Close to the Crown (On hold until 2021)

Chapter Nine (REWRITTEN AND EDITED)

A/N:

THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN REWRITTEN AND EDITED. This new version is completely different from the original, so I advise that you re-read every chapter marked 'rewritten and edited' as much of the story has changed.

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The meal was wonderful- the duck was cooked to perfection, and the white chocolate and raspberry pavlova was divine. I had been placed at a table with Jamie, William, Adelaide, their cousins and my cousins, Eric and Charles, or Charlie as he preferred. Although Elizabeth had initially wanted William and I to sit on a table with our parents, the King suggested that perhaps we would prefer to sit with people our age. Luckily, she had listened to him.

Harriet was miserable, as Finn had been sat on a table on the opposite side of the room, with his father and the man we had seen him with before, along with five other people I didn't recognise. The conversation at our table was light and easy, all of us having known each other for years. While Charlie and Eric weren't around much, when they were, we would try to spend time together. We were cousins after all, with their father being the younger brother of my father.

"So we leave in a few weeks," Oliver finished explaining about his military service.

It was seen as a traditional for male royals, before they were married, to complete a minimum of 6 months military service, as a way to pay back the public for their support. Blake had completed his service just over a year before, and Charlie, while he was not a royal, did service of his own three years before.

Charlie was the eldest of everyone sat at the table, and at 24, had completed his military service at the ages of 20 and 21. He was tall, at just over 6 feet and was fairly well built, but the look suited him. He had relatively short dark brown hair, that he often gelled at the front to keep it tidy. His eyes were a dark forest green, as was the Thorne trait, and his skin a slightly tanned brown, as he had spent the last six months living in South Africa, with his father.

Eric, on the other hand was just a year older than me, at 21 and was a good three inches shorter than his older brother, at 5 foot 10 inches. He too was well built, but had a much smaller frame than his brother. He had slightly lighter hair than Charlie, and while it was still a dark brown, in the summer it turned to a lighter brown. His eyes too were the Thorne forest green, as was everyone else's in the family, besides Steven's. Eric lived in Kent, not too far from London, but preferred to keep to himself than get involved in public affairs.

"And how long are you doing it for?" Charlie asked, sitting across the table from Oliver, a few seats to my left.

"I'm doing a total of nine months, for the time being anyway," Oliver explained. "We leave at the end of the month, and I'll be gone for five months until early July. I'll be back for three weeks for the wedding, before going back at the end of the month."

"So you'll be home in November?" Eric asked, sitting directly to my left.

Oliver nodded, "Well, that's the plan. I'll see how it goes, but I'm thinking that I might do some extra time within the next few years. I enjoyed my training, so who knows? Maybe I'll be making a career out of it."

Blake laughed, "I too enjoyed the training, brother. But training is totally different from the real thing. I've done my time, and I wouldn't want to go back."

Sitting up straight, Charlie gave Oliver a reassuring grin, "If that is what you want to do, then I think you should go for it. It's a great career, and if it wasn't for-- well, you know... I would probably in the army myself right now."

We all gave Charlie a painful look, remembering the painful events of two years ago that had broken the young man's world. Looking at him, you wouldn't have guessed that he lost the love of his life at just 22 years of age. Caroline was a wonderful girl from a good respectable family, and was just three weeks from turning 22 when she passed away. She was not even ill when she died; she didn't die from an illness. It was a late Thursday evening, when Caroline was stuck by a car as she was driving down a motorway, on her way back to London from her family home in Berkshire. She was pronounced dead at the scene, nobody was given the chance to say goodbye. Charlie became half the man we once was, but over the last two years had built himself back up, and he was almost back to his usual self.