The Twelve Days of Christmas

Chapter 9

We all continued to mingle, just with the added addition of royalty, which made things slightly more than odd. The King of England was just wandering around, talking to us all. It was a little surreal. So far, I had managed to avoid the royalty. The one person I wanted to speak to, seemed to be avoiding me. Every time I got close to him and waited for him to be free, he moved on to another group of women who fawned all over him.

I wished it didn’t bother me, but it did. It more than bothered me, it infuriated me.

After a few attempts, I retreated to Dylan. For whatever reason, he didn’t want to speak with me. I wasn’t even convinced that he didn’t have the right idea. If I had spoken to him, I wasn’t certain that I wouldn’t have lost my temper with him.

I shouldn’t have allowed myself to get annoyed, but I did.

He could have said something, anything. A heads up of some description, instead of me being thrust into the ridiculous situation I was in. The worries about my attire were long since gone and replaced by annoyance. If he had said in his note, it would have given me time. I could have prepared myself. Although, I wasn’t sure how prepared anyone could be for such a situation.

“Where did you go? You didn’t seem the type to go prince hunting.” The chuckle Dylan let out was more pitying than humour.

“I didn’t. Not really. Do you know who the fourth royal is?”

“He’s a foreign prince, some country I had never heard of. I’m sure someone said it was somewhere in the Baltic Sea, not sure why anyone would clamber over themselves to live there. It must be freezing all the time.” He was probably right. Being by the Baltic Sea was harsh enough on the mainland, let alone on an island. Still, I couldn’t help but think of it as heaven. There must have been a fair amount of problems, but it would be winter nearly all the time and that was my idea of heaven.

If Dylan was right, it made even less sense to me that the mystery prince had never thrown a snowball. They must have snow all the time. Did he just never leave his house… well, palace, I suppose. The idea that I threw snowballs at a prince who lived in somewhere like the building we were standing in was a little more than surreal. It was outright freaky.

Before I had time to consider it any further, Dylan gave a slight nod of his head to indicate beside me and I turned my head to find the King heading straight for us. I started straightening myself up out of habit. “Stop, you look fine. Well, no, you don’t, but it isn’t going to get any better in the next ten seconds.” He hissed it out of the corner of his mouth and I instantly stilled. Some people would have considered Dylan to be harsh, but I found him refreshing. In his own way, he was trying to make me feel better, and it made me smile.

“Your Majesty, it is a pleasure.” Dylan bowed slightly and looked so appropriate, which surprised me.

Deciding it was best to copy him because he seemed to know what he was doing, which I did not. “Your Majesty.” I bowed just like Dylan and heard the rather loud snigger from behind me.

I watched on as the mystery prince found me most amusing and tried my best not to say anything. He was standing with a few of the girls who were flocking around him. Dylan was engaged in polite conversation with the King and both had politely ignored my apparent mistake.

I could see the prince staring at me out of the corner of my eye. He was still happily entertaining his hoard of women, but his heart wasn’t in it. He was barely paying them any attention at all. Instead, it was all on me with his glowing smile and twinkling eyes. Except I wasn’t sure I wanted his attention anymore.

Those kinds of events were certainly not me. They were everything I thought was wrong with the world, usually. No one should have that kind of wealth when people in the same vicinity were homeless or using food banks. It was barbaric. Except that made me a hypocrite because I had still gone to the palace to mix with royalty and not for noble reasons but out of selfishness.

Dylan was still waffling away to the King, who to give him the credit due was paying attention to every word of nonsense. “Sir, I wonder if you have any thoughts on the current homeless situation in London. Or in the wider country, for that matter.”

I could see the slight reaction in his eyes, but it went no further. He was a man used to curve balls, and it would take someone much better than me to throw him off. “I must admit, I find it rather troubling. As I am sure you are aware, it is a situation outside of my remit. There is a lovely chap called Jimmy who resides in The Green Park during the day. Before I held my current position, I used to speak to him from time to time. It is now much too difficult. We would have the most intellectual conversations and he truly believes in not being idle. Spending his day collecting rubbish in the park.”

He seemed to consider his thoughts for a second and took a sip from his perfect crystal highball glass. I looked around slightly and realised that at some point, food and drinks had been served and I had completely missed it. “I have confessed to Jimmy many times that I do not understand how a man like him has become homeless, or why he doesn’t desire to have a home again. Nevertheless, my interactions with him changed my perspective on the situation.”

“But do you do anything to help the situation?” I was more than a little too rude given my audience, but I was angry. The King was just getting the brunt of it because he represented everything I hated about the world. Rich people who got richer and ignored everyone below them.

“Indeed, Jimmy reluctantly receives a food hamper from the royal kitchens each night. It is far from enough. I am fully aware. I considered setting up a soup kitchen, but my head of security wouldn’t allow it. Unfortunately, he is one of the few people I actually have to answer to. Good day and good luck.” Clearly, he was done with the conversation. He just dismissed me like I was nothing, and it did nothing to calm the swell of screaming fury in my belly.