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Red, White & Royal Blue: Chapters 12–15

First Son Alex Claremont-Diaz is working to ensure his mother's reelection; but when he falls for his old rival, the Prince of England, they unintentionally spark an international incident.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–2, Chapters 3–5, Chapters 6–7, Chapters 8–11, Chapters 12–15
40 words 27 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

  1. sequester
    set apart from others
    Henry lands in the middle of the night and isn’t even allowed to come near the Residence, instead sequestered in a hotel across town.
  2. condescend
    behave in a patronizing manner
    “Don’t condescend to me. You know as much as anyone what I’m capable of, what I’ve seen. If you told me, I would get it.”
  3. gaunt
    very thin, especially from disease or hunger or cold
    He’s so close he’s practically breathing Luna’s reeking cigarette smoke, and when he looks into his face, there’s a flicker of recognition at the bloodshot, blackened eyes and the gaunt cheekbones.
  4. sacrosanct
    treated as if holy and kept free from violation or criticism
    cool waters and a shore of white chalk. the ancient part of you carved out of stone in a prayerful circle, sacrosanct.
  5. nomenclature
    a system of words used to name things in a discipline
    i get the nomenclature now—saints’ names belong to miracles.
  6. ironclad
    inflexibly entrenched and unchangeable
    Her jaw is set, ironclad.
  7. autocrat
    a cruel and oppressive dictator
    It’s the game face he’s seen her use to stare down Congress, to cow autocrats.
  8. moniker
    a familiar name for a person
    The full email transcripts have been uploaded to WikiLeaks under the moniker “The Waterloo Letters," seemingly named for a reference to the Waterloo Vase in the Buckingham Palace Gardens in one email composed by Prince Henry.
  9. disseminate
    cause to become widely known
    “Setting aside the ramifications for President Claremont's ability to be impartial on issues of both international relations and traditional family values,” Republican presidential candidate Senator Jeffrey Richards said at a press conference earlier today, “I’m extremely concerned about this private email server. What kind of information was being disseminated on this server?”
  10. colonnade
    structure consisting of a row of evenly spaced columns
    Amy walks him through the colonnade and up the stairs, saying nothing, and when they reach the hallway between the East and West Bedrooms, he sees them.
  11. tacit
    implied by or inferred from actions or statements
    There’s nothing that wasn’t laid out in there: Henry being gay, Bea going to rehab, the queen tacitly keeping Henry in the closet.
  12. brandish
    exhibit aggressively
    “I told you to stay away—” Bea is saying as soon as the door is open, brandishing a guitar over her shoulder.
  13. rebuff
    reject outright and bluntly
    Philip drove in from Anmer Hall the minute the news broke and has been rebuffed by Bea every time he tries to get near Henry for what he says “will simply be a stern discussion about the consequences of his actions.”
  14. recalcitrant
    stubbornly resistant to authority or control
    Six feet of boy curled around kicked-in ribs and a recalcitrant heart.
  15. decorum
    propriety in manners and conduct
    That’s beyond our sense of decorum!
  16. circumspect
    careful to consider potential consequences and avoid risk
    Shaan and Zahra’s forces combined have managed to secure them a meeting with the queen at Buckingham Palace, but they’ve been told to take a winding, circumspect route to avoid the paparazzi.
  17. flagrant
    conspicuously and outrageously bad or reprehensible
    “I’m afraid I am too old to understand how things are filed away in space,” she goes on, “but I have been told any number of lies can be manufactured and disseminated. One could...create files that never existed and plant them somewhere easy to find. None of it real. The most flagrant of evidence can be discredited and dismissed, just like that.”
  18. wizened
    lean and wrinkled by shrinkage as from age or illness
    The queen holds up one wizened hand to silence her.
  19. epithet
    a defamatory or abusive word or phrase
    "...Why you have chosen to undermine the hard work I’ve done to maintain the crown’s standing is beyond me, and why you seem set on disrupting my efforts to restore it by demanding I summit with some...boy”—here, a nasty lilt to her polite tone, under which Alex can hear epithets for everything from his race to his sexuality—“when you were told to await orders, is truly a mystery..."
  20. perpetuate
    cause to continue or prevail
    My position is unchanged, dear: Your role in this family is to perpetuate our bloodline and maintain the appearance of the monarchy as the ideal of British excellence, and I simply cannot allow anything less.
  21. stipulation
    a restriction insisted upon as a condition for an agreement
    “Well,” the queen eventually says. She’s holding her teacup daintily in the air, eyeing Henry over it. “Even if you’re willing to submit to the flogging in the papers, it doesn’t erase the stipulations of your birthright: You are to produce heirs.”
  22. pertinent
    having precise or logical relevance to the matter at hand
    “Are those details pertinent right now, Philip?”
  23. stewardship
    the position of someone who manages the affairs of others
    “Someone has to bear the stewardship for the royal legacy, Mum.”
  24. proclivity
    a natural inclination
    “The country simply will not accept a prince of his proclivities. I am sorry, dear, but to them, it’s perverse.”
  25. perverse
    deviating from what is considered moral or right or proper
    “The country simply will not accept a prince of his proclivities. I am sorry, dear, but to them, it’s perverse.”
  26. drudgery
    hard, monotonous, routine work
    “Of course they do, Mum. Of course the bloody Tories in Kensington and the Brexit fools don’t want it. That’s not the point. Are you so determined to believe nothing could change? That nothing should change? We can have a real legacy here, of hope, and love, and change. Not the same tepid...drudgery we’ve been selling since World War II—”
  27. eschew
    avoid and stay away from deliberately
    “I’m sixty years old, Mum,” Catherine says. “Can’t we eschew decorum at this point?”
  28. nonplussed
    filled with bewilderment
    He really could have used Nora’s nonplussed approach in this situation, or, really, just his best friend’s company.
  29. surveil
    keep under close watch or observation
    Basically, Richards hired a firm that hired the photographers who followed Alex and the hackers who breached your server, and then he hired another third party to buy everything and resell it to the Daily Mail. I mean, we’re talking about having private contractors surveil a member of the First Family and infiltrate White House security...
  30. bereft
    lacking or deprived of something
    I'm Oliver Westbrook, and with me, as always, is my exceedingly patient, talented, merciful, and lovely producer, Sufia, without whom I would be lost, bereft, floating on a sea of bad thoughts...
  31. indomitable
    impossible to subdue
    But the truth is, also, simply this: love is indomitable.
  32. vagrant
    a wanderer with no established residence or means of support
    “Like a common vagrant?” Queen Mary asked.
  33. admonish
    scold or reprimand; take to task
    “Beatrice," Henry admonishes. “It was going to be a surprise.”
  34. disenfranchised
    deprived of the rights of citizenship, as the right to vote
    “—become a badass civil rights attorney with an illustrious Captain America-esque career of curb-stomping discriminatory laws and fighting for the disenfranchised—”
  35. contingent
    a gathering of persons representative of some larger group
    The whole half-Mexican, all Democrat thing. There’s a very loud contingent there that does not like me and does not want me to represent them.
  36. contingency
    a possible event or occurrence or result
    She grabs his face in both hands and squishes it, and he groans but doesn’t push her off. “So, like. You want to throw out some contingency plans? You want me to run some projections?”
  37. concession
    the act of yielding
    “I just. I need you to help me rewrite this speech for, uh.” There’s a considerable pause. “Well. Just in case of concession.”
  38. lilt
    a jaunty rhythm in music or speech
    The magic comes in a nervous trickle—Henry’s tie, hopeful lilts in voices, a few stray bits of confetti that escape the nets laced through the rafters and get stuck in Nora’s hair—and then, all at once.
  39. requisition
    make a formal request for official services
    “Of course I did,” Liam says, grinning. Beside him, there’s a cute guy grinning too. “I mean, it kind of seemed like the Secret Service were gonna come requisition me from my apartment if I didn’t come.”
  40. remediate
    set straight or right
    “I didn’t mean to remediate me!”
Created on Mon Feb 03 10:15:07 EST 2020 (updated Mon Feb 03 15:50:44 EST 2020)

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