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‘Bella, bella...’
They were chatting about her lovely family, and how soft-spoken she was, and then about the late Prince Claude. Beatrice really wished she’d done some of this listening before now, because their conversation had turned to Julius.
‘Dear, dear, dear...’
One of them tutted, and then the other, but they started to laugh, and as it turned out they loved Julius.
So too did the people ahead of her, whose conversation she listened to next.
She heard more gossip in those few moments than she could ever have found in newspaper articles, and more affection for Julius than the palace had ever admitted.
People commented on his bachelor status, but without the frantic air of his family and aides, and she wished she could somehow convey to them that the word on the street seemed to be that he should take his time.
But if she did then it would sound as if she had an agenda. And maybe she did. Because she kept having little visions of them somehow managing to see each other, even for a short while. And then the bubble was dispersing, and she realised how distracted he made her—because she still hadn’t put on sunscreen and her shoulders were starting to redden.
‘What time is Princess Jasmine speaking?’ she asked the woman beside her.
‘No,’ she was informed. ‘Prince Julius.’
Beatrice wanted to correct her, because she’d just seen Arabella with her nanny, and she knew the palace schedule after all, but she just nodded and smiled and made her way to the gathered crowd.
She heard cheers drown out the music as, yes, Julius came onto the stage.
He looked fantastic and dreadful all in one. He was dressed in full military uniform, and that too was unexpected. The grey and Prussian blue check and the black boots were too much for the heat, but he was so handsome. He looked fresh and crisp, and yet she could see there was a pallor to his features, and those cheekbones were even more prominent.
‘We had to ask the pilot to catch a tail wind so I could be here...’ he told his delighted audience. But he was thrilled to have made it.
Oh, and the people were thrilled to see him.
As was she.
It was hard to reconcile the fact that the last time she had, they’d just been in bed together.
For a whole week she’d somehow handled his business texts and complete lack of anything else because he hadn’t been there, but now he was.
And it stung.
Even more than the sun beating on her shoulders.
Come on, Beatrice, she told herself,you played with the playboy.You invited the hurt.It was you who wanted adventure...wanted to get it over and done with...
How she wished Alicia was still in her life, because she wanted someone to explain to her why she was waiting breathlessly for his eyes to land on hers. Wishing he might suddenly notice her in the crowd. Might give her a smile or react in some way.
But he just kept on with his off-the-cuff speech...talking about the flowers. How from the plane he had seen every island, ablaze with colour...
‘The same colours that greeted our soldiers when they returned from war.’
He spoke of the past, of how the islanders had almost lived underground in bunkers and how root vegetables had been their sustenance, and of the island’s vital part in the World Wars.
He said how good it was to have their beloved Flower Festival back after its absence last year. ‘I know the King has visited all the islands this week, and he insists he does not have a favourite...’ He gave them a dubious look...
Julius was flirting with them.
Charmingly.
Easily.
And in such a way that all were convinced that this island was his favourite.
