by Merry Farmer
“I’ve got a special treat for you today,” he said, holding the car door for her as she settled into his BMW three days after transferring from the hospital to the palace.
She laughed. “Mack, you’ve had nothing but surprises for me since I got here. Are you sure you don’t have anything better to do?”
“I’m simply fulfilling my obligations to improve international relations and demonstrate Aegirian hospitality,” he told her before closing the door and walking around to the driver’s seat.
“You’re going to make it so that I never want to leave,” she told him as he buckled his seatbelt and turned the key in the ignition.
His whole body responded to her comment. I hope not, he thought. Aloud, he said, “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
They left the palace and headed out of the city over one of the inland roads. In the last three days, they’d toured the major sites of Solrighavn and the harbor. He’d introduced her to most of his brothers, his mother, William and Cassandra, but they hadn’t hung around the whirlwind of family for long. Maybe it was selfish of him, but he didn’t want to share Gloria with his family. Not yet. And showing her around Aegiria gave him something satisfying to do instead of poking around where he didn’t feel needed.
“This is a special treat,” he said as they neared their destination.
“All of Aegiria is a special treat, if you ask me,” she said.
Her enthusiasm warmed him. He loved his country, and seeing it through someone else’s eyes gave him a newfound appreciation for it.
“Oh!” she gasped, sitting straighter as she looked out the window. “Are they playing cricket?”
Mack’s brow went up. Cricket wasn’t the reason he’d brought her to the Aegirian Air Force base, but if it fired her blood, he wouldn’t complain. “We’ve been trying to boost the sport’s profile in Aegiria recently,” he said. “Our football team has been doing well internationally, and now the aim is to field an international level cricket team.”
“I played growing up and in school,” she said, surprising him yet again. “And in the Air Force. My family is from the West Indies, after all. Go Windies!” She paused, blinked, and glanced into the sky as a small plane flew low overhead. “Wait, this is an airport.”
Mack chuckled. “That’s why we’re here.”
He drove around the edge of the field where the cricketers were playing, pulling into a parking lot beside a large hangar with the Aegirian Air Force emblem painted on the side. He felt like a kid giving a Christmas gift to a loved one as he cut his engine and jumped out to open the car door for Gloria. She’d long since gotten strong enough to get in and out of the car herself, but he liked at least attempting to be a gentleman anyhow.
“Where are we?” she asked as she got out and looked around.
“This is the Aegirian Air Force’s flight school,” he said.
Excitement filled her eyes as she took a few steps toward the modest runway and the collection of small planes waiting to take off. The joy that filled her face was beyond anything Mack had seen in ages. It radiated from her, filling him with happiness as well.
“I’m surprised that a country of this size even has an Air Force,” she said.
Mack chuckled. “If you can call a dozen small planes and a helicopter that work in conjunction with our police force an Air Force. They came in handy during the Second World War, though.”
“Prince Mikael, you made it.”
Mack turned to wave at an older man with grey hair and a cheery smile. “Carl, hello.” He gestured for Gloria to walk with him to the edge of the tarmac. “Captain Carl Gustavson, I’d like you to meet my friend, Miss Gloria Swann.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, ma’am,” Carl said, shaking Gloria’s hand.
“Gloria, this is Carl. He’s the head of the Aegirian pilot training school.”
Gloria’s face lit up. “It really is a pleasure to meet you.” She glanced to Mack before saying, “Did he tell you I recently left the RAF?”
“He did.” Carl grinned. “It’s always nice to meet a fellow pilot.”
Mack knew he’d scored major points when he saw the glow of respect and gratitude fill Gloria’s expression. But he had a lot more points to score before he could call it a day.
“Is it ready?” he asked Carl.
“Absolutely.” Carl winked at him.
Gloria glanced between the two of them, brimming with excitement and suspicion. “Should I be worried?”
“Not at all,” Carl assured her.
He gestured for Gloria and Mack to follow him onto the tarmac and around the area where several planes were parked. As soon as the bright red, antique plane peeked out from around newer model Cessnas, Gloria gasped.
“Oh my gosh, is that a Stinson Reliant?”
“It most certainly is,” Carl answered. “This one was formerly owned by your very own RAF and flown during combat missions during World War II. She’s been fixed up a bit over the years, but we’ve worked to maintain the integrity of the design while keeping her flight-worthy.”
“She’s beautiful,” Gloria said, approaching the plane as though she were in a church.
The excitement of Mack’s surprise was so intense that he couldn’t hold back. “Are you ready to take her for a spin?”
Gloria turned to him, mouth open. “You mean, I can fly her?”
“Not quite,” Carl said, raising a hand. “I’ll be your pilot today. You’ll want to let your shoulder heal up a little more before getting behind the controls again. Today you can get a feel for her, and once you’re back in fighting shape, we’ll talk.” He marched ahead of them to the plane’s open door, gesturing for Gloria to climb in.
Before she did, she turned to Mack. “You have no idea how special this is for me,” she said, blinking back tears.
Mack shrugged. “I have a guess.”
Without warning, she hopped forward and kissed him soundly. Mack was so taken by surprised that he didn’t think to do anything about it until she was already breaking away with a squeal. He raised his arms, but wasn’t in time to catch her and hold her close. With one last joyful glance in his direction, she rushed toward the plane, climbing inside.
Mack followed, feeling as though, for the first time in a long time, he’d done something right.
5
The thrill of flight was like a tight, pulsing ball in Gloria’s gut, which expanded through her entire body and beyond as soon as the Reliant’s landing gear left the tarmac. Everything about the antique plane kicked ass, from the scent of old metal, oil, and electronics that filled her nostrils to the loud but distinct thrum of the engine.
“Reliants were transport and communications planes during World War II,” she explained to Mack through the headsets they both wore. He was seated behind Carl, which meant she could twist to face him, making eye contact as she spoke. “They’re American-built, but were used by both US and British airborne forces for non-combat missions. A lot like what I did flying the C-130J Hercules around the Mediterranean.”
Mack stared back at her, eyes wide, either in surprise over the knowledge she had at her fingertips or her revelation of the type of plane she’d flown, or maybe even because he wasn’t used to soaring above the world in a vehicle that felt more like a car in the air than a commercial airline.
“You flew C-130J’s?” Carl asked, though his attention was firmly on the Reliant’s controls and the vast expanse of sea and sky they were headed for.
“For three years,” Gloria said, nodding.
“Did you ever fly those fast jets that you see in all the movies?” Mack asked. “Like Top Gun?”
The old, hollow ache in Gloria’s stomach flared to life. But surprisingly, it wasn’t as sharp or gnawing as it always had been. “No.” She shook her head, then took a breath. “I applied for Number One Group, but was turned down three times.”
“Too bad,” Mack answered, the affectionate smile he wore showing that he had no ide
a just how hard those rejections had been for her or how she’d been eating her heart out over them.
But again, she didn’t feel the same sense of pressing defeat and sadness that she once had over those rejections. It was hard to let anything in her past get to her with the Reliant’s engine humming, sending vibrations through her that reminded her she was part of a long legacy of military pilots.
“Three times, eh?” Carl said, sending her a sympathetic sideways look. “Hard luck.”
He understood. And even though Gloria didn’t know Captain Carl Gustavson from a hole in the wall, something about his grey hair and the lines around his eyes, combined with the genuineness of his expression, gave her the sense that what she’d seen as the end of the world might just have been a bump in the road that sent her life in a different, better direction.
She sat back in her seat, staring out at the vastness of blue around her. They’d left the small island of Aegiria behind almost right off the bat and now sailed through sun-kissed skies. Just like she had the day she’d taken off in her Cessna—which wasn’t able to be recovered. Unlike that fateful day, the sea and skies filled her with a thrill of hope and promise instead of stretching around her like an unanswered question.
Maybe there was something magical in the waters of Aegiria. Maybe she’d hit her head harder than she’d thought in the crash. Or maybe the hand of fate had been at work in carrying her from what she’d thought was a crushing disappointment into a new horizon of possibility.
Mack touched her arm, shaking her out of her thoughts. His touch sent sparkles of need through her, but his expression was all business.
“Look out to the left,” he said, his voice far more electronic and distant than she wanted it to be through the headsets.
She turned to peer out the window beside her. “What am I looking at?” she asked.
The sea sparkled below them. There was just enough of a breeze to create small, choppy waves, which caught the sun. It was cliché to say the sunlight looked like diamonds, but that was far and away the best way she could think to explain it. Diamonds were awe-inspiring and full of mystery. They were valuable and beautiful. She was beginning to see that the ocean was all those things and more.
“From up here,” Mack went on, “you can see the lanes that commercial fishing boats use to reach fishing stocks.”
“Oh yeah?” She took another look. Sure enough, faint lines of ships of varying sizes made a broad line through the sparkling waters. “You said you used to work on a fishing boat.” She twisted to Mack.
He was glancing out over the sea with a wistful look. “Yeah, years ago, for an internship in college.” He pulled his eyes away from the sea to smile at her. “I wanted to go into fishing full-time.”
“I remember reading about you doing that,” Carl joined the conversation. “I always wondered why you didn’t keep at it.”
“Because I was told laboring on a fishing boat wasn’t an appropriate profession for a member of the royal family,” Mack said.
Carl’s shoulders moved and he shook his head as though making some sort of scoffing noise. Gloria couldn’t hear it over the noise of the engine, but she shared the sentiment. Her heart squeezed for him.
Mack glanced out over the boats and the water once more. “There’s a lot of pressure on the royal family,” he said. “In every country in Europe, what remains of the old royal families, the modern royals, are more figure heads and public relations ambassadors for their countries. Look at your British royals.” He turned to her.
Gloria grinned. She didn’t mind looking at Wills and Harry at all, but she didn’t think that’s what he meant, and it certainly wasn’t what he wanted to hear.
“They spend more time supporting charitable causes and standing as symbols than they do working with their hands, or even toiling in an office. And it was always going to be that way for them, from the day they were born.”
“True.” Gloria nodded.
“In Aegiria, it’s even worse, because the royal family still plays a major role in government.”
“Do you?” She hadn’t known that, and considering the way things were in the UK, it came as a huge surprise. “And the people are okay with that?”
“Sure,” Carl answered for Mack. “The royal family is conscientious in the way they look after the country and its people. We’re a small nation, and it doesn’t take much to look out for our interests.”
“And there is an elected parliament that works in tandem with the monarchy to govern,” Mack went on. “My brother Alek will inherit the crown someday, but all of us are supposed to serve as advisors and ministers.”
Gloria frowned. She glanced out at the seascape as Carl made a slight turn, then she faced Mack again. “So what are you minister of?”
“Nothing,” he answered. Judging by the look on his face, he wasn’t happy about that. “I think I mentioned my brother Arne is Minister of Culture, Kristoff and Viggo haven’t really settled down enough to take up a governmental position. I’m pretty sure Johan is just waiting for things to sort themselves out after the wedding before making a bid for some sort of cabinet position.”
“Why would he need to wait until after the wedding?” Gloria blinked, finding the inner workings of the Aegirian government fascinating. Antoine would have a thing or two to say about the whole thing if he were there having the conversation.
“There will be shifts once Mother is married,” Mack went on. “Traditionally, the monarch’s consort holds a high position in the inner circle. Aunt Marina has held the chief counselor position since my father died, but William will take over after the wedding.”
“Okay,” Gloria nodded slowly. “But that doesn’t explain why you’re not a minister of anything.”
Mack’s face pinched, and he glanced out the window. “I’m honestly not sure if I want that sort of position.”
“I find that hard to believe, based on what I know about you,” Gloria said. “Not that I know much. But I have a feeling, you know?”
Mack answered with a grateful smile. “Like I said, I wanted to be a fisherman. I love everything about the sea, about working with my hands to bring in the catch. Even though a lot of it is automated and done with high tech equipment these days. I loved the camaraderie of the ship.”
Gloria’s chest went tight. “Kind of like how I loved the fellowship of the military.”
Mack’s face lit up. “Yeah. It’s like that. You miss it so much when it’s gone.”
The two of them exchanged a look that was so thick with understanding that Gloria felt it in her bones. It stirred other, far more interesting feelings in her as well. She tried to push away the whisper that maybe there was such a thing as soulmates and love at first sight as being maudlin drivel, but the feeling stayed with her, lodged deep in her chest.
“Anyhow,” Mack went on, breaking the moment of connection with a significant look to Carl, reminding them that they weren’t alone. “I got really interested in the minutia of the fishing industry, which led me to researching a lot about the ecology of fish habitats and the way we’re damaging the environment with other commercial ventures, like deep-sea drilling, and even all the wind farms that have popped up, to a certain extent.”
“So you got interested in environmental issues?” She had to admire a man who cared about his planet.
Mack nodded. “I learned a lot from William too. Dr. Hayes,” he clarified. “Mother’s fiancé.”
“He’s an environmentalist?”
“Among other things. He knows more about the North and Baltic Seas than anyone who wasn’t born here has a right to know.”
Gloria grinned. Clearly, Mack held a lot of admiration for the man. “So back up a second.” She shook her head. “If you’re so interested in fishing and the environment and things like that, why not just become your country’s Environmental Minister, or something like that?”
“The position doesn’t exist,” Mack told her.
“Can’t you create it?
You’re a prince, after all.”
She could see him sigh, even if the sound didn’t translate over the speakers. “I looked into it,” he said. “But I was shot down pretty fast.”
“Shot down?”
“I was told I wasn’t qualified, and that I needed more experience in government before I could launch an enterprise like that.”
Gloria felt Mack’s frustration with the whole thing based on the seriousness of his expression alone. “So what do you do now?”
“Not much,” he answered with an ironic twist to his mouth. “I assist Mother with administrative work, when she needs me. I’ve tried to stay on top of fishing and environmental issues as well, but something always comes up to yank my attention away from it. This wedding, for example.”
The plane made a sudden, steep turn, which cut the conversation short. Gloria straightened in her chair, facing front again. She loved the swoop in her stomach that came from a sharp turn, but it conjured up a little too much of the crash a few days before, considering how suddenly it came.
“Sorry,” Carl said with an apologetic grin, even though he kept his eyes straight ahead. “I just spotted something I wanted to get a closer look at.”
“What kind of something?” Mack asked. He’d shifted to gaze out the window at the sea below.
“Ahead a couple miles,” Carl said. “What do you think that is on the right?”
Gloria leaned forward, squinting out the front window. The sea was far less cluttered where they’d flown to. They’d gotten well away from land, shipping routes, and wind farms as she and Mack had talked. One quick check of the controls told her they’d flown northeast, well out into the Baltic and away from land.
“It’s an oil rig,” Mack answered right away, although there was a note of hesitation in his voice. “I didn’t realize there was one out here.”
“There are plenty of drilling operations in the Baltic,” Gloria said. She’d flown over more than her fair share in the last few weeks while wandering aimlessly. All the same, she pulled out her cell phone, opened the Notes app, and made a quick note of the coordinates as they flew over.