Author's Notes:
Right so I have gotten slightly addicted to the trash TV that is the Royals and consequently have had to puzzle out what the heck is going on with these characters and put it into a fic.
My notes on characters area below:
Eleanor: love her, but she is pretty screwed up and this stems before Robert's death. I think something tragic happened to her to make her so messed up and addicted to the drink, drugs and promiscuity (note one – work that into fic somehow). Here I have put Eleanor getting addicted to drinking first which is like a gateway drug to harder stuff. She does get some good lines in too.
Also I think she feels like her mother has betrayed her (this must have been a while back as its not a new thing) and in the script her mother is threatened by her youth and beauty (note 2 must work this into fic land).
Loves her Dad and her brother. Also weirdly at the end of series 1 she ends up being the hero (not heroine of the series given that she has a lot more courage than her brother which is a pretty interesting move for the show.
Eleanor/ Beck: can I say frankly that I loved this whole episode and I was totally shipping them in a starcrossed lovers kind of way. I think I like this idea since it is in the plot of my favourite book of all time Shadow of the Moon which is set in India where our heroine Winter marries the wrong man and spends the rest of the book in love with Alex who is the best hero ever. And then the country literally explodes in violence so they go on the run together during the Indian mutiny but that is another story. Anyway falling in love with someone unavailable gives Eleanor a lot of depth as a character. I loved the way they portrayed that he was basically in love with her too. In my head his marriage is a youthful mistake that he's now regretting. This is going into the fic somehow.
Eleanor/ Jasper: talk about chemistry! The actors are doing a great job portraying hate, love and desire here. These 2 are fascinating and its like watching spiders fighting in a basin. Have read some fics where they are all lovey dovey – no way! That's a long way from the script. There are moments where they might be sweet to each other but most of the time they are verbally scratching out each others eyes and steaming up the screen. Which makes me wonder what the hell goes on between the sheets…
Jasper: series 2 writers seeing you have kept us waiting for ages on this there better be a really good back story for Jasper about why he's at the Palace. I'm talking intrigue, deception and plausible back story too. I know this is trash TV but it had better be good. If you can't write a decent enough backstory on this then please see the writers from Spooks. He had better be working for the forces of good not evil. Or I might possibly accept him working for the forces of evil but double crossing them to come over from the dark side to the good side. Am putting my version of his back story into the fic.
NB Warning: the content of this story is quite adult and it contains non consensual sex scenes.
Well she lives in a fairy tale
Somewhere too far for us to find
Forgotten the taste and smell
Of a world that she's left behind
To the rest of the world, her family seems perfect. King Simon – their kind, principled and well beloved ruler, Queen Helena his beautiful and dignified wife and their two golden sons and pretty dark haired daughter. But the image is a long way from reality.
When she's five she's sent to boarding school, the same age her brothers are shipped off to school. She is brought up by strangers and her life is ruled by a series of bells and oppressive rules about what she can and can't do. When the teacher comes into the room, they must stand until they are told they are allowed to sit. She can wear her blazer with her school pinafore but she may not wear her cardigan out in public. Hats must be worn on the street at all times. On Sundays they leave for church sharp at 8am, and if she is late for dinner that will mean she has no free time after supper. Eleanor doesn't like rules and to be ripped away from her adored father and brothers at such a young age feels cruel. At least Robbie and Liam are together but here it is only her against the world.
When she's twelve at home for Easter she catches her mother in bed with another man. She shuts the door and tries to forget she's ever seen that in the first place.
Her brothers don't see it because they don't look for it but as she grows older its clear he's not the first man she's cheated on her father with. There's a succession of them, and she can see the little looks exchanged between them, the touches and the scheming plans her mother makes to spend time with them every time her father is away.
Eleanor knows that can be no divorce for the King. Her father deserves someone better than her mother, someone who will love him back but he won't ever be allowed find someone for himself so she keeps her mouth shut and simmers with resentment towards her mother for making her keep her secrets from her father. It makes her feel like she's betraying him and he is the one who has her loyalty, not her mother.
He grows up near Exeter, in an upper middle class family. His father is a Captain in the military and his mother is a school teacher. James is their second son and there's nothing remarkable about his perfectly normal, respectable family or upbringing. His father spends a fair bit of time overseas and they are stationed for two years in Italy and three years in France, where he learns to speak the language.
At University he studies politics and psychology, and finishes his degree at 21. After school he goes to LA where he works as waiter while he looks for a real job. His next job is as a bouncer at a nightclub in Vegas. He spends three years in America before returning home to live in London.
One month after he's arrived back home to England he gets a rather cryptic phone message from a friend of his fathers and does as he's told and comes in for a job interview in London. What he's actually being interviewed for is not entirely clear even after he leaves the room. But apparently they like him as he's called back for a round of tests.
A week later MI5 offers him a job and he spends the next six months training to be a spy. He learns how to kill someone with only his bare hands, he learns how to observe everything without ever being seen and he learns how win people's trust and to manipulate others ruthlessly, all in the name of his country. He also learns how to change identities like he changes suits. He excels at training and is ready to serve his King and country.
Eleanor: From the Greek meaning: Shining light. The bright one.
Every summer they go on holiday for a month, somewhere far away from home where everything can be relaxed and informal. With her brothers and father there, and her mother not harping on as much as usual about appearances and behaviour because they're on holiday, she feels free and happy. In her mind these are the golden times, where she's on the beach somewhere hot and sunny splashing about and laughing with Robbie and Liam in the water, while her father swims nearby. It feels like nothing can ever touch her and these days will last forever.
At fourteen Eleanor is starting to shine. She is quick and clever and her looks attract attention which has nothing to do with the fact she's royal.
Their holiday destination that year is Malta. Malta is a British territory so while there is time for her father to relax with his family, he also has some official duties to perform.
On holiday, there is her family and in the next door villa the Duke of Wiltshire and his family have come to join their holiday with them. The Duke is in his early forties and his loud American wife Pattie is with them along with their two whiny preteen daughters Rosemary and Henrietta and their seven year old son Crispin. The Duke and his wife have become good friends with her parents lately, her mother especially, and she has invited them to holiday with them.
By the fourth day of the holiday Eleanor's worked out that the Duke and her mother are sneaking off together during the daytime when her father's duties take her away from them. She watches them both resentfully. Her mother has taken to wearing skimpier than usual swimsuits, even more jewellery than she normally piles on and draping herself against the Duke to laugh at some joke of his. The Duke has wandering hands and spends far more time than is strictly necessary manhandling her mother while ostensibly helping her with her golf swing. It's quite sickening to watch so Eleanor spends her time hanging out with Robbie and Liam, skating and playing cricket down by the beach while taking swigs of the vodka they've stolen from the liquor cabinet at the villa.
Her father joins them some evenings. When he's home she sits next to her father, resting her head against his shoulder and it makes her feel like the Princess she is. She knows its childish that she acts this way around her father but she spends most of her time away from him at school and to have him to herself is something she treasures.
Time passes and in the third week of her holiday her father has to leave to go back to England to open Parliament. They'll join him next week. That evening they go out with the Duke's family for dinner and a French restaurant on the other side of the island. The meal has five courses and part way through the third course Eleanor starts to feel ill.
She tells her mother she wants to go home and her mother starts to beckon Marcus over but the Duke interrupts and offers to take her home instead. Eleanor collects her things and trips after him feeling more than a little bit queasy. In the car he tries to make conversation with her while she sits there sullenly quiet. She knows what he's up to with her mother and it's disgusting.
It's dark and she doesn't know this side of the island at all so she feels like she's getting lost as they round different bends and see the lights sparkling in the distance. The twists and turns in the journey aren't making her stomach settle and she just wants to get home.
The car slows as they approach a bridge and then it abruptly stops. Eleanor looks round to see where they are. They've pulled up in a bay overlooking the sea.
"Why are we stopping here," she questions, wondering if there's something wrong with the car.
The Duke leans over and kisses her. His hand runs down her neck and over her breast where his hand lingers.
"Because I wanted to get to know you better," he says, breathing into her ear. He reeks of alcohol which is obnoxious and makes her feel even sicker.
It's a shock to her that he would touch her this way. She is a Princess and all her life she's been protected and cossetted.
Eleanor pushes his hands off her in revulsion. "You won't be getting to know me better, you can't touch me like that. I'm a Princess. You're disgusting," she finishes, her voice filled with loathing.
She reaches for the door, yanks it open and bolts from the car. What she is supposed to do next she doesn't have a clue because she has no idea where she is but her instinct is to run, so she does.
He's left the headlights on and he can see her shadow in the car headlights and the distant lights from the town. She is quick but she's just a child and he is quicker.
He grabs her as she almost reaches the edge of the hillside and pulls her towards him. She tries to fight him but he pushes her down and pushes up her skirt. She hears the sound of his zipper and her stomach clutches in fear and then he is thrusting into her and god how it hurts but he shows no sign stopping.
Afterwards she can't even get to the ground because her legs are shaking too much. She really wants to run away but he insists on taking her back to the house and locks the car doors on her during the ride back. The car is so quiet that she can hear her heart hammering and her breaths falling quick and sharp in the dark. But she will not cry in front of him, she is a Princess after all.
When they get home she slams the door, runs to her room and locks the door. After a few minutes she hears the crunch of footsteps on gravel and the slam of a car door as he leaves to go back to the restaurant. She unlocks her door and finds her way to the liquor cabinet and drinks herself into a stupor.
The next morning Robbie finds her curled up in a ball in the laundry, mascara smeared all over the face and a half empty bottle of vodka beside her and wonders what the hell his baby sister is doing to herself.
That evening Eleanor attempts to tell her mother what happened last night. She only gets as far as saying that the Duke kissed her and touched her before her mother rolls her eyes and says sharply, "don't tell tales Eleanor. You're just a child, what could the Duke possibly see in you?"
For Eleanor to be old enough to be desired by men is ridiculous to her because that would make her, as her mother, an old woman. And the idea that Rupert would want Eleanor when he has her, the Queen, is absurb. Eleanor cannot eclipse her, she is the Queen.
Eleanor knows a royal dismissal when she sees it. She swallows the rest of her story and goes looking for rest of the vodka bottle from last night.
Well you built up a world of magic
Because your real life is tragic
Two days later they leave Malta and she goes back to school.
Sometimes she sees photos of the Duke in the papers and thinks about how much she hates him for what he has done to her but she reserves the worst of her hatred mother for bringing such an awful man into her orbit and then calling her a liar when she tried to explain what had happened.
The only outwards signs are that her grades wobble a little from their former heights and the drinking becomes a regular habit, but this is the first crack in Eleanor.