As planned, Muriel approached Nigel and struck up a conversation with him, "Hey Nigel, why don't you pair with me today?"
Nigel didn't really like the twins. In fact he didn't really get along with other Princes or Princesses. He was glad that Adeline was finally five years old and would accompany him every day from now on.
Now that Adeline was here, Nigel didn't want to pair up with anyone else. To add to that, General Osmond had directly ordered him to pair with Adeline. So he refused the offer of Muriel, "No thanks! General Osmond has ordered me to pair up with Adeline."
What Nigel didn't realize was that Muriel was just trying to distract him to give chance for Margery to lure Adeline away.
The moment Nigel turned his back on Adeline to face Muriel, Margery had snuck past him and was whispering in Adeline's ear, "Come and play with me. If you play with me, I'll give you a strawberry."
