Charming by Haig Moses (1st Draft)

Chapter Thirty-Eight

ROYAL DUTIES

There were a few things I learned from Louis about being apart of the British monarchy: 1) There's not many places you can go where you don't attract some kind of attention, 2) being royalty is more than fancy clothes and generations of tiaras and diamonds, there is a global interest when it comes to "the firm", 3) no member of the royal family actually wants the "top job" (as he delightedly put it), and 4) it doesn't matter whether or not you want to when the black car pulls up you get inside of it.

    "You know this is the fifth time this week that you've had to leave," I sighed watching as he buttoned up the freshly ironed shirt his private secretary, Albert, had brought him and tucked it into his belted pants. "I feel like I don't really see you. Then, I'm locked up inside this palace all day waiting for you and I can't leave or walked around or talk or breath."

    "You can walk about the garden."

    "And have all of your family staring at me like they did last time at dinner," I recalled the uncomfortable meal that had silence as soon as Louis walked in with me and then having it grow when one of his uncles commented on how I was just a one time fling and nothing serious.

    Louis exhaled. "I know, but trust me this is for—"

    "My own protection I know," I said nearing the edge of the bed so that I could properly tie Louis' tie before kissing him on the lips. The past few weeks had been filled with inside dinners, deep conversations, and a board game or two. And to be honest, I loved every single minute of him and this. It felt like we were in this little bubble of bliss.

    We talked to each other about our parents and I divulge to him how my father was actually the Earl of Thorpe. "You know I had a feeling it was him," Louis said and I rolled my eyes and pulled as much details of my father as he could tell me. "I honestly don't know much," he said. "The amount of Earls and Lords and Dukes I meet every bloody week is ridiculous. Why do you think I have Albert around, he's the only thing that keep me on top of it all." Even though he didn't know much about my father, Louis divulged me into his royal family. From his mother to the Queen of England, he talked about his love and appreciation for the royal life, but also his desire to just be normal. "That's why I came to Harvard," he said. "I just wanted to get away, but then I met you and—well everything changed." The two days I promised to stay here before going back to the states had turned into a week and then edging onto fourteen days, yet it never felt like enough.

    Pulling on his suit jacket, I smoothed down his hair which despite growing was still in an awkward stage. "I'll be back before you know it."

    "I'll be here," I prosed numbly before handing him the script that the palace had written for him. Today he was officially opening a wing in the hospital that was being named after his father. What the palace had written was perfect, but I had taken some liberties after reading it through a couple times. "I made a few adjustments if that's alright with you. Made it a bit more... personal."

    "I'm sure it'll be perfect," he said pecking my lips again before he was whisked out of his apartment by Albert.

    I watched from the window through the garden as Louis's car disappeared down the street before I exhaled and sank back into bed. In a few minutes breakfast would be brought to me, the same thing every morning a full breakfast, but I would only have the blueberry muffin and tea that Louis seemed to drink every morning.

     Though today, I actually did want to go outside and take in the fresh air. Pulling one of Louis' robe around me I poked my head from the door of his apartments. His were located on the lower level of the palace. It was small and quaint, sizable enough for just him and a guest. Making sure there was nobody in the hall, I stepped a foot out and then another one before I took off across the red carpet. I didn't want to be seen by any of his family members and especially Lady Caroline or Prince Edward. While the others surely talked about me behind my back, they smiled in my face while his mother and cousin glared at me like I was the plague.