Page 74 of The English Queen

“He also simply spoils her. Now that we have seen the tiara… Louis went out of his way. But are we talking in the thousands… five or six?” Maggie asked.

“Oh, no. On lingerie? I think she spent about 25 grand. She had a fun time. I gather this was not the first time she’s done it, either. I mean, a girl does have to prepare for her honeymoon.”

Sabine smiled. “A woman after my own heart.”

“Meanwhile, I wish I could tear off every bra I own at this point. My nipples are torturing me. Every time I hear a baby cry, I spring a leak.” Rita couldn’t get comfortable.

“Did you forget it all? I did. When we had Bethy, it was like I’d forgotten everything from the twins and Elliot.”

“I am a bit green.”

“I promise you it will be fine. I felt like that with Izzy. You and Bruno will be fine. I will be glad to accept sweet baby snuggles again. As will Bruno’s mother.”

“I wish I saw more of Kiersten,” Maggie murmured. “I get so little time with her.”

“She will grow enough so she can spend the night, too,” Sabine said.

“I can’t even reliably hold her these days, Sab. I don’t blame Vanna for not trusting me to care for her. I would be worried, too.”

“Keir will help. It will be okay. And Beth will have a baby soon. You can come visit. She would like that.”

Sometimes, Rita forgot how sick her aunt was. Sometimes, Maggie’s stubbornness drowned out all else. But as she made plans to leave the Earth, it was hard to see her shrink. Rita grew up watching her aunt run the world. Maggie had never been off-her-game. Now, her aunt grasped at straws, playing second-fiddle to not only Vanora but also Beth. Rita never would have seen it coming.

?????

“She is just… well, she’s too good for you, man,” Rudy Heinz, one of Louis’s dearest friends noted. “How on did you manage to tie her down?”

He was remarking on Beth who, in this evening’s tiara, glittered. She looked fabulous all night. Louis figured it would only be harder tomorrow. She was beaming ear-to-ear and laughing while talking with the Crown Princess of Norway. Beth was at ease. She was showing no signs of visible concern about saying ‘I do’ in front of more than 1,000 people in a church tomorrow–with millions watching from at home. Merely thinking about it made Louis sweat.

Louis joked, “I didn’t do anything. I was my charming self.”

Rudy had been Louis’s roommate in high school, and they attended college in the States together. Rudy was the heir to a telecom fortune and ran a charitable foundation. Louis hadn’t seen his friend in ages. Louis relished catching up with his school and nerd-fraternity brothers.

“She’s funny. Very, very funny,” Rudy said, as if amazed. What he wasn’t saying was Phillipa did not crack jokes. He wasn’t going to bring it up, but everyone was thinking it.

“She’s funny, yeah. Quick-witted. She’s the strangest person. Just… interesting. I don’t know how else to summarise it.”

“She’s interesting, alright. And way too young for you.”

“Don’t I know it! But I cannot complain about it, either.”

“Does she always wear that thing?” Rudy pointed to his head.

“Ha-ha,” Louis said, flatly. “The tiara? No. It comes off. It comes off in a painfully slow fashion.”

“How so?”

“It’s sewn into her hair. They are all sewn in. It’s like… it’s an art to place one. The whole process takes ages. And then it takes quite some time to remove it. So, you have a nice evening. Life is going well. All you want to do is jump into bed and here she is twenty minutes later, standing there with a dresser and fifty bobby pins and since the thing is basically irreplaceable, you can’t rush it. No one tells you that story until you are living it.”

“What is a dresser? Like a chest of drawers, you mean?”

“No. The person who helps her dress. She has a person who does alterations and keeps her wardrobe. Well, several now,” Louis explained.

“You live such a fucking weird life. How do you have people to help you dress?”

“If you saw what it took her to get ready for an event, you would understand. It’s like an assembly line and the number of products involved is baffling. I don’t question it. I leave the area.”

“So, she’s a bit high maintenance?”

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