Chapter 17

"I'm so excited, holy shit." I whispered to Parker, smoothing out the front of my dress.

"How are you not nervous? I'm about to puke." Parker whispered back, fixing his tie as he nervously looked around the room. "This is William and Kate."

"And George and Charlotte!" I said excitedly.

"Hush." My dad said next to me, his gaze facing straight ahead.

It was Thursday, five days since everything had gone down over the weekend, but Parker and I were still getting the cold shoulder from our parents.

I grinned at Parker before everybody turned their attention to the grand doors as they opened to the formal sitting room.

I took a deep breath as I heard the cameras snapping pictures.

This was the British Royal Family.

These would be headline pictures.

I just hoped I wouldn't be noticeable.

I could just feel the anxiety and nerves coming out of Parker next to me as we waited for William and Kate to come down the line of waiting people.

"Princess Scarlett, lovely to meet you." Kate said to me as I politely shook her hand with a little curtsey.

"And you, duchess." I grinned.

Parker looked like he was literally going to pee his pants as Prince William shook his hand.

"Adeline, I must say, you have a beautiful home." Kate was saying to our grandmother.

"We wanted to find somewhere more remote to spend a little vacation, and this is such a pleasant place." William agreed, his hand politely resting on Kate's lower back as they spoke with my grandmother.

"Where are the kids?" I whispered to my dad.

"They're napping right now." Kate spoke up, hearing my question. "It was a long flight and they didn't sleep much during the layover. They should be up soon though."

I nodded politely, embarrassed that she'd heard my uncalled for question.

"You are like a different person." Parker whispered to me.

"Shush." I gave him a look.

Within the next hour, the room had become slightly more relaxed, and the only photographer left was our grandmother's official photographer for formal events.

We were all seated around the room while we had our tea.

A nanny came into the room with Prince George and Princess Charlotte.

I felt my face break into a smile at the little royal adorableness.

"Would you like to hold her?" Kate asked me as she held the baby in her arms.

"Could I?" I asked happily.

"Of course." Kate nodded, leaning forwards to hand Princess Charlotte to me.

"Hi." I said softly, looking down at the baby. "She is so adorable." I said to Kate.

"Thank you." Kate smiled.

George climbed up on the couch in between Parker and I, wanting to be close to his sister.

"Oh, Robert, please get a picture of this." The queen said suddenly, gesturing to the couch. "Aren't they just adorable?" She smiled, looking at us fondly.

That was the first time she's seemed happy in my presence all week. Wow.

We all smiled while pictures were being taken, but eventually reverted back to conversation, ignoring the camera that was starting to get on my nerves.

"So, William, tell me, how is Elizabeth?" The queen asked politely.

~*~*~

"This amazes me that our family literally has their own museum dedicated to our country." Parker shook his head. "And I mean, look at this picture, these are our ancestors." He laughed, pointing up to the large oil painting of a person from the early fourteenth century.

"Oh yea, that's King Harold II of Castello. He reigned for like two months in 1309 until his brother, King Ronald I of Castello, killed him. King Ronald was king for over fifty years after that." I told him, folding my arms over my chest.

Parker raised his eyebrows at me. "And how do you know all of this?"

"I grew up here, remember? I learned all about our family history in lessons." I replied. "I am an expert at the history of Castello."

"That's awesome." Parker said in shock. "Please don't die and leave me to be king, I'll have absolutely no clue what I'm doing."

"Don't worry." I laughed. "I intend on staying alive for a very long time."

"Who's that?" Parker asked, pointing to the next picture.

"King Ronald's daughter. Queen Arabella IV of Castello. She reigned for seven years before dying of pneumonia. Her daughter, Queen Beatrice of Castello, then took over as the youngest monarch Castello has seen, twenty five." I explained.

Parker raised his eyebrows again.

"So you'll beat the record?" He asked in shock.

"I most certainly will. Sorry Beatrice, I'm coming for your title." I teased at the painting.

Parker and I turned to continue into the next exhibit room, but he suddenly gasped and spun me back around towards the painting of Queen Beatrice.

"What?" I laughed, looking up at him.

"Okay, don't freak out, but uh, standing about twenty feet behind us, looking at a sculpture of King Harold or whatever is OJ." Parker whispered.

My eyes widened.

"No... You're joking. This isn't a funny joke, Parker." I hissed, glaring at him.

"I can't believe I forgot... They've had this trip planned for months, I didn't know it was to Castello though..." Parker whispered.

"Stop joking. This isn't funny."

"I promise you it's him, and his mom is over by the door with Audrey." Parker whispered.

"Momma! Looks at the princess dress!" I heard the familiar little voice exclaim.

"Holy shit." I whispered, feeling my chest tighten.

Parker suddenly wrapped his arm around my shoulders, guiding me away.

"Dad, what do you reckon happened to this guy who was king for like two months?" I heard Oliver ask with a laugh.

"It was the thirteen hundreds, probably got killed by some wild animal or something." I heard Mr. James reply, making Oliver laugh.

"How do we get out of here?" Parker asked nervously, our backs still to Oliver.

"We can't. We have to go all the way through the museum. All of the exits have emergency alarms on them." I shook my head. "I vote we just stay here, wait until they move into the next room, and then backtrack to the beginning again."

Parker looked doubtful as he glanced over his shoulder.

"Shit." He whispered.

"Parker? Scarlett?" Oliver asked in shock.

"Go with my story." I whispered to Parker before turning around excitedly.

"Oliver! We found you!" I exclaimed, throwing my arms around his neck.

Oliver stepped back in shock, hesitantly hugging me back.

"What are you guys doing here?" Oliver asked slowly as I steppe back from him.

"We uh... Well..." Parker trailed off, looking at me for help.

"Okay so I feel really bad about the way that we ended things on the phone so I was going to go back home to find you but Parker told me that you were on a vacation and I really needed to talk to you because these past few days have been hell without talking to you..." I said, my false story taking a mind of its own. "So we booked tickets and got on the first flight to this island or whatever but we couldn't find you so we thought we went to the wrong place but our flight is this evening and we had time to kill so we figured we'd just go to the museum! I can't believe we found you here!" I exclaimed.

"Yea, uh, that." Parker mumbled.

"You got on a plane to come after me because you felt bad about how we ended things?" Oliver asked slowly, as if he saw right through my story.

"I know, I know it's ridiculous... But Parker told me about the fight you got into and I know that lots of things were left open and I just... I really really needed to talk to you." I sighed.

"Wow." Oliver whispered, pushing his hair back from his face. "Wow..." He repeated.

I felt my heart rate speed up. Was he about to catch me in my lie?

"Look... You guys have a flight to catch tonight, and I really appreciate the gesture and all but I just... Scarlett we really need to talk things out and I just... I don't think we should do that here." Oliver said slowly.

I nodded, looking down at my feet.

"I'm sorry... I... This was a stupid idea, I don't know what I was thinking." I whispered, tucking my hair behind my ear.

"No... No Scarlett, this wasn't a stupid idea at all." Oliver said softly, gently guiding my chin up so I was looking at him. "Seriously, this is the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for me. I'm just saying that we should wait until we're all back home to talk this over. You'll be back at school on Monday?"

I nodded.

"Great, then we'll talk about this then, alright?" Oliver said softly, giving me a smile.

"Okay." I said softly.

"I'm glad we're going to work this out, I've missed you like hell these past few days." Oliver whispered, leaning forwards to place a kiss on my lips.

"I'll uh, I'll see you." I mumbled before turning to walk away.

"That was genius." Parker said as he followed me.

I stayed silent, my heart still pounding in my chest.

"What's wrong? You totally saved our asses." Parker laughed, giving me a concerned look.

"Those were just more lies, Parker. And none of that was true. We can't work things out. Because there's no way he'll talk to me after he finds out what I've been keeping from him... And there's no way he'll be okay with dating a queen." I shook my head, pulling my sweatshirt tighter around myself. "I've messed everything up."

"No you haven't... Listen to me, when we get back, you need to just tell him everything, he'll understand." Parker sighed.

I shook my head.

"Look, you can tell him the truth on Monday, but I don't think I'm going to talk to him again." I said quietly.

I stayed silent on the way back to my room.

I had no idea what was wrong, but I knew that I couldn't imagine ever feeling like this about someone other than Oliver...

What was I going to do without him in my life?