Lady in Waiting

by Lady Victoria Hervey

  We pushed our way through the throng of people to a cluster of beanbags in the corner and each grabbed one.

  “Now this is what I had in mind,” Amber said with a grin.

  “I’m glad to hear it,” I said, having to shout over the music.

  “Okay, I have to ask, do either of you know those guys?” Amber pointed to the two hot American boys I had noticed back at the disco.

  “No, but I wouldn’t mind getting to know one of them. Or both,” Gabrielle said with a giggle.

  The boys, either hearing our girlish laughter, or realising they were being discussed, turned their heads to look at us. One elbowed the other and jerked his head in our direction. His friend nodded and led the way over to us.

  “Hey there,” one said. He was nice to look at—dark brown hair, lovely white teeth, tanned skin and great complexion. “I’m Zach. This is Rick.”

  Rick smiled, revealing a smile just as nice as his friend’s. He was an inch or two taller than Zach, with bleach-blond hair that flopped into his eyes. He looked like a typical surfer, and even wore flip-flops and board shorts.

  “Hi, I’m Freddie,” I said as I smiled at the good-looking boys. “This is Gabrielle and Amber.”

  They both murmured their hellos. Rick took the empty beanbag beside me, lounging in it as though he was perfectly comfortable and at home. I always felt like the stupid things were trying to eat me—and God help me when it came to getting back out of them. Turtles stuck on their back are more graceful.

  “Hi,” Rick said. He leaned on his elbow, angling his body towards mine.

  My cheeks warmed at his attention and before I could even think, Peter’s face flashed in my mind.

  Why on earth are you thinking about him, Freddie? Come on, get a grip, girl…

  I studied Rick’s handsome face—the smooth angles and contours that all came together to make one beautiful boy. As far as I could tell, there was absolutely nothing wrong with him. But that first flutter of butterflies I get when I first meet someone I’m really into…those butterflies weren’t there.

  But did that mean they never would be? I didn’t know him, not yet, at least. What if over the course of the summer I did, and he turned out to be amazing and I had cast him aside because of absentee butterflies? What an idiot I would be!

  Besides, I very much doubted Peter was thinking about me. He was probably too busy thinking about Jemima.

  Jemima lives in London when she isn’t at school. Upton is in London…is that where he lives?

  I wonder if Jemima has seen him.

  “Are you all right?” Rick asked, his forehead pinching in concern.

  Shaking away my reverie, I forced a smile and told myself to relax. “Yes, I’m sorry, I was… My mind took a holiday, I think. Hi, hello.”

  Rick laughed, a rich baritone sound. “Hi. And don’t worry about it, I tend to have that effect on people.”

  A startled laugh burst out of me. “Modesty isn’t your thing, I take it?”

  He shrugged and smiled wider. “Why bother with modesty when honesty is so much better?”

  “Can’t argue with that logic, I guess.”

  Rick grinned. “Can I get you a drink? I’ve got some beers hidden.”

  “Sure, thank you.”

  He disappeared for a moment then returned with a beer for each of us. Gabrielle and Amber seemed to be vying for Zach’s attention—the perils of a situation when girls outnumber boys. It could get ugly. Fast.

  “Uh oh,” Rick said, leaning over to whisper in my ear.

  “Yeah, tell me about it,” I said. Gabrielle and Amber had only just met and their friendship could be doomed before it even got properly started.

  Rick groaned. “Hang on a sec.” He jumped out of his beanbag again, and this time when he returned he had another boy with him. This one I recognised from around camp as a nice guy from Germany, with blue eyes and gorgeous dark blond hair. “Girls, look who I found—this is Jakob. No need to rip poor Zach to shreds with your nails.”

  Amber and Gabrielle exchanged a look before both releasing a giggle. “Come sit, Jakob,” Amber said as she patted the beanbag beside her.

  I turned back to Rick and gave him an impressed nod. “Crisis averted—well done.”

  Rick smiled and leaned back in his beanbag. “Nothing worse than angry girls. My dad taught me at an early age to just keep them happy.”

  “He sounds like a wise man.”

  “He is.”

  Smiling, I lifted my beer bottle. “Here’s to keeping us girls happy.”

  “To keeping you happy,” Rick said, tapping his beer bottle against mine.

  I took a large drink of my beer. “What part of America are you from?”

  “California. Zach too.”

  “Did you come here together?”

  Rick nodded. “It sounded fun and our parents thought it would be a good idea—keep us busy and out of trouble.”

  “Are you awfully naughty?” I asked, smiling over the top of my bottle.

  “Oh yeah, I’m the ultimate bad boy,” Rick said with a laugh. “To be honest, between school and surfing, we barely have time for anything, let alone trouble.”

  I grinned. “I knew it. I had Zach pegged as a surfer, but you too?”

  Rick nodded. “I love it—being out on the water, riding the waves. It was the water sports programme here that made us come.” He leaned a fraction closer to me. “Though, if I’d known there would be such a cool underground scene going on, I’d have asked to come sooner.”

  “Stick with me, I’ll keep you right.”

  “Are you leading that poor boy astray, Freddie?” Gabrielle asked. She had settled into the crook of Zach’s arm and I had to smile at how fast my friend moved.

  “Me?” I asked incredulous. “Would I do such a thing?”

  “Hey, leave the girl alone,” Rick said, jumping to my defence. “I am more than willing to be led astray.”

  Amber and Gabrielle let out peals of laughter.

  Zach held his hand up. “Hang on, that’s not fair. If he’s being led astray than I want to be, too.”

  Gabrielle planted a quick kiss to Zach’s cheek. “Don’t worry, I won’t forget about you.”

  We finished our drinks and the boys left to get us fresh ones.

  “I am having the best time,” Amber said. “Jakob is so cute.”

  “So is Zach. He is totally going to be my summer romance.” Gabrielle swung her gaze to me. “What about you, Freddie? Is love on the cards for you this year?”

  I shrugged and trailed my eyes over to Rick as he made his way back to our little group. “He seems nice. I guess I’ll have to wait and see.”

  It was super late when we all walked back to the chalet. Rick and I led the group, with Zach and Gabrielle stopping every few moments to kiss or disappear into the shadows. Jakob and Amber walked a ways behind, their heads pressed close as they murmured to each other.

  We reached the door to the chalet and, after checking the coast was clear, crept in like a bunch of misfit ninjas. Gabrielle laughed and grabbed my hand as we raced up the stairs as quickly—and quietly—as we could.

  Amber’s room was first, so we dropped her off and bade her goodnight.

  Gabrielle took her time snogging the face off Zach outside our room, leaving me and Rick to smile awkwardly at each other.

  “Jeez, man, you could have done that outside and saved us all this embarrassment,” Rick said, smacking his friend on the shoulder.

  Zach and Gabrielle separated, grinning like idiots at each other.

  “Goodnight, then,” Gabrielle said in a dreamy voice. She waggled her fingers in a wave then darted inside our room.

  Zach punched Rick good-naturedly on the shoulder as he walked past him, heading for the stairs.

  “Thanks for sitting with me tonight, it was nice getting to know you,” I said. My stomach fizzed and I couldn’t tell if it was because I was nervous about what Rick expected of me, or because I was starting to lik
e him.

  “You, too.” Rick stepped forward. He placed his hand on my waist and dipped his head to kiss my cheek. As he pulled back, he winked and turned to follow his friend to the stairs.

  I pressed my fingertips to my cheek, a smile spreading across my face.

  The door to the bedroom swung open and Gabrielle popped her head out. She grabbed my arm and hauled me inside. “Get in here! We have to talk about tonight.”

  We flopped down on my bed and pulled the sheets up over our heads. “You like Zach, then?” I asked her.

  She shrugged. “He’s a good kisser, and so good-looking. What about you? Are you into Rick?”

  I released a long breath as I thought about her question. “I think he’s nice. Gorgeous, obviously. But I don’t think I’m really feeling it.”

  “Poor Rick,” Gabrielle said, pouting. “Oh well, at least you have something nice to look at all summer.”

  I blinked at her before we both dissolved into giggles. One of the other girls made a noise in her sleep, so we clamped our hands over our mouths to smother our laughter.

  This summer was set to be spectacular.

  The days and weeks dissolved into each other. Every day my schedule was jam-packed with sports and activities, or sunbathing in the spare moments I had with Gabrielle and Amber. Most nights we hung around with the boys. Amber’s and Gabrielle’s romances were going at breakneck speed, with both of them often disappearing to be alone with their respective boyfriends.

  I had told Rick the morning after the first disco that I wasn’t really looking for romance. He seemed to take it well enough, and hadn’t disappeared in search for a girl who was interested like I’d thought he would. Instead he’d proved to be a really nice guy, and he always kept me company when our friends were off…being busy.

  July bled away to August and before I knew it, my time at Camp Monte Leone was half over. I wrote postcards to Mummy and Daddy to let them know I was having such a good time. I was looking forward to the final two weeks of summer, when I’d return to Monaco to be with my family.

  Three weeks before the end of my time at Camp Monte Leone, I joined a horse trek through the mountains with Gabrielle, Amber, Paulina and a handful of other girls. Zuzu didn’t want to go because she was deathly afraid of horses.

  It was a tough trail with narrow paths and often steep inclines. My horse, Shetân, was beautiful, as black as night. He was enormous, the biggest the camp owned, and young, too. He didn’t feel completely trained to me, at least not to the standards he probably should have been. But because I was the tallest and most experienced when it came to horses, I was always given him to ride.

  Over the last few weeks, I had got to know him better, but I didn’t fully trust him. I trusted him enough to ride, but there was just a slight nagging in the back of my mind that I couldn’t quiet.

  We paused in a grassy clearing for a break after riding for a while. Vicky, the counsellor leading us, handed around bottles of water. It was boiling hot and I was sweating beneath my hat.

  “I’m going to miss this,” Gabrielle said, tipping her head back to bask in the sunshine.

  “Because they don’t have sunshine in Australia?” Amber asked.

  Gabrielle pulled a face at her and flicked her with some water. “Shut up, you know what I mean. There’s nowhere else on earth like Crans-Montana.”

  Amber nodded in understanding. “I can’t believe this is my first year coming here, and I don’t ever get to come back.”

  “You know, I sort of toyed with the idea of coming back as a counsellor during my summers from university,” I said.

  Gabrielle twisted her mouth in displeasure. “I don’t think I’d enjoy this place half as much if I had to look after a bunch of brats.”

  A laugh bubbled in my throat. “You were one of the brats, once.”

  She smiled and tossed her ponytail. “I was a delightful brat, thank you very much.”

  “Of course you were,” I said. “That’s why all the counsellors groaned when they saw you coming. They used to call you Grumbling Gabrielle because you complained about everything that first summer!”

  Gabrielle huffed. “The bed was lumpy, the salad was almost always soggy and there were never any rowboats free when I wanted to go out on the lake. Who wouldn’t complain at that?”

  Amber stared at Gabrielle in disbelief. “I take it back. I’m so glad this is my last year.”

  Gabrielle stuck her tongue out at Amber.

  “Well, I for one am glad I have a few more years left to come here,” Paulina said, joining into the conversation. “And soon I’ll be one of the crazy older girls who show the younger ones where the secret parties are.”

  Amber lifted her eyebrows and gave Paulina a condescending look. “What makes you think we’re going to tell you before we leave?”

  The smile fell from Paulina’s face. “What?”

  “Well, if we don’t tell you about them, you’ll never know where they are or what they are like…so you can never pass on the knowledge yourself,” Amber said. She gave Paulina a cruel smile. “I don’t think you’re quite up to knowing such privileged information.”

  Paulina stared at Amber for a few seconds. Her chin wobbled and I wanted to thump Amber for being such a nasty bitch. Paulina pulled on the reins to turn her horse, Apache, away.

  Amber’s eyes widened with horror. “Oh, Paulina, I was kidding! Please don’t be upset!” She dug her heels into her horse’s side to start after Paulina. “Paulina!”

  “No!” Paulina shouted. “I don’t care if you were kidding, that was a horrible thing to say, Amber!”

  Amber rolled her eyes. “Oh, for God’s sake, stop being such a Frenchie drama queen.”

  Paulina twisted around and threw her bottle of water at Amber.

  It smacked against her hat, and bounced off to hit the back of her horse’s neck. Amber gasped in shocked and glared at Paulina. “Are you kidding me? What are you, five?”

  It was clear to anyone who was watching the episode that Paulina was hurt, and her pride was smarting. But Amber had clearly lost her temper after Paulina hadn’t laughed it off when she’d told her it was a joke. “Amber—” I started.

  “It’s okay, Freddie,” Paulina said, cutting me off. “You don’t have to defend your fille soumise friend.”

  I gasped at the description she’d just given Amber, and also the venom in her tone.

  “What did you just call me?” Amber demanded. She swung around to pin me with an angry look. “What the hell did she just call me?”

  No way in heck was I taking that bullet…and Amber sure as anything was the sort to shoot the messenger. “Er…I don’t think it translates.”

  Amber sneered and swivelled back around to face Paulina.

  “Girls, girls, what’s going on?” Vicky asked as she approached the situation. She wore a broad smile and clearly had no idea what was really going on, otherwise she would have entered wearing protective gear.

  Paulina yanked on Apache’s reins again, too hard, and I saw the animal shake his head.

  I glanced between Paulina and her horse. Paulina was so rigid with adrenaline it had to have been feeding through to Apache. Horses are so sensitive, especially to their rider, and right now Paulina and Apache made for a dangerous combination. “Paulina, I think you should—”

  Paulina groaned. “Stay out of this, Freddie!” She gave another hard yank on the reins to turn her horse, making him more and more agitated. He huffed and swung his head and I could almost see what was about to happen.

  The rest of the girls with us on the ride were completely oblivious to the mess we had found ourselves in, and laughed at something one of the other girls had said. One of the girls laughed so hard she dropped her whip. It hit the ground with a sharp crack that provided the final straw in spooking Paulina’s horse.

  Apache reared up with a frightened whinny, dismounting Paulina. She rolled away as soon as she hit the ground, immediately finding shelter beneath a tr
ee.

  But Apache’s spooking created a domino effect with all the other horses. They whinnied and moved around in an agitated state. Well, all except Shetân, of course.

  Shetân reared up but I held on for dear life, hoping that after one outburst he would be fine. Except he wasn’t fine, and his flight instinct kicked in with me still on his back, and we charged through the dense forest.

  There was nothing I could do except hold on as tightly as I could and hope that he would stop soon. A spooked horse could bolt for miles before it even realised it was far from the danger it had fled from in the first place.

  Shrieks and yelps pierced the air behind me, and I guessed that Shetân bolting had spooked the others into doing the same.

  I had no idea how long Shetân had been galloping for. It could have been seconds but it felt like hours. My heart was hammering in my chest and my vision had blurred. I could barely make out any of the scenery, it passed by too quickly.

  In the distance, a sort of thundering could be heard.

  It was another few seconds that I realised what it was.

  A river ran through these mountains, but not a slow flowing river, a roaring river with rapids and an impossibly strong current. We’d all been warned to never attempt to swim in it. So many visitors to the area over the years had thought they could handle it. They were wrong, and as a result there had been more than one death.

  I peered over Shetân’s head and focused my eyes—confirming that yes, we were fast approaching the rapids. My breath caught in my throat at the sight of the white, churning water and I wondered idly if my parents would be cross to receive the news that I’d died whilst enjoying my summer away at camp.

  I was running out of time.

  Shetân showed no sign of stopping.

  There was no other choice—I had to jump.

  Squeezing my eyes shut, I whispered, “Please stop, Shetân, please, please, stop. Don’t drown.” And I threw myself to the side.

  I landed with a thump that knocked the wind out of me. Pain lanced through my foot, but it was secondary to the burning in my lungs as I tried to suck in a breath.