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Two Months Later

One Month till the Wedding

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Growing up, trains excited me for some weird reason. I think it's because they get you across the country and when I was younger, they seemed magical. Then when I grew up and used them a lot to get from one side of the city to the other – it was cheaper than the bus, and quicker some days – they became mundane. 

But being on The Royal Train is like stepping into that childhood magical feeling again. This train is massive and like a Tardis. On the outside, it's black and red with curtains across every window. On the inside, it's extravagant and so, well, regal. There's a bedroom for each royal member, a kitchen, multiple bathrooms with showers, an office, and a lounge. I'm sitting beside Annie and opposite Charlotte in the lounge as we ride from Windsor down to Southampton. We're on the way to an engagement, just Charlotte and I, but we invited Annie up last night for dinner and to ride back with us on the Royal Train.

Being seven months pregnant has made the emotional side of me come out, and I've been desperate for my mum, and well, Annie has been that figure since I was fifteen, so she's been up and around a lot more. Dad has been baking for his side business and also practising for the wedding cake he's making. Patrick's hard at work on his last placement and working on his application for the Foundation programme, and Kai is busy doing some sort of paperwork or something.

"So, tell me about this charity again, sweetheart," Annie asks as she sips her tea.

"A few months ago, at a reception for the NHS, a professor told me how he was starting a charity to give parents who lose through miscarriage or stillbirth more support. He's been developing it for a while, and wanted my support when I marry into the royal family," I explain. "Queen Charlotte—"

"You can call me Charlotte when we're not in public, Mila," Charlotte says.

I smile. "Charlotte has approved my work can start now with it so he can start the charity up. He's called it the Butterfly Lullaby Charity. He works in Southampton now, and today he's opening a new wing on the labour ward. It's got a separate entrance from the labour ward, they can't hear the actual birthing ward, and it's for women and their partners who are losing their pregnancies – miscarriage, stillborn or termination for medical reasons – so they can have their own private rooms to deal with their loss. They'll get the cots so they can spend more time with their babies and still keep them cool. They want to fund clothes as well, and it'll simulate a home experience to give them a calmer experience during the worst times. There are ten rooms right now. He wants me to open it with him."

Charlotte smiles. "I think it's a wonderful endeavour."

"That's... amazing," Annie marvels.

I nod. "They started work on this months ago, and I didn't know until I started speaking to him, but I had a hand in naming it, providing contacts to him of people to make the clothes, decorate the rooms and make sure it's up and running."

"The ward runs by itself or as part of the NHS?" Annie asks.

I sip my tea. "So, I may have had a hand in that. It's run by the charity, and I may have been meddling a little bit getting help with people I know to get new jobs—"

"How does he fund all of this?" Annie asks when I stop.

"I may have also found a few benefactors and fundraising opportunities. Charlotte told me it's amazing what people will help with once you tell them who you are," I say with a grin. What I don't tell either of them, but what Kai helped me do is set up some of those funds by gifting money to Gemma the other week from my own savings to help start the charity up, which she then donated. I can't be seen to be giving money or anything as a royal.

What they don't know won't hurt them. I didn't have a lot of savings, but I had a little bit which won't be used as a royal, so it can go to a good cause.

"That's absolutely brilliant," Annie says.

"Usually, I wouldn't advocate for work like this until you'd be married into the family, but the opportunity seemed too good to pass up. It's also things like this that will solidify your place in the family, and make the people see how good you are and how hard you work. When Michael married in, they looked at him unfavourably because he couldn't work like this until after the wedding. Once he did, though, he was accepted more." Charlotte closes her eyes and mouths a little prayer for them.

This is the one part of royalty that I'm finding it hard to adjust to. Religion. During Lucy and the family funerals, I had to sing along to the hymns and say amen to prayers. Sitting and listening to a religious service I can handle, but I personally feel like a fraud, praying and singing to a god I simply don't believe in. It's not that I don't want to, or anything like that. I just sit and wonder if people know I'm a fraud and will care. It's difficult. But then I realised that Kai admitted he's not sure if he believes as well, and I know I'm not alone.

"Can I ask something?" I ask.

"Of course," Charlotte answers.

I look at Anne for a moment before sitting up straight. "This is going to be a Church of England ceremony, I know, but can I have all three of my family give me away? Dad, Mum, Patrick?"

"Oh." Annie puts her hand to her chest, clearly touched.

"If they want to, obviously. For me, it's important. Our family is everything to me, and it's also for me about them giving me to the royal family."

Anne grabs my hand from beside me. "You don't need to ask that. Your father is, well, your father. Part of the day is about your biological mother, too."

I nod. "She'll never be erased, just like Jack will never be to Patrick. But you've been my mother figure for seven years. I love you. It's important to me, if you'd like it, and well, if they say yes."

Charlotte smiles. "Of course it's possible. We'd have your father doing the giving away part in the ceremony act, but walking down the aisle? All three can. But I want you both to know, Hugh and I don't consider this you being given to us; we love you and your family and welcome you all to ours as well." She puts her teacup down. "Don't think I haven't noticed how close Kai and you have grown, either. This clearly isn't just about the baby anymore, and that's why we really want this to work."

My mouth opens and closes again. Are we that obvious?

"You don't need to deny it, sweetheart," Annie says.

"I, uh, well, I don't know what to say to that. Other than I think it was always inevitable, but I'm the one that held us back because Kai can't keep his mouth closed about my pregnancy."

We all end up laughing. It's weird to think how seven months ago, I wouldn't have dared to imagine meeting the king and queen and laughing like this, and now it's like any normal in-law relationship across the country.

My mind still can't comprehend it sometimes.

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"I saw it on TV. You looked amazing, Peach," Kai says over dinner later on. "You and Mum looked so comfortable together."

I nod and eat a mouthful of dinner he's prepared – spaghetti carbonara homemade with freshly baked cheesy garlic bread – before answering. "Your mum seems to have bonded with Annie as well. I think she's put a bit more effort in recently since she worked out we're no longer this sort of fake couple."

"She knows?"

"Yeah, apparently she guessed for a while, and so did Annie and my dad. They're pleased. I would have guessed they've known since just after my birthday. To be fair, we've not been exactly subtle about it. More rule breaks with holding hands and hugs and smiles all over the press. It's kinda obvious." I sip my diet lemonade.

He chuckles. "Yeah, you have a point. Much else happen? It looked like the opening went well."

"Yeah, it went really well. In the weirdest way, I hope it never gets used. It will, though, and... I don't know, it's a weird thing. The charity is well put together. Gemma says the work is good as well. Better hours, more pay."

"How is the pay being funded? You put money into the charity yourself, Peach. We can't keep funding it for wages."

I wave my hand. "We're not. Professor Hawkins has found a way to get them to agency work and some on the NHS, so they're not being paid by the charity."

He nods. "If it's all in hand, then that's fine."

I sigh and eat more food. "My dad mentioned on the phone earlier. Now I'm twenty-two, he has the issue of working out what to do with the fund my mum left in her will."

Kai cocks his head. "What fund?"

"So when I was younger, my parents shared money, but when my mum's dad died, he was the last grandparent from her side. He left her... quite a lot of money. Not like, royal family lots, but it was something like five-hundred thousand."

"Shit, Peach."

"In the will, it was hers, but they didn't see the need to spend it all. They bought the house my dad lives in outright, and then put it away. When Mum died, my dad obviously got it because they were married, but in her will, she asked that he keep some of it for me. She wanted at least thirty thousand of it for me to buy a house when I got to that stage. So my dad dealt with it all," I explain.

Kai nods and we both eat some more before I carry on.

"Anyway, he and I sat down when I started my degree and we agreed that the money was mine, but I asked to not have it until I graduate because I didn't want to have access to a lot of money and spend it all on useless shit. He agreed and transferred the account to my name, but we agreed that twenty-two was the age I could have it. Unless there was an emergency or whatever. Now I'm twenty-two, but I'm about to become a princess, so I don't really need the funds."

"How much is there?"

"A hundred thousand was left of my mum's money. Dad added fifty grand, which was left over from life insurance. He made a good wage to keep us afloat and had some in savings, so he put some in there so I could put a deposit down on a house, or buy a flat or whatever."

Kai nods. "So a hundred and fifty thousand?" I nod. He sips his drink. "Being a royal doesn't mean you can't have your own private funds. Things like, for example, going to the cinema, or buying gifts for your family, you can do with your own funds. But you get a personal wage from the crown for that, anyway."

I arch an eyebrow. "My point is, I don't need the money."

"You wish to donate it?"

I shake my head. "I want to gift it back to my family. Maybe they could buy a house here, or Annie could leave her job, or it can pay off Patrick's medical school bills—"

"Once we're married, they have entitlement to a home in Windsor from the crown estate, as long as we're working royals."

"Are you trying to talk me out of this?" I question.

"Not at all, I'm just—it's your money to do with what you want. I guess my thinking is that your mother wanted you to have that money. I guess I just keep thinking you might one day realise how shit this is and run away like our original deal was."

I stand up and crouch by his side. "Kai, I'm in this for life. It's the three of us against the world, you know? I'm in love with you, and I love this baby we have on the way."

He looks at me seriously: hazel eyes focusing hard, mouth curving into a grin. "All right, I just keep having these moments of self-doubt. I never want you to feel trapped in this life."

I shake my head. "If I ever feel that way, I would tell you. But I don't. I like this life because I have you. For the record, I want to give my dad back the money, but we both know he'll just sit on it until he's eighty, just in case. Or at least, I might offer to pay off Patrick's debts first."

"How much is in he debt by for medical school?"

I wince. "Around twenty thousand. There was a technicality in some of his funding where, because of some insurance pay-outs when his dad died and whatever. They refused to fund him fully. Annie and Dad have been paying it back every—"

"For goodness sake—really?"

I nod. "The system is screwed."

He grumbles. "I'm not allowed to get involved in politics, but I'll ask Dad if we can do something. Either way, take the money. Pay Patrick's debts off and give the rest back. That's what I would do. If they don't take it, we'll find a way to pay it off."

As I stand up, there's a roll and slam in my stomach. "Oh, shit, the baby's kicking."

Kai stands up and gives me a questioning look. I nod, and he leans down, putting his hand over the spot where it's kicking.

"Hey, Mini Cherry. It's me, your daddy!" He kisses the spot and the baby immediately starts kicking back.

"She just kicked you in the face!" I joke.

"We don't know, could be a boy! A footballer; the kick of a great ruler," Kai teases.

I giggle as they continue talking and kicking, as if they're having a conversation. It's the best thing I've seen in the world, and my heart is way too full. Months ago, I would've said that magic isn't possible, but now, I'd say magic is in the smallest of things. When I saw that pregnancy test, I thought it would be all doom and gloom, but it turns out this was the best thing that could ever happen.

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