Chapter 12
Coming downstairs a few days later after another morning run, I heard some laughter in the front parlor, so I walked that way to see what was going on. Michael was sitting in there with Aunt Sophia, Grams, Prince Charles, Prince William, his wife and his son. Stunned, I just stood there until Prince William's wife noticed me. Smiling, she beckoned me to join them. Caroline was a very nice girl and I like her a lot, but she seems to be a little clingy. I mean, the other night at the palace, when I was introduced to everyone, she gave her baby, Scott, to Prince William, leapt up from the couch and ran over to hug me. For the rest of the night, I had to sit next to her, with her arm through mine like we were best friends for years before this.
Grudgingly, I walked into the room and sat down on the only seat available, which just happened to be next to her, but also next to Price Charles, my second third cousin. Wow, that sounds confusing even to me! Well, the talk was about Scott's first birthday: what he needed, what Caroline wanted for him but really for her, what kind of party they should have, where they should hold it, how to decorate the place, on and on and on! By dinner time, I was totally fed up with talk of Scott, so I excused myself to go out into the back yard and walk around.
To my surprise, Tristan was sitting on a bench reading a book. Upon my entering the yard, he looked up, then immediately went back to reading. Trying to ignore him, I walked to the other side of the ward which was a good deal away so it wasn't that hard to do. Where I was, there was a flower garden which consisted of red, pink, yellow and orange roses, pink and red tulips, geraniums, gardenias and chrysanthemums. After perusing the garden for a little while, I decided to go back to my room to read when I heard a twig snap behind me. Turning around, I saw that West was on the other side of the metal wrought fence, hidden from view behind a tree; except for the fact that I could see both of his shoulders around its trunk. Glancing behind me at Tristan to make sure that he was still paying attention to his book and not to me, I smiled and walked quickly over to the fence.
"So, are you bored of your entrapment yet?" West asked when I got close enough for him to talk to me without his voice carrying.
Trying to suppress a laugh, I glanced at Tristan once more, just to make sure. "What are you doing here?" I asked.
"Kidnapping you."
"You already did that."
"Yeah, but this time I'm making sure that I don't get beat up while trying to do so." This time I couldn't help but laugh out loud, remembering what I had done to him last time. To my horror, he put his book down and walked over to where I was hiding.
"What's so funny?" he asked coldly. I had been lucky enough to avoid him most of the time so he hadn't had a chance to scold or tell me off, though why he didn't just do it when I came into the garden was beyond me.
"Oh, nothing really. I just had a funny thought of the sprinklers coming on and you getting soaking wet." I said, trying to think quickly so that I wouldn't get West into trouble for trespassing onto our yard. Even though the garden was fenced in, we still owned the woods behind the house for a couple of acres.
"Really; well then, you would be disappointed to know that the sprinklers only come on at night. That way they don't waist water because of it getting evaporated out of the ground by the sun. This way, the ground has several hours to soak in the needed water before daylight." Tristan said scoffishly.
"Okay, that's a good thing to know if I ever decide to take a midnight stroll though the garden. Thanks for the tip." I said smiling. I couldn't help but glance at the tree West was hiding behind, hoping that he had done at least a little better of a job at hiding himself when Tristan had walked over. Apparently he had turned sideways so you would only be able to notice him if you stood to one side of the tree or the other.
Tristan saw what I was doing and peered into the woods for the real reason as to why I had laughed but couldn't see anything because he didn't know what he was really looking for. When he looked back at me, he scowled, then walked back to his bench and continued to read, even though I could tell that he was paying more attention to me than to his book.
"What's up with him?" West asked curiously, but not coming out from behind the tree.
Trying to appear as if I was really interested in the different flowers, I responded, "Oh, he's just really peeved that I keep slipping away from him so he can't trail along behind me like a watch dog."
Snorting, West peered around the tree at my bodyguard. "You must really hate him."
"I don't hate him; I just wish that he hadn't followed me here. But it doesn't help that he is arrogant either." I said bitterly. "He thinks that he is so much better than Giles, and I hate it because I really liked my old bodyguard! I was more than just a job to him, which is all that I am and all that I ever will be to Tristan."
"Then why don't you give him the slip again tonight?" West said mysteriously.
"Why? What would I be doing; instead of playing chess with Michael with Tristan's overpowering gaze upon me at every moment?" I said, sarcastically at the end.
"Well, I don't know why Michael said he would play chess with you because he is coming to the club tonight with me, and I want you to come along also. I think it would be really fun; and you could get away from Mr. Nosy over there." Again I tried to hold in my giggles, but I wasn't too successful because Tristan looked at me again. Smiling, I plucked one of the really small pink roses and stuffed it behind my right ear, first making sure that there weren't any thorns. As I had hoped, he went back to reading.
When I turned back to West, he looked considerably less happy than he had a second ago. "What's up? Why are you so down all of a sudden?" I asked confusedly. I was used to people doing this around me, but West hadn't done it before.
"Why did you do that?" he asked.
Puzzled, I looked at him. "Why did I do what? I just smiled at him to make him leave me alone."
"No, not that…the flower."
"What about the flower? I've always worn them behind me ear. Is that something that you do over here in England?"
"No, I mean, yes, we do, well the girls do, oh brother." Taking a deep breath, he started over. "Girls wear flowers behind their ear to signify that they have a boyfriend or not."
"So?" I interrupted, clearly not seeing what he was getting at. "What does that have to do with my going to the club with you?"
"Well, the flower is very symbolic. You would wear it behind your right ear if you were single, and behind your left if you had a boyfriend. I didn't know that you had a boyfriend. You can still come if you want…"
"Oh no! West, I'm so sorry!" I said, trying very hard to keep my voice down. "I didn't know that it mattered! Here…" I quickly switched the rose to behind my right ear instead of my left. "Is that better?" I asked smiling coyly. He just laughed at me.
At nine o'clock, I headed up to my room pretending to go to bed, but really I was getting ready to go out to the club again; but this time I was going with West, not Tristan. Having scoped out ahead of time what I was going to do in order to get out of the house, I found that there was a trellis full of ivy climbing the wall right next to my window. Unfortunately, it didn't reach my window very well, and if I tried to climb out onto it, I would possibly fall. Looking higher though, I found that it ran right up to the windows of my secret room. The only problem was going to be finding out how I could get the window open. Changing into nicer clothes, I stuffed my bed to make it look like I was asleep, and then went through the secret door and up the stairs into my secret room, making sure to close all of the doors behind me.
I had made a lot of progress on the room over the last couple of days. I hadn't moved the boxes against the walls in case someone found their way up so that they wouldn't know I was there, but I had been able to clear out all the dust. Walking over to the windows, I examined the sill and the frames to see if there was a way to open one of them. To my dismay, I found nothing. Disappointed, I sat down on the oversized window seat, dangling my lets over the edge. Out of an old habit that I could never break, I started to swing them back and forth, but I accidentally kicked the board that held up the seat. The sound it reverberated was hollow. I thought nothing of it at first; I mean, of course it was hollow, how else could they have made the seat? But then, it hit me…what if the exit was at the bottom of the window? Excited, I crouched down onto the floor and started feeling the board, trying to find a crack which inevitably would mean a hidden door.
Ecstatic, I found a whole big enough for one of my fingers. Putting in my index finger, I gripped the board from both sides and pulled, and it gave way to a roomy crawl space. Running over to the desk where I kept a towel to wipe off any dust that I missed, I shoved it in front of me, sweeping the floor as I crawled under the seat. Once I reached the window, I wriggled my way out, towel in hand. It was covered in dust, surprise, surprise. Placing the towel back on the desk, I grabbed a flashlight. Shinning it into the crawl space, I found that the window did not extend to the floor, but there were latches on the wall. Crawling back under, I went to investigate, with the flashlight of course, and found that it was a secret panel cut into the outside of the house. Once the latches had been undone, I pulled, but nothing happened. Sighing, I rested my head on the panel, but it didn't stay there long. With the pressure of my head, it swung out and fell away into the night. Shocked, I went to grab it before it could fall, but found that it was attached to the house on hidden hinges so that it would do a one hundred and eighty degree swing, resting against the side of the house underneath of me.
Wriggling to the open space, I saw that the trellis was right next to, and underneath of me; it zigzagged up the house going around the windows, but it was going to be impossible to get out without falling if I went head first, so I crawled back out of the crawl space, then back in, but thin time feet first. Pleased with myself, I started out of the whole, feeling with my feet for the trellis, when I realized that I would fall if I didn't find something to hold onto. Searching this time with my hands, I found two groves in the floor that my hands and fingers fit nicely in. Wriggling the rest of the way out, I was able to climb down the trellis and onto the ground. This is way to coincidental, but hey, it works!
When I was still bout five feet off the ground, I felt a pair of hands encircle my waist and help me the rest of the way down. Turning around once I had both feet planted, I found West grinning at me through the night. "How long have you been watching me?" I asked, thrilled that it hadn't been Tristan or Thomas.
"I just got here. How in the world did you get out and onto that trellis? As far as I know, the stain glass windows don't open, and believe me, Michael and I have tried." he responded.
"Oh, well, I guess you missed a spot to check because I got out with no difficulty at all." I said. Not lying, but also not telling the truth. I had gotten out with no difficulty, but I also hadn't gone through the windows.
"We must have; well, shall we be going before anyone looks out a window and sees us?" he said, offering me his arm. Grinning to myself, hoping that he couldn't see my face start to burn red in the moonlight, we headed out of the front yard and onto the sidewalk. A block away we got into his mustang and headed towards the club.
Once in the club, we went up to the observation room to see if we could spot Michael and his girlfriend. When we spotted him them, we made our way down to the couch area in the dance room. "I'm not leaving you up there again." West had whispered in my ear as we neared the noisy room. I glanced up at him wondering what he had meant. "Last time you passed out." he reminded me with a grin. I grinned back laughing and shaking my head. When we made it over to Michael, he introduced us to Lily, his date, and then me to everyone in the vicinity. There was Alex and his date Lisa, Mark and his date Katie, George and his date Winnie, Sean and his cousin Nichole who was visiting from France, Nick and his sister and cousin Leigh and Luke. All of them had families with titles such as Duke/Duchess, Lord/Lady, or Count/Countess.
We all sat in the arm chairs and on the couches talking about practically everything. Most of them seemed to be very interested in me and why I was here instead of in America because apparently they all desperately wanted to leave here and go there.
After telling them all about D.C. and what school is like there and what it's like to be a senator's daughter, my throat became very parched. Obviously West could tell because he excused himself and came back with two cokes in his hands. Handing one to me, I sipped it and listened to the discussion about what form of government is better: their parliament and queen vs. my congress and president. Every once in a while I'd jump in to protest something one of them had said, to correct them, or to agree with a point that they had made. All in all, it was very fun because I could tell that I was the youngest one there being the only one who hadn't entered college yet.
All of a sudden, all the girls started to squeal and pull on their date's arms, making them get up and dance. Apparently the song that had just come on was very popular over here because there was a mad dash for the dance floor. I looked at them all and laughed thinking of people in Hollywood flocking around movie stars begging for their autographs. West stood up from the arm rest of the arm chair I was sitting in and where he had been sitting, extending his hand to me. "Would the lady care to dance?" he asked grinning. I then realized what song was playing: Sk8er Boi by Avril Lavine, an American artist.Smiling, I stood up and took his hand. Once on the dance floor, I stood there wondering what I was supposed to do because I know that I'm not a good dancer except for ballroom and swing dancing. To my surprise, West started to swing, pulling me along after him. This was when the lyrics started playing instead of just the introductory music.
He was a boi, she was a girl, can I make it anymore obvious. He was a punk, she did ballet, what more can I say. He wanted her, she'd never tell, secretly she wanted him as well. All of her friends stuck up their nose; they had a problem with his baggy cloths.
He was a sk8er boi, she said see you later boi; he wasn't good enough for her. She had a pretty face, but her head was up in space; she needed to come back down to earth. He was a sk8er boi, she said see you later boi; he wasn't good enough for her. She had a pretty face, but her head was up in space; she needed to come back down to earth.
Five years from now, she sits at home, feeding the baby she's all along. She turns on TV, guess who she sees, sk8er boi rockin up MTV. She calls up her friends, they already know, they've all got tickets to see his show. She tags along, stands in the crowd, looks up at the man that she turned down.
He was a sk8er boi, she said see you later boi; he wasn't good enough for her. Now he's a super star, slammin on his guitar; does your pretty face see what he's worth. He was a sk8er boi, she said see you later boi; he wasn't good enough for her. Now he's a super star, slammin on his guitar; does your pretty face see what he's worth.
Sorry girl but you missed out, well tough luck that boi's mine now. We are more than just good friends, this is how the story ends. To bad that you couldn't see, see that man that boi could be. There is more than meets the eye, I see the soul that is inside.
He's just a boi, and I'm just a girl; can I make it anymore obvious. We are in love, haven't you heard, how we rock each other's worlds.
I'm with the sk8er boi, I said see you later boi; I'll be back stage after the show. I'll be at the studio, singing the song we wrote, about the girl you used to know. I'm with the sk8er boi, I said see you later boi; I'll be back stage after the show. I'll be at the studio, singing the song we wrote, about the girl you used to know.
"So, who are you good enough for?" he asked when the chorus hit.
"What do you mean?" I asked looking up at him after he spun me around and pulled me into him.
"Well, what kind of guidelines do you have? What kind of guy will you say see you later boy to?"
"Why?" I asked, totally confused. Just then, the second verse hit.
"Well, I don't want you to end up like the girl in this song because you set too many expectations. You're too nice for that."
"Yeah, well the girl in this song seems nice, she just has bad taste in friends if she lets her friends talk her out of going out with a guy she likes." I told him. We continued dancing in silence. After the song ended, another Avril Lavine song came on, but this was a slow song, I'm With You.
I'm standing on the bridge; I'm waiting in the dark; I thought that you'd be here by now. There's nothing but the rain; no footsteps on the ground; I'm listening but there's no sound.
Isn't anyone trying to find me? Won't somebody come take me home? It's a damn cold night; trying to figure out this life. Won't you take my hand, take me somewhere new; I don't know who you are but I, I'm with you.
I'm looking for a place; I'm searching for a place; is anybody here I know. 'Cause nothings going right; and everything's a mess; and no one likes to be alone.
Isn't anyone trying to find; me won't somebody come take me home. It's a damn cold night; trying to figure out this life. Won't you take me by the hand, take me somewhere new; I don't know who you are but I, I'm with you. I'm with you.
Why is everything so confusing? Maybe I'm just out of my mind. Yeah yeah.
It's a damn cold night; trying to figure out this life. Won't you take my by the hand, take me somewhere new; I don't know who you are but I, I'm with you.
"What are you searching for?" West asked me.
"What are you talking about?" I asked, my mind flashing back to my secret room and all of the things that I'm sorting through.
"What are you searching for? What are you looking for to make you happy?"
"I don't understand." I told him truthfully.
"Listen to the song. How is it that you connect with her?" Listening, I got what he had been asking me for the last two songs. Feeling a little uncomfortable, I went and got another soda after the song ended and walked back to the arm chair to find that Michael was sitting there by himself.
"Hey, where's Lily?" I asked.
"Oh, she wanted to dance some more, but I don't like dancing all that much so I told her to dance with someone else. Where's West?" he asked looking around.
"Oh, probably dancing with Lily." We both laughed a little.
"So, how are you liking my country?" he asked.
"I like it a lot so far. I haven't been able to go anywhere except for the park and here, but of what I've seen I like it. Your friends seem to be very nice." I said.
"That's because they like you. If they didn't, they never would have said more than a few words to you." he told me laughing.
"Michael, you still haven't answered my questions. Why not?" I asked.
He looked at me seriously then sighed. "I guess I'm just trying to protect you like everyone else in our family." he said, glancing around to see if anyone could hear, but they were all pretty much still on the dance floor. "Nobody wants to be the one who has to tell you what's been going on in our family."
"But what is it? I know a little, but I don't know if what I know is true or not." I said, sitting on the edge of my seat. "Please Michael, I need to know! I need to know if my suspicions are right or not!"
"I, I can't Kit! It's complicated, I just can't do it! You need to ask Nana or Grams or even my mother, but please, please, don't make me tell you!"
"But…" I started, but at that moment, the rest of the group came back over and I had to drop it or risk everyone finding out that something was up with our family.