Stella was furious. That arrogant idiot of an heir had pushed her patience to testing point, and it was only sheer determination and fear of bringing shame upon all of Britain that had gotten her through the negotiations. Worst of all, she would be meeting Grand Duke Nicholas again, because the end results of the negotiations was that he would indeed be visiting Britain. MI9 would be in charge of his safety, which basically meant that Stella would be burdened with the responsibility of making sure that Nicholas wouldn't do anything stupid.
Luckily, she had Frank's team of teenagers to help out with this particularly irritable young man of their own age. The minute she got disentangled herself for the diplomatic discussion, she found a rather empty corridor and dialed Frank's number.
"Stella!" There was a lot of background noise through the phone, and Stella could tell that it was lunchtime at the school. "What's up? How'd the meeting with the PM and ambassador go?"
The background noise quickly died off, and Stella guessed that Frank had moved to quieter location. "As well as I could have hoped," Stella answered, her voice clipped as she struggled to retain the twinge of annoyance that she felt every time she even thought of Gran Duke Nicholas. "MI9 has been given the task of protecting the Grand Duke. I need your team on it."
"I'll call them in for briefing then," Frank answered, and Stella could hear him fumbling with his mop handle to summon his agents. "Are you coming over for the briefing?"
"Yes, I might as while," Stella answered. "I can explain it to you at the same time, no need to do it over the phone."
There was a pause, and somehow, Stella knew Frank was frowning. "Stella," Frank said cautiously. "You sound annoyed. What did I do this time?"
"What?" Nothing!" Stella had disguised her annoyed tone as part of her businesslike manner, but apparently Frank had seen, or rather heard, through the act.
"Then what did Stark do?" Frank asked, sounding slightly relieved that he wasn't in trouble.
"Nothing either!" Stella replied. She sighed softly, but Frank still heard her through the phone.
"Then what's wrong?"
Stella paused, uncertain of whether she should warn him about Grand Duke Nicholas' tendency to irritate everyone around him. Then she decided that Frank should at least have some mental preparation for meeting the young heir. "It's the Grand Duke. He's so irritable you would not believe it. I can generally be quite patient in a diplomatic setting, but I nearly lost it and yelled at him to learn some manners. You'll find out when you meet him."
There was a pause as Frank digested this information. "I'm sure I will. In the meantime, come round and spend some time with us wonderfully normal people here at St Heart's."
Stella laughed. Frank and the school-aged spies were anything from normal. "I look forward to it. See you in a bit."
"See you," Frank answered, before they both hung up.
After a morning full of polite phrases squeezed out through gritted teeth, Stella found it extremely relaxing to be able to smile again. Her smile, which found its way onto her face while she was talking to Frank, grew wider as she realised that she'd be seeing him very soon.
Pocketing her phone, Stella walked out of the building to the waiting car and climbed in, telling the driver to take her to St Heart's. It was time to brief the team.