{"id":5476,"date":"2015-07-21T07:17:07","date_gmt":"2015-07-21T11:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/u-town.com\/collins\/?p=5476"},"modified":"2015-08-24T07:12:49","modified_gmt":"2015-08-24T11:12:49","slug":"a-princess-in-u-town-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/u-town.com\/collins\/?p=5476","title":{"rendered":"a princess in u-town (part two)"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story started here<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n

 
My employer and I were having breakfast one morning in the hotel dining room when Fifteen came over and said, \"Miss Sleet, there is a young lady to see you.\" <\/p>\n

He pursed his lips at my employer's expression and the way she'd quickly reached for her cane. \"Your visitor does not... appear to be of royal blood,\" he said casually, studying the faded mural on the far wall. \"I believe she is a member of the princess's staff.\"<\/p>\n

My employer had allowed her excitement about this visit to be a bit too obvious, and I admit some teasing had resulted over the previous ten days. So, with her already halfway out of her chair, there was an awkward moment, but Vicki said, \"Well, you shouldn't keep the assistant waiting. That would be rude.\"<\/p>\n

So, we left and walked down the hall to the hotel lobby. My employer was attempting to keep her pace appropriate for an internationally famous amateur detective who had, of course, been around the world, and who was not unused to dealing with prominent people and even heads of state.<\/p>\n

We spotted the assistant almost immediately, though the lobby was far from empty. She was standing by the front desk, dressed in a skirt, jacket, and collared shirt, holding a slim briefcase. She had straight brown hair, imperfectly gathered into a bun, and piercing blue eyes behind horn-rimmed glasses.<\/p>\n

She was looking around slowly, apparently in search of somebody who looked more official than the people slouching around on the various worn and rump-sprung sofas and chairs.<\/p>\n

She smiled, therefore, when she saw my employer. <\/p>\n

Jan Sleet was not only the best dressed person in the room -- as she usually was -- she was also very distinctive looking. Six feet tall, rail thin, wearing a man's three-piece suit and large horn-rimmed glasses -- it sometimes seemed like everybody recognized Jan Sleet when they saw her.<\/p>\n

The assistant stepped forward and held out her hand. \"Miss Sleet?\" My employer nodded and shook her hand. \"I'm Ana. I'm here to make arrangements for the visit of the princess Valeria.\" Her accent was faint, but very familiar.<\/p>\n

My employer nodded. \"We've been looking forward to her highness's visit. We've made arrangements for her to stay here, at the hotel. I realize that the accommodations may be somewhat more bohemian than the princess is used to...\"<\/p>\n

Ana smiled. \"That is not a problem. The princess knows that this trip will put her in situations which will be new for her. She wants to explore the world, not to have the world presented to her.\"<\/p>\n

I gathered that we were far from the princess's first port of call, since this speech sounded very practiced.<\/p>\n

My employer nodded and gestured at a sofa that had just been vacated. \"Why don't we sit? I'm sure we have things to discuss, arrangements to make.\"<\/p>\n

My employer and Ana sat on the sofa, and I pulled over a straight-backed chair that I could immediately tell was not completely trustworthy. I sat very still as my employer took out her cigarette case, held it out to Ana, and then took one for herself. I leaned forward, carefully, and lit both cigarettes.<\/p>\n

They thanked me, and my employer said, \"This is my assistant, Marshall.\"<\/p>\n

Ana nodded, acknowledging the introduction.<\/p>\n

\"The princess will be arriving tomorrow.\" she began.<\/p>\n

 
More to come...<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

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This story started here.   My employer and I were having breakfast one morning in the hotel dining room when Fifteen came over and said, “Miss Sleet, there is a young lady to see you.” He pursed his lips at my employer’s expression and the way she’d quickly reached for her cane. “Your visitor does […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/u-town.com\/collins\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/u-town.com\/collins\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/u-town.com\/collins\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u-town.com\/collins\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u-town.com\/collins\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5476"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/u-town.com\/collins\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5566,"href":"https:\/\/u-town.com\/collins\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5476\/revisions\/5566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/u-town.com\/collins\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u-town.com\/collins\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u-town.com\/collins\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}