Tabloid Princess, page 9
I stepped up, almost automatically, forgetting the cameras and the people calling out to their future king.
In the palm of his hand were small pin buttons with our new logo on. “What do you think?”
“They are so cool.” I forgot who I was talking to and took one out of his hand. “Here.” I unclipped the hook, pushing it through his T-shirt and then fastening it again.
When I was done, I looked up to find him watching me, a small smile ghosting his lips. “I thought we could give them all out; want to help?” His low voice tingled my insides.
I nodded, almost wordlessly. What he was doing… It was so much more than I ever could have anticipated.
It happened so quick it was over in seconds.
A brush of wind lifted my hair, landing it across my face, just as he tipped a handful of badges into my outstretched hands. “Thanks.” I laughed and tried to blow at the strands. For once I didn’t want my curtain of separation there.
His fingers rose and he brushed at my hair, tucking it behind my ear. “You’re welcome.” His smile softened at the edges.
London may as well have ceased to exist.
And the planet.
My cheeks burned so hot I became my own sun. He chuckled, his eyes grazing my face again before he turned to where some young children in a yellow and grey uniform called his name.
“Hey.” He stepped over to them. “Thanks for coming along. Would you like some of these?” He knelt down and handed them all some badges. Putting his hand in his other pocket, he pulled out some purple balloons. Exactly how deep were his pockets? Was he wearing special prince pants?
“I’m not very good at these.” He handed some out.
“Here let me.” I stepped over and took one out of his hands, stretching it like a pro and then pinging it back into shape. I started to blow hard, my cheeks puffing before I realised what I was doing. I was blowing a balloon in front of Prince Oliver. Possibly the stupidest thing I’d ever managed to do, and there was a fair old list to choose from. Starting to laugh, I let go and it twirled in the air.
He went on like this, tirelessly talking to people, shaking hands, thanking people for coming, giving out an endless supply of flyers that one of his staff members kept replenishing. I watched—he was very far from the man in the graveyard.
He was good at his job. More than good.
Once he’d been down the line of people and back up again, he went and stood in front of the waiting cameras and journalists. They’d all been arranged in an arc so he could talk into a microphone. Where did all this stuff come from?
He waved towards Janine and gave her a squeeze with his left arm. “This amazing woman here does the most incredible job helping the people of this city,” he started. An overwhelming bubble of emotion swamped me as I watched a woman who’d all but kept me on a path of survival being squeezed by the arm of our future king.
I grinned and wiped at my eyes, pretending to have something stuck in there. “Sucker,” Molly chided as she sidled up to my side.
“Bite me.”
Later, I passed Molly a glass of wine as I flopped down beside her on the sofa. Daisy had gone to bed. Thankfully, the excitement that I’d been keeping our royal visitor at work had diminished once I’d made it quite clear he didn’t have a horse and I wasn’t keeping seven small men locked away doing the cleaning and mining for jewels.
Disney.
“What a day! Thanks for coming over.”
Molly tilted towards me and clinked her glass against mine. “What a week.”
“Do you think it will be quieter tomorrow?” I felt bad for asking but a large part of me ached for some normalcy. Just a usual day of rushing the school run, being late for work and then spending the day with my safe crew. In the pit of my stomach I knew the answer—we wouldn’t get a quiet day again. Not now Prince Oliver had unleashed the full power of his media strategy.
The phone had already been ringing off the hook; so much so Janine had given us permission to ignore it for the last half hour of the day when we’d all started picking straws to see who should answer.
“Did he speak to you before he left?” Molly asked. She looked like she already knew what the answer should be.
“No, why would he?”
“I don’t know.” She shrugged.
“Spit it out.”
She stuck her tongue into the side of her cheek. “I don’t know. Just something I picked up on.”
I shot her an evil side glare. “I’m sure the poor guy is more than happy to not have me being rude to him again.”
“Babe, we’d all like that.” She sipped her wine. “Anyway, he might come back tomorrow, you never know.”
“I don’t want to talk about it anymore. I’m tired.”
“Oh, come on, Leia. I know you aren’t totally dead inside. You fancied him, didn’t you?”
“Did not!”
“Dead, dead. Your lady bits are dead.”
“They aren’t. I’m just not stupid enough to waste time fantasising about anything to do with him. He was…” I sought for the word. “…Nice.”
“He made you tear up.”
“No! Seeing Janine getting rewarded for her hard work made me tear up.”
“You keep telling yourself that. Anyway, talking about fantasising, last night I…”
“Molly!” I squeezed my hands over my ears. “Stop talking.”
She laughed and threw back her wine. “Shall we watch the news and see what the coverage was like?”
“Channel 4? Don’t they hate the royals?”
She shrugged a shoulder. “It’s all headlines one way or the other isn’t it?”
“I guess.” It was becoming increasingly hard to associate the Prince Oliver who’d been in our office with the attention grabbing royal constantly pictured with a woman on his arm. The only royal in history to ever cancel a royal wedding.
Picking up the remote, I flicked on the box and then settled back down. I couldn’t help but wonder why he called off his wedding, but then told myself to stop thinking about him.
“Ooh, just in time.” Molly sat up straighter as the presenter said the words “Prince Oliver.” And a picture of him in his white and purple T-shirt came up on the screen behind her. “Prince Oliver has surprised Londoners for the second time this week. This afternoon he held an impromptu charity event in the area of Bermondsey. Calling it a celebration, Prince Oliver told the crowd and the press what a phenomenal week he’d had spending time with the secret heroes of London’s needy.”
The screen cut to his little speech and some of the question and answers he’d done.
My mouth dried a little as I watched. Even from here his eyes were so vivid, almost unnaturally so, and now I knew about the freckles I could almost see them.
The coverage panned in on Janine who was saying how honoured she was to have such an important guest after working in the field for the last twenty years. “It will make such a difference if people know there is someone they can come to, that a family member can come to. We aren’t here to judge or to label, but to guide and give advice where we can; trying to give everyone the opportunity to dream free of the issues that shape their lives.” As she said this, I noticed Prince Oliver’s eyes dart slightly to the person behind. Thankfully that person wasn’t on screen.
“Oh my god, Leia. I told you those leggings would end up on TV.”
I snorted and slopped my wine everywhere. My heart thudded an uneven beat. “I had to put them on with the T-shirt. It would have looked so much worse over the dress.”
The camera cut back to the presenter in the office. My mouth fell wide open as a giant picture of me filled the screen behind her. “One of the big talking points of the day was the obvious intimacy between Prince Oliver and a woman from the charity. This small moment has been captured by cameras everywhere and has got everyone asking the question, ‘who is she?’”
I stared in horror as the camera again cut to an outtake of the afternoon. The prince stood smiling at me, his attention focused solely on my face as he talked with me and then reached to brush a lock of hair behind my ear, his fingers seeming to linger slightly. Then it cut to us both laughing as the balloon launched itself into the air.
“Oh my god. That is not how it happened.”
Molly’s eyes were as wide as saucers. No, as wide as dinner plates.
“Is this the reason for the royal breakup and failed marriage?” The presenter asked.
“WHAAAAT! NOOOOO!” I launched myself at the telly. “Noooooo. Noooo.”
My brain went into complete shutdown, my body convulsing with what could only have been shock.
“Oh shit.” Molly’s words were barely audible through the buzzing in my ears.
“What was that?” I turned on my knees to face her.
She scrunched her face, choosing her words carefully. “That looked like the future King of England playing with your hair in front of the whole world.”
The pounding boom in my chest made it almost impossible to breathe.
“Listen, don’t worry. It will be forgotten about by tomorrow.” Molly said, but her expression didn’t match her words.
And that just about said it all.
Nine
The next morning it was gone eight before I stumbled into the kitchen. I’d only gone to bed at three, after watching endless news coverage on all sorts of gossip news television channels I hadn’t known existed.
By the time I’d finally admitted defeat and slunk to bed, the news about Prince Oliver’s mystery woman was worldwide.
I was worldwide.
There really couldn’t be anything worse.
I jumped in surprise to find Nana at the table, her hands wrapped around a black coffee. I grimaced at the tar-like drink and turned to make a milkier version of my own. There could only be one reason why she had arrived before school.
Daisy didn’t lift her eyes from her Disney book as she shovelled her cereal into her mouth. Dressed and with her hair brushed I knew I had Nana to thank.
I picked up my mug and turned for the table, sliding into the vacant seat. The kitchen was small and square. The little table Daisy and I ate our dinner at only had space for three chairs.
“We’ve got to go soon, sweetie.” I took a sip of my drink, not caring about it burning my tongue.
“Daisy, why don’t you go and brush your teeth while I get your mummy some breakfast?”
Daisy glanced up then, her wide gaze meeting mine. “Is your chest sore, Mummy?”
Hell, yes it was. A great big gaping hole of destruction had taken up residence there in the small hours of the morning.
My eyes filled with tears and I palmed them before the droplets could fall. “I’m fine, Daisy. Just tired. Does your chest hurt?”
She shook her head, her smile bright. “Not today.”
“That’s good. That’s very good.”
She slipped out of her seat humming a tune from Frozen as she put her bowl in the sink. Nana and I watched her go in silence. As soon as she was gone Nana turned to me.
“Leia, oh my goodness.”
“I know it’s awful. So awful.”
“What?” She frowned; those wrinkles she was determined didn’t exist creasing across her forehead.
“All this crap. People saying I’m Prince Oliver’s new girlfriend.”
“I’m guessing you don’t want to see the papers.”
“Papers,” I whispered faintly. “It can’t have printed already. Why? Surely they would have asked his spokesperson or whatever he has.”
Nana reached down and pulled a bundle of black and white paper onto the table. The Sun was the first one folded on top, its bold headline reading: Princess Leia. Who is Ollie’s Mystery Woman?
“Oh God.” I may as well have been punched in the stomach. “How did they get my name already?”
“Leia? What is all this about? You haven’t mentioned him to me all week, yet the papers are saying he’s been in your office.”
I wanted to put my head down on the table and die. “He came in on Monday. It was supposed to be a surprise one-off visit, but he ended up staying longer.”
“Ended up? Unplanned?”
“I don’t know.” I scrubbed at my face with my hands. “He’s a prince, why does he do anything?”
She shoved the papers at me and with weak fingers I pulled the top one off, finding the exact same image on the following three front pages: Prince Oliver with his hand close to my ear, his eyes staring at me in a way that even from a printed page made my stomach tighten.
“And you’ve spoken to him? Because honestly, Leia. It looks like he knows you well.”
I couldn’t meet her eyes, couldn’t take my eyes away from the image of the Prince and I inches apart. “We spoke a couple of times. I was rude; quite horrible actually.”
I glared up at her, my eyes burning. “What if they find out about me? What if it doesn’t go away?”
“What are they going to find out, Leia? That you had a shitty upbringing, but you survived it?”
“I’ve never wanted Daisy to know. Now everyone she knows, all those parents who judge me anyway for being so much younger than them, everyone will know. It will ruin her.”
“Or maybe all her friends will think she’s cool because her mum knows a prince.”
I scowled so hard it hurt. “It’s not her friends I’m worried about.”
“Leia. For goodness’ sake. Your mother was an addict. My daughter was an addict. That’s not you. Now you try to help people with the same issues.”
Nana never spoke this way, never so direct about that awful period seven years ago when my world imploded.
“What if all the mums think I’m like her?”
“You are talking nonsense.”
“It’s not nonsense, Nana.” I slumped down in my seat. “It’s my biggest fear. I won’t have Daisy thinking she was some awful mistake I should have terminated.”
“She’d never think that. You love her too much.” She reached forward and cupped her palm around my cheek. “It will blow over. Prince Oliver is in the paper daily; this is just yet another headline. Tomorrow there will be a new one, a new woman, another date to make the front page.”
“When so many other important issues should be reported instead.” My words were bitter.
“Exactly, but that’s the way our society works. It’s messed up, but at least you will know that this will pass. A couple of days and everyone will forget about the prince and you wearing matching T-shirts.”
She pulled the pile of papers towards her, studying the picture again. “What was he like?” she asked. There was more in her question; it danced under the surface.
I looked at Prince Oliver’s hand against my hair, delicate and soft. I knew I’d never see him again. His time with us was up now. In many ways it looked like I’d got what I wanted—we’d gone viral. That T-shirt, the name of our charity, our slogan to dream free was everywhere this morning; all over the world everywhere.
I swallowed; that new pain in my chest stung around the edges, making me wince.
“He was more than I expected.”
Then I flipped the papers. “Nana, could you take Daisy to school? I can’t face the playground today. I’ll ring Miss Evans later and explain what I can.” I paused. “Or do you think we should keep Daisy home? This is unfair on her, isn’t it?”
Nana’s face smoothed into one of calm control. “No. She goes. If this is nonsense, just gossip, then nothing changes.”
I wished I had her optimism, because as far as I could tell everything had changed.
Thank God the press hadn’t found out where I lived yet. As it was, the trip to work was a nightmare. I couldn’t shake the sensation everyone was looking at me. Only about ninety-five percent of people glanced in my direction. All I could guess was that the other five percent hadn’t looked at their phones yet.
It was horrific. Angry and humiliated as I was, I couldn’t help but feel a little pang of regret for the prince who lived his life like that every day. But then I remembered that it was his random hair touching that had got me into this mess and I got fired up with red hot anger again.
At the corner of the street the office was located on, I wavered. I’d survived the walk down the main road, and I’d got a taxi not the Tube—sure the driver kept staring at me—but the turning to our small side street took the wind out of my sails.
Press swarmed around the door, cameras at the ready.
Oh shit.
Reminding myself I hadn’t done anything wrong, that I’d barely even spoken to the prince—okay, maybe a few times—I hiked my bag up over my shoulder and walked down towards the now purple door of Bright Futures. When had it changed to purple? I hadn’t even noticed yesterday.
“Leia! Leia!” My legs wobbled at the call of my name.
This was unbearable.
My blood rushed so fast in my veins. I swallowed down a disgusting mouthful of sick that almost escaped.
“Leia, tell us about you and the prince?” shouted one guy, his phone held out, I’m guessing ready to record my response.
“Did Charlotte know about you when the wedding was cancelled?” Another called. I nearly tripped at this. In the back of my head I was counting dates. Wasn’t the royal wedding cancelled in May? Now it was September. How long did these people hold onto news for?
“How does it feel to be romanced by a prince when you grew up on a council estate?”
My blood ran cold.
“No comment.” The two words stumbled out of my mouth automatically. “No comment.”
I struggled at the door, trying to remember which way it opened, but then finally it swung inwards without me really touching it
Janine pulled me in, slamming the door behind us as soon as I was over the threshold. “Oh my god, Leia. Are you okay?”
Shivers wracked my body and I trembled with no control. “I don’t understand what’s happening.”
