Royal(41)

“Could you bring the documents to me tomorrow, sir? Say at two o’clock? I promise to put them in the right hands.” The mention of the queen’s horse trainer’s name had greased things along, as Jonathan hoped it would.

“I’d be delighted to.” The secretary told him which entrance to come to, who to ask for, and the inside line for his office, and they agreed to meet at two the next day. As soon as Jonathan hung up, he sat down to write a brief summary of the facts, to simplify things. It was almost painful to write the details.

He mentioned the romance between Princess Charlotte and Henry Hemmings, before he left for the army, and the unexpected result that the princess had gotten pregnant, but didn’t have the opportunity from Yorkshire to share the information with her mother. He then gave the date of their marriage by special license, and the subsequent date of the young man’s death. He said that she had given birth to a baby girl, and had died three hours after delivering her. He listed the dates of both the earl’s and the countess’s death, which left no one to care for the infant, once orphaned, and no one knowing what to do with a child who was in fact legitimate but whose existence was entirely unknown to Their Majesties, Charlotte’s parents. And for better or worse, a young girl who had been staying with the Hemmingses to escape the bombing raids in London had cared for the child herself, and had then taken the infant to live with her as her own. Jonathan did not deny that poor decisions had been made by the young person involved, whom he had subsequently married. He had said that the information had only fallen into his hands two days before his wife’s death, several weeks before. And the most important piece of information of all of it was that Princess Charlotte’s child was alive and well, living with his family in Kent. She currently had no knowledge of the circumstances of her birth, or her connection to the royal family, of which she was in fact a member, as the niece of the current queen, and the granddaughter of the Queen Mother.



Jonathan said his only interest was to reunite Anne Louise with her family. He would be happy to bring her to meet them, if they were so inclined. It was confusing at best, but the story was familiar to him now, and he tried to make it as simple as he could. He made copies of everything that was in the box, made a package of all of it, put it in a large envelope, and sealed it, with the information on how to reach him, should they wish to. He respectfully thanked Their Majesties for reading the material he sent, hoping that they would. It occurred to him that he could get arrested for interference or blackmail, or if they thought he was trying to extort money from them, or had sequestered the girl against her will for over twenty years, or worse, was trying to pawn off an imposter on them. There was risk involved in trying to be the go-between, and set things right, after Lucy had let it lie in the shadows for so long. He made no attempt to excuse his wife’s behavior, and said she had died with deep remorse for keeping Her Highness Princess Anne Louise away from them for so long.



He took the train to London the next day and asked Annie to cover for him. He said he’d be back that night.

“Where are you going?” she asked, curious.

“To London, to see the queen,” he said, sounding as though he was teasing her, but he wasn’t. “Just like the nursery rhyme says.”

“Very funny,” she said.

He caught the train on time, and arrived promptly for the appointment with Sir Malcolm Harding, shook hands with him, and handed him the package.

“These are all copies. I have the originals, but I don’t want them to get lost. I’ll be happy to turn them over to you, if it’s of interest to the queen, or the Queen Mother.” The secretary thanked him politely and set the bundle on his desk, and a moment later, Jonathan was back on the street, looking up at the palace where Annie’s mother had grown up.

He took the train back to Kent and arrived in time for dinner. He was very quiet, and Annie noticed that he had worn a suit to go to town, and he seemed very formally dressed for a simple errand, but Jonathan volunteered nothing about how he had spent the afternoon. He wasn’t ready to tell her yet.

The phone rang in his office in the stables, at nine o’clock the next morning. Jonathan was startled to hear from Sir Malcolm so soon. He went straight to the point.



“The queen would like to meet with you tomorrow, at eleven in the morning, and she would like you to bring the girl.” They weren’t dignifying her with her title yet, and weren’t sure if she was for real. Jonathan hesitated for only a fraction of an instant, thinking that he would have to tell Annie the whole story sooner than he was ready to, but now there was no choice. He had until eleven A.M. the next day to do it.

“Of course,” Jonathan responded about bringing Annie with him. He wondered if he was going to be arrested when he got there, and wind up in jail. Anything was possible, but he was too far down the road to back out now, and he didn’t want to. He had a bumpy stretch of road ahead of him, when he told Annie about her history, and tried to explain why Lucy had taken her in the first place, and never contacted the Windsors until now.

He waited until he saw Annie return from exercising one of the horses, and then asked her to have lunch with him as she walked the horse back to his stall.

“Something wrong?”

“Not at all. I just have something I want to discuss with you,” like the fact that you’re a royal princess and part of the royal family, just a little thing like that.