Elizabeth Harbison - Annie And The Prince

Joy raised her hands in front of her. “All right, all right. To be honest, I’m not worried about you in Europe at all, I’m worried about me, here. I’m going to be bored out of my mind when you’re gone.”

“I’ll write,” Annie told her sincerely. She imagined herself printing the Pendleton address on an envelope from thousands of miles away. The idea made her feel giddy, even though Joy would prefer the immediacy of e-mail. “I promise.”

Joy put a piece of cake into her mouth and nodded. “That’s what you say now.” She held up a finger, swallowed, then added, “But what happens when you find your Prince Charming over there and get so wrapped up in a romance that you forget about writing, hmm?”

“So that’s where Prince Charming is,” Annie said, with mock surprise. “Stupid me, I’ve been kissing frogs on the wrong side of the Atlantic for twenty-five years.”

Joy raised an eyebrow. “Laugh if you want to, but I have a feeling you’re going to meet someone there. Someone romantically significant. You might never come back!”

Annie was sure Joy couldn’t have been further off the mark. She couldn’t even imagine meeting the man of her dreams overseas and never coming back…though the idea had some appeal as a fantasy. “You’re right that I’ll be meeting someone. Actually, two someones. Marie de la Fuenza’s daughters. I hate to disillusion you, but I’m going to have no time for any kind of social life at all.” It was true. Even if she was the extroverted type who’d go out and meet people to party with, she wasn’t going to have time for it with this job.

“Remember that tarot card reading I did for you?” Joy asked. “It said you were going to meet a very important and powerful man. That card was in the love position.”

Annie thought about it, then recalled what her friend was talking about. “Joy, that was just a prank for the school fair. Surely you don’t believe in any of that stuff. For heaven’s sake, you were reading it right out of a book.”

“That doesn’t mean it wasn’t true. Besides, my psychic feelings have been right before,” Joy said, hurt.

“When?”

“I told you Judy Gallagher was pregnant.”

It was on the tip of Annie’s tongue to point out that everyone had realized Judy was pregnant as soon as she started bolting from her first period Social Studies class for the bathroom every morning. Instead, Annie gave a concessionary nod. “That’s true, you did.”

“And I’m right about this, too. You mark my words.”

“Duly marked.”

“Besides, you need to meet a guy. You need to have someone to support you in a year when your job tutoring English ends and you’re out of work.”

“It’s not always that easy to find someone.”

Joy sighed. “So…what are you wearing on the plane?”

Annie laughed. Joy’s greatest pleasure in life, next to food, was fashion. And she was quite good at it, too, if not exactly a willowy fashion plate herself.

“I’m wearing this,” Annie answered, indicating the comfy cotton sweater and leggings she was wearing.

“Honestly, you have this great figure and you never do anything to emphasize it. It’s so unfair. Maybe you should take me along to advise you.”

“I’m sure I should.”

There was a faint honking outside the door. Annie moved to look out the window. A yellow cab had pulled up in the courtyard in front of the library building.

“Cab’s here,” someone called, just as Annie saw it.

“Time to go, I guess.”

“Looks like it,” Joy said miserably.

Annie couldn’t commiserate. Her heart felt as light as air. In fact, it was fluttering just like a bird from the excitement. This wasn’t regular anticipation. Annie was feeling like her whole life was about to change forever.

Could there possibly be something to Joy’s prediction?

She took a steady breath and gave Joy a kiss on the cheek. “Don’t look so sad. I promised I would write to you and I will.”

“You better. Have you got the digital camera I gave you?”

“All packed.”

“Good. Take pictures. E-mail them to me. You remember how I showed you?”

“I remember.” Annie moved to get in the back seat, waving to the people who had congregated to watch her go.

“And don’t forget to tell me all about him,” Joy added significantly.

Annie’s face warmed. As soon as the cab drove away, people would pounce on Joy to find out what that comment had meant. Oh, well, let them. Maybe she even preferred it that way.

After all, this was the end of Annie—Boring Librarian and the beginning of Annie—Woman of the World.

Why was she feeling so apprehensive? Annie wondered. She sighed and leaned against the train window, watching the Alpine countryside whip by as they sped toward Lassberg, the capital of the tiny European country of Kublenstein. True, things hadn’t worked out well with her hotel in Paris, and Germany had turned out to be more expensive than she could afford. But now she was headed to Kublenstein two days earlier than expected so she could get the lay of the land before meeting her new employers.

It would be nice. She hadn’t been on a real vacation since she was six and had gone to a local amusement park a couple of towns over from her Maryland home. Since high school she’d just been treading water, working to stay afloat and to pay the never-ending cycle of bills. All of that would change, now. She had a good job in what was apparently a wonderful household in Europe. It was just what she’d always dreamed of.

But as the train rails rattled under her feet, she dissected her plan for the hundredth time and couldn’t see one thing in it that should make her stomach feel like it was full of bats.

The train lurched and a young man with pale blond hair and a large rucksack on his back knocked against her, spilling hot drops of coffee on her blouse. “Very sorry, ma’am,” he said, with a light Scandinavian accent.

“It’s okay,” she said quietly, but he had already moved on, not having waited for a response. She pushed her heavy reading glasses back up the bridge of her nose and rummaged through her bag for a tissue. She hated being called ma’am, especially by people who were only a few years younger than she was. And how did he know to speak English? She must look very American.

She dabbed at the coffee with a sigh. The stain remained. She balled the tissue up, put it in the trash receptacle, and tried to return her attention to the book in her lap, but it was difficult. The train was noisy and hot, and so humid that the air almost felt damp against her skin. The coffee stain did.

After one or two unsuccessful tries to concentrate on the book in her hand, she set it back down in her lap and let her mind wander to more familiar thoughts of home. If she’d stayed, she’d be in her small, chilly apartment now, watching the news and eating leftover Chinese food. In the morning, her alarm would go off at 6:50 a.m. and she’d shower and drive to work. Not that that was totally unfulfilling. As librarians went, she was an exceptionally good one. She always enjoyed helping students find more creative ways to look at their assignments. She encouraged them to take the harder route in order to learn more and she loved to help them find strong role models in heroic characters from literature.

Unfortunately, at Pendleton that was often considered ‘pushing the envelope’ and she’d been told more than once by members of the very conservative board of directors to leave the teaching to the teachers.

It was distinctly possible that if she hadn’t resigned when she did the board would have asked the headmaster, Lawrence Pegrin, to dismiss her. Lawrence had had some stern words for her about her tutoring methods more than once, though she suspected he secretly approved. In fact, when Marie de la Fuenza’s husband had contacted the school looking for a suitable English tutor and nanny, Lawrence had suggested Annie without hesitation. In a private conversation he’d assured her that if it didn’t work out she could return to Pendleton, regardless of what the board of directors wished.