The Sword (Prince Harry fanfic #3)

Chapter Nineteen

On the Thursday of November after Lucy's grandfather's funeral, it was Thanksgiving within the U.S. In Lucy's family, they ate lunch instead of dinner, so that other family members could go to the other side of the family. This was the only side of the family that Lucy went to, and this was the side of the family that Harry was going to meet.

He looked nervous, and he looked uncomfortable in normal jeans. Lucy guessed at his family functions fancier clothes were expected. Most people would be wearing jeans, and only the younger children would be wearing nice clothes. People would be somewhat dressed up but not royal family dressed up. Lucy made Harry change his clothes several times before they settled on his current outfit, jeans and a nice enough shirt. Lucy wore jeans and nice enough shirt as well.

The couple left especially early so that they would be able to throw off the paparazzi that followed them. Even the American paparazzi's followed Lucy and Harry still, and they wouldn't be home for Thanksgiving. She refused to lead them to her cousin's house, and she drove the opposite way. It gave the couple two hours to get to her cousin's house when it would normally take thirty minutes.

"How many people are going to be there?" he asked. His sweaty hands rubbed against his jeans.

"I told you not to wear your jacket in the car," Lucy said. "I told you that it would be hot."

"Luce, seriously, how many people?"

"They're normal people, Harry, you'll be fine." She didn't understand how he could get so scared of these people. What were they going to do, bore him to death with how nursing was going or how the farm was?

"They're your family."

"And you're Prince Charming," she mocked easily with a roll of her eyes. "Shouldn't they be nervous to meet you?"

"Are they nervous?"

She scoffed. "No."

"Why not?" Harry questioned.

"Because you've survived with me so you can't be too bad." Lucy made another turn. Already paparazzi started to thin out behind them. "You might get a few of the young girls to swoon."

Harry nodded; he could do that. "How many young children will there be for me to impress?"

"Well, mostly just little girls, like five of them. There is one boy, and he likes monster trucks."

"Monster trucks?"

"Yep." Her eyes were trained on the road. "Though, if you want to impress anyone, it'll have to be my cousins." Harry remembered briefly Lucy's family, and most of her cousins were females with males married into the family, and Lucy was the youngest cousin.

"How old?"

"Older than me," she rolled her eyes. "They're the ones with the kids. I just happen to show up." Lucy shifted lanes, and her eyes caught him. "Calm, Harry. I was joking. They'll like you."

Harry settled back into the seat and let Lucy drive. His job was to keep the pie on his lap from tipping over. His stomach was unsettled, though. Lucy was a fine enough driver, so it wasn't from that. But he never thought he would be nervous to meet her family.

"Luce?"

"Yes, Harry?" She turned again.

"How many people are going to be there today?"

Lucy had gone out of her way to not answer this question head on, mostly because she knew he wouldn't like the response. Lucy with Harry had only met certain people of his family, and that was bound to change when they went back to London; she would meet more. It was different now that everyone knew. And since everyone knew, Harry would meet her family.

"There'll be, like, maybe..." she chose the number wisely, "forty-five, at the most."

"Forty-five?" Harry spat in disbelief.

"At the most," she repeated.

"At the least?"

"Thirty, give or take?" Lucy made another quick turn. Her eyes fluttered to the mirror, and most paparazzi were gone now.

"Thirty?"

"Stop repeating what I'm saying." Lucy gave a side-glance. "Yes, thirty people, and no, you don't need to remember all their names." She doubted thirty names wouldn't bother him with all the names he somehow remembered. Harry yet held disbelief on his face and she continued, "No one is going to say anything."

"What?" he asked gently.

"Harry, no one is going to say anything to the paparazzi. They care about me. Money doesn't matter." Her hands gripped the steering wheel harshly.

"Luce, I hate to say this, but someone always talks," Harry said this calmly. By her facial expression, she already knew this. All of Lucy's family wasn't as well off as her grandfather, and this was the other side of the family. "I'm sorry."

"It's true," she stated. "Someone might talk, but what are they going to say?" Lucy didn't expect anything big to come out of today; he was just meeting the family.

"It doesn't matter what they say. The media will twist it around to make it something bad." He knew that to be the truth.

"Do you want me to turn around this car and leave you back at the house?"

"You'll go without me?"

"Of course."

Harry laughed. "No."

"And if someone talks?" she asked.

"Isn't the first time and isn't the last time."

Lucy's eyes cast a shadow upon him but she took the answer. Oh, how she knew how people talked, and all about him. It was a surprise their relationship lasted three years without the media knowing, just by someone speaking. It had given many good times but they managed to be caught many more times by people around Kensington Palace. That would most likely be her home when she went back to London.

"I wish it didn't have to be like that," Lucy said, and realized she had waited too long. Harry didn't know what she spoke about. "I wish people would just mind their own business, and they wouldn't care. There are so many other things, like important things, not just who you're dating."

"If they stopped caring, I would be out of business," Harry said. "I would have to get an actual job."

"Don't do that; it sucks." She rolled her eyes.

Harry laughed. "Yeah, and I've always thought about it. You know I have, Luce." He sighed as he watched gray clouds roll in. "I wish sometimes I could do that, be that, but I don't know what my life would be like. I don't know what I could do with my life. I don't know who I would be or what I might think."

"If the monarchy ended tomorrow, what would you do?"

"I would like to say still be in the Armed Forces, work my way up there." His eyes came to her. "Perhaps it would still be us." His smile faltered. "But the media wouldn't leave me alone then...."

"Good."

"Good?"

"Yeah," she agreed. "I'm the breadwinner of the house, not you." It wasn't much money but it was true.