"Dad please, let me come!"
Victoria sighed, letting out a moan in disappointment, carefully following every step made by her father while reaching for things around the house. He was getting ready for an emergency meeting requested by his brother with their father and grandmother; though the reason hadn't been explained clearly, he already knew what it meant. They all did. And William was furious.
"I said no, Victoria." He replied firm. He wasn't used at calling his daughter by her full name but he was in a hurry, and his mind already elsewhere.
"I'm the future of the monarchy," Victoria wasn't intentioned in letting her dad win at all. "You need to bring me with you."
Deep down, the young Princess was livid as well. By bits of dialogues she had heen able to hear from her parents and putting pieces together she, too, knew what the discussion would be about, and she didn't like it at all. She was sad and disappointed, as she felt her uncle had betrayed her once again. But she didn't want her parents to see it. And she wanted to attend the meeting. She desperately wanted to.
"Victoria I love you so much but please shut up for a moment and keep quiet," suddenly, William stopped and turned, finding his daughter just a couple steps behind him. Victoria, surprised, just did as she was told and the Prince closed his eyes taking a deep breath. He covered his eyes with his hand and kept silent for a few seconds, then nodded. He didn't want to argue, nor to come back home to his angry and sad daughter to give her more sad news. "Listen-" he said. "You can come BUT I have conditions for that."
Victoria's eyes widened and she began nodding repeatedly. "Yes, yes- Anything! I'm ready I swear-"
"Listen before you agree." William said. "You won't be allowed in the room. You wait outside and I tell you everything later."
"But dad-" Victoria tried to reply, but William shushed her again.
"These are my conditions. Take it or leave."
Two seconds pondering the options and Victoria was nodding. "Yeah. Yeah okay."
"Great," William nodded grabbing a coat and throwing a scarf over his shoulders. "Hurry up, we've got to go."
The Princess trotted downstairs following her father, her mind already far away thinking how her life would be from then on. Harry had been in her life since she was born and she couldn't imagine not having him living right next door, dropping by every now and then at most weird times, right before bedtime or completely randomly during the afternoon after she had just gotten home from school.
It was her uncle, but it felt like she was losing her best friend.
When they left the house, in that foggy afternoon of January 4th, 2020, Victoria knew her whole world was about to change. But she had no idea that somewhere else, far, far away from London, on the other side of the world, something else was already working and within months her world wouldn't be the only one being changed forever.
***
When the car pulled over on the grounds of Sandringham, Prince William stormed outside, barely acknowleding the guards who just welcomed him and his daughter. He hurried inside the building, his steps sounding heavy on the old carpets that covered the floor. He walked past the hall and towards the stairs, with Victoria trotting behind him.
He was walking so quickly the Princess almost had troubles keeping up with him, and as they climbed upstairs she could only see his back, at least ten stairs ahead of her.
The Palace was strangely silent, and not many people were around. Victoria could only hypothesize it was because of the nature of the meeting they were going to attend. Well, that her father was going to attend.
"What's she doing here?"
Before Victoria could even realize, she heard a very familiar voice, incredibly more serious than usual. She raised her head to find herself few steps away from her uncle, whom her father was already facing.
"Good morning to you as well, Harry." William replied serious, watching Victoria climb the last few stairs and going to stand next to him. "It's nice to see you again."
In the lowest voice, Victoria greeted him too. "Hi, uncle."
"I asked, why is she here? Grandma doesn't want her to take part in the meeting for sure." The youngest of the brothers kept glancing at his brother and niece, looking unsure, without a smile and not even properly greeting any of them.
"It's certainly not up to you to decide what's best for my daughter, Harry." William replied, protectively placing an hand on her back. "Where's Grandma?"
"I already spoke to her." Harry said.
"About? And that's not an answer."
"Almost sounds like it's none of your business, William."
Victoria silently watched the exchange of words between her father and uncle, feeling the slight grip of his father's hand on her side slowly tightening.
"Harry," William almost whispered, trying to hide the pain in his voice.
"What?" Was the other's reply.
The two stared at eachother for a few short seconds, which felt like an eternity. Then Harry's phone rang loudly, amplified by the absolutely empty space they were in. He grabbed it from his pocket and checked it.
"It's Meghan." He said, and walked away.
Father and daughter waited a few more seconds, then William slowly turned to Victoria.
"Are you okay?" He asked, kissing her on the top of her head.
The Princess nodded, wrapping her arm around her father's back and pulling him into an half hug.
"Sure," she smiled slightly. "I'm good."
She definitely wasn't, but she knew her father was feeling the exact same way. They both knew.
"While uncle Harry, Grandma and I talk, why don't you go say hi to Great-Grandpa?"
"'Cause Great-Grandpa's here."
William and Victoria turned hearing a voice, seeing Prince Philip slowly climbing the stairs.
"GreatPa," the Princess hurried towards him, smiling, but also quite concerned. "Let me help you," she offered him her arm.
"Thank you young lady," Philip replied, smirking, wrapping his fingers around her arm. "A lil bird told me you joined your father for the meeting and I thought you might have wanted company, uh?" He turned to his great-grandfather.
"That's kind of you, Grandpa," William said as he and Victoria helped the Prince sitting down.
"I know," the Duke of Edinburgh simply replied, causing the other two to giggle. "Now, where's the other one? I thought he already had a chat with Lilibet earlier today."
"Uncle Harry's on the phone," Victoria replied. "I think he will be back soon though."
In a couple of minutes, indeed, Harry walked back into the room, and it looked even angrier than before.
"Oh. Hi Grandpa." He stared at his grandfather for a split second. "How are you?"
"Certainly better than you, Harry." Was his sharp reply.
"Meghan and I are the happiest, Grandpa." Feeling attacked, he took a step behind.
"Yeah but nobody mentioned your wife." Once again, Philip raised his eyebrow showing something between slight amusement and deep concern. Helping himself by grabbing the chair's arm and her great-granddaughter's hand he stood back up and patted his grandson's shoulder. "Well it was nice while it lasted. I guess it's the last time we see uh?"
All three turned to him, concerned and not a bit amused. At least not even one percent of how amused the Duke looked.
"GreatPa why- No!" Victoria tried to smile, she knew too well the Prince's dark humor and she knew he was just messing around but he was finding it less funny every day that went by.
"Well if they're going to the USA I hope I'll be already dead when they come back."
"Grandpa." Harry just said, sighting.
"Even if you come back in six months time, I really hope I won't make it to then. Whenever it happens, it'll never be early enough."
On that note, gave a nod and walked back towards the stairs.
"Are you coming, young lady?" He turned back to Victoria, who immediately walked to him and once again offered her hand for the stairs. "Dad, let me know when you're done. Bye uncle, see you later."
"Sure Vic," William nodded and smiled, while Harry stayed still.
"I'll leave immediately when we're done. Meghan needs me. Bye, Victoria." He said. With the tiniest smile Victoria had ever seen on his face, he turned back as the door opened and the brothers were invited inside.
Something inside of her broke again as she watched them both walking inside. Philip waited patiently for a few seconds, then shook his head and proceeded to keep walking downstairs.
"Don't mind him, Victoria." He said. "He was a funny lad once, now he's only stupid." After a couple more steps, he added. "That's why we don't marry actresses. Ugh."
***
Author's note
SORRY it took me so long! I have a chapter almost ready after this one, so you could expect another chapter not very soon but hopefully sooner that what I took me last time!
I hope everyone of you is safe!
Have a great day and week, bye!