A Royal Romance Read online

  George ruffled his ears and gave him kisses on the head. “Are you sad, Rexie? I’m sorry, boy. I know you miss him, but we all love you too.” Rex gave her lots of licks on the face.

  Queen Adrianna then said, “He needs a strong alpha to make him feel secure, my dear. He doesn’t know his place any more.”

  “Is that right, Rexie?” George asked the dog. “We all need to know our place, don’t we, boy?” She turned to her mother. “I’ll take him if you want, Mama.”

  Queen Sofia smiled. “Oh, would you, George? I hate to see him so unhappy. He was such a good companion to your father.”

  “Of course. Would you like that, Rexie?”

  The dog wagged its tail vigorously and licked her face. “Shadow, Baxter, come.” Her two dogs trotted over to her. “Look after Rexie, go play.” Shadow, the leader of her two dogs, gave Rex a lick and a soft bark, as if sensing the dog needed looking after. The three trotted off to play with the others.

  George took her seat at the head of the table.

  “Well done, my darling. We can always count on you to sort out family problems,” Sofia told her daughter.

  George clasped her hands in front of her. “That’s my job, Mama.”

  Queen Adrianna added, as Theo hurried through the door, “Now you just have one more to sort out.”

  “Sorry I’m late, Mama.” He hurriedly greeted his mother and grandmother with a kiss.

  He quickly took his seat and she gave him a stern look. “Theo, it’s not us you have to apologize to. It’s the staff that you’ve inconvenienced.”

  Theo looked up to the page who was standing by the door and said, “Jones, please convey my apologies to the staff for keeping them waiting.”

  “Very good, sir.” Jones walked to Queen Sofia’s side and asked, “May we serve now, Ma’am?”

  George had made it clear to the staff that the Queen Mother was still in charge of domestic affairs. George was going to be a different kind of Queen. She had no idea about flower arrangements, banquet menus, or table settings. So until she had a Queen Consort who she hoped would be interested in those things, it was down to her mother.

  The first course was served and they began to eat. George looked up at her brother and he was simply playing with his food. His appearance was scruffy, his already unruly dark curly hair was longer than usual, and he was clearly unshaven. He looked like a little boy lost.

  Theo had always been different; he was a free artistic spirit, who struggled with the confines of their royal roles and duties. Although he was very different from her and her father, Theo had adored the King, as well as his big sister. Edward had given him leeway, as he was not going to have the responsibilities of the throne. Theo felt safe doing his own thing, going to art college, travelling all over the world, knowing that he had a stable family at home.

  He feels adrift, just like us all. I need to have a good chat with him, bring him back to safety.

  “Theo, how about a game of cards after dinner? Just you and me?” This was something the two siblings used to do with their father after dinner most evenings. They would talk about everything and anything out of earshot of their mother and grandmother.

  Her brother looked up hopefully. “Are you sure you have time, Georgie? You’ve got so much work to do these days I—”

  “I can always make time for my brother.”

  Theo was suddenly full of smiles. “That would be wonderful, Georgie, thank you.”

  Queen Sofia gave her daughter’s hand a squeeze in thanks.

  As the first course was cleared away, Queen Sofia asked her, “How was your visit today?”

  George smirked, remembering the feisty blonde who had talked to her like an ordinary human being. No one outside her family had ever done that, and even then, her family still followed rules of protocol. Since returning from Timmy’s she had found that her mind had been lingering on Miss Beatrice Elliot.

  “It was…intriguing.”

  “How so?” asked her mother.

  “The young lady who is to be my guide is…well, she is something I haven’t come across before.”

  “What? A woman, Georgie?” Theo teased.

  “Theodore.” Sofia gave her son a look that could kill.

  George chuckled at her brother’s comment. He always liked to rib her about her lack of experience with women. “No, my dear brother, it was for another reason. Her name is Bea, Beatrice Elliot, and she is a republican.”

  “Oh my. How interesting,” Queen Adrianna exclaimed.

  “Yes,” George said wistfully. “I’ve never come across an anti-monarchist personally before. Of course I’ve seen the small band of republicans that hold placards outside the palace occasionally, but someone has never admitted it to my face.”

  Queen Sofia looked concerned. “Was she rude, my darling?”

  Beatrice had been a little rude, but for some reason she wanted to protect her. “Not rude, Mama. I asked to speak to her privately, and only after I asked her to speak freely would she tell me. She was totally unimpressed with my position, and I found her forthrightness refreshing.”

  Adrianna said, “Well, my dear George, it is your challenge, over the course of your time together, to impress this young lady and bring her to our way of thinking. The honour of the House of Buckingham rests on your shoulders.”

  George and her mother grinned, but Theo burst out laughing. “God help us all, Granny, if the honour of the Buckinghams relies on Georgie impressing a woman.”

  Luckily for Theo, the staff came in with the main course before his grandmother could clip his ear.

  After dinner, George and her brother sat at the card table, the three dogs sprawled in front of the fireplace.

  Theo threw his cards down. “You win again. You want another drink?”

  She gathered the cards up and started shuffling. It hadn’t gone unnoticed by her that while she was still on her first drink, Theo was on his third. “I think I’ve had enough, and I think you have had enough too, Theo.”

  He looked at the bottle and with a sigh put it down.

  “Sit down, Theo.”

  He sat and kept his gaze on the floor. “I know what you’re going to say.”

  George sat back in the leather chair. “What am I going to say?”

  “You’re going to say that I have to do my duty, I have to get back to normal, but I’m not like you Georgie, or Mama and Granny. I can’t sweep my feelings under the carpet. Our father is dead, gone, and I can’t just snap out of it,” Theo shouted.

  If only you knew, Theo. “Is that what you think we are doing? Sweeping our feelings under the carpet? We are doing what we’ve been trained to do—our duty—and grieving privately. At Christmas we all sat round this table, all our cousins, aunts, and uncles, and made a commitment to take on a portion of Papa’s charities. We made a commitment, and those organizations need us. It’s our duty to the people to get back to work.”

  Theo stood up angrily and shouted, “Bugger the people. I’ve lost my papa.”

  Rather than reacting with anger, George stood and took her brother in her arms. “Shh, shh, now, it’s all right.”

  She stroked Theo’s head as he sobbed against her shoulder. “I miss him, Georgie. I miss him and I’m so angry that he left us. When Mama said you had decided we should go back to London, I felt like everyone just wanted to forget about him.”

  She took her brother’s head in her hands and said, “Listen to me. We are not forgetting Papa. We are doing what he would have wanted, doing our jobs. Mama, Granny, and I know that it is not only our duty to get on with things, it is good for us to get working and take our minds off our grief. Don’t you think I miss him? Don’t you think I cry for him when I’m alone? You know how much I loved him.”

  “Yes, I know you do,” he replied quietly.

  “Yes, but I don’t get the opportunity, or the luxury of time, that even you get. Government business and messages from the public land on my desk twice a day—if I stopped to
grieve the way you want to, I would go under. The affairs of the nation would pile up, and I would not only be letting the people down, I’d be letting Papa down. Duty was everything to him, and we honour him by carrying on with ours. And remember, Theo, as a royal family, we have to be seen to be believed.”

  “I’m sorry for complaining, Georgie. I know your life is a lot harder than mine—I’m afraid of losing you too. Everything has changed now.”

  “You don’t have to be sorry, Theo, just do your duty, so that Mama and Granny won’t worry. They have enough on their plates. You will never lose me, Theo. I may be busy, but I will always be there for you, even if it’s at the end of a phone sometimes. And please understand that if I make a decision for the family, it is in the best interests of the family. With the election, I have to get back to headquarters at Buckingham Palace.”

  They both sat down again. “So, what’s first up in your diary?”

  Theo wiped his eyes and said, “I have to open a new art department at a secondary school. Don’t you ever get fed up with the endless rounds of opening schools and hospitals, and unveiling one plaque after another?”

  George gave him a smile. “Remember what Granny has always said on the subject?”

  Theo chuckled along with her. “Oh yes.” He put on a high-pitched voice imitating Queen Adrianna and said, “We are the royal family and we adore unveiling plaques.”

  “Good boy. Things will get easier, Theo, and you know I will always look after you. We have a busy year ahead.”

  “I know, and just think, Georgie, all of Europe’s aristocracy will be trying to catch your eye, hoping to become your wife and Queen Consort. I have heard that Princess Eleanor of Belgium has suddenly come out of the closet.”

  George was only too well aware that it was the Queen’s duty to find a consort and produce an heir. This she had known from when she was very young. “So I’ve heard. The thought does not fill me with joy,” George said wistfully. Getting married did not worry George; she was in fact a very traditional person. She longed for someone who would love her and support her in the role as Queen, but at the same time see past her position. George craved a relationship like her mother and father’s but feared she would not find that person in time and would be obliged to marry someone she did not truly love.

  “Georgie, I have faith you will meet someone like Papa did, and probably where you least expect to find her. Now. How about a rematch?”

  Chapter Four

  Boadicea Dixon’s car pulled in through the high gates of Buckingham Palace. Her assistant, spin doctor, and close friend Felix Brown met her eyes and grinned. “You’ve done it, Prime Minister. You’ve made it.”

  “It’s been a long time coming, but we’re not done yet. I’m not Prime Minister till I get on my knees and swear fealty to the sovereign.”

  “How do you feel about that? Kissing hands, as they call it.”

  “You know better than anyone that I don’t go down on bended knee for anyone.”

  Felix certainly knew this to be true. Felix had met Bo at Oxford University, where they both studied politics.

  Bo was a larger-than-life character who was hugely involved with many of the political clubs within the university. She always was determined to become a career politician and get to the very top. Felix, who had a talent for speech writing and a good understanding of how the media worked, made it his mission to help his friend achieve her goals. Bo was a no-nonsense woman who had an extremely tough reputation and was not averse to trampling on others to get where she wanted. Her nickname in the House of Commons was the ball-buster and, while spending two years as the leader of the opposition, had been known to make grown men cry.

  She was a woman who believed in her own destiny and would use everything at her disposal to get what she wanted, and she had gotten it—the first female leader of the Labour party, and now moments away from becoming only the second woman prime minister in British history. The media were calling it a new modern age. A gay woman on the throne and a female Labour prime minister.

  “How do I feel?” Bo tapped her perfectly manicured fingernails on her handbag on her lap. Felix felt a thrill rush through him at the power she exuded. One thing he didn’t know about his friend, that no one knew, was what happened in her personal life. She had never married and no one knew whether she was gay or straight. People speculated, especially since she was quite an attractive woman, but Bo seemed to thrive on the ambiguity of it. It was just another tool at her disposal.

  “I feel that our new Queen is riding a wave of popularity and it will suit our purposes to be part of that. I think I will make sure we have the goodwill of our sovereign.”

  *

  Queen Georgina stood alone, apart from her three dogs who lay in the sunlight by the window, in the audience room at Buckingham Palace, awaiting the arrival of the prime minister designate. As it was a formal occasion she’d elected to wear her Royal Naval dress uniform, with her blue sash across her chest, and diamond Order of the Garter badge.

  She checked her appearance in the mirror, smoothing her neat collar-length hair. This was her first of what she hoped would be many prime ministers, and her first major government duty. George had to admit to being a little nervous, but as with any royal duty, she hoped her training would kick in.

  George and her mother had arrived back at Buckingham Palace yesterday, with the Dowager Queen Adrianna going to her own residence at Clarence House, and Prince Theodore to his apartments at St James’s Palace. George had watched the election results with interest. She found the prime minister to be an interesting character and was looking forward to meeting her. Her father had met her on several occasions while she was leader of the opposition, but George had never had the pleasure.

  George heard the knock at the audience room door and took her place quickly. The Queen’s equerry ushered Ms. Dixon into the audience chamber. They both bowed by the door, then Major Fairfax said, “Ms. Dixon, Your Majesty.”

  George extended her hand and Bo walked forward to take it and bow once more, as protocol demanded.

  “Ms. Dixon, how nice to meet you. Congratulations on your win. Do sit down.” Well, Ms. Dixon, let’s see if you live up to your reputation. “You must have had a very tiring night, although I find adrenaline does keep one going at times like this.”

  “Indeed it does, Your Majesty, and I’m sure I will start to really feel it over the next couple of days.”

  “I understand from your election campaign that you mean to do a lot of modernizing, sweep away old ideas and ways of doing things.”

  George watched the prime minister designate sit back in her chair and cross her legs in quite a seductive manner. Are you testing me, Ms. Dixon? I don’t think your charms will work as well on me as on your fawning ministers.

  Queen Georgina’s gaze remained impassive and focused, never once lingering down Bo Dixon’s legs. George thought she was a very attractive woman, but her domineering nature was not to George’s tastes.

  “Yes, Ma’am. I believe this country has been sleepwalking for the past ten years, under the previous government, and I intend to shake things up a bit. One thing I would like to make clear is my unending support for you and your position as Queen. May I speak freely, Ma’am?”

  “Of course, Ms. Dixon.”

  Bo sat forward and said, “I know some of the people in my party have a reputation for being anti-monarchists. I just want to make clear, I do not share that view, and neither will your cabinet. We are at a turning point in history, Ma’am. Two women at the top of government, leading the nation. We are at the start of a new age, and historians will look back to this day as the point when Britain became a thoroughly modern country, with Your Majesty as head of state and myself leading your government. I hope we will be able to help each other along through our time together.”

  My, my, you are very full of your own importance, Ms. Dixon. You are forgetting one thing though. Prime ministers come and go, but monarchs are unchang
ing. “I thank you for being very frank with me, so let me be equally frank. I take my constitutional responsibility very seriously, and as you know it is my duty to advise, guide, and warn. I will enact my duty to you in our weekly meetings, which I hope, as we get to know each other, will be valuable to you.”

  Bo gave her an unreadable smile. “Of course. I’ll look forward to it.”

  “Excellent. Now shall we get on with the formalities?” Queen Georgina stood, preparing to receive the prime minister’s homage by kissing hands.

  Bo stood quickly, then knelt before the Queen. As George prepared to say the formal words, she wondered how many times and with how many different prime ministers, she would go through this ritual.

  “The duty falls upon me as your sovereign to invite you to become prime minister, and to form a government in my name.”

  Bo looked up at her with the suggestion of a smile and said, “I will.”

  She held out her hand and the prime minister brushed her lips across her knuckles.

  “Excellent.” Queen Georgina walked back to a side table and touched a discreet sensor to signal for her Equerry. “My warmest congratulations again, Ms. Dixon, and I look forward to seeing you at our first weekly meeting.”

  Major Fairfax opened the doors to escort the prime minister out.

  “Thank you, Your Majesty.” Bo walked backwards out of the audience room, so as to not turn her back on the Queen.

  Chapter Five

  By the time February came along, Bea had visited two hospice buildings with the Queen, and things were going reasonably well. Their own relationship was very polite and cordial. She had to admit that the Queen seemed genuinely interested in learning about the hospice and its staff.

  Bea had also been impressed by how hands-on the Queen was with patients. She was not afraid to hold a hand, hug, or lift a child into her arms. Wherever she went, the Queen seemed to leave the patients and staff uplifted and with smiles on their faces. This she couldn’t understand; George was an ordinary woman just like everyone else, but she seemed to possess a quality within her, that left those touched by her happier than she had found them.