Даниэла Стил - Royal

And she had sent a beautiful warm black coat to Jonathan’s mother, her other grandmother. She had seen too little of her since going to work at the royal stables, but she wrote to her whenever she had time. Her new allowance enabled her to make generous gifts to all of them, and she was sorry not to see them over Christmas. She knew they understood that she had new responsibilities now, and two families. It was going to be her first royal Christmas.

Annie was shown to a beautiful bedroom at Sandringham when she arrived, and several footmen carried her bags and all her packages to her room. She was directing them about where to put everything when a familiar face walked past her room, and she saw Anthony Hatton standing in the doorway, smiling at her. His father was there too, and she remembered that the Hattons spent Christmas with the queen’s family every year. She was embarrassed not to have brought something for him. She had given Lord Hatton a bottle of Dom Perignon champagne before she left the stables. She was genuinely surprised to see Anthony. She hadn’t seen him since his party for the oilman. They had both been busy with their new jobs.

“I hoped I’d see you here.” He smiled at her as he crossed the room to kiss her. “I meant to call you, but my life has been insane. The PR firm I’m working for has really taken off. I’ve been running parties for them every week with a list of VIP clients an arm long. What about you? Is my father working your tail off?”

“Yes, and I love it.” She smiled at him.

“Are you behaving?” he asked her.

“Of course.” She wasn’t sure what he meant by it, but she had no time to do otherwise. He noticed but didn’t mention that she looked suddenly more grown up, and more sophisticated than she had when he met her. She was wearing a red wool suit with a fashionably short skirt, which was part of her recent haul from Harrods when she was buying gifts. She thought it would come in handy at Sandringham. He was admiring her legs with the short skirt. She was small but well proportioned, and he’d never noticed her legs before in her riding clothes, or her evening gown at his party.

“My room is just down the hall if you need anything,” he said, as he left to check on his own bags.

Christmas at Sandringham was more formal than the family gatherings at Balmoral in the summer. There were no picnics or barbecues, and the queen’s secretary had called to tell her that dinner would be black tie, which was why she’d gone shopping, so she was prepared. She had bought three long dresses, and had brought the strapless velvet one, which was the only one she’d owned. She’d bought a kilt, the red suit she was wearing, a black velvet suit, and a white wool dress by a French designer for Christmas Day. She had a full wardrobe and she could fill in with some skirts and sweaters she had brought from Kent the last time she went there. As always, when she went downstairs for cocktails before dinner, Princess Victoria was wearing a very chic French designer black cocktail dress and looked sexy and fashionable, and the queen was wearing a black velvet evening suit with a long skirt, with her pearls, diamond earrings, and a very handsome tiara.

Annie was seated next to Anthony at dinner, and he leaned over and whispered, “I should have brought the tiara from Garrard’s that you wore to the party. I meant to give it to you for Christmas, and I must have forgotten it at home.” She grinned at his comment, and remembered how much she liked it. “It suited you very well. You should wear tiaras all the time.”

During dinner she told him how lovely her father’s knighting ceremony had been and how much it meant to him, and Anthony was touched. Somehow, despite everything that had happened to her in a short time, it hadn’t gone to her head, and she had managed to stay real.

“What about you? Do you still like the job?” she asked.

“It’s a hell of a lot of work, and some of their clients are real jerks, but some are very nice. The Americans mostly. There’s kind of a sweet innocence to them. They all want to meet the queen, and think they should. They don’t really get how it all works, the protocol, and all the rest. We should get a stand-in that looks like her. They’d never know the difference.” Annie laughed. It was fun sitting next to him, he always had something interesting to say and he always made her laugh. “What about you, how does it all feel? Has the protocol gotten to you yet? I know Victoria gets fed up with it.”

“I’m not the queen’s sister,” she reminded him. “I’m only her niece. No one worries about what I do. I’m kind of below the radar and I like it that way.”

“Until you put a foot wrong, and then they’ll come down on you like bricks, if you go out with the wrong man, or say the wrong thing.” That was Victoria’s specialty. She was always dating men that her sister and the cabinet didn’t approve of, or being too outspoken or critical about the government, the prime minister, or her sister.

“I don’t do anything they can object to,” Annie said easily.

“You will one day,” he assured her, “and then there will be hell to pay.” It was why he had never gone out romantically with Victoria, or anyone royal. He didn’t care that she was older, nor did she. But he confined his love life to commoners, socialites, debutantes, models, and starlets, which caused comment too, and had won him the reputation of being a playboy, as Victoria had warned her. But Annie was in no danger of falling prey to his charms. She knew him too well now and still only liked him as a brother.

Her cousin Albert was seated on her other side at dinner the first night, on Christmas Eve, and he was talking about college, and a ski trip to France he was planning after Christmas. She had seen in the press that he was dating a beautiful girl, who was a duke’s daughter, but there was no evidence of her there. None of them brought their dates to the queen’s home for Christmas, not even her sons. It was strictly family, and the Hattons. Lord Hatton was seated next to the queen on one side, and her oldest son, the heir apparent, on the other. She was deep in conversation with Lord Hatton about a horse she wanted to buy, to use for stud services. Horses were her main topic of conversation in private. The prince consort was seated next to his sister-in-law Victoria, and she was making him laugh as she always did, with irreverent stories. She brought out the best in him. Men loved her.

The ladies left the table at the end of dinner, and waited in the drawing room for the gentlemen to join them shortly after, and then they played charades over coffee and brandy, followed by card games. At midnight they all went upstairs. Gifts were to be exchanged the next day before lunch, which would be a sumptuous meal in the main dining room. They followed the same traditions every year.

When Annie went to her room at the end of the evening, there was a fire burning brightly. The room was warm and cozy, and she was relaxing in a chair thinking of what a nice time she’d had, when there was a knock on the door. She went to open it, and was surprised to see Anthony standing there with a bottle of champagne in his hand and two glasses.

“A bit of bubbly before bedtime?” he offered. She wasn’t tired and she let him come in, and he sat down across from her in front of the fire and stretched his legs out as he filled two glasses with champagne, and handed one to her.

“I’m glad you’re here,” he said, looking relaxed. “It’s all a bit serious for me, and a little formal. But staying home alone on Christmas would be depressing. So I let my father talk me into it. And to be honest, I hoped you’d be here. I wasn’t sure if you’d be in Kent instead.”

“I thought I should be here this year.”