I’m going to use the next five Wednesdays to post the same scene from different points of view. It’s a fun exercise, and you learn a lot about the characters in the scene. The prompt: Princess Sofia-Anna of Bulgavia is in Wittleup

Princess Sofia-Anna of Bulgavia shifted uncomfortably in her seat. She’d managed to get hold of ‘ordinary’ clothes over the past few days, gradually moving down the exclusivity of the shops she’d shopped in until she had wandered, wide-eyed, into one of the big, open stores that sold everything from underwear to lawnmowers.

What she hadn’t realised was how damn uncomfortable clothes could be when they weren’t tailored. Apparently she was short-waisted and the jeans she’d bought were constantly inching down her hips.

She tugged on one side as subtly as she could and studiously avoided the leering gaze of a couple of boys at a nearby table. If this meeting wasn’t so damn important, she’d have spun on her heel and fled the instant she’d stepped into this strange little café in a strange little town in strange but very large country.

Her security guard was currently tailing a woman she’d ‘accidentally’ bumped into at the train station that morning. Quite how he thought she didn’t know exactly which of her items he’d put trackers on said a lot more about his arrogance and intelligence than she liked to think.

She sipped her coffee, then propped her chin on her hand and sighed, looking at the wide, dry world beyond the windows.

He’d probably be fired. Just as well, he was getting a little too friendly. She’d be in trouble too, of course, it was selfish and irresponsible of her to just run off. As if Jean-Claude didn’t do it every second week. Being a prince was much more fun.

A woman walked through the door, a woman she’d not seen since she was ten. Sofia-Anna smiled and waved, trying to look as casual as any other person catching up with a friend in this place.

The woman’s hand went to her throat and Sofia-Anna saw her bite her lip. She used to do that when she was trying not to cry. Oh dear. Was this a mistake?

Then she was hurrying across the café and sweeping Sofia-Anna into the warm, loving hug she’d been missing for so long. “Oh my little princess, look at how you’ve grown.”

Sofia-Anna found she was biting back tears now and then Nanny Jane ordered coffee, and sat and they talked.