Loving Henry

Wednesday, 27 April 2011
Althorp House, Northampton

The next morning, Henry left around eight. He said that he had a lot to do and wouldn’t be able to see me again for the next couple of days.

He promised to be here on Wednesday at one, since he wanted to take me somewhere special, but refused to tell me where.

A couple of minutes after he left, my regular cleaning lady showed up and started busying herself with cleaning my apartment. I decided to get out of her way, so I dressed and went to the supermarket. I walked there and back, enjoying being back in England.

It was good to be home.

On the way, I found myself peering into the windows of jewellery stores, paying particular attention to the engagement rings.

Honestly, I was being silly. Henry and I had only met a handful of weeks ago. We were barely past the kissing stage, never mind getting married.

I’m staring to creep myself out. Could it really be normal to have such strong feelings for someone after knowing them only a month?

I’m afraid to ask Henry, since I don’t want to scare him away with the intensity of my feelings.

On Sunday, I went through my closet, packing away my winter clothes to make room for the summer and on Monday, I had tea with a university friend, Cassandra, and after that we went shopping.

I bought a denim skirt and a funny t-shirt that said “See, this is why we’re friends… I’m brilliant and you recognise it.”

When I told Cassie that I was seeing someone and it was getting rather serious, she grabbed my hand and dragged me into a lingerie store and then proceeded to stuff me into every lacy thing she could get her hands on.

I was too embarrassed to protest and walked out of the store an hour later with a ton of little pink bags draping off my arms.

I’d never even seen so many frilly things in my life.

I really hope that Henry likes it, because Lord knows it was a nightmare acquiring it.

The things we do for men.

~**~

It was thankfully Wednesday and I was getting ready to go with Henry to this mystery place, when I heard his question.

“Hey, did you know that Pathogenic bacteria can cause severe illness?”

I put my comb on the dresser and went in the direction the voice came from. I found Henry sitting in front of my open fridge, with a pile of food around him.

He was intently studying the label on the packaging of a big piece of steak.

“Yes, actually, I did know that.”

He made a confirming noise in the back of his throat and went back to studying the meat.

“How is it that you don’t know that?” I asked.

He put the meat down and picked up the tub of butter, “I’m a prince.”

I sometimes forgot that he didn’t live in the real world with the rest of us.

“What’s freezer burn?” he then asked.

“Freezer burn occurs when temperatures below zero draws moisture out of food that has not been properly wrapped. It causes the food to dry out.”

“How on earth do you know that?” he asked incredulously.

“I took Consumer Studies in school.”

“What kind of a subject is that?”

“Well there’s different variations of the subject – it all depended on which district your school was in – but basically we were taught everything about food. What it consists of and how to produce, package, ship and market it. We also learned a bunch of other toss about consumers and their rights and responsibilities. I hated the subject and the teacher even more. What a bitch.”

He snorted and then went back to studying butter. Absolutely fascinating. Really.

“Are you really that bored that you decided to go through my fridge? Why not watch the telly or something?” I asked.

“I got tired of doing that. You’re taking forever to get finished,” he complained.

“You said to be ready by one. It’s only quarter to. In any case, it’s hardly my fault that you came an hour early.”

“I had nothing else to do and I thought we could get a nice snog in before we go,” he smirked at me and wiggled his eyebrows.

I couldn’t help but laugh. “I just need to put clothes on and then we can go,” I told him.

“Can I watch?”

“Henry! For heaven’s sake, control yourself,” I said with a laugh, before walking back into my bedroom to get dressed.

We took my car to wherever it was that we were going. It took us about an hour and a half an hour to get there.

There, was a beautiful estate with magnificent gardens.

We stopped in front of a manor and got out of the car. Henry grabbed our picnic basket and then we bypassed the manor and went straight for an oval lake with an island in the middle.

Henry explained to me that we were at Althorp House, which has been the home of the Spencer family for five hundred years. His mother had grown up here. The place was absolutely beautiful so I could understand why we were going to have a picnic here.

We were heading towards a memorial shrine and as we saw it, Henry and I stopped our quiet talking.

When we were a couple of feet from it, I asked Henry what we were doing here.

“This is where my mother is buried. I brought you to meet her,” Henry said quietly.

He put the basket down and then spread the blanket under a tree. As we sat down, I crawled into his arms and hugged him close to me.

“I’ve never been here with someone other than my family,” he murmured in my ear.

I took his face into my hands and kissed him softly, pouring as much love into the kiss as I could.

A while later we moved apart and started talking about inconsequential things, slowly eating the food that we brought with us. We lay down on the blanket and simply held each other.

When the sun was starting to set, Henry pulled me into a sitting position and then looked at me seriously.

“Oh no, this is where you tell me that you’re going to kill me, isn’t it?” I asked, trying to break the sombre mood.

Henry laughed and winked at me before getting something out of his pocket.

He took my hand and then dropped something cold and hard into it.

As I examined it, I saw a beautiful silver, diamond and pearl bracelet.

“It was my mother’s,” Henry admitted. “When she died, William and I each got to keep one or two of her things and as you well know, William gave her ring to Kate.”

I looked up at him, understanding what he was trying to tell me.

“We haven’t known each other that long. And I know that a relationship between us is going to be difficult since we’re both so busy and my life is thrust into the limelight. It’ll be hard to keep things private and I know how much you value your privacy… but, I really, really like you, I love spending time with you and I love how you make me feel. I’m so happy all the time, hell, even my grandmother has noticed it. I can’t remember ever having felt this way about someone before. I don’t know what’s going to happen five years down the line and I can’t guarantee anything, but I know that five years from now, I want to be right here with you and I want to feel exactly like I do now. The bracelet isn’t a ring, but it is a promise that I’m serious about being with you,” he looked me straight in the eye as he said all of this and I had silent tears running down my face.

This was absolutely the most beautiful thing that anyone had ever said to me.

I don’t know what I did to deserve a man like Henry, but I thanked my lucky stars that I did. He was perfect. Even with his little imperfections.

He was running his hands through his hair, the cute nervous gesture that I loved so much.

“Henry, this is beautiful and I’m so happy to hear that you feel that way about me. There is nothing I want more than to be with you. I know that it’s going to be hard, but I don’t care about any of it, as long as I have you.”

I threw my hands around his neck and we then proceeded to kiss each other senseless. I had been so uncertain about Henry’s intentions, but now I know exactly where we stood with each other.

He wanted to be with me. He was serious about being with me.

We broke apart and Henry took the bracelet from my hand and fastened it around my wrist.

It looked stunning.

“I have something else for you,” Henry said and then he put an envelope in my hand.

I pulled out an engraved invitation to his brother’s wedding.

“Henry, I-”

“I want you to be my date. As best man, I won’t really be able to spend that much time with you and I’ll be escorting Pippa half the time, but I want to dance with you at my brother’s wedding. I want to introduce you to my family and have them see who is making me so incredibly happy. I know I haven’t given you much time beforehand and you won’t know anyone, so you’ll be alone and honestly, I’m being really selfish, but-” I cut him off.

“Henry, I’d love to go.”

He looked relieved.

~**~

Later that night, as I lay in Henry’s arms, listening to his soft snores, I realised that I had nothing to wear and I almost started crying.

I only had one day to find the perfect outfit with the perfect shoes and the perfect handbag to wear to my boyfriend’s brother’s royal wedding.

A wedding where he wanted to introduce me to his royal family and have me convince them of why I was perfect enough to be dating their Prince.

I was so screwed.