Даниэла Стил - Royal

Everything was in order, so far, and MI5 was doing some further investigation, but Sir Malcolm did not explain it. He promised to stay in touch and call when the investigation was concluded.

Annie wondered after she hung up if Lucy would have felt betrayed by their trying to have Annie recognized as a member of the royal family, or if she would have been pleased. She had gone to such lengths to make Annie her own, that Annie felt guilty about it at times, but Jonathan kept telling her that it was her birthright, and encouraged her to see it through to the end. And Lucy had told him the story herself and wanted to right the wrong she’d done. Nothing had been leaked to the press about it. The royal family was keeping it quiet in case she turned out not to be related to them after all. None of them wanted the embarrassment of discovering that Princess Charlotte wasn’t her mother, in which case Annie didn’t know who was, maybe Lucy after all. It was hard to guess the truth after silence for so long. And if Annie wasn’t Charlotte’s daughter, what had happened to the infant born to Charlotte at Ainsleigh Hall, now that they knew the rest?

It was another two months before Sir Malcolm called again. None of the Ainsleigh Hall servants were still alive, but they had spoken to the daughter of one of the maids, a hall boy, and the doctor’s nurse again. Blake and Rupert were screaming over a soccer match on TV when Sir Malcolm called. Annie could hardly hear him, and shouted at the boys to turn it down, and stop screaming. They were rooting for opposing teams and driving her insane. They had just turned sixteen, and the cottage seemed too small now for four of them. They were turning into big, brawny men, and they left a mess in their wake everywhere, which Annie constantly cleaned up for them.

“I’m sorry,” she apologized, “I couldn’t hear you. My brothers were behaving like savages.” She glared at them as she said it, and turned off the television. “Could you repeat that?” she said to Sir Malcolm, as her brothers left the room, grumbling.

“Your Royal Highness.” It struck her as odd when he said it. “The investigation has been concluded to everyone’s satisfaction. Her Royal Highness Princess Charlotte was your mother, and you bear a remarkable resemblance to her.” He was smiling as he said it, and much to her own surprise, Annie had tears in her eyes, and sat down suddenly, feeling dizzy. She had wanted this result and didn’t even know it. It was now confirmed that she was Her Majesty’s niece and the Queen Mother’s granddaughter. “Her Majesty is very pleased. We will be releasing a statement in the next few days. You might want to prepare for some media attention. They can be quite intrusive, no matter how discreetly we frame the news. It’s liable to cause considerable excitement.” Her heart was pounding as he said it. She was a member of the royal family after all. And she had no idea what would come next.

“What are you going to say in the announcement?” She was curious about it.

“Her Majesty’s press secretary is handling it. We want to keep it as discreet as possible, so it doesn’t raise too many questions of a delicate nature. It will say that you’ve been living abroad with distant relatives who brought you up, since your parents’ tragic deaths during the war, you’ve completed your education, and you have now returned to England to take your rightful place with the royal family. Her Majesty is immensely pleased at the return of her youngest sister’s daughter. It’s hard to make much of that, but the press will always try.

“Her Majesty also wanted me to let you know that the cabinet will be deciding on your allowance next month, and she’d like you to come to Balmoral for a few days this summer, to meet the rest of the family. Her boys are close to your age, and they’ll be home from school then. And Her Royal Highness Princess Victoria always spends a week or two there on her way to the South of France, where she spends the month of August. It’s a bit chilly in Scotland, but I’m sure you’ll enjoy the palace. The Queen Mother and Her Majesty have always loved it. The Queen Mother would like to have you to tea in the coming days. And Her Royal Highness Princess Victoria would like to meet you when she returns from the trip to India she’s on now.” Annie felt dizzy when she hung up, her head was spinning, and she sat staring into space for a minute. Her father came in from the stables in time for dinner, and saw the look on her face, as though she’d seen a ghost.

“Did something happen? Did the boys break something?” Jonathan asked, looking worried. They’d come back into the room and were screaming at the soccer match and threatening to kill each other again, as she shook her head and stared at her father.

“I’ve been authenticated,” she whispered. “It’s all true, Charlotte is my mother. The cabinet is voting on my allowance next month, and the queen wants me to come to Balmoral this summer to meet the others. Oh my God, Papa, I’m for real!” He put his arms around her and hugged her with tears in his eyes.

“You’ve always been real to me,” he said gruffly.

Then her face clouded for a minute. “Do you think Mama would be upset about it? Or pleased? It seems so disloyal after everything she did for me.” Suddenly Annie had two mothers, but both were dead.

“She must have wanted this to happen or she wouldn’t have told me,” he reassured her. “This was meant to be. She had you to herself for twenty years. They’re your family. I think she thought it was time to make a clean breast of it, before she left us. I think she would be happy for you. I suppose this means that you don’t have to play Cinderella for me and your brothers anymore.” He smiled at her. “Will you be moving to one of the palaces?” he asked her innocently. But Sir Malcolm hadn’t said anything about it. Only about tea with her grandmother and aunt.

“Of course not. I’m staying here with you. But it would be nice if those two Neanderthals could pick up after themselves occasionally, and stop screaming when they watch a match on TV,” Annie said, exasperated.

“Good luck with that, and you don’t have to stay here, Annie, if you don’t want to.”

“Where else would I go? You’re my papa, and I want to live with you.” He looked pleased. He hadn’t lost her after all. He had been afraid he might, but it hadn’t stopped him from pursuing the truth for her. He had done what was right.

She put dinner on the table a few minutes later. The hamburgers were overcooked and she had burned the potatoes, but her hungry brothers ate it all anyway. She sent them upstairs after that, so she and her father could enjoy a peaceful end to the meal. “I’m so happy for you, Annie. And I really think Mama would be too.”

“I hope so. I’m not sure I’m ready to be a princess yet. They’re going to make an announcement to the press in the next few days.”

—

Neither of them was ready for the onslaught of photographers and TV cameras that assaulted them, invaded the stables, and generally drove everyone nuts for a week following the announcement. They tried to get pictures of Annie doing her chores, with her father and brothers, on horseback. The announcement was as discreet as Sir Malcolm had said it would be, but the press was wildly excited. A lost princess was big news.

It said simply that Her Royal Highness Princess Anne Louise, daughter of Her Royal Highness Princess Charlotte and the son of the late Earl and Countess of Ainsleigh, the late Lord Henry Hemmings, had returned to England after living abroad since her parents’ tragic deaths during the war. It referred to the fact that Princess Charlotte had died in Yorkshire at seventeen, that she had married and had a daughter during the year she spent in Yorkshire, and that due to the war and constant bombings, the family had waited to announce it after the war and by then, the young couple were both dead, and their daughter grew up in seclusion, under the supervision of the royal family, until she came of age. And she was now brought home to her aunts, uncle, grandmother, and cousins, and she would be publicly presented soon. In the meantime it said that the queen was extremely pleased to have her niece home in England again. And she was residing at an estate in Kent, which was how the press found her. They checked every large estate until they did. They reported that before that, she had been living with distant relatives on the Continent, and having completed her studies and reached her majority, she had returned to take her place with the royal family, as Her Majesty’s niece, as well as the niece of Her Royal Highness Princess Victoria, and the granddaughter of Queen Anne the Queen Mother. It said everything pertinent about who she was related to, and where she’d been for the last twenty-two years without bringing up anything that might prove to be controversial or embarrassing. It was all very clean and direct and established her as a Royal Highness. And it acknowledged her father as having died a hero’s death at Anzio at eighteen.