Chapter 27

Charles

“She,” I said, my hand going to Heidi’s, “is the mother of your grandchild and the woman I love.”

My words echoed up into the vaulted ceiling. Mother stood stock-still, as if what I’d said physically prevented her from going any farther.

“You can do this the easy way,” I continued, “or you can do this the hard way. Whether you like it or not, we both know Henry is not fit to rule.”

On my right-hand side, Henry took his feet and crossed them on the edge of the table to back me up.

Mother’s lips quivered. She was just itching to tell him off.

Finally, without a word, she glided to the head of the table and primly sat down. She was still half a table away, but at least she had agreed to give me an audience, however temporarily.

“And what do you propose instead?” Mother asked, her eyes as cold and calculating as ever.

“Something viable but acceptable,” I said reasonably, spreading my arms. “Something that will charm the public and please them alike.”

Mother’s impassive, pasty face betrayed no expression. Her light curls were arranged around her face in a stiff confection of waves.

“And you’re under the impression there is such a thing?” she asked, skepticism clear in her voice.

“Yes,” I said simply. “Our story can be that I had Heidi come here for work because we’ve been dating for year and I wanted to propose to her, that we’ve been engaged since she’s been out here.”

Silence. Every breath I took seemed more labored than the last. That was a good story. Right? Mother had to accept it. She had to. Couldn’t she see that?

“And you think the people of England will accept that?”

This question of Mother’s was more skeptical than the last. I met it with a question of my own: “And you think they won’t?”

She sealed her lips and shook her head once more.

“I don’t know. It certainly is a better story.”

That was when the butler, Randolph, decided to show up with our food. He brought little Cornish hens baked to perfection. Henry and I attacked ours with vigor, Mother took her sweet time slicing and dicing it in all the right ways, and Heidi hardly touched hers.

She looked even more floored than before I’d announced the plan Mother had almost accepted.

The stubborn old queen hadn’t accepted it yet, true, but the very fact that she hadn’t dismissed it out of hand meant we had a chance—a bloody good one.

“Is something the matter?” I asked Heidi.

She only smiled tensely and tried shoveling some of the hen into her mouth. She chewed for several minutes before she swallowed shakily.

“I don’t know if I can do this.” Her voice was quiet but strong.

“What you mean?” I asked her. “This would be the answer to all our problems. You could stay here, be with me. Isn’t that what you want?”

She wrung her hands together, keeping her gaze firmly on them.

“Of course it’s what I want,” she continued quietly, “but I don’t want to lie. That was the one thing my father always taught me: not to lie. And I’ve always been terrible at it, so I don’t even know how I’d do it and…”

She stood up and the room fell silent.

“I’m sorry,” she said to my mother, “but I have to go.”

She hurried through the door and out into the ballroom.

“Heidi, wait!”

I chased her, but she only paused when she was out of Buckingham Palace’s front door.

Shaking her head furiously, she said, “Please, Charles. I gave you time, so give me time. I can’t sit there and pretend to accept this in front of you, your mother, and your brother while my insides are churning with this decision. This is my whole life you’re asking me to leave. Everything I’ve ever known has been in the United States of America. And I love it here, but…” She shook her head miserably. “You told her so many things you never even told me. Your mother didn’t even know I would be here. And then your big plan…why didn’t you tell me about it in the car?”

Every one of her words was another sting in my side. I winced, then sighed, nodding.

“You’re right of course,” I said. “It’s just that… You have to understand. I did this for us. Mother wouldn’t have come if she’d found out you were here. And you, I didn’t know what your reaction to my plan would be, so I thought the best thing to do would be to spring it on both of you at the same time.”

“Spring it on us,” she said bitterly.

My hands snatched hers.

“Heidi, please.”

She ripped hers away, not even looking at me now.

“Please, let me take your car back to my flat. Please let me do that and have the time I need to think this through.”

“Okay,” I said hollowly.

She disappeared into the limo waiting at the curb and then was gone.

I turned back to Buckingham Palace and tried to imagine what in heaven’s name I was going to tell my family. Or what I was going to tell myself even.

To say that Heidi hadn’t reacted how I’d expected would be the understatement of the century. I’d thought she would have been happy that I’d come up with a solution for us.

I paced outside the castle, strolled around the palace once, twice, three times. But I couldn’t walk off the crumbling sensation in my chest. It was as if everything I’d ever wanted was being destroyed in front of me.