Wanted: Royal Wife and Mother

But…but…

We had such hopes.

She’d never thought of it from the people’s point of view. She’d always believed they’d thought her a tramp. Someone they were lucky to be rid of.

She swallowed. Ellen had caught Matty’s sword which, mercifully, had a blunt end. She’d put it firmly aside. Now she was manoeuvring him into a jacket that matched Rafael’s.

Her two royal princes.

A family?

No. No, they weren’t. Matty was her family, but he also belonged to another.

She was on the outside of that other, not even wanting to look in.

The dress was there. A dare. A challenge.

A role that was already hers.

‘Come on in, the water’s fine,’ Rafael said softly and she blinked at him in astonishment.

‘I don’t…’

‘I know.’

‘I can’t.’

‘You can.’

‘Rafael…’

And then the earth moved.

It was a mere tremor-a shift that made the light above Ellen’s head sway slightly on its long lead from the high ceiling. A vase sitting on the edge of the mantelpiece slipped sideways and crashed on to the hearth. It left Kelly feeling just slightly off balance, as if she’d stood up too fast and felt a little dizzy, but then balance was restored and things were okay.

But the light was still swinging, casting weird shadows over the half dressed Matty. Ellen was staring upward, mesmerized by the swinging light, but Kelly was over the far side of the room in an instant, grabbing Matty to her, holding him close.

The light was still swaying. The vase was still smashed on the hearth.

‘Outside,’ Rafael said harshly into the stunned silence. ‘Get outside, everyone-into the forecourt and away from the building.’

He didn’t have to say it twice. Kelly was already moving, carrying Matty as she ran. Rafael moved to intercept her but she shook her head and kept running.

‘We’re fine. Get everyone out.’

She’d experienced this before-an earth tremor. It had been a small quake, measuring three on the Richter scale, and it had shaken some of her parents’ beloved books from the shelves. That had been all the damage.

That was all this would be, she told herself as she ran.

‘Mama…’ Matty quavered.

‘It’s just an earth tremor,’ she said, not pausing. She could put him down but he was in bare feet and she had him in her arms and that was where it felt like he belonged. She was running down the vast stone steps that led out to the forecourt. Behind her, she could hear Rafael shouting orders.

‘Assemble outside, everyone, and I mean everyone. Ellen, take a roll call. Crater, go over to the dower house and see if my mother’s okay. Get her outside too. Marsha, the dogs are already outside, you go back inside and I’ll come after you with a whip…’

It was just an earth tremor. A minor one. Kelly sank to the ground on the lawns beside the forecourt and looked up at the towering castle walls. This castle had stood intact for centuries. It was clearly intending to stay intact for longer. There was no movement.

‘We wait outside,’ Rafael commanded into the morning stillness. ‘We wait.’

So they waited. Fifteen minutes. Twenty. Luckily, the constant rain of the past few days had given way to warm sunshine so waiting wasn’t a hardship. Rafael had them all gathered together. He was still dressed in his royal finery.

Laura ducked back into the dower house-against her son’s orders-and fetched shoes for Matty. He accepted them with gratitude, left the safety of his mother’s arms-he’d clung really close while the tremors had been happening-and started to be a little prince again.

‘We’ve had an earthquake,’ he said importantly. ‘An earthquake’s very dangerous.’

‘An earth tremor,’ Kelly corrected. ‘Not so bad.’

‘What’s the difference between an earthquake and an earth tremor?’

‘A tremor happens a lot,’ Kelly said. ‘When a little bit of the earth moves way, way down deep and everything on the top settles a bit. In an earthquake a whole lot of the earth settles. Your Uncle Rafael says we should stay outside until we’re sure it won’t get any worse but I think it’s okay.’

Everyone else obviously did too. After half an hour standing in the sun Rafael decided it seemed safe to return to normal.

‘The phone lines are down.’ Crater was fretting. ‘There must be damage somewhere.’

‘I’ll have someone check in the village,’ Rafael said, but as he did there was a shout from outside the castle gates.

There was a boy running. Shouting. Rafael stepped forward to meet him.

Rafael looked like a man in charge, Kelly thought, in his full royal regalia, his dress sword still in its scabbard, his whole bearing royal. The boy ran naturally to him. He was a teenager, sixteen maybe, wide-eyed with shock and breathless with worry.

‘Sir,’ he gasped in his own language. ‘Sir, we’re in trouble. The landslip…There’s been a huge landslip above the village. The houses…There are people buried. The road’s blocked. Sir, you have to come. Please.’

Rafael gripped the boy’s shoulder while he told his story. The boy looked to Rafael to take charge but Rafael’s wonderful uniform didn’t give him the local knowledge he needed now.

He’d hardly been home since he was fifteen. Crater knew the land, the people, the emergency drills. He was in his seventies but he stepped forward now and started giving orders.

The road was cut. They needed to get an assessment of what the damage was. He’d send a team to climb high above the castle to where a man could see right across the valley.

‘I’ll go,’ Rafael said. ‘I have radio gear in the workshop. I can use that to contact the outside world if the telephones stay cut. Crater, I’ll give you a handset as well so I can get back to you.’

‘You won’t get up there.’

‘I’ll take a horse,’ Rafael said and Kelly gasped. For him to ride again…

‘The villagers might need you,’ Crater said, not hearing the implications of what Rafael had said, thinking only of what was before them.

‘I’ll get back down and help dig, whatever you want, as soon as I can.’

‘You’re our prince,’ Crater said obliquely. ‘We’ll want you in the village.’

‘I’ll be there as soon as I can,’ Rafael said. ‘Kelly, love, make sure things stay safe here. Any more tremors, you’re in charge.’

She was in charge but there was nothing to do. Everyone else left. Even Laura disappeared, donning stout walking boots and going with Ellen and Marguerite down to the little village hospital to see if they could be of help.

Kelly stayed with Matty.

‘We should be down in the village too,’ Matty said, more and more insistently as the afternoon wore on.

‘We’d just get in the way,’ she told him. ‘Crater’s taken everyone who can dig with him. Your Uncle Rafael will be down there by now. We need to look after the castle.’

‘It’s cowardly to stay in the castle when our people need us.’

It did feel wrong. But every able-bodied man and woman had joined the team to go to the village, so Kelly needed to stay here with her son. Even though it killed her not to know what was happening. Where Rafael was. What had happened in the village.

‘I’m the Prince and you’re the Princess,’ Matty told her, deeply disapproving of her decision to stay where they were. ‘Crater says it’s the job of a prince to lead his people.’

‘You’re five years old and I’m not a princess,’ she said helplessly. ‘Maybe we could play Scrabble.’