wasn’t there!’ she screamed. And banged her hand down so hard that dust flew out of the upholstered arm of the chair.
There was a shocked silence.
Bella said slowly, ‘This is about the children, isn’t it? You’re worried about our children.’
Richard drew a sharp breath.
The Queen shook her head. ‘Not just the children. It’s hard on them. But you can’t imagine what it’s like when you can’t stop them being pushed on to the public stage when they’re little. You feel so helpless.’
Bella remembered Richard telling her that the Queen had been good at protecting the family from the old King and his schemes. She looked at him now. He was very pale.
She couldn’t bear it. She said fiercely, ‘Richard and I will take care of each other and our children. I promise you.’
‘I know you think you will, dear. We all think that. But the pressures never stop. In the end, you get so tired. And lonely,’ she added, almost imperceptibly. And quite suddenly the Queen’s eyes filled with tears. She jumped to her feet.
‘I’m sorry. This is your business. I should never have delayed that list. I’m sorry. Please talk to your father about it, Richard. Excuse me. I’m not well.’
She hurried away, leaving a shocked silence.
‘Poor lady,’ whispered Bella.
‘Oh, Lord,’ said Richard. He looked at Bella. ‘What do you want to do, love? Sleep on it?’
She thought about what Georgia had told her. It made a lot of sense.
She took his hand. ‘I think you and I need to work out what we want before anyone else gets a vote.’
‘O – K. And that is?’
Bella looked at the little lines round his eyes which always deepened when he was worried about something. He was being so careful not to push, not to put her under pressure, to step back and let her take an independent decision. And yet she could see how desperately he didn’t want to wait for a year.
Well, neither did she. She knew that without any doubt at all.
She slipped out of her chair and knelt beside him. ‘I love you so much, it’s like being soaked in sunshine. I’d marry you tomorrow if I could.’
She watched the lines disappear. He gave a long, long sigh as if he’d put down a great burden.
But all he said, in his practical way, was, ‘What about June?’
18
‘The Ring!’ – Royal Watchers Magazine
It was the start of a whirlwind that Bella would never have believed. The next week, Richard talked to the King and the Prime Minister and they narrowed the date down to three possibles. Richard’s office was on the phone to Bella every hour about some option or other until she longed to say, ‘Just do it. I’ll go along with whatever you want.’
But, mindful of Georgia’s advice, she didn’t. And they kept right on consulting her.
And then the date was finalised, a Press call scheduled, and the Queen called her at last. Summoned to an audience, Bella took another early departure from the office and recorded it carefully on the time sheets she had introduced when she took over. One thing she didn’t need, she thought, was some journalist claiming that the new Princess-to-be skived off work!
The Queen was on her own. As soon as the flunkey had retreated and closed the doors behind him she said, ‘I owe you an apology for our last meeting. I should never – all I can say is that it was with the best of intentions.’
‘I’m sure it was,’ said Bella. ‘I’m certainly going to come to you for advice. I shall need it.’
‘Yes, you will,’ said the Queen sadly. ‘So I suggest that Lady Pansy moves from her informal role as your friend and mentor to becoming your formal Court Adviser. You will want a Personal Assistant as well, of course. Maybe your little friend, Charlotte Hendred, is it?’
You’re very well briefed, thought Bella.
Aloud, she said, ‘I wouldn’t ask her to interrupt her career. But thank you, that’s a good idea. I will start to look for one.’
The Queen smiled. ‘That’s settled then. And, forgive me, I know that you young people like to be selfsupporting, but this is rather exceptional. So the Palace will pay. In fact, I suggest your team should use an office in St George’s Tower, where a lot of our staff are housed.’
More security, more forgetting to sign in and out, thought Bella, with a sinking heart. But there were some battles that were worth fighting and some that weren’t. So she