How she became The Queen of Scotland

Chapter 2

"Maddie? Are you home?"
"I'm in the garden, honey."
Harry had taken all the way in the car from Clarence House to the Cottage at Kensington Palace to choose his words. He wanted them to be the right words so desperately.
Stepping though the door outside he saw Maddie and Kate lounging in the sun.
"Hey you two, everything okay?"
"Look at our nervous groom to be."
"Don't tease him, Kate. To be fair I am just as nervous as he is."
The two women shared a giggle before Kate rose from her lounge chair.
"Hello my dear. I will see the two of you later." She approached him to kiss him on the cheek before heading back inside.
Harry waited until she had disappeared before sitting down on the lounge chair next to Maddie. The distance between the two of them couldn't be wide enough but at the same time couldn't be close enough either.
All he had ever wanted was to be there for her if anything would ever crash her world. And now he was the one crashing it and what hurt him the most was the fact that he wouldn't be able to be there for her after this. She wouldn't let him.
"What's wrong, honey? You seem awfully gloomy."
"We need to talk, Maddie."
Hearing her name from him in this tone made her push up her sunglasses. He usually called her darling.
"What has happened?" She sat up facing him directly. "Harry, what is wrong with you? I have never seen you like this."
Rubbing the nape of his neck Harry tried to escape her look. Taking a deep breath he brought his hands together in front of his mouth looking up to the sky.
"I am afraid there is no easy way to say this..." He couldn't draw up the courage to look at her.
"I am listening."
From the corner of his eyes he could see Maddie tensing up. She sat straight, both feet steady on the ground with both of her hands on each side of her legs. Seemingly ready to face a storm.
"Maddie, I love you, you know that right?"
"Yes, of course, my darling. Go on..."
"I am afraid we..." Harry's voice started to shake. "We..." He took a moment to let out the air he had been holding in. "I am afraid we can not... I can not marry you."
The words were out.
Harry felt like the world's weight had been taken off of his shoulders.
Maddie felt like it had been added on her chest.
It took a moment for her to process what she had just heard.
She didn't move an inch.
For a second she thought Harry was joking.
"You are kidding right? What do you mean we can not get married?" Her eyes were fixed at him begging for all of this to be a joke. "Please Harry, look at me. Look at me and tell me your are making fun of me."
Harry didn't look at her. He couldn't. "I... I am sorry."
"Harry look at me. What the hell is going on?" Maddie stood up to kneel in front of him taking his hands into her's still hoping this was some kind of sick joke.
"Maddie I am so sorry. I have... I cannot marry you because... because I have met another woman."
Maddie let go of his hands immediately, standing up and taking a step backwards.
His words hung in the air between them.
"What do you mean you have met another woman? When? How?" Maddie tried to hold back her tears crossing her arms in front of her.
"The business dinner I have been to yesterday. I have been introduced to her and... well we have spend pretty much the whole night talking."
"Please spare me the details. Except for one question, did anything happen between the two of you?"
"No, no of course not." Harry shot up trying to hold her hands. "I couldn't do that to you."
Maddie took another step back almost falling over the lounge chair behind her.
"You couldn't do this to me?" She felt her eyes water up.
"Please, I never wanted to hurt you, Maddie. You have to believe that."
"I don't have to believe you anything. You are telling me that you are throwing away what we have, that you are throwing away four years together? And for what exactly? For a woman you have known for five minutes?" Tears were running down her cheeks at this point.
"Maddie I... I don't know... All I know is that everything has changed the minute I met her. You will always be in my heart but I can not marry you without being honest to you and myself. It wouldn't be fair."
"It wouldn't be fair? Fair on whom Harry? Fair on whom?"
"I know you may never believe this but the very last thing I have ever wanted and will ever want is for you to get hurt." His eyes had watered up by now too. "I am sorry." His last words were merely whisper.
"You break my heart, set my entire world on fire and you honestly expect that you saying sorry will make everything magically okay again?"
"No fo course not I... I..."
His phone interrupted him trying to explain.
"Yes?"
Maddie used the break to turn away from him facing the garden. The garden of their home. Their safe haven away from everybody.
"No, please cancel that. Yes, thank you."
Putting his phone away Harry realised that Maddie had stepped away from him.
"Maddie, please is there anything I can do?"
"No, just leave."
"Maddie... Please..."
"Please. Just go."
Harry thought about saying something else reaching out to her.
"You said you never wanted to hurt me? Then please respect me enough to leave now."
"I have never meant for this happen." Harry lowered his head. He was torn between not wanting to leave her alone but also not being able to look at her. His voice was small and soft. As if he knew these were the last words between them.
"Please, Harry. Just go." Now Maddie's voice was merely a whisper. She didn't know what to do next at this point.
She felt her world collapsing with her just being a tourist on the side of it. Without anything in her power to stop it.
Harry finally made his way back inside their cottage to gather a few things before leaving again for Clarence House.
Opening the front door he nearly ran into Kate.
'I am so sorry but did I leave me phone lying around here somewhere? I can't seem to find it at our place and..." It took her a second to realise her brother in law was silently crying.
"Oh my god Harry, what's going on?"
"I had to break up with Maddie." Putting his bag to the ground he wiped his hands over his face in the attempt to gain a little control back.
"What? What do you mean you had to break up with Maddie? Your engagement photo call is scheduled this afternoon isn't it?"
"It's no longer. I asked dad to cancel it. I can not marry her."
"Why? You two are perfect for each other."
"I have met someone new. Someone who has turned my whole world upside down. It wouldn't have been fair to Maddie to marry her under these circumstances."
"When was all of this? When did you meet this someone who made you rearrange your whole life in the blink of an eye?" Kate's voice seemed upset but not angry. If anything she was very confused about how things had changed in the few minutes since she had left the two alone.
"Yesterday..."
"Yesterday?" Kate let out a sigh. "My dear Harry you are telling me that you have left the love of your life, your seemingly perfect match for someone you have just met yesterday?"
"Please Kate, I feel bad enough as it is. I really can't stand any lectures right now."
"Harry the very last thing I want to do is lecturing you. You are my brother and I love you but I am trying to understand what is going on here."
"Well good luck with that, I have been trying to figure that out every bloody second since last night. I... I am sorry, I didn't mean to snap." Harry grabbed his bag and turned away from her to head to the car.
"Harry..." Kate stopped him grabbing his hand and pulling him in for a hug. "You are not alone."
"Thank you." He pulled out of the hug to finally get away while Kate turned to head inside the cottage.
"Kate?"
"Yes?"
"Can you look after her, please? I know you two are close and she won't accept any help from me. But I think she needs it. She needs someone to be there for her."
Kate gave him a simple nod, a gesture that meant so much to him at this point. Knowing Maddie wouldn't be alone right now gave him at least a little comfort.
As the car left the grounds of their cottage he felt like he could breathe properly for the first time that day.
He went through his pockets looking for his phone to send a text.
-How does dinner sound to you?-
The answer got to him before the car turned at the next corner.
-Your place or mine?-