The Royalty gets a Bodyguard.

Alice pursed her lips watching Vandike muscle his way into their space, ignoring every sign that they were uncomfortable. "My Lord, as I'm sure you're aware, you must have a chaperon with you at all times when interacting with Your Majesty. It's not within the bounds of court etiquette for you to be touching them with such familiarity before you wed."

Hayworth turned and shot Alice a poisonous glare. "And what would you know about court etiquette, girl? You're little more than a glorified nanny paid to take a bullet for the princess."

Alice's fist clenched behind her back but she said nothing, offering him a demure curtsy, a quietly stated "Nevertheless, My Lord. I live only to look out for Their Majesty."

Hayworth rolled his eyes, but removed his arm from around Taryn and scooted away from them the slightest bit. "I'm sure you are. Why don't you go make yourself useful and go fetch me a carafe of hot, sugared milk?"

Taryn glanced over at Alice, the best they could, which was rather difficult. They clenched their teeth at the conversation, anger swelling up in their chest again. "That is not Alice's job," they said evenly, and calmly, with a hint of false sweetness. "Alice is here to protect me, not go fetch things, call a servant if that is what you wish, or I'll get it myself."

Taryn tried very hard to control their voice, they didn't like the way Alice was spoken to. This was not alright. They took a deep breath, scooting closer to the arm of the couch they were closest to.

"It's perfectly alright, Your Majesty. A simple misunderstanding, I'm sure." Alice kept her head bowed, a look nearly subservient when in reality she had planned Vandike's death several different ways and was debating the merit of cutting out his tongue.

Hayworth frowned at them, his brow crinkling. "Yes, as the girl said. A simple misunderstanding of days, my sweet. I'll send for another servant to fetch the milk, if that will please you."

Taryn looked over at Alice, frowning for a moment. It wasn't alright, were they overreacting again? They were brought out of their thoughts by Hayworth's voice. "Yes, it would please me," they said sweetly. Taryn smiled, "Thank you dear."

Hayworth patted their cheek. "Anything to make my lovely bride happy, although we must further discuss the issue of a proper bodyguard for you, Princess."

Alice pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes, but used her font of restraint to keep herself from knifing him in the back. The idea that she was anything but deadly and capable was perhaps one of the most insulting things that had ever been said about her.

Taryn bit their lip for a moment before smiling. "I promise you Alice is the epitome of professionalism. I promise you no one else will make me feel safer," they said. They really didn't want to talk about this again, or deal with this, at all. They had no desire to get rid of Alice, for multiple reasons.

Hayworth nodded condescendingly, tucking a strand of blonde hair behind their ear. "I'm sure she is, but I only want to give you additional protection. If you're really so lonely, you can keep the girl. Only, allow me to gift you with an additional protector, lest- heaven forbid- something happen to your dear "bodyguard"."

Taryn stopped any look of anger before it could reach their face. "I would prefer to keep Alice," they said sweetly. Taryn tried really hard to keep themselves calm, the tone of his voice making them feel small and insignificant.

"Of course, my dear bride, of course." He pat their hand. "You can keep the girl, I'll just assign one of my men in addition to her. The King and Queen would be devastated should something happen to you due to an accidental lapse in vigilance or if your girl is "somehow" taken out of commission. You understand, of course."

Taryn really had to watch how they reacted, this was not going well. "Yes, of course, My Lord," they said evenly, trying to keep any tremor or anger out of their voice. They simply smiled at him, putting on their court face on earlier than they normally would in the day.

"Excellent. I knew you would, Princess." Hayworth said, beaming. "I have the most optimistic feeling about our upcoming marriage. I shall introduce you to him later today, once I've informed the King and Queen about your new arrangement."

Taryn continued their smile, really trying hard to be optimistic as well. "Yes, things will be lovely, I can't wait. " They said. Taryn adjusted themselves a little, wondering how far away their wedding was scheduled to be anyway.

"I'm glad you agree, sweetheart. Now, I know you went through all this trouble so we could have our morning meal together, but I'm afraid I simply can't delay in acquiring you a new bodyguard. You'll forgive me, but I must be off." He leaned in and planted a smacking kiss on both their cheeks before sweeping out of the room.

Taryn smiled, "Oh it's no trouble, I understand you must be off," they said, with a touch of excitement they couldn't quite hide. They really didn't want him around right now. They waved at him as he left the room, before slouching on the arm of the couch. "Wow..."

Alice didn't relax once he left, kept her position just behind the couch. "What a charming man." She said, lip curling faintly in contempt. The fact that he thought she needed a man to help her do her job... Well. She couldn't imagine any of this proceeding well.

Taryn sighed, 'Yea...he's just lovely," they said hollowly. "Look Alice, I'm sorry he said those things," they said quietly. Taryn looked at their hands again, which were balled up. "You don't deserve to be treated badly."

"It's fine, Your Majesty." Alice said quietly. "It was offensive, yes, but it's hardly a new development in my life. I hear statements like that rather more often than not and while I'm certainly furious he thinks he can question my competence, I know the truth; which is that I could cut him down where he stands before he could draw breath to scream. I know how good I am at what I do. If he doesn't, if he believes his man will protect you better than I, there's very little I can do to change that."

Taryn shook their head. "That doesn't make it okay." They looked over at Alice. They weren't sure what to say to everything else, they really did have no idea what Alice had been through in her life. Although the idea of him getting taught a lesson did amuse them a little, but they immediately shut down that thought. That wasn't okay to think. "Taryn, please," they added, much softer, knowing this would probably go ignored.

"No." Alice said, softly. She lifted her gaze from the stacked bookshelf and glanced over at them. "I don't suppose it does. But as I said, there's nothing I can do about it. It is what it is, for the time being, Maje- Taryn."

Taryn smiled a little at the sound of their own name. "I suppose, I'll do my best to keep him from being such an ass," they said, although they highly doubted that was going to work out so well.

Taryn moved to grab their tea cup, drinking some of the now, luke-warm tea. "Eat something," they said quietly. "I'm not going to eat all of this, and I doubt he'll be back."

"I wish you the best of luck." She said. But men like that don't change. Alice kept that thought to herself though. At their offer of food, she hesitated. "I... don't know that I should do that. It would be a very strange sight for anyone passing by, a bodyguard sharing a meal with the royal they're meant to protect."

"You're testing my food for me are you not?" They asked, with a small smirk. "Isn't that what any good body guard would do? You can't have me eat all this food, some of it might not be good." That sounds horrible, she's gonna hate me for that. Taryn looked over at them, a little bit worried about them getting mad at the suggestion.

Alice laughed, shoulders relaxing a bit as she came over and sat next to them on the couch. "As you say, Majesty. You make an excellent point." She popped a grape from the tray into mouth with a grin. "I would be remiss in my duties if I allowed you to eat your food without testing it for poisons first."

Taryn smiled, watching her sit down, and eat a little. They really did enjoy the laugh and grin that came from Alice, it was a very pleasant sound. They took some fruit for themselves, eating a little. They wanted to bring things back up again, but were unsure if that was a good idea. That could go very badly, and really didn't want to come off being forceful.

Alice ate another few grapes, licking at the juice on her lips, but said nothing. The conversation they'd been having earlier was interrupted by Vandyke, but she wasn't sure she had any desire to bring it up again and even less of an idea as to how to renew the subject. Even more unsettling to her was the fact that the more they pointed out that many of her objections were based in flawed reasoning, the more her resolve to stay as strictly professional as possible weakened. It was quite a discomfiting realization.