life in the palace

Eileen liked the obvious luxuries - her wonderful quarters, the magnificent menus and the glorious grounds, where on her rare days off she would spend a lot of time - but hated the restrictions.  Nobody working in the Palace is permitted to leave the grounds without the explicit say-so of the Queen (who also likes to know where people are going.  She claims it's a security measure.  Eileen believes it's just being plain nosey). 

Another pain is that if  you attempted to leave the Palace "unofficially", someone would spot you and inevitably report you (or they'd get moaned at and when your boss is the most powerful magical being in the Kingdom, well you don't chance getting the wrong side of them, do you?).  The Council spends most of the year at the Palace and Eileen didn't like spending a lot of time in their company either given they tended to be criticial of her criticism of them. 

The Palace followed a set routine.  Eileen had sympathy with this.  With so many living and working in the grounds, there had to be a routine to make the system work.  But she also felt it gave the Queen far too much of an opportunity to control more than she strictly needed to. 

All in all, Eileen was glad to go into exile (and would've been even if she hadn't met Derek).