Hey everyone! Sorry it's taken me a little while to update. I really, really (!) appreciate the kind feedback on this installment thus far. As some of you have noticed, I'm simultaneously working on a Harry Potter spin off. BUT I will be making sure to be working on both works equally. (And if you like Harry Potter, check out my other story if you want.. it's turning out to be a lot of fun to write).
Love you guys! Happy reading. :)
One Week Later
It'd been a little over a week and a half since Eleanor had been hiding out at Frank's, Ophelia's uncle's house, in Southern California. The location was random, plus the old friend who took her in was the daughter of the man charged with the murder of King Simon. This would surely throw off the press. They were safe here.
For now.
'TONIGHT ON TMZ!'
It's trouble in paradise - or rather, the palace - for the Royal family - or, what's left of it - as they have viciously turned on one another. King Robert permanently abolishes his twin siblings and uncle from the monarchy. It's reported that the disgraceful family members failed an alleged 'coup' in an attempt to sabotage the King. It is said that the envious heirs to the thrown were thirsty for the crown and did everything in their power to take down their eldest brother.
It is also rumored that beloved King Simon's murder may be linked to his own brother, Cyrus Henstridge. And get this, it is ALSO being said that King Robert's Uncle Cyrus conducted the orders in taking down the plane in which the King miraculously survived. Talk about family drama! Not even the Kardashian's could top this!'
"Oh turn it off, will you?" Eleanor hollers across the room, pulling the lid of her baseball cap down. "This bloody reporter who thinks he's actually funny is more disturbing than the shit he's spewing."
"Sorry." Ophelia clicks a few channels up."But it's pretty hard to avoid national breaking news.."
A fresh faced, Caucasian blonde woman appears on the screen holding a microphone. She's wrapped in a coat almost twice her size, along with a matching scarf and beanie. It's difficult to see her due to the flurry of snow falling around her. A banner at the bottom of the TV screen reads:
'LIVE FOOTAGE FROM OUTSIDE THE PALACE'
Liam, Eleanor, and Cyrus Henstridge have gone off the map since the nuptials of King Robert and Queen Willeminha Henstridge. It is unknown at this time what country they have been sent to reside. However, various rumors continue to spread that they are in fact in our home country. These reports include being spotted by locals in New York, California, and even Texas.
Eleanor lets out a groan throwing down the People magazine in her hand with force. She didn't know why she was reading it anyway. The cover was none other than her older brother, King Robert, and his vile bride. But at this rate, she had grown accustom to seeing Robert and Willow plastered on every cover of almost every magazine. The Americans also hold an endearing fascination with the monarchy.
If only they knew.
And on the contrary, if she was being honest with herself, Eleanor was lightly relieved to be reading a magazine without any trace of the person she hated most. The person that betrayed her from start to finish. The person that-
If it weren't for the prior Queen of England and Robert's mother, Helena Henstridge, to derail this 'coup', who knows what the status the monarchy would be in right now.
The very sound of her mother's name escaping the reporter's lips makes her skin crawl.
It is reported she played along with her twins and brother-in-law, acting as though she was in on the plan. Yikes. It seems as though Queen Helena sure plays favorites amongst her children.
"I SAID OFF!" Eleanor shouts as she stands to her feet. "Not change the bloody channel. OFF!"
"Len," Jasper interrupts as Ophelia quickly abides to her second request. "Just take it easy, okay? This is all propaganda and you know that."
"No. All that I know.." Eleanor replies in a dangerous tone strutting toward him. "Is that I need a drink." She fumbles through her leather purse after plugging a cigarette in between her lips. "Where's my god damn lighter?"
6 Days Ago
"If one of you defiant idiot's don't tell me where my sister is, I will banish the both of you!" Robert orders slamming a firm fist on his desk. "Make that the three of you," he adds pointing over to Cyrus hiding in the corner. "He knows these are not empty threats. Isn't that right, Uncle?"
Jasper glances at Liam beside him who is holding a similar stance as himself. Arms crossed, feet wide apart, head tilted to the side, eyes focused on the tyrant before them.
It doesn't take long for Jasper to weigh out his options:
A) Expose Eleanor's whereabouts, initiate her return to the country by force, and return to the palace with no telling of what the unpredictable tyrant would do next.
B) Be exiled from the country and end up in some third-world country away from Eleanor.
C) Rot in prison for treason away from Eleanor.
D) Sneak out and find Eleanor, avoid being exiled, avoid imprisonment, and be with Eleanor.
He did however, understand that Liam would be a wild card in his choice. His pregnant girlfriend lived here. But only Liam knew where Eleanor was. He hadn't had the time to share it with Jasper, as they were both confronted by Robert immediately upon his return.
"What's it going to be then, gentlemen?" Robert reclines in his leather seat lacing his fingers. Jasper wants to smack the amused pompous smirk from his face.
"What about Kathryn?" Liam says rather boldly. "She's pregnant, Robert."
Jasper's eyebrows raise and eyes widen as he looks to his friend. What are you doing? Do you want Kathryn killed?!
Robert chuckles as he raises from his seat placing his hands in both pockets. "So you got the whore pregnant, did you little brother? Congratulations."
"Don't call her a whore," Liam warns clenching his fists, his face turning a light shade of red.
Jasper holds his breath in fearful anticipation, as the eldest Henstridge goes toe to toe with his brother.
"Or what?" he whispers to Liam. "Are you going expose me? Defile me? Slander my name at my own god damn wedding?! When will you finally learn? I always win, Sparrow."
Liam lunges toward the King, leaving just enough time for Jasper to interject with his arm. "Calm down," he hisses at him.
"We'll tell you where Eleanor is," Jasper submits. His arm remains glued to the Prince's chest who looks over to him in confusion.
"What're you talking ab-"
"Liam shut up," Jasper seethes pushing him back a bit further than intended with his forearm. "Your Majesty," he continues gathering his cool. "Can you allow just a moment of privacy for me to knock some well-needed sense into your brother?"
Robert raises a suspicious brow.
"You're right. Eleanor should be with her family," Jasper continues. "And the only chance we have of getting her back to the palace is if I speak with her, which I haven't had the chance to do yet. Only Liam knows where she is. It will just take one quick phone call."
"And why should I believe that my disobedient sister will obey your demands?"
"I'm sorry sir, but do you really think you have a better shot?"
Robert peers into both men's eyes in front of him before taking a seat back in his chair. "Very well," he says with noticeable annoyance in his tone. "Mr. Stark will be attending the entirety of the phone call while keeping close watch."
Liam looks back to Jasper with his jaw tightened while lightly shaking his head.
"Understood, Your Majesty."
"What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?!" Liam viciously whispers on their way out the door.
They rapidly stride down the hall as they are confronted with Stark, Robert's newly added detail. Jasper nudges Liam with his elbow briefly raising his jacket exposing the holster holding a loaded gun.
"Mr. Stark," Jasper acknowledges with a light nod. "If we could just go into this room over here.. better cell service."
The three men enter the quaint room. Jasper closes the door pulling the cell from his pocket and typing in a fake number. He holds the phone to his ear, his other hand on his hip 'waiting' for her to answer as he slowly nears the bodyguard.
Once he finds the time to strike, Jasper pistol whips Stark sending the 6'5 bulky man straight to the ground.
"We have exactly one minute to get out of this palace to our car out front. James is waiting for us. Do you understand?"
Liam nods his head glancing between he and the unconscious bloodied man on the floor. "You do scare me sometimes, you know that?"
Jasper rolls his eyes. "Let's go."
Present Time
"Any news on Kathryn?" Ophelia asks. Liam joins the open space on the sofa next to her hanging up the phone.
"Yes." He anxiously taps the back of his fingers against his cell. "James is with her. They're on their way. She and I will be getting a hotel up the street."
"Well that's.. great. Right?" she asks with her signature bright smile.
"Right." He gives a solemn head nod and doesn't look back at her.
"Well I'm- I'm excited to meet her. I mean if that's not weird-"
"Not weird," he shortly replies.
Jasper is extremely uncomfortable witnessing the intense tension between the two, so he decides to go find Eleanor.
He discovers her in the kitchen as she dishevels through Frank's liquor cabinet. Her back is to him and a plummet of smoke escapes from the side of her face. She mumbles something to herself but it's hard to hear with the cigarette lodged between her lips.
Jasper glances down at his phone. Instinctively opening Instagram was, as most times as of late, a horrible idea. Eleanor was on almost every social media platform being portrayed as someone she simply wasn't. He was going to do everything in his power to keep the world away from her for as long as possible. That's why the 'unfortunate' running over of her cell phone with his truck shortly after his arrival had left little regret.
Sadly, neither the twins nor Jasper or James had heard from Cyrus. Being painted as the mastermind behind Pryce's murder of Simon, and the accusations of being the one who shot down Robert's plane was probably the biggest slander of the royal three. And the media, not to mention the whole word, was eating it up.
"You okay babe?"
"Just peachy," she replies removing a bottle of whiskey, viciously unscrewing the cap.
"Len, it's 11 in the morning."
Eleanor's hair whips to the side as she turns her head to him. The look in her eye makes him regret saying anything. He follows her upstairs to the guest bedroom.
"You don't get it." She takes a long guzzle from the bottle. "I loathed being the Princess, and that's when I had everything. And now- it's been 15 days in the U.S. and I can barely stand being.. being.." She crosses her arms visually sizing Jasper up and down.
"A normal citizen?" He fills in the end of her sentence with a smirk on his face.
"I was thinking more so irrelevant.." Her voice trails off as she rips the tank top from her torso over her head. "Plus, do you really see me built to work at a Burger King? The name of that franchise in itself makes me bloody nauseous."
After sling-shotting her shirt toward the floor, she stands in place listening to his footsteps approach her from behind. He lightly grasps onto either side of her arms.
Jasper rests his chin on her shoulder with his hands now on her hips. He turns her to face the full length mirror baring their reflection. She has tears just to the rim of her lower eyelids. If another single tear was added, they were bound to overflow.
"You may not be the Princess of England anymore," Jasper say soothingly tracing the length of her arms. Her body lightly shudders in his arms. "But you will never, ever, be irrelevant. No matter how hard you try."
She looks up at him in their reflection biting her lower lip. He unexpectedly hands her a magazine from her side table.
Her eyebrows furrow in disapproval as her eyes scan the cover. "Vogue. Really? Are you saying I should model? Do you want me all coked up again?"
"That's not what I'm getting at," Jasper says sternly ripping the magazine from her hands. "A model only sells the brand. I'm talking about who makes that brand. The fashion show you had a few years back had a great turn out."
Eleanor rolls her eyes walking in the other direction, escaping his grip. "Oh, you mean when my skank of a mother sabotaged me into thinking it was a great success?"
"You don't have to worry about her anymore."
"And with everything in the press?!" she continues her tirade pacing across the room. "I don't know if you've noticed yet, Jasper, but the whole fucking world is brainwashed into thinking that I betrayed my satanic brother. And you're telling me that I should just go and make my own fairy tale fashion line?!"
"I'm telling you that you can do whatever you set your mind to. All of the good you did within these last six months wasn't to uphold your image as the Princess. If that was solely the case, you would have just continued to make appearances in senior housing homes on an ungodly amount of ecstasy."
She snickers walking back toward him throwing her arms around his neck. "That was a pretty fun day, bodyguard."
"Tell me about it," he replies with light eye roll.
"I love you Jasper Frost." She peers into his pale blue eyes sending a calming physical rush throughout her body. "And I love how you love me. How you believe in me."
"I love you too Len," he replies planting a soft kiss on her forehead. "We'll get through this. We'll get through anything that stands in our way-"
Eleanor smiles, placing a delicate finger over his lips silencing him. "For the rest of time."
