There would be a short reception, and the presentation of a bouquet by a little girl.
“She will make a little welcome speech,” Aunt Liz explained, “and in your honor it will be in English.”
“I have picked up a few words of German,” Dottie said defensively.
“How many?”
“Two,” Dottie confessed. “Who is she? How was she chosen?”
“Elsa Bekendorf. You've met her sister and brother. Little Elsa is such a sweet child. And of course the honor had to be given to a family of their standing.”
Dottie was silent, thinking of Sophie's head close to Randolph's, at the nightclub, and wondering whose idea it had been to thrust little Elsa forward.
Then she pushed the thought aside to enjoy her fitting for the elegant dress Aunt Liz had chosen. It was wild silk in a deep peacock blue which made Dottie stare a little.
“There's a time for restraint and a time for being eye-catching,” Aunt Liz said. “This is a time for being eye- catching. It's a pity that Your Royal Highness lacks just a little bit of height.”
“You mean I'm short,” Dottie said gloomily.
“There's always very high heels, but wearing them is a skill.”
“You leave that to me. When you're my height you learn heels as a matter of self-defense.”
The heels they chose were not merely high, they were suicidal, and Dottie earned Aunt Liz's admiration by being able to manage them without a care. They were both pleased with the result.
When the day came, Dottie listened just “offstage” as the prime minister explained her to the world's press. He described her background accurately enough, but with rather more emphasis on her “position of authority” than she thought entirely honest.
“What they would say if they saw The Grand!” she chuckled to Randolph who was waiting with her behind the curtain.
“That's why we haven't named the place,” he murmured. “Although I suppose they'll find it even tually. I'm afraid journalists may track you down there.”
“Pardon?”
“When you go home. You did say you were going soon.”
“Oh yes, of course. I forgot for a moment.”
Durmand reached the end of his speech. The curtains parted. Dottie walked out on Randolph's arm to face a barrage of flashing lights. He led her to the throne, then gently detached himself and moved to the side.
She tried to concentrate on the cameras, turning this way and that so that everyone could get a good view. She became aware that a little girl was approaching her with a bunch of flowers. Elsa Bekendorf was only about four years old, and it was clear that she was very nervous. Dottie's heart went out to the child.
Scowling with concentration Elsa made her way up the three steps to the throne, clutching her posy to within an inch of its life, and embarked on her speech of welcome.
But almost at once she was in trouble. Dottie guessed that her English was poor and she'd been taught the words parrot fashion. When she broke down she had no knowledge to fall back on. There was a faint hiss from Sophie, who was watching her baby sister, full of tension. That wouldn't help the poor little thing, Dottie thought.
Elsa must have realized the same, for she cast a beseeching look at Sophie, made as if to run to her for comfort, but checked herself at once. With nowhere to turn she became overwhelmed, sat down on the lowest step and howled.
In a flash Dottie was down the steps, kneeling in front of the little girl, giving the child her best smile. “Hey, come on. It's not so bad. You should see how scared I am.”
Elsa sniffed and looked at her woefully. She hadn't understood the words, but Dottie's kindly tone had gotten through to her. She managed a half smile and raised the posy, somewhat bedraggled now.
“For me?” Dottie asked. Suddenly her two German words came back to her. “
Elsa nodded. The next moment she was swept up in an exuberant pair of arms as Dottie rose to her feet, hugging her and kissing her cheek. Elsa's confidence came back and she beamed at Dottie, receiving a big, laughing smile in return, and for a moment they were blinded by flashbulbs going off madly. And from somewhere behind the bright lights came the sound of applause.
“You, Elsa?” Dottie asked, and the child nodded.
“
“Dottie?” the little girl echoed. Then she seemed to understand and gave a chuckle. “
Somewhere Dottie was aware of Sophie covering her eyes in disgust. Probably a lot of other people felt the same. She didn't care. She was going to do this her way.
Aunt Liz came forward to take charge of Elsa. Sophie might have seemed the most suitable person, but hell would freeze over before Dottie delivered this moppet into the hands of her hard-faced sister. Despite her bright professional smile, Sophie was furious, though whether because she felt the family dignity had been damaged, or because Dottie had scored a success it was hard to say.
At last it was over. She raised her eyes to meet Randolph's, expecting to find condemnation in them, and determined to outface him.
“Who says I can't be Princess Dottie?” she asked defiantly.
Then she saw that his eyes were warm and smiling. “You can be anything you wish,” he said, offering her his arm. “Well done, Dottie. You've staked your claim to the hearts of your people.”
Chapter Six
Within hours the press conference had beamed around the world. Television channels showed it again and again, always focusing on the wonderful moment when Dottie had lifted little Elsa in her arms.
The Ellurian newspapers hailed her as Our Laughing Princess. Some played up the family resemblance. Others claimed she'd already showed how she would be “A true mother to her people. ”
“On the basis of one incident?” Dottie demanded over breakfast two days later. ”
“But it was great, Dot,” Mike said. He'd dropped in to tell her he'd be out sailing all day. “Just fancy, your grandpa being right all along!”
“Did he bend your ear with those stories, too?”
“Only the once. He took me to the pub. We got real plastered, and he came out with all this stuff about Duke Egghead.”
“Egbert. What did he say about him?”
“Well that's it, after I'd sobered up I couldn't remember, and I never have. When I get tiddly again it starts coming back to me, but it goes again.”
Those who'd feared, or hoped, that Dottie's unorthodox ways might bring her down were confounded. She was
