To Marry a Prince (40 page)

‘A role?’

‘The three of us. Good Boy, Bad Boy, Wild Child. They’ve been calling her that since she was thirteen. People
believe
it.’

‘But surely …’ And then Bella remembered the cartoon she had seen, before she even met Richard. The Royal Family as the Seven Dwarfs, that was it. What had they called the children?
Dim, Ditzy and Dull
. She’d believed it, hadn’t she? ‘I’m sorry,’ she said, ashamed of herself.

He shrugged. ‘I get to play the Clown. Not a problem. It’s tougher on Richard who does all the dull stuff and never, ever gets drunk, or goes on the razzle, or even does his own thing. At least, not until he met you.’

‘Me?’

‘You have no idea what a bid for freedom you were. For all of us, including Nell and me. You gave us hope.’

‘But why? Surely Richard does everything he wants to? The Queen says he’s very strong-willed.’

‘The Good Boy?’ said George. ‘He’d give up anything, if he thought it was his duty. He was a fine sailor, you know. Really gifted. Might even have had trials for the Olympics if they’d let him carry on with it. Only Mother said it was too dangerous. So he gave it up. My father didn’t stop him. He
gave it up
. It’s as if he’s trying to kill off everything about him that isn’t …’

‘Public property?’ said Bella in a small voice.

‘Yup, maybe. Then he started parkour. Do you know what that is?’

She shook her head.

‘Sort of free running. You try to cross the city without touching the ground. Very gymnastic. Lots of vaults and springs and swinging from your hands. He was really good. He still watches it on YouTube sometimes. It makes me so mad. He should be
doing
it.’

‘He told me he liked climbing buildings,’ said Bella, enlightened.

George cocked an eyebrow. ‘Really? As if he still does it?’

She said carefully, ‘As if he still plans to do it, certainly.’

‘That’s the best news I’ve heard in years. Let’s hope he sticks with it.’ He brightened at a thought. ‘If you can get him into a horned helmet, hauling an oar with a bunch of weirdos, there might still be hope for him. Power to your elbow, Bella Greenwood. Power to your elbow.’

But there was no sign of Richard breaking out. Even when he and the Queen came back from their tour, he and Bella never got their old intimacy back. Partly, of course, it was because he insisted on her living in that barracks of a place. It didn’t feel quite right, sleeping together in the great echoing Palace, with servants popping out of doors when you least expected them, and the King at one end of the building and the Queen at the other. But he could have kissed her as if he meant it, talked to her properly. Even taken her out somewhere.

He didn’t. He was just courteous and considerate and desperately busy. Whenever he saw her, he made it clear that he was on his way somewhere else. He couldn’t even spare half an hour to walk round one of the parks with her.

The only sign of emotion he gave was when she said quietly, ‘Richard, I don’t know what’s gone wrong. This
can’t
just be about the Hen Night. Do you want to end the engagement?’

He looked at her as if she had stabbed him. It was the only hopeful sign she had seen.

And at once he said tonelessly, ‘If that’s what you want, then of course.’

Bella said, ‘No, it’s not what I want. How can you think that? Remember what we used to be like?’

She went to him. His hands came out to her for just a moment. Then they fell to his sides and he stepped back.

It was like a slap in the face.

She stood very still for a couple of seconds, mastering
herself. Then she said quietly, ‘What has happened to us? Is it something to do with your father? Surely he’s better? He seems terrific.’

The King, alone of the family, seemed to be in tearing spirits. He had lost a stone and a half, started jogging round the Palace grounds, and had thrown himself back into his official engagements with a will. He looked, in fact, like a man who has been on holiday. Unlike his elder son, who looked so fine-drawn, you could see the skull under his skin.

Richard said formally, ‘He is very well indeed. The doctors are very pleased with him.’ He looked at his watch. ‘Now, I’m sorry, I’m overdue at the Cathedral. The Prior is talking about a rehearsal but I’m saying it’s too soon.’

And he was gone before Beth could stop him.

It was only afterwards that she thought,
he
is going to the Cathedral? Without me? What is going on?

Of course, it was probably because of the paparazzi. The tell-tale photographs had come from cellphones and the newspapers had tweaked and enhanced them in-house. But the paparazzi didn’t find her boring any more. Whenever she stepped outside, they homed in on her like wasps round a jam jar.

‘Do they think I’m going to throw myself into the arms of some passing hunk?’ she asked Lottie irritably, having run the gauntlet of their cameras in order to have her hair done by Carlos, followed by supper with her friend. ‘What do they think I am?’

‘Desperate,’ said Lottie frankly.

‘What?’

‘That’s how you look. Tense and haggard, as if you hadn’t slept for a month. And you’re losing weight again, too. Have you been dieting after that silly photo?’

‘What? No. What are you talking about?’

Lottie blushed and apologised. ‘I was thinking of that photo the mad person put up on their blog. Loyal Subject or whatever they call themselves. It was you standing on the cliff, when the boys were doing their Viking thing. There must have been a stiff breeze because you’re leaning backwards but it blows the front of your waterproof out, as if you’ve got a bit of a tummy. A few of the nastier bloggers were calling you podgy.’

Bella shrugged. ‘I didn’t see it. I don’t look at the internet much. The Press guys send printouts to Trudy, but she says it’s just depressing how badly written it all is. So I don’t see it.’

‘Oh, well, good. So you’re not dieting to look like a skeleton? It just happened?’

Bella flushed. ‘I know. I’ll do better. But it’s almost like being in prison, Lotts. They want me to work at home, too. Well, I can do that. Project evaluation is a solitary activity. I don’t have to go into the city to sit at a desk and do it. But I liked the desk and the office and going round the corner to meet Ma at the pub for lunch.’

Lottie made sympathetic noises. She said she couldn’t envisage a life in which you couldn’t go round the corner to the pub.

Bella smiled, but her smile swiftly died. ‘Everywhere I go I have a palace minder in case I get drunk and fall over and a security officer in case somebody else does. I
said I wanted to buy some new knickers and they asked Marks and Spencer to stay open ’specially for me.’

‘I’m impressed.’

‘Don’t be. A great shop like that, with nobody but me and a few Palace watchers in it. Creeped me out.’

Lottie said awkwardly, ‘Bel, do you think – could they be trying to scare you off? Freak you out by showing you what it’s going to be like being Mrs Richard?’

Bella nodded slowly. ‘I thought of that. But I don’t see the point. I told him we could break it off and …’ She drew a long breath. ‘He didn’t want to. He looked horrified. No, the one thing I’m absolutely certain of is that he still wants to marry me, Lotts.’

But, in her heart, she wasn’t certain at all.

‘Good to Go!’ –
Tube Talk

And then, out of the blue, her father rang.

‘Bella?’ he yelled. He always yelled as if he were in the midst of the Siberian wastes, even if it was only Clapham Common.

Bella felt her heart lift. Finn was a meteor, whizzing at top speed and possibly destructive, but he always sizzled with energy. ‘Hello, Finn. Where are you?’

‘I’m staying with your brother. He’s worried about you. We’re coming to see you. Time we broke you out of the Bastille.’

Maybe it was Finn’s renegade influence, but quite suddenly Bella had had enough of being a ladylike prisoner, with Lady Pansy vetoing her every choice and all her own friends unreachable on the other side of the Palace’s curtain wall.

‘No, I’ll meet you,’ she said decisively. ‘St James’s Park. On the bridge. Today at four.’

Lady Pansy, a creature of habit, took tea with the Queen at four on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

And while Lady Pansy was away, Bella just walked out. Nobody stopped her. The policeman on the gate
didn’t even question her, just tipped his hat.

Why didn’t I think of doing this before? she thought. I must have been going stir crazy in there. I could have walked out any time I wanted.

She walked gently round the park, smelling the honey and musk of the early roses, savouring the great blowsy displays of annuals in the beds, and the lush green grass. It felt good to have the warm air on her face again. At last, Bella felt she could breathe.

She got to the bridge at four o’clock exactly. Finn wasn’t there. Par for the course, thought Bella tolerantly, and leaned over the railing watching a family of ducklings show off their prowess at swimming in a straight line – except for the tail-end Charlie, who kept getting distracted and was endlessly chivvied back into line by his father. She laughed aloud.

‘That doesn’t sound too bad,’ said a voice.

And she turned and there was Finn: disreputable holed jeans, appalling old lumberjack shirt, open to the waist, several days’ worth of beard and an Akubra hat. He raised his a hand, which was the closest he ever got to giving anyone a hug.

‘Live long and prosper.’

He was also a fan of cult TV. How could she have forgotten that? Bella was so pleased to see him, she grinned from ear to ear.

Her phone started to ring. She switched it off. This was Bella time. No one else was muscling in on that.

‘Finn, it’s good to see you. You look a complete down and out.’

He took it as a compliment and preened like one of
the ducks. ‘Got back two days ago. Went straight to Neill’s. That Viking stunt of his looked good fun. Sorry I missed it.’

‘Well, stick around. He may do it again.’

‘I might. I might stick around to see you married, too. How do you feel about that?’

Bella thought about Finn slouching into the Cathedral and coming face to face with Lady Pansy. She could have danced with glee. ‘Oh, yes,
please
, Dad.’ Suddenly her eyes were brimming over.

He blinked. She never called him Dad. ‘Hey. No need to cry. If you want me there, I’m up for it. I’ll even walk you down the aisle if you want.’ His tone said it would be an enormous sacrifice.

‘You don’t have to go that far. Kevin has offered and he actually doesn’t mind wearing a morning suit.’

Finn gave a sigh of relief. ‘Great chap, Kevin. Always said so. Now walk round this pond with me and tell me what’s wrong.’

To her amazement, she did. Finn, who normally found human relationships both difficult and boring, listened with unusual attention. In the end he said, ‘You know, something seems to have happened to this chap of yours. He hasn’t had a blow to the head or anything, has he?’

‘No,’ said Bella, with a tearful chuckle.

‘Well, then, you’d better ask him what’s going on,’ said Finn. ‘Because sure as hell, something is.’

‘I don’t see what it could be—’

Finn raised his eyes to heaven. ‘God, this is why I can never live with women. They go off into corners and
think, maybe it’s this, maybe it’s that. Ask, woman.
Ask
.’

Bella hesitated.

‘Call him now and I’ll buy us both an ice cream.’

She laughed. ‘Oh, all right.’

She switched the phone back on and at once texts started whizzing across the screen. Well, tough. She called Richard.

He picked up so fast, it was like a cat pouncing. ‘Bella. Oh, thank God! Are you all right? Where are you?’

‘I’m in St James’s Park,’ she said. ‘Looking at the ducks. In front of the ice-cream stand. Look, you and I need—’

‘Stay there. Stay
there
,’ he said urgently. ‘Don’t move. I can see you. I’m coming to get you.’

Bella let the phone drop, her mouth open.

Her father called out something.

She turned to him, shaking her head. ‘What?’

‘I said—’

And out of the bushes pounded Richard, Prince of Wales, and hit him. Actually, he felled Finn by the unscientific but effective method of knocking him behind the knees and then jumping on him.

‘What the fuck?’ gasped Bella.

‘It’s OK,’ said Richard, with a knee in Finn’s back. ‘I’ve got the bastard. You’re safe.’

Safe?

Bella glugged but no words came. Finn made some protesting noises.

‘Shut up,’ said Richard, so fiercely that even Finn shut up.

Richard pulled out his phone. ‘It’s OK, I’ve got her.
She doesn’t seem to be hurt.’ He looked at Bella, his face haggard. ‘You’re not, are you?’

She shook her head.

‘She’s safe. Now come and arrest this bastard before I wring his neck!’