Page 55 of The Princess Sister Swap

She clasped her hands together and stared out to sea for a while, visibly searching for the words, before exhaling softly and looking up at him candidly. ‘I came to Cornwall every summer as a child. It’s a place that means a lot to me. It was a chance to get away from everything life in Asturia entailed. Like I said to you a few days ago, I had a very privileged but very lonely childhood. One which meant I got to stay in palaces and castles all over the world, but one where I was never allowed to be a child. I always had to be perfectly presented and perfectly behaved. Coming to Cornwall, being Rosy, not Arrosa, was the only time I was free just to be me, to even figure out who mewas.’ She blinked and he could have sworn he saw the glint of tears.

‘I always knew that as a girl I couldn’t inherit the throne and, apart from the innate sexism of the law, that was more than fine with me. As I got older and got to go to boarding school here in England as well as spend summers here, I could see some kind of freedom in my future. Balancing a career and royal duties is a difficult thing to do, as many minor royals have found before me, and I had no idea what that path would be for me, but I was looking forward to university and figuring it all out. It felt like I had all the time in the world. But I was wrong.’ She threw him a quick anxious glance but he couldn’t respond, couldn’t move, frozen into place by the spell of her words.

‘I spent the summer here after turning eighteen and it was golden. I don’t know if that’s because, when I look back, it was the last time I was truly free, or whether it really was. Clem and I were dating these guys in an intense teen kind of way and the four of us spent the summer surfing and sailing and at festivals. But then my father summoned me home and told me that the right thing to do for our family and for the country was to overturn the primogeniture law retrospectively so that I could become Crown Princess.’

He finally spoke. ‘So now you’re the heir to the throne?’

‘Not quite yet, but soon. In Asturia, the monarch has a lot of political power. The people dislike change. I think it’s partly because of where we are positioned, our history is full of war and conflict. It’s taken eight years to get to the place where the overturning of the primogeniture law can be ratified. Every opposition party has agreed to support it and the country as a whole agreed in a referendum. During the eight years the change has been debated I have had to be completely perfect in appearance and word and deed. And once I become heir I will have to be even more so. It can be overwhelming at times.’

She blew out a breath. ‘Clem thought I needed a break and so she persuaded me to stay here while she is in Asturia pretending to be me—and you are one of just a very small number of people who know that. Jack, if this got out not only would it destroy the public’s confidence in me but for Clem the exposure would be life-changing. That I can’t tell you any more about, it’s not my story to tell, but I hope you see how much I trust you in revealing this much.’

‘Clem is pretending to be you? Sure, you resemble each other, but you’re hardly identical.’ But he could feel his anger starting to thaw. She must have felt desperate to have agreed to such a risky scheme.

‘That is definitely the flaw in the plan. But I’d kept my diary free this summer to help me prepare for the ratification, so Clem is being driven out every so often dressed up as me, and that’s hopefully enough to keep the tabloids at bay. I’ve been closely followed, you see, ever since I came of age. A leave of absence would be immediately gossiped about, any kind of hint I needed a break so close to the ratification could lead to the kind of speculation I’ve spent the last eight years trying to avoid. It’s risky, maybe too risky, but the thought of spending six weeks here, being Rosy again one last time, was irresistible. Clem had her own reasons for proposing the switch.’

She looked up at him and he could see the need for understanding, the apology in her expression and he knew her reaction was real. Lily had never cared about being understood, had never apologised to him once, no matter what. But Lily had merely been a rich man’s daughter—Rosy was a princess. He had made his own money but he would never be able to create the kind of background and privilege she would need in any future partner.

‘There you go, Jack. The whole story. You now know more about me than almost any other person in the world except Clem, my father and my bodyguard.’

‘Your secrets are safe with me,’ he said at last. ‘I can promise you that.’

‘Thank you. Jack, I hope you see why I had to step away last night. I couldn’t allow us to continue if you didn’t know who I am. I didn’t want to deceive you any further. But...’ She paused and her cheeks pinkened. ‘I’d like us to still be friends. I have really appreciated getting to know you over the last few weeks.’

Friends? Was that even possible any more after such an incendiary kiss, after the sharing of such confidences? He’d started to fall for her, hard, and now he was grappling with the fact that she had misled him—and that there was definitely no future for them. Men like him might climb up the social ladder so far, but royalty was definitely a step too far.

Plus, he’d always sworn that if and when he started to date, the girls came first. A relationship with no hope of going anywhere failed that test spectacularly.

But, at the same time, he couldn’t just walk away. There was a loneliness to Rosy that he had never really appreciated before, a loneliness that called to him.

‘I need to think about it.’ He saw her face fall although she tried to hide it. ‘It’s a lot, Rosy. It was already a lot. You started to change things for me and for the girls in ways I hadn’t expected or planned for. And although I knew you weren’t planning on living here full-time, that there was no future for us, I couldn’t help but wonder that if things carried on the way they’d started maybe somehow there might have been. That we could figure it all out. But now? Now there can never be anything beyond this summer. I know it sounds a little crazy, talking about the future after just a few meetings as if I was still a romantic teen. But there’s a connection between us. Isn’t there?’

‘Yes.’

‘So I need time to think this all through.’

‘I’m sorry, Jack,’ she said, her voice breaking slightly.

Jack wanted to hold her, to promise her that it would all be okay, but that wasn’t a promise he could make so instead he simply nodded then turned and walked away.

The irony was that in every other way the camping trip was a great success. The girls seemed happier and more settled, while Jack and Sally were now, if not friends exactly, then friendly, Sally willing to set up a meeting with him and the theatre committee.

But it wasn’t lost on Jack that Rosy was responsible for that success—after all, she had suggested the trip and invited Sally along. But thinking of her was like touching a sore spot. He felt hollow inside when he thought about her revelations, the knowledge that it was easier and more sensible to move on with his life without involving her any further in it.

Jack did his best to throw himself into work, but for once it didn’t hold his attention the way he had always relied upon it to do. It didn’t help that the girls were away; Lily’s parents were staying at their Polhallow house and had asked to have their granddaughters for a few days. He had a good relationship with his in-laws now; it was a long time since they’d viewed him as the teenage boy who’d seduced away their daughter.

But with the girls away the house felt too big and too empty and although there were plenty of things he could and should be doing he couldn’t seem to get going and this morning was no different. He knew he had to have the promised conversation with Rosy. The problem was, he still had no idea what to say.

It was late morning and already hot as he set out on foot, popping into the café Sally’s family owned for snacks and coffees before walking up the hill to Clem’s clifftop cottage.

There was no answer to his initial knock on the door, but the windows were wide open and so Jack walked around the house to the back garden, where he paused, his blood rushing at the sight of a bikini-clad Rosy stretched out on a sunbed, eyes half closed and her face upturned to the sun, a book unopened in her hand.

‘Are you open to visitors?’

She started and looked up, wary at first, almost scared, and with a pang of conscience he remembered what she’d said about living under scrutiny, always having to be picture perfect. He was pretty sure that description didn’t include lounging in nothing but a bikini, although she did look pretty perfect to him. His mouth dried as he took in the long lines of her body; he’d rather take this relaxed Rosy than any prim and proper princess. Not, of course, that either were his to take.

‘I’ve brought lunch,’ he said and held out the paper bag.

For a moment she didn’t react, just stared at him before sitting up, her full mouth curving into a wide smile. ‘Oh, well, if you brought lunch...’

---