Four

I stood awkwardly outside as I watched Kieran scutter back down the hallway in his suit, before he turned around and gave me a thumbs up. For another moment, I hovered around before knocking on the door. There was an awkward silence for a moment before the door opened.

"Grace?" Queen Caroline asked me, both of us slightly awkward. "Do come in," She said and I edged in as she shut the door.

Shit. I forgot to curtsey

I quickly did the cute bow that Michael told me to do and the Queen just smiled slightly at me, before coming up to me and embarrassing me fully. I hesitated slightly before hugging her back. Well, this is not etiquette. The Queen was in her late fifties, but looked good for her age. She had greying blonde hair and blue eyes which shone and an average height of five foot seven which made me feel extremely small in comparison to her.

"Don't worry about the curtsey, Grace,' the Queen told me. "Sit down, my love, sit down!"

I awkward sat down on the edge of the sea that the Queen had gestured to me and she sat opposite the table and grinned at me. What had got into the Queen? She quite often is known for being a brick wall and showing no emotion but she was grinning at me like a child.

"I can tell you're confused, Grace, do you want an explanation?" She asked and I frowned. What has happening? I don't like this.

"We go way back, Grace. Well, my and your Dad go well back. He used to work in the Palace when he first got his job at M.I.5 and before he met your mother. Quite often he came back here during the day to work with us even after your mother. When your brother was born, he brought Jack here and when you were born you came here as well. To protect you, they weren't allowed to tell you their jobs and of course they couldn't bring you back here, but we always saw photos of you two growing up." My mouth dropped. How did my Dad know the Royal family so well that I was treated like family. "We had updates, photos sent to us and as much as we begged as you both got older to at least come to State Dinners or Garden parties but it was too risky for your sake. After their deaths," Queen Caroline teared up looking away from me, "It tore us apart, they were like our brother and sister, even the boys treated them like family, and we tried to get in contact with you but we couldn't. So when we saw your name on the list, we flew at the opportunity,"

"Thank you, your Majesty, I guess"

"However, one rule Grace. You drop all formalities to me, Edward and the boys when we're in private. It's not normal. You're family to us, okay? Also, just call me Caroline and I will just call you Grace,"

"This is a bit too weird for me," I muttered.

"I understand, it's been a lot for you to take in especially all in a day." Caroline told me. "Congratulations on your degree, though, Grace."

"Thanks,"

"You could do miracles to my youngest son. A lost effort, he is, I wish he went to university but he joined the army the second he could, fought for his country and now he's come back and his father won't let him leave again until he find himself a wife," She shook her head but I chose not to comment. "You look so much like your mother,"

"I get that a lot,"

"It's uncanny,"

I took it as a compliment because I always thought my mother was beautiful. There was a knock at the door and it made me jump and Caroline frowned.

"Who is it?" She called.

"Your favourite son," The voice called back and it was a tone like chocolate. It was extremely British and articulated, though.

"Excuse him," Caroline said to me before getting up and walking over to the door. "Luke, you're meant to be at that charity event Marc was holding,"

"Marc's boring, big tit brownie lanky girls are also boring," I heard Luke say standing in the door. "You busy, Mum?"

"Funny you should say that. You remember Amelia and Jonathon's two kids, Grace and Jack?" Caroline said.

"Jack the one who was always a bit wild but really camp too, and Grace the super hot one with the cutest smile ever? Sure, I remember them. Never met them, but I remember them," Luke said walking into the room before seeing me and doing a double take, before freezing with a small grin on his face as he looked at me.

"Well, yeah, I have the super hot one with the cute smile for tea," Caroline said. "Apologise for him,"

"Grace, it's nice to finally meet you after twenty years," Luke came over and sat on the chair next to me, shaking my hand. Luke, to put it nicely, was delicious. He had fluffy blonde hair and a mixture of his parents' eyes; a wonderful blue green colour that shone. "Er, you're freezing," Luke said, walking over to the corner and picking up a hoody and wrapping it around my shoulders, gently sitting down with his hand on my back.

"You too," I muttered. "Nice to meet you, you're not freezing," I muttered, cringing to myself.

"Why exactly are you here?" Luke asked me.

"Luke!" Caroline raised his voice. "You know what your father and I told you yesterday?"

"Oh," He said, looking over at me with slight curiosity in his eyes. "Anyway, I just came to tell you I was back from Marc's stupid event about trees or whatever it was," Luke said, "I'll see you around, Grace," He said to me before he walked out the room.

"Sorry about him, he's a bit... rogue at the moment. He's not happy his father is trying to find a suitor for him. He doesn't want to marry someone because they're Royal. He wants to find someone he truly loves, but his Father doesn't understand,"

"I get it, though, it must suck,"

"Yeah, he still believes in Soulfinder's too,"

"You're all Savants?" I asked in slight shock.

"Of course Grace, like you are too." Caroline told me. "Luke still believes in the whole Soulfinder thing, and I wish I still could but it seems so superficial as you get older, but for Luke more than anything else, I pray that he find his girl before his father force him to marry someone else. He'll never be happy, it won't be good for him or the Princess he'll be forced to marry either, he's got anger issues,"

"Wouldn't that be cruel to force marriage upon Luke, though, and it wouldn't be good for public image either,"

"Edward doesn't see it that way. He wants Luke married to another countries Princess to help trade and unite countries like the old days,"

"Why don't you try and find one of those Soulseekers?"

"It's too risky, and we only have a month or two before Luke's going to be traded off,"

"What about Theodore?" I asked, sitting cross legged. Caroline looked at me.

"Theo, and for now he's pretty much out of harm way, he has a girlfriend even though she's probably temporary. It's just my little Luke," Caroline sighed. "I want to protect him, he's always been my little boy, but his Father doesn't understand. I've tried to talk to him but he doesn't get it,"

"I can try talking to him?"

"I can't make you do that, Grace,"

"I can try, I'm not promising miracles but I'll talk to him the next time I see him,"

"Thank you, sweetheart... you look shattered, Grace, do you want to bed? I can always find you tomorrow. We're meant to discuss your work anyway tomorrow. That's an order, actually, head to bed." Caroline said.

"Thanks," I hesitated.

"Just Caroline," She said softly.

"Thanks Caroline,"

"Sleep well Grace,"

Sleep that night didn't come well to me. I lay awake for hours until I could lay no more. At half one in the morning, pissed off and restless, I jumped up and walked over to the snuggle chair, jumping on it and finding my book I hid under a pillow. I had barely flicked to the page before I heard a knock at the door that made me shit myself. Everyone in this place is asleep – who could it be?

I quickly jumped up and ran over to the door, my heart in my mouth as I opened the door.

"It's only me, Grace, calm down," I heard Luke say on the other side of the room and I quickly opened the door letting him in as I rolled my eyes.

"You could have done that without scaring the shit out of me!" I hissed at him as he grinned at me.

"That would have been no fun,"

"You here for your hoody?" I asked him, walking over to where I left his jumper on my chair – it was pretty obvious it was his, I doubt his older brother who has never been seen outside a suit before would have hooded jumpers laying around.

"You can keep it, Grace, you'd wear it more than I would," He said softly and I blushed. It was almost like he knew that I have a soft spot for jumpers. And the fact I had gone to bed in his hoody and had taken it off as I got up.

"Why are you here at half one, Luke?" I asked him, crossing my arms over my vest top when I realised I was in nothing more than a thin vest and Disney print pyjama bottoms. And no bra. Well, this is awkward.

"You don't call me Highness or whatever," He pointed out. Crap.

"Did you want me too?"

"Of course not, Grace, it would be stupid, it's just nice someone takes the initiative not to call me that, it annoys me." He came up to me to the point it was weirdly close and looked down at me slightly. "I came to apologise for what happened earlier. I feel incurably bad - I should have thought before I spoke. I shouldn't have called you super hot or say you had a cute smile, some girls don't like that. But, whilst saying that, you are extremely beautiful." He said and I blushed slightly, "and there's that smile,"

"Luke, why are you here?" I whispered to him trying to ignore the look he was giving me. Yeah, he was beautiful. This wasn't fair.

"You're a Savant," He simply whispered.

"So are you,"

"Glad we established that," He joked, his hand wrapping around my waist gently. Not pulling me in, but just that pressure was enough to take my breath away. He leaned forward slightly "And you're the same age as me, there's only two weeks between our birth dates. I checked earlier,"

"We're not discussing this at half one in the morning, sunshine," I tried to pull away but his gaze kept me there.

"Aren't we? This is a perfect time." He whispered softly to me, leaning down to whisper into my ear. I could feel the heat from his breath and his lips against my cheek.

"It's not," I muttered, but being rapidly drawn into him. I looked into his eyes which were ice blue in the dark light of my living room.

"Isn't it?" He replied before kissing me, pulling my waist into him and everything exploded.

We were no longer in a dimly lit room but somewhere incredibly bright, on our own with no pressure from the world. All the barriers that both of us held melted away and remoulded to keep us two together, and any future we had felt like they were blown to smithereens, every second we spent was laying down new foundations.

I had barely noticed when Luke's hand slipped up my shirt, gently putting his hand on my bare skin of my back as he continued to kiss me. I moaned slightly, before getting completely embarrassed but Luke didn't seem to have noticed, too busy lifting my shirt up. My hands busied themselves running around the hem of his joggers he got changed into and before long, Luke had picked me up with my legs around his waist as he carried me to my bedroom, dumping me down on the bed like I weighted nothing. He broke the kiss for a second, frowning, before he kissed me again. Without even thinking about it, or any repercussions this could have, I lifted up Luke's shirt breaking the kiss momentarily to pull it off and chuck it on the floor.

"Grace, are you sure?" He whispered, hands holding my vest top.

"Yeah," I muttered. Hell yeah I was sure.

He ripped the vest top off me at the speed of light, kissing my neck as he chucked it onto the floor, before working down. And the rest was history.