Royal - Danielle Steel Page 0,79

was never seen at the stables with her, but he would be at Balmoral when Annie was there. She hadn’t met him yet, or her aunt Victoria, who would be staying there on her way to or from the South of France for more hedonistic pursuits.

Annie gleaned whatever information she could from Anthony about Balmoral, since he and his father were frequent visitors there, but he was much more excited about his own trip to Saint Tropez. He wished Annie luck when she left for Scotland by train. Jonathan’s best advice had been to just be herself, which didn’t give her much help. She wasn’t even sure what kind of clothes to bring, and had no woman to ask. All Anthony said was to bring some nice dresses and you’ll be fine.

“What kind of ‘nice’?” she pressed him over dinner at the local pub a few days before she left. “Fancy nice? Or sundress nice, or shorts and a blouse in the daytime?” She hardly ever shopped, had never gone without Lucy, and until now didn’t need fancy clothes, but she forced herself to visit the shops in the town near the stables and bought herself a few simple things that looked like good basics to her. She showed them to Anthony and he approved.

“Why not wear something sexy?” he suggested. She had a great figure she never took advantage of to show off. “You’re a girl.” He had never known a woman like her, so totally without artifice or vanity.

“Until now I only owned one dress, to wear to church on Christmas. All I need is riding gear, and I can’t wear that to dinner,” she said, still nervous about her wardrobe even with the new additions.

And Lucy had never been helpful in that department either. She was used to wearing her housekeeper’s black dresses, and housedresses and slippers on her days off when she sat in front of the TV watching her favorite shows. Annie still missed her, and her unconditional love, and Jonathan said that he and the boys missed her terribly too. She’d been gone for less than a year, and so much had changed. Everything had, for all of them, especially in Annie’s life.

She had an allowance to spend now, which the cabinet had approved. It seemed extremely generous to her, and was put in an account for her every month, but she had no expenses living at the queen’s stables, and she’d never been extravagant. She did wish she’d had time to shop more when she packed her meager summer wardrobe for Balmoral. She saw Anthony briefly the morning she left. He was rushing to the airport for his flight to Nice, and what he referred to as Sodom and Gomorrah with French subtitles in Saint Tropez, on his friend’s yacht. He couldn’t wait.

“Good luck!” he called over his shoulder as he hurried down the stairs. She left a few minutes later, and Lord Hatton had one of the grooms drive her to the train station, where she boarded with her single battered suitcase, feeling like an orphan again, and not a royal princess.

The trip to Aberdeenshire in Scotland took eight hours, changing several times, and the scenery was beautiful along the way. The area around the castle was very rural, which was what the queen and Queen Mother loved about it. She had already spent most of the summer there, and was now at Sandringham in Norfolk with friends. And she was leaving this time in August to the young people. Annie knew that the family usually spent Christmas there, and only went to Balmoral in the summer, for a proper holiday. Of all of them, Balmoral was the queen’s favorite castle. It had a romantic history. Victoria and Albert had rented it in 1848, and had liked it so much, they continued to lease it for four years, until Prince Albert bought it as a gift for Queen Victoria in 1852. They had built an entirely new castle there, and it remained their favorite holiday home. The rest of the time, they used Windsor Castle as their main residence, and preferred it with their nine children when they were growing up. They lived at Buckingham Palace for part of the time, but Windsor was the main seat of the monarchy during Victoria’s reign.

Balmoral was on the bank of the River Dee, near the village of Crathie, and the queen’s private secretary picked Annie up at the station, and was surprised