Royal

by Danielle Steel

  Annie had agreed to meet the queen at the stables at seven, was up at five and watched the sun come up over the hills. She arrived punctually at the stables. The queen was already there, and had chosen a mount she thought Annie would enjoy. He was a very lively horse, and she’d brought him to Balmoral for the summer to see how she liked him. Victoria had already said he was too nervous and hard to manage, and she preferred one of the older mares. She wasn’t quite as horse mad as her sister, although she was an excellent rider. They all were, but Victoria didn’t enjoy a challenge as much as the queen had heard Annie did.

  Annie got in the saddle with ease, and calmed the big horse quickly. She had him well in hand by the time they left the stable yard a few minutes later, and headed along a path that led into the hills, and crossed a stream, which Annie and her mount jumped with ease.

  “Do you hunt?” the queen asked her, and Annie shook her head.

  “I never have, but I’d like to.”

  “We’ll arrange that for you this winter. You’ll enjoy it. Lord Hatton tells me that you dream of being a professional jockey. It will happen one of these days. They can’t keep women out forever,” she said calmly.

  “I hope so, ma’am. It doesn’t seem fair. We’re only eligible for amateur events, and most of them aren’t very good. I’d give anything to be in a real race,” Annie said.

  “I believe it will happen one day,” she said. “Dangerous though. Be careful, my dear. Lord Hatton said you’re a fearless rider. That’s not always a good thing. Never forget these are powerful beasts, and we don’t control them as thoroughly as we believe. They have a voice in the matter too.” Annie smiled. She believed the same thing.

  “I respect the horses I ride.” She knew the ones that were dangerous, although she had a penchant for those, which Lord Hatton had spotted, and reported to the queen. He had said that it would make her an excellent jockey if she ever got the chance.

  They rode for an hour, and then went back to the stables. Before they left to go back to the house, the queen showed her the Shetland ponies she bred there. She was very proud of them. And then they returned to the house for breakfast with the others. The whole group went fishing after that. The queen stayed back to attend to her official boxes and diplomatic pouches that were brought to her even here. Annie caught two fish and squealed with delight when she did. Her oldest cousin, Prince George, took them off the hooks for her. He was four years younger than Annie, and a very serious, polite young man. He was next in line to the throne and would be king one day, which always had a sobering effect on the next in line. Prince Albert was a year younger and full of mischief, and at one point, jumped into the lake fully dressed and climbed dripping back into the boat while everyone complained. He shook the water off himself and onto his relatives like a big dog, but the weather was warm. Prince William at fourteen was very studious and shy and still at Eton and more introverted than his two older brothers. His gentleness touched Annie and she chatted with him.

  At lunchtime, they had the picnic that the cooks had packed for them in wicker baskets. Stewards arrived in a van to serve it at folding tables with linens and china. Everything was easy and fun and prettily done, and the following day, they had the American-style barbecue that the queen’s sons had requested. Everyone loved it, hot dogs and hamburgers and corn on the cob, apple pie and ice cream.

  “I want to work on a dude ranch next summer,” Prince Albert announced at lunch. It sounded like fun to all of them. He’d been talking to his mother recently about transferring to an American university, and she hadn’t agreed to it yet, but he was adamant. He was fascinated by all things American. He told Annie all about a rodeo he’d gone to when they vacationed in Wyoming. “I hear you’re a bruising rider,” he commented, and Annie smiled, surprised.

  “How did you hear that?”

  “My mother told me. She said you’d be a professional jockey if women were allowed to.”

  “I’d love that,” Annie admitted. “I doubt it will ever happen here. Maybe in America one day. They’re much more open-minded.”

  “About everything,” Prince Albert confirmed. “I’d love to live there one day. My brother had better never abdicate. I want to be a cowboy when I grow up, not a king.” It struck her then that it was a serious concern for all of them, the reality that one of them would be king or queen one day, although she was too far down the line to worry about it. But it was a heavy responsibility for Queen Alexandra’s sons, particularly the two oldest. Her own father had become king reluctantly, when his brother had abdicated. So it did happen.

  The end of the weekend came too quickly. The others were staying on for a few more days, although Princess Victoria was leaving for London the next day, and the queen was planning to spend another week there. She urged Annie to come again, now that she had met everyone in the family, other than distant cousins who were scattered all over Europe, many of them on other thrones.

  “You’re a true Windsor,” she said to Annie when she left. They all hugged her and hoped to see her again soon. She had another month of work ahead of her at the queen’s stables, and Prince George and Prince Albert promised to come and see her before they went back to university, and Prince William before he started the new term at Eton.

  The queen touched on the subject of where Annie would live after she finished her internship at the stables. There were apartments available at Kensington Palace, if that appealed to her. Annie had been planning to go back to Jonathan to help him with the twins. She said she’d like to think about the queen’s offer of an apartment. It hadn’t occurred to her that they would do that and she was pleasantly surprised.

  She was far more relaxed on the trip back on the train than she had been on the way to Scotland. She had managed to stretch her meager wardrobe to its limits. She had been impressed by how fashionable Princess Victoria was, and she was so lively and stylish at everything she did. She lightened the mood wherever she was, but unlike the queen, she had few responsibilities, not even a husband and children. She had been very warm and welcoming to her newest cousin and gave her little snippets of advice throughout the weekend. Publicly, she had a reputation for being flighty and a party girl, but Annie could tell that she was intelligent and much less superficial than she pretended to be. It was simply the style she had chosen for herself when she didn’t marry. She jokingly referred to herself as the family spinster, which was not the image Annie had of her at all. She was a very glamorous, beautiful woman.

  In contrast, the queen was actually more lighthearted than she seemed publicly. She was a warm wife and mother, and enjoyed the time she spent with her family at Balmoral. She was already regretting that the summer was almost over. From Annie’s perspective it had been a very successful weekend, and she had gotten to know a little bit about all of them, and genuinely liked her new family.

  She didn’t see Anthony until the following evening, when he came back from the South of France a day late, and looked a little worse for wear but said he had had a fabulous time. He had stayed on his friend’s yacht, had lunch at the Club 55, danced at all the discotheques, picked up numerous women of assorted nationalities, which he didn’t tell Annie, but she could guess. When he asked about her weekend at Balmoral, she said she’d had a fantastic time. He smiled at her enthusiasm.

  “It’s more your cup of tea than mine,” he said. “My father loves it too. I always find it incredibly boring. It’s a little too rural and family for me. Did Princess Victoria sing?”

  “Every night,” Annie said as she smiled at him, “and we had a barbecue.” He didn’t tell her the details of what he’d been doing in Saint Tropez, but a family barbecue with teenage boys present had not been on their agenda, much to his relief. But Annie had loved it. She was at a very different point in her life than he was and family-style weekends didn’t thrill him, even with the royal family. He wanted racier diversions and couldn’t
see himself ever content with a life like that. And he knew that Princess Victoria was far more like him. But Annie’s innocent enthusiasm seemed sweet to him.

  She was already busy with the horses by the time he got there. His father was annoyed with him for returning a day late, but Anthony was used to it, and the lecture he got didn’t impress him or bother him at all. He’d had a lifetime of them, about responsibility, his least favorite word.

  Annie hardly saw Anthony all week, and the following weekend she went home to Kent for the twins’ birthday. She had promised to be there, and wouldn’t miss it. It was a very different weekend from the previous one at Balmoral. They went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant, and bowling afterward, and the Markhams let them use their pool because they were away. Annie spent hours in the pool with her brothers, and had given one a camera, and the other a stereo for their birthday. She was happy spending the weekend with them, with their father looking on. She had two families now, one royal, and the other, the one she had grown up with, as the daughter of employees on a big estate. The two lives were entirely different, and yet she was at home in both of them. She had adapted surprisingly well to the new one, as the niece of the queen, and the cousin of the future King of England. She was both people now, the simple girl she’d grown up as and a royal princess by birth. The boys teased her about it when she went bowling with them, and they asked if the queen had her own bowling alley at Buckingham Palace. Annie said she didn’t, and Jonathan laughed.

  “If I were king, I’d have my own bowling alley, a pinball machine, a jukebox, my own movie theater, and an Aston Martin,” Blake said, imagining it, and his older sister grinned at him.

  “Why an Aston Martin?” she asked him, thinking of Anthony Hatton’s Ferrari, which seemed more glamorous to her.

  Her brother gave her a look that implied she didn’t know anything. “James Bond drives an Aston Martin,” he said with a supercilious look, and she laughed again.

  “Of course! Silly of me,” she said, kissed him on the cheek, and went to buy popcorn for all of them. She was still smiling at the image of Blake as king with his own movie theater, jukebox, pinball machine, and bowling alley. She wondered if her new cousin George had those on his list too. More likely on Albert’s, or maybe William’s. There was something universal about teenage boys that was very sweet, even if they grew up to be king one day.

  Chapter 14

  The month of September went by too quickly for Annie. She loved her duties at the queen’s stables, and her internship had only been for two months. She was sorry to see it come to an end. Anthony’s had been for a shorter time, and he left in the middle of September. He was starting a new job at a public relations firm in London, which sounded interesting to her. He said it would be mostly organizing parties and special events for VIPs, and using his connections to get wealthy new industrialists introduced into society, and helping them get into the right circles. It didn’t sound like a serious job, but it sounded amusing and right up his alley, since it involved parties.

  “They pay dearly for that kind of service,” he explained to her during dinner at their favorite pub the night before he left. She had enjoyed their friendship of the last month and a half, more than she’d ever expected to. He was deeper than he looked, although he never set the bar high for himself, and having fun was always the top priority to him. It sounded like he had found a job that met that criterion and he got paid for it. It was the best of all possible worlds for him. “What about you? What are you going to do when you leave here in two weeks?” he asked her.

  “I’m going to travel for a month, to Australia. I’ve been dying to see it,” she said innocently, and he looked at her with suspicion. It was the first time she had mentioned it to him.

  “Why is it that I don’t believe you? What do you have up your sleeve? Something to do with horses undoubtedly. Amateur races perhaps?” He grinned at her and she laughed.

  “You know me too well. Don’t tell your father. He wouldn’t approve. He and the queen think that the amateur races in Australia aren’t worth bothering with. But it’s good experience if they ever change the rules here. I could ride in the Newmarket Town Plate. But I didn’t have a mount for it. So, I’m off to Australia.”

  “And after that?”

  “I don’t know. I could go home to my father for a bit, and give him a hand in the stables. He hurt his knee and could use the help.”

  “Why don’t you buy yourself a decent dress and come to London. You could come to some of the parties I organize. I can put you on the list as Her Royal Highness, and you could impress my crude clients with the important people I know.”

  “It sounds a bit awkward to me.” She looked hesitant.

  “It’s not. They’re actually very nice, and I could use some more royals on my list. Victoria will come to any party. But it’s a bit slim pickings after that. I need another Royal Highness. Hell, I’ll buy you the dress,” he teased her. “Something shocking and naked and sexy.” He liked the vision of it and she laughed.

  “I’d look like a ten-year-old who ran away from a brothel,” she said. “Why couldn’t I come in my riding clothes?”

  “On horseback preferably. You can always join the circus if you’re bored.”

  “Thank you,” she said primly.

  “Just don’t get yourself killed in those second-rate amateur races in Australia. Be careful, Annie. I know you won’t be, but I’ll worry about you.”

  “No, you won’t.” She laughed at him. “You’ll be too busy giving parties to think about me.”

  He looked serious when he answered. “That’s not true. I think about you a lot. And I do worry about you. You need someone to take care of you.”

  “No, I don’t,” she said stubbornly, jutting out her chin. “I’m tougher than I look.”

  “And more vulnerable and innocent than you think. I don’t want anyone taking advantage of you.” He felt protective of her, which was new for him.

  “I’ll be fine,” she assured him. He remembered all too easily how terrified he had been when he thought she was dead when she fell off the horse during their second race. They had never raced again. She was like his little sister now. She was unfamiliar with the world she had been catapulted into, and the people in it, who would have liked to take advantage of her in countless ways. Anthony was well versed with that world, she wasn’t.

  “Just be careful.” They went to his room after dinner that night, for the first time. But she knew she had nothing to fear from him now. He wasn’t a masher, there were more than enough women who were desperate for him, and they had genuinely become friends.

  He poured her a short glass of gin, and she made a face when she drank it. He drank a malt whiskey, neat, and they sat talking for a while, and then she got up to leave.

  “We got a new horse today. I’m exercising him tomorrow to get a feeling for him,” she said as she stood up. “I’m going to miss this place.”

  “They should hire you. You’re better than any of the trainers they’ve got.” He meant it, and walked her to the door, and she looked up at him with a smile. She seemed so tiny standing in front of him as she looked into his eyes, and for the first time, he wanted desperately to kiss her, but didn’t dare. There was a long awkward moment as she looked up at him and felt something too. She thought it was the gin, but he knew it wasn’t the whiskey, it was her. But the last thing he needed was a royal princess, and to have his life run by the queen and the Crown and the cabinet, who would have to give their permission for every move he made if they ever got serious. He couldn’t think of anything worse or more restrictive. He liked being a free man. He bent down toward Annie then, and kissed her gently on the cheek, with greater tenderness than she had expected, or he had intended to show her. He wanted desperately to put his arms around her, but resisted the urge, and she scampered back to her room with a wave and closed the
door.

  “No!” he said to himself out loud as he closed his own door. “Never! Don’t be ridiculous. She’s a child.” But she wasn’t a child, she was a woman, and there was something so damn enchanting about her. He poured himself another whiskey, and lay down on his bed and fell asleep. He woke when he heard her leave for the stables at six o’clock the next morning, right on schedule. But he had come to his senses by then, and the moment had passed.

  He left for London that morning to start his new job, and two weeks later, as she packed to leave, Annie had two surprises. One from Lord Hatton, and the other from the queen.

  Lord Hatton offered her a job at the queen’s stables as an assistant trainer, and she was thrilled. He asked what her plans were, and she said she was traveling for the next few weeks. He invited her to return when she got back, and move into the trainers’ quarters and start her job. He was as pleased as she was, and delighted when she accepted, and he said the queen would be too.

  The second surprise she got in a letter from the queen’s secretary. Her Majesty wanted Her Royal Highness to be the first to know. Mr. Jonathan Baker was to be knighted. The queen had several discretionary titles that were in her gift, and knighted certain subjects when she deemed it appropriate. For being responsible for returning Her Royal Highness Anne Louise to her royal family, and asking for nothing in return, but doing it merely for honorable reasons, the queen was proposing to knight him at the end of October, as Sir Jonathan Baker. Annie was even more excited about that, and couldn’t wait to tell him when she got home to Kent that night. She was staying with him and the boys for a few days before leaving for Australia for three weeks, to see if she could ride in any of the amateur races open to women there, even as a substitute. Annie had always wanted to go there and try out.