Royal

by Danielle Steel

  She waited until the end of dinner that night to tell him the big news about his knighthood. The boys were restless and wanted to leave the table, but she told them to wait. Jonathan stared at her when she told him he was going to be knighted, and he had tears in his eyes.

  “Sir Jonathan? Are you joking?” She handed him the letter from the queen’s secretary. “But I didn’t do anything,” he protested. “At first I was afraid they might put me in jail when I tried to reach the queen,” he smiled.

  “You did everything, Papa. You found a way to reach the queen. None of this would have happened if you’d stayed silent or lost your nerve. I have two families now, thanks to you, and I’m a princess.” She told him about the job at the stables too. Something wonderful had happened for both of them. She was to be paid a salary for her work, and was pleased. And she didn’t need an apartment in London now.

  “What are you doing in Australia?” He always worried about her.

  “Just looking around,” she said. He didn’t believe her.

  “Don’t do anything foolish.”

  “I won’t. And I’ll be back in time for your ceremony.” The twins had been impressed too.

  When he told John Markham the next day, he responded with a promotion and a raise. He invented a fancy new title for him, since he was already stable master, and the raise was appropriate. Jonathan had promised to invite him to the ceremony too. And Annie learned while she was home that Annabelle Markham had a new secretary and Jonathan had just started dating her. The twins said she was very nice, and good-looking. Annie was happy for him. He deserved it. He had done so much for her, and always had. He was going to bring his new date to the knighting ceremony too. He still got tears in his eyes whenever he thought about it. He had never expected anything like it to happen to him. He was going to be a knight!

  * * *

  —

  Annie left for Sydney after a week at home. She only stayed two weeks in the end, and was disappointed in the amateur races. She thought they were poorly organized and unprofessional. She was able to sign up for two of them and didn’t like her mount in either case. The women were rough and the organizers seemed crude to her. It wasn’t what she had hoped for, and she was happy to come home, although she thought the country was interesting.

  She was happy to be back in England, and had dinner with Anthony when she returned. He was having one of his first events in the new job that weekend, and wanted her to come. It was to introduce a well-known American into British social circles. He’d rented a fabulous house in Mayfair for the weekend to give the party.

  “I feel a bit like a pimp doing this kind of thing,” Anthony admitted to her. “These guys want to meet women, mostly hookers in the end, and be seen with respectable women. I draw the line at drugs, but they expect me to do everything for them. And they’re powerful men. They don’t take no for an answer. Will you come?” he asked her hopefully.

  “I’m not going to impress anyone, Anthony. And I have nothing to wear.”

  “Go to Harrods or Hardy Amies, your aunt Victoria shops there. I need you on my team,” he said, nearly begging her.

  “I am on your team. Why do I have to be there?”

  “To impress them.”

  “Will Victoria be there?”

  “She’s going to some ball in Venice. I need you.”

  “All right, all right,” she said grudgingly. “What kind of dress?”

  “Sexy, slinky, half naked,” he said without hesitating.

  “That’s not me.”

  “All right. As sexy as you dare.”

  “Now I feel like a hooker,” she grumbled.

  “That makes two of us. I feel like a pimp,” he said and she laughed.

  She went to Harrods the next day and bought a simple black velvet strapless dress and a fake diamond necklace that looked real, black satin high heels and an evening bag. The night of the party, she pulled her blond hair into a neat-looking bun, put on a little makeup, and looked surprisingly regal when she arrived in Mayfair at the address of the house he had rented for the event. He took her aside immediately, and took a leather box out of a drawer. He opened it and held out a beautiful small antique tiara and placed it on her head as she looked at him in surprise.

  “I borrowed it from Garrard’s. It was Queen Victoria’s. Now you look like a princess,” he said, looking pleased, and she was startled when she looked in the mirror.

  “It’s gorgeous.”

  “You can’t keep it. But you can say it was your great-great-great-grandmother’s.” He was perfect in the role of PR man, and she was impressed when she saw him in operation that night. The party went off seamlessly and his client was delighted. The press was there and took a photograph of her with the host, who was an oilman from Texas, who had just invested a fortune in aeronautics in England, and wanted to make a big splash. He had wanted to meet the queen, which Anthony told him wasn’t possible, so Her Royal Highness Princess Anne Louise was second best and an adequate consolation prize for the Texan, who invited her to visit him in Dallas. She looked beautiful that night and every inch a princess, and Anthony thanked her and kissed her cheek when she left and handed him the tiara.

  “I thought you did a great job,” she complimented him. “You make an excellent pimp.”

  “And you make an excellent princess, Your Royal Highness.” He was glad they were friends now and so was she. “I’m keeping you on my list. And I like the dress by the way.”

  “I only spent a hundred pounds on it. I can’t ride in it, so I didn’t want to go nuts,” she said, laughing.

  His client was beckoning to him then, and he rushed off and she left. She was surprised that she had had fun, but she had. And Anthony looked very handsome in black tie. It had been a glamorous evening, and she liked wearing the tiara. She felt like a real princess in it.

  There was a photograph of her with Anthony in the papers the next day. And her aunt Victoria called her when she got back from Venice and saw it.

  “Be careful, my darling,” she warned her. “Anthony Hatton is charming, but he’s a player. Don’t lose your heart to that one.” She was a woman of the world and wise about men.

  “I’m not. We’re just friends. He needed a princess to impress his client,” she told her aunt.

  “Oh God, he’ll whore us all out if we let him.” She laughed at the thought. “I was at a very amusing ball in Venice so I couldn’t be there. You’ll have to come with me some time. The Italians are so sexy and handsome. They’re all broke but so charming. Everyone is a prince there. It was a divine party. And you looked very pretty with Anthony in the photo. I just worried when I saw it.”

  “His father is my new boss. He just gave me a job as an assistant trainer at the stables.”

  “Excellent.” They talked for a few more minutes and hung up. The call didn’t really surprise her. She knew that Anthony had a reputation as a playboy in London, but he was harmless, and there was no romance between them. They were just friends. He sent her red roses to thank her for coming to the party, which was very nice of him.

  After that she turned her attention to the ceremony for her stepfather. The queen did it herself at Buckingham Palace in a small receiving room. It was all very official, with a saber she used to tap him on each shoulder and declare him a knight of the British Empire, and he would be known as Sir Jonathan Baker hereafter. Tears rolled down his cheeks as she pronounced it, and Annie cried too, and was so proud of him. The boys had new suits, their first, for the occasion, and Jonathan did too and looked very proper. His mother was there and was bursting with pride, and she was happy to see Annie. It made Annie miss Lucy too, who would have been ecstatic at the knighting ceremony. The Markhams attended, and the woman Jonathan was dating, who was very polite and nice to Annie, and seemed very smitten with him. There were several officials and the lord chamberla
in of the queen’s household and her secretary. A round of champagne was served, and then Jonathan treated his family and the Markhams to dinner at Rules, the oldest restaurant in London. At Annie’s request, Anthony arranged to have them go to Annabel’s to dance afterward. It was a perfect evening. Annie couldn’t help thinking how her life had changed in a short time. Her stepfather was a knight now, and she was a royal princess. The headwaiters and manager at Annabel’s fawned over her, and she danced with Jonathan. He smiled at her, and she called him Sir Jonathan, and he called her Your Royal Highness…but whatever the titles, she knew she would always be just Annie to him, and the daughter of his heart, which was the best part.

  Chapter 15

  At the end of October, Annie returned from Kent to the queen’s stables to start her job as assistant trainer. She’d been staying with Jonathan and the boys and enjoyed it. It felt almost like old times, except for Lucy’s absence. Annie still missed her.

  As a trainer, she had more responsibilities than she’d had as an intern, and was assigned to the three barns on a rotating schedule. She learned a great deal about their breeding program, which she discussed with Jonathan whenever she visited with them. The process of selection of matching up the horses to be bred was fascinating, and as much art as science. Lord Hatton consulted with the queen about almost every choice.

  Annie loved her job, although it was all-consuming and she had no time for anything else. She didn’t mind.

  In November, she received the queen’s invitation to spend Christmas with them at Sandringham, which meant that she couldn’t spend it with Jonathan and the twins if she accepted, but he understood, and thought she should spend it with her royal family this year. She was sorry not to be with him in Kent, but Christmas with her royal aunts, uncle, cousins, and grandmother, was appealing too. She didn’t know who else would be there, but had the impression it was only family. And this time, she would have to buy some clothes. The only proper dress she had was the one she had bought for Anthony’s party for the Texas oilman. She was sorry she didn’t have the tiara to wear with it again. It had been the perfect look, and she smiled when she thought of it. It seemed particularly appropriate because people were always comparing her to her own mother and Queen Victoria, since both of them had also been small. The rest of the family seemed to take after the German side and were much taller than she. All of Queen Alexandra’s sons were tall like their father, and the queen was tall too.

  Sandringham was in Norfolk, much closer to London than Balmoral Castle, and it was where the royal family usually spent Christmas. She shopped for some dresses, most of them black or navy, and a deep red velvet one for Christmas Eve. She bought gifts for everyone when she had a day off. She bought Jonathan a beautiful set of antique leather-bound books and a pinball machine for the twins, which was delivered the morning of Christmas Eve. When she called, Jonathan said they had gone nuts and invited all their friends from school to come over and play.

  And she had sent a beautiful warm black coat to Jonathan’s mother, her other grandmother. She had seen too little of her since going to work at the royal stables, but she wrote to her whenever she had time. Her new allowance enabled her to make generous gifts to all of them, and she was sorry not to see them over Christmas. She knew they understood that she had new responsibilities now, and two families. It was going to be her first royal Christmas.

  Annie was shown to a beautiful bedroom at Sandringham when she arrived, and several footmen carried her bags and all her packages to her room. She was directing them about where to put everything when a familiar face walked past her room, and she saw Anthony Hatton standing in the doorway, smiling at her. His father was there too, and she remembered that the Hattons spent Christmas with the queen’s family every year. She was embarrassed not to have brought something for him. She had given Lord Hatton a bottle of Dom Perignon champagne before she left the stables. She was genuinely surprised to see Anthony. She hadn’t seen him since his party for the oilman. They had both been busy with their new jobs.

  “I hoped I’d see you here.” He smiled at her as he crossed the room to kiss her. “I meant to call you, but my life has been insane. The PR firm I’m working for has really taken off. I’ve been running parties for them every week with a list of VIP clients an arm long. What about you? Is my father working your tail off?”

  “Yes, and I love it.” She smiled at him.

  “Are you behaving?” he asked her.

  “Of course.” She wasn’t sure what he meant by it, but she had no time to do otherwise. He noticed but didn’t mention that she looked suddenly more grown up, and more sophisticated than she had when he met her. She was wearing a red wool suit with a fashionably short skirt, which was part of her recent haul from Harrods when she was buying gifts. She thought it would come in handy at Sandringham. He was admiring her legs with the short skirt. She was small but well proportioned, and he’d never noticed her legs before in her riding clothes, or her evening gown at his party.

  “My room is just down the hall if you need anything,” he said, as he left to check on his own bags.

  Christmas at Sandringham was more formal than the family gatherings at Balmoral in the summer. There were no picnics or barbecues, and the queen’s secretary had called to tell her that dinner would be black tie, which was why she’d gone shopping, so she was prepared. She had bought three long dresses, and had brought the strapless velvet one, which was the only one she’d owned. She’d bought a kilt, the red suit she was wearing, a black velvet suit, and a white wool dress by a French designer for Christmas Day. She had a full wardrobe and she could fill in with some skirts and sweaters she had brought from Kent the last time she went there. As always, when she went downstairs for cocktails before dinner, Princess Victoria was wearing a very chic French designer black cocktail dress and looked sexy and fashionable, and the queen was wearing a black velvet evening suit with a long skirt, with her pearls, diamond earrings, and a very handsome tiara.

  Annie was seated next to Anthony at dinner, and he leaned over and whispered, “I should have brought the tiara from Garrard’s that you wore to the party. I meant to give it to you for Christmas, and I must have forgotten it at home.” She grinned at his comment, and remembered how much she liked it. “It suited you very well. You should wear tiaras all the time.”

  During dinner she told him how lovely her father’s knighting ceremony had been and how much it meant to him, and Anthony was touched. Somehow, despite everything that had happened to her in a short time, it hadn’t gone to her head, and she had managed to stay real.

  “What about you? Do you still like the job?” she asked.

  “It’s a hell of a lot of work, and some of their clients are real jerks, but some are very nice. The Americans mostly. There’s kind of a sweet innocence to them. They all want to meet the queen, and think they should. They don’t really get how it all works, the protocol, and all the rest. We should get a stand-in that looks like her. They’d never know the difference.” Annie laughed. It was fun sitting next to him, he always had something interesting to say and he always made her laugh. “What about you, how does it all feel? Has the protocol gotten to you yet? I know Victoria gets fed up with it.”

  “I’m not the queen’s sister,” she reminded him. “I’m only her niece. No one worries about what I do. I’m kind of below the radar and I like it that way.”

  “Until you put a foot wrong, and then they’ll come down on you like bricks, if you go out with the wrong man, or say the wrong thing.” That was Victoria’s specialty. She was always dating men that her sister and the cabinet didn’t approve of, or being too outspoken or critical about the government, the prime minister, or her sister.

  “I don’t do anything they can object to,” Annie said easily.

  “You will one day,” he assured her, “and then there will be hell to pay.” It was why he had never gone out romantically wi
th Victoria, or anyone royal. He didn’t care that she was older, nor did she. But he confined his love life to commoners, socialites, debutantes, models, and starlets, which caused comment too, and had won him the reputation of being a playboy, as Victoria had warned her. But Annie was in no danger of falling prey to his charms. She knew him too well now and still only liked him as a brother.

  Her cousin Albert was seated on her other side at dinner the first night, on Christmas Eve, and he was talking about college, and a ski trip to France he was planning after Christmas. She had seen in the press that he was dating a beautiful girl, who was a duke’s daughter, but there was no evidence of her there. None of them brought their dates to the queen’s home for Christmas, not even her sons. It was strictly family, and the Hattons. Lord Hatton was seated next to the queen on one side, and her oldest son, the heir apparent, on the other. She was deep in conversation with Lord Hatton about a horse she wanted to buy, to use for stud services. Horses were her main topic of conversation in private. The prince consort was seated next to his sister-in-law Victoria, and she was making him laugh as she always did, with irreverent stories. She brought out the best in him. Men loved her.

  The ladies left the table at the end of dinner, and waited in the drawing room for the gentlemen to join them shortly after, and then they played charades over coffee and brandy, followed by card games. At midnight they all went upstairs. Gifts were to be exchanged the next day before lunch, which would be a sumptuous meal in the main dining room. They followed the same traditions every year.

  When Annie went to her room at the end of the evening, there was a fire burning brightly. The room was warm and cozy, and she was relaxing in a chair thinking of what a nice time she’d had, when there was a knock on the door. She went to open it, and was surprised to see Anthony standing there with a bottle of champagne in his hand and two glasses.