Third In Line

Chapter Eight - Lion King

 "...And as the ceremonies ended, Prince Harry gave the world another look at his playful relationship with his niece, Princess Eleanor"

Ellie groaned loudly and covered her face with her hands, her cheeks were burning red again. The image of her sitting awkwardly on Harry's shoulder was plastered over almost every news channel, most of them with a headline like 'High flying Princess' or 'Prince and Princess recreate scene from the Lion King'.

It had been several hours since that moment, but the constant television coverage kept it fresh in her memory. She was lying on her stomach, her head at the end of the bed, with her eyes fixed on the television. Her parents were behind her, at the other end of the bed with their backs against the headboard. Will had removed his dress shoes and red jacket adorned with medals, whilst Kate was out of her high heels and was no longer wearing her elegant fascinator, an item which Ellie felt was quite pointless. Will was browsing on his laptop whilst Kate was reading a book, both looking clearly more relaxed and content, both knowing that all public appearances for the day were complete.

"That was so embarrassing" Ellie whined, by then she'd repeated it a hundred times or so.

"He'll pay for it, sweetheart" Her father promised her.

Ellie turned to him, "How?"

He grinned at her. It was the same smug grin that his brother had. "I'll give him a stern talking to"

Kate looked up from her book, glaring at Will, "I think he'll need a bit more than that this time, William. Ellie could have fallen down" she paused for a moment, as if seeing it happen in her mind "Half the people in those interviews agree with me"

It was true. In the hours they'd spent lounging around in one of the palace apartments, about a dozen people had been interviewed on the T.V, each of them being asked what they thought of her uncle's actions. It was no surprise that they only interviewed mother's with their children, since they all had exaggerated reactions just like her own mother. In reality, Harry held her firmly on his shoulder. Falling and actually hurting herself was something that barely crossed her mind at the time.

Will gently squeezed Kate's shoulder, "I know my brother, he's an arse most of the time, but he wouldn't let her fall. You know how much he cares for Ellie"

"It wasn't that bad, Mum" Ellie added

Her mother gave her a look "You spent the next hour in tears and telling me how terrifying it was"

"I was hardly crying!" Ellie argued, "It was only a few tears, from the shock of everything"

Ellie turned her head back towards the T.V, pondering what to say. She'd been terrified of these royal events most of her life, and never really enjoyed having to appear in public, but today she felt differently about everything. She didn't have much of an opinion when she was a baby, or as a toddler. Her own opinion of things started showing itself as she got older, but then it was always fear, and the urge to hide somewhere out of view.

Things were different now, she sensed. "It was different, I felt different up there," she said quietly.

"In what way sweetheart?" her mother asked.

Ellie rolled onto her back, gazing at the tall ceiling. "I wasn't scared" she said, her own words surprising her.

She picked at her nails nervously, trying to think of how to say it. "I mean... I was scared, but I enjoyed it too. I enjoyed seeing everyone look up at me, cheering for me" Instead of looking down at me, expecting me to do something.

Her parents didn't need to say a word, they just exchanged looks and gave her a knowing smile, as if they figured this day would come sooner or later, like some royal rite of passage. Ellie moved to the other end of the bed, and rested against the headboard with her parents to continue watching the T.V.

Her parents moved closer to her, Kate wrapping her arm around Ellie's shoulders, and Will wrapping his arm around both of them.

Her mother kissed the top of her head, "We're very proud of you, you know."

Ellie rested her head against her mother's shoulder, and eventually the three of them started watching a highlights show of the day's events. Alex is probably watching at home, laughing at the red traffic light sitting on Harry's shoulder. They smiled through each interview, where some of the soldiers talked of her proud they were to be parading in front of the Queen. The three of them were in hysterics as another couple wore Wills and Kate masks throughout their entire interview, pretending they were her parents. They even teased her uncle Harry exactly like her parents would, and referred to the Queen as "Nan" just like she would.

They seemed to know her family so well, as if they had microphones in the palace, or cameras constantly watching them. They certainly amazed her with how close they were able to get their cameras, with some shots leading her to believe the cameraman was sitting in the carriage with them as they rode down the Mall. There were more cameras too, more than she could count, including helicopters up above with their cameras zoomed in so far that you'd think they were standing on top of Uncle Harry's head.

The presenters amazed her as well, constantly talking for the whole three-hour duration, discussing what she and her family were wearing in more detail than Ellie would ever be bothered to use. They talked about her Nan and Gramps as if they were reading from a vast encyclopaedia, listing off as many important facts as they could find and eventually making Ellie feel like they knew more about her family than she did.

They were keen to talk about the similarities between Ellie and her mother, and were boggled by how well she was doing with the crowd, even at eleven years old. I look so calm and graceful on TV. Thank god they don't know what was going on inside my head. The commentators joked that Kate's parents must look at Ellie and think they have their eleven year old daughter back, since they were so similar.

Kate immediately giggled at that "They do think that sometimes"

The highlights show eventually neared the end of the ceremonies, and just as Bea had said there would be, cameras were focused on the windows. She could see the figures of people through the glass and white blinds, wondering if one of them was her.

She wasn't an arrogant person, but Ellie struggled to stop herself from smirking as the presenters both wished that they were inside the room, behind the windows for once instead of outside. I'd rather have some normal people in there with us, instead of all the big officials.

Ellie had to suffer through watching her 'Lion King' moment again, and then twice more as they showed it from different angles. She couldn't stop laughing herself as the cameras kept rolling. Ellie had disappeared behind the curtains, but the door was still open for whole world to see her mother swat Harry's arm and shove him roughly.

Kate smirked at her actions, but groaned immediately afterwards as Harry deliberately turned to the crowd and held his hands up innocently.

"He'll never learn" Kate mumbled.