by Avery Wilde
The Queen took the paper, and I watched her face turn first to horror then to grim determination. “Right.” She passed the paper to Andrew and me. “I’m sorry, Keira, for what you’re about to go through.”
I looked at the paper, and my heart seemed to plummet directly into my stomach. The tabloid headline writers had put it more succinctly, but the general gist of the front page was: Prince forced to marry the maid he knocked up during dirty sex romps.
My heart was practically in my shoes now. I’d told them I was prepared for this, and I’d thought that I was prepared for this, but the reality of it, of someone prying into my life, was so violating. I shivered. The picture was the worst part of it; Andrew and I caught in a compromising position. It’d been a loving moment, but it was now rendered sordid.
I looked at Andrew and saw the fury in his eyes, and he spoke through grated teeth.
“I’ve seen this picture before.”
Chapter 26
Andrew
Doors burst open and smacked into their parent wall as I ploughed through the dining rooms and libraries of Richmond in search of my brother. As I went, hot anger radiated from me, and I heard Keira’s voice in my head, ‘He’s your brother—the only one you’ve got—try to understand why he did this and talk to him’. She was right, of course: what had the events of today taught me, if not that talking was the way to real progress, and that it was sadly missing from my family? I was lucky to have a woman like Keira, who would recognize my rage and calm it with those well-chosen words. My family was also lucky to be welcoming someone who could put the way she’d been treated to one side enough to see the need for peace between warring siblings. And so, when I found Michael, I would sit him down and calmly ask: why did you do this? What have I done to you that makes you want to hurt me this way? And what can I do to make things right between us in the future?
Or maybe I wouldn’t.
I threw open another heavy set of double doors, which slammed into the centuries-old plasterwork with a satisfying ‘whump!’ and came to a brief halt. There was the object of my search. I strode across the room, grabbed Michael by the lapels and propelled him with bruising force back against the wall.
“What the hell did you do?”
Of course, saying you’re going to act in a diplomatic way and actually doing it, when faced with a man who has slandered your fiancée in the press, are two very different things. I was willing to admit that I hadn’t really lived up to the spirit of what Keira had said. On the other hand, I hadn’t ripped off Michael’s arms and made him eat them, which I thought showed a great deal of restraint on my part, given the circumstances.
Michael was understandably taken aback by this, but he regained his composure admirably quickly.
“I did what I had to do.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“The public has a right to know the truth about their future King and Queen!”
I dropped him. “What?”
Michael brushed down his creased shirt front. “I heard Mother talking to Rogers. I knew she was bringing you back. So I’m back out in the cold again. The unwanted second child. Just kept around on the off-chance that there’s a national tragedy and we get caught without a King.”
“So you took your bitterness out on Keira.”
Michael drew himself up. “The public had a right to…”
“Oh, stop talking shit!” I fought down the urge to lose my temper again. Keira was right; it wouldn’t help. “Maybe you’ve managed to convince yourself that you did this for the good of the public, but it doesn’t fool me for one second.”
“Believe what you like,” Michael sneered. “It doesn’t matter anyway; as much damage as these photos might do to your reputation, you’ll still get to be King.”
“Yes.” And I realized that it was only in this moment that I’d made up my mind. I did want to be King, a different sort of King; one who would really change things. “I do get to be King. And, for what it’s worth, I plan to be a damn good one. And since you’re so keen on a monarch keeping his people well-informed, how about I start now?”
“What?” Anxiety had crept into Michael’s snide features.
“I think they’re entitled to know that the second (soon to be third) in line to the throne is a bitter, jealous parasite, who would sell photographs of his own brother to the tabloids.”
Michael’s anxiety turned to genuine fear.
“You see, some of them might not like the idea of a prince and a commoner,” I continued. “And some of them won’t like the idea of an heir to the throne born out of wedlock. And I won’t lie to you, the next few months are going to be absolute hell for me and, more importantly for Keira. But here’s the thing. I love her and I’m marrying her. And that’s a fairytale happy ending that the public will love more than any sordid gossip. Once they get to know Keira, they’re going to love her like I do, because she’s pretty bloody wonderful. And all the petty stuff that they’re going to be up in arms about for the next few months will seem like a bad dream. But someone betraying his own brother? Well, that’s something I don’t see them forgetting. That’s the sort of thing that hangs around your neck for the rest of your life. And you don’t have the option of them forgiving you once they get to know you, because; a) they already know you and don’t much like you; and b) you’re just not a nice person.”
I shook my head and continued. “I hope you really enjoy the next few months of misery that Keira and I have to endure thanks to you, because the price of it is a lifetime of misery for you.”
Michael’s face had passed through fear and settled on hatred. Somehow he still blamed me for all that was about to befall him.
“Fortunately for you,” I finished. “I’m not about to make that call.”
Michael looked up, stunned.
“For one thing, it would upset our mother,” I went on. “But more importantly, I don’t want to be that person. That’s what you would do. And I don’t want to be you. This cycle of escalating blame between us has to end somewhere, and I say it ends here.” I put my hand on his shoulder, Michael flinching as it landed. “You are a despicable human being—and not in the cool way. I know you haven’t had it easy, and I haven’t made it easier, but I don’t think that in any way excuses what you’ve done to hurt my fiancée. I dislike you intensely. But I forgive you.”
With that, I walked away, leaving my speechless brother staring gormlessly at my retreating back. To my surprise, I felt rather good about what I’d just done. Keira had been absolutely right.
Well, I was going to marry her soon, so I guess I’d better get used to that being the case…
Chapter 27
Andrew
The response to the tabloid article was instant and as bad as predicted. One of the great inconsistencies of the general public is that a celebrity was allowed to be a lovable lothario, screwing his way around the world, right up until he got a girl pregnant…at which point his actions were heinous and he was to be despised.
The womanizing that these same papers had been enjoying for years was now mutated to paint me as a sexual predator, scattering my illegitimate offspring across the globe. I took it all on the chin, because to all of it there was a degree of truth. In the past, I’d abused my position and behaved like a horny dog, and it was about time I got my comeuppance. But the fact that I’d dragged Keira down with me was something for which I would never forgive myself.
As much as this was my fault, it was somehow also Keira’s fault, according to the media. They’d cast her in the role of scheming seductress, preying on wealthy men, and they’d even invented a whole list of former ‘conquests’. They claimed she was deliberately careless with birth control in her efforts to win a rich husband, and who knew what she might be doing behind that husband’s back? Obviously this wasn’t love, and so ‘evidence’ came to light of orgies in the servants’ quarters and Keira’s astonishing sexual exploits in America. Keira didn’t want to read it but fou
nd she couldn’t look away, and she kept musing on how she could’ve possibly had time for all these alleged orgies.
At least she’d kept her sense of humor throughout this debacle.
My mother had immediately come out in staunch public support, denouncing the liars and filth-peddlers who profited from this intrusion into people’s private lives and officially welcoming Keira into the family by announcing the date of our wedding. But it was destined to be a very bad few months despite that. We steeled ourselves, and we wished that we could protect our child from this.
And then, as quickly as it had started—only a day or so later—the furor was gone. The media was like a starving dog, and the only way to stop it eating you was to feed it something else, and a story had just hit the headlines that trumped my and Keira’s scandal and made the public forget that they’d ever really had a problem with us.
I stared at the paper, disconsolately. I should’ve been pleased; I’d been saved from scandal and so had my bride-to-be.
But it had come at a price.
“I can’t believe Michael did this. I can’t believe he actually went to the tabloids and admitted he was the one who leaked the photos and the pregnancy information,” I said.
Keira snuggled up beside me, her head nestled in the crook of my arm. “I think he wanted to.”
I continued to stare at the paper and at the article that angrily tore my brother to shreds. It turned out that I’d been right; a royal prince stabbing his brother in the back, letting his bitterness and jealousy get the better of him, was a bigger story than a prince getting a maid pregnant. The media had never really liked Michael, simply because, when you got right down to it, he wasn’t that likeable, but they’d never had a chance to attack him because he never really did anything wrong, which was one of the things that made him so hard to like. While we might admire men who stuck to the straight and narrow, never straying from their duty and wagging their fingers at those who do, they were not the sort of men anyone wanted to have a drink with.
So now the media had a genuine reason to go after Michael, and they ran with it. It was already known that he was jealous enough of me that he’d sold pictures of me and Keira, but might there be more?
The papers were sure that there was.
They’d hastily dug back through old stories looking for other ways in which Michael might have done wrong. Where evidence didn’t exist, they simply made it up. The bottom line was that where sex (and more pointedly love) was concerned, we all made mistakes, did the wrong thing (or the wrong person) and wound up in situations we wished we could take back—we’d all been there. But to turn on your own brother? Who did that? Who tried to cheat his own brother out of his birthright, nearly drove him away to another country and used the love of his life as a weapon against him? What sort of person did he have to be? The papers eviscerated him.
What none of the media outlets took the trouble to mention was where their surprisingly detailed information had come from. It’d come from Michael himself.
“I don’t see why anyone would want to bring all this down on themselves,” I said with a sigh.
“Sure you do,” said Keira.
I smiled. “You’re telling me what I think now?”
“It’s easier than waiting for you to figure it out,” Keira said. “Look, when they were having a go at you, didn’t you feel a little like you deserved it?”
I hedged. “Maybe a little. Doesn’t mean I liked it.”
“But it made you feel better,” she insisted. “It’s the same with Michael. He wants it to be bad, that way he can get on with his life with a clean slate.”
“I guess.”
“Have you spoken to him?”
“No.”
“You should. You’ve got a question to ask him.”
“I have?”
I’d become used to Keira being able to read my mind, but it was disconcerting when she knew what I was thinking before I did. However, as usual, she was totally right. I had a very important question to ask my brother—after what he’d done to make things up to us by sacrificing himself to the media, I couldn’t think of anyone else who I wanted to be my best man. After all, despite everything, he was family, and family was the most important thing in the world.
And soon, when Keira gave birth, my family would be even bigger.
I smiled at the thought of seeing our baby for the first time.
I couldn’t wait.
Chapter 28
Andrew
There’s no antidote for what ails a country like a royal wedding. When international sporting events go badly and recession threatens, a royal wedding is the palliative needed to get everyone smiling again. Really, you can only pity those countries that don’t have a royal family.
The Queen had personally overseen the details of the wedding, with help from Keira, and it was already being touted in the media as the ‘Wedding of the Century’. All had been arranged with speed and the minimum of fuss, which is what happened when a wedding was organized by people more used to putting on state dinners. No matter how poorly relatives get along, the seating chart for a reception holds no fears to anyone who’s had to arrange one for the countries of the old Commonwealth.
And now, today was the day.
At the altar end of the aisle, I bounced nervously up and down on my toes, casting frequent glances down the aisle to see if Keira had arrived yet. Her friends and family from America were here, still looking quite shocked that their very own Keira was marrying a British royal, but they’d simply have to get used to it, because I was going to stay married to her as long as we lived.
If she showed up, that is. The ceremony was meant to start five minutes ago, and I was starting to worry. Maybe she’d finally realized I wasn’t anywhere near good enough for her?
Michael nudged me, seemingly reading my mind. “She’s too good for you, but if she hasn’t realized it by now, you’re probably safe. Plus, you’ve already knocked her up so I think the odds are pretty good that she’ll be walking down that aisle any moment now.
“You’re a great comfort,” I replied with a smile.
“I’m sure you’ll be just as helpful when it’s my turn.”
“Got anyone in mind? How about Princess Alexandra?” I joked.
“I don’t think she’d like Africa.”
For pretty much his entire life, my brother had been fixated on the throne and how he might acquire something that he felt should’ve been his but never could be. It had been a waste of a colossal amount of energy, and now that he’d got that monkey off his back and accepted that I would be King, he’d found that he suddenly had all that energy to spare. In the last two months, he’d thrown himself into charitable projects and discovered that he had a talent for them. His organizational skills, single-mindedness and dedication, which had been for so long squandered, served him well in this new role. He might forever be branded as the treacherous younger brother, but he could live with that if he was doing good things at the same time.
“You know you’re making me look bad with all that?” I said.
“That’s the little brother’s job,” Michael said. “You have your duties as heir to the throne and I have mine as the other son. And I guess that we’re both doing a pretty good job now.”
“Took long enough.”
“Yeah, but we got there in the end.” Michael checked his waistcoat pocket for the rings for the hundredth time then looked back to me. “Thank you for asking me to be your best man. You didn’t have to after what I did, and…”
“It was a good decision,” I said firmly. “And I think the title fits you well these days. Besides, it’s Keira you should really thank.”
“I have,” Michael said. “You got a good one.”
“The best,” I replied.
The doors at the end of the Abbey opened, and the opening chords of Mendelssohn’s wedding march sounded. I stared down the aisle at the vision in white that was starting to glide towards me, escorted b
y her father, and my heart swelled. The dress made no effort to hide the five-month baby bump, and why should it? It just made her that much more beautiful.
It was probably the first time in history that a visibly pregnant woman had married a member of British royalty, and it would probably be talked about for years to come, but hey—people were going to talk about this wedding either way, and everyone already knew she was pregnant, thanks to that short-lived media scandal a few months ago. Public opinion had swayed quickly, and the majority of people now seemed to love the idea of me and Keira being together; she was seen as an inspiration for girls all over the globe. The world was changing fast. No longer did you have to be a so-called high-born woman to snag a prince…you could be anyone, and you’d have a shot.
But not with me. I was taken.
Keira had finally reached the end of the aisle, and I grinned at her as she took her place across from me. Our wedding ceremony was being televised across several different countries, and because of that, millions were watching us at this very second. And yet, the whole world seemed to fade away when Keira looked at me, and all I could see and feel in the Abbey was her.
“Ready to officially become a princess?” I asked.
She smiled and nodded. “Ready.”
Chapter 29
Keira
“I thought that went well.”
With the photos, the cheering, the traditional balcony appearance and all the other public-friendly rigmarole of royal weddings over, I found a moment to chat with my maid of honor.
“It had its moments,” Sarah said. “I think some people were a bit surprised when you and Andrew kissed before the Archbishop said ‘you may now kiss the bride’.”
“It was just a peck.”
“Just a peck?” Sarah rolled her eyes. “He was one step away from mounting you on the altar.”
I laughed and patted my stomach. “Well, given that the bride is pregnant, I think making a fuss about us kissing before it was official is a bit silly,” I said. “Anyway, what about you?”
