Love Blinds

The silence was deafening.
Natalie and David were sitting in the living room on the white leather sofa’s while Beatrice was slumped over in the arm chair, none of them speaking. The only break in the silence was the odd high pitched scream from upstairs. Finally, with only a few minutes until 9am, when they really must leave, Beatrice sighed and stood up.
“I’ll go and see what’s happening.” With that she stalked out of the room, eyeing Natalie as she went.
David and Natalie looked side on at each other and after a few moments, burst out laughing. They were laughing so much that when they finally stopped, David was wiping tears from his eyes.
“Ahh, I don’t think I’ve laughed that much for ages. I think we’re gonna get on just fine Nat. Hey, do you mind if I call you that?”
Natalie finished laughing as well.
“No, that’s fine. I don’t think anyone’s ever bothered to give me a nickname, at least a nice one.” She smiled at him. David gave her a wink.
“Well, don’t worry little sis. We’ll look after each other.” He put his arm round Natalie’s shoulders and squeeze her hard into his side, making her wheeze from the pressure. She playfully hit him over the head as Beatrice re-entered the room.
“Good to see you guys getting on,” she sneered at them.
“So,” asked David, “what’s going on up there?”
“Dad’s pissed, literally and flinging bottles as Arlene. They’re fighting about the wedding, but I don’t think they’re coming any time soon.”
“Right.” I stood up and addressed them both. “We have two options. The first: We all wait for them and all be late or, one of us waits for them and the other 2 go ahead to London and make some excuse.”
“Sounds like a plan Nat… but who’s staying?” David looked round the room, first at Nat, and then at Beatrice.
“Well, it makes sense for you guys to go as David and I fight and you and I fight so..” Beatrice surprised them both by being level headed and thinking the situation through.
“Thanks Beats. Okay, see if you can drag them out any time soon and you’ll have to drive. See if you can get them to be reasonably presentable, hey.” He slapped her on the arm in a brotherly manor. “We’ll take Natalie’s Focus. See you later Beats.” David grabbed Natalie’s arm and lead her out of the back door to her Ford Focus.

Natalie cleared her papers from the passenger seat so that David could sit down and dug her keys out of her bag.
“You know what. This seems a little fishy. Beatrice is being too nice.” David said Natalie’s thoughts out loud in one go.
“I guess we’ll find out soon enough.” Natalie reversed round the house, turned, and headed for the M4 to get to London. David and Natalie sat surrounded by their own thoughts for a few minutes in complete silence. Natalie sighed.
“Well! I’m not putting up with much more of this! Ipod?”
David smiled and nodded. “Thanks, I don’t know how much more silence I can take today.”
Natalie passed it to him to plug in and they took turns to choose songs. They went through the whole My Chemical Romance collection and then went onto Queen and a bit of Glee. Natalie loved the harmonies the group managed to make and really liked the way that they re-did old classics.

Half way through Glee’s take on ‘Somebody to Love’ they pulled up behind Buckingham palace at 1:50 pm after a lucky break on the M4 when there wasn’t much traffic so they could rocket along. Natalie and David looked VERY out of place in the Ford Focus as they were let in through the back gates of Buckingham palace, however, as they parked and got out of the car, the realised something was wrong. There was nobody here yet except some parking attendants walking about, people were still setting up the marquees outside and there was no sign of the other guests. A man in a yellow vest came up to them.
“Um… excuse me folks, but I think you’re early.”
“How come? When does it start?”
He looked her up and down in her garden party style dress.
“Well, for starters, it’s an evening dinner, not a garden party, and it starts at about 6pm.”
David gave Natalie a look and then his face creased into almost anger.
“I’m sorry Nat, I think we’ve been stitched up.” He looked at the yellow-vested man. “Could you tell us where we could possibly go for the next four hours.”
“Yes of course lad, what’s your name please.”
“David, David Wilkinson.” The man’s face stayed without expression. David sighed. “The son of the Duke of Cornwall.” The man’s face then lit up and his manor changed dramatically.
“Oh, I’m so sorry your grace. I didn’t know your title. And the lady?”
“The, to be, daughter of the Duke of Cornwall.”
“Well, in that case, I shall show you to the palace. We can’t have your graces out here for 4 hours.”
The man showed them to the palace doors and handed them over to a footman. They thanked the man in the yellow vest, who that had ascertained was called Bob, and followed the footman, Jim, into the palace itself. David opened his arm so that she could fit her hand onto his arm as they followed Jim through the corridors and into a very well decorated room with extremely high roofs. He asked them to wait while he fetched someone to meet them. Natalie took a place on the large settee and David sitting next to her, they took in their surroundings.

After about 5 minutes, the door creaked open and in stepped the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Natalie immediately jumped up and curtseyed as low as she could without falling over, while David bowed very low indeed.
“Please please friends, no need. Please sit down.” William said this as he walked over to the settee and gestured for them both to sit down, with Kate sitting next to him.
“Now,” he continued. “What brings you here so early?”
Natalie nodded at David to tell the story.
“Well, our parents are not exactly…um…fond of either of us. We suspect that they faked a fight in order to send us off here on our own and be…well…humiliated I guess.”
“Well, that doesn’t sound very much like the happy family that Michael and Arlene are so keen to show they have, does it dear?” Kate piped up now, turning to William.
“Well, neither of us have ever been the favourites for some reason your grace.” Natalie said what David hadn’t but they had both been thinking.
“Please, call us Will and Kate. We hate the titles.” This came from William and Kate nodded her head in agreement. Kate just put a little bit in.
“But don’t tell anyone else, lets make your parents sweat when they realise that their plan back fired and you’re now friends with the royal family.” Kate smiled and Natalie gave a little giggle.
“Well,” Will announced. “Who’s up for a game of pool. Ladies verses gents I think.”
“Oh Will, you’re on!” Natalie stood up and David just held her back for a moment.
“Won’t the rest of the royals mind?”
“Who, Grandma? Don’t worry, she’s been dying to meet you Natalie and they would be thrilled to know you’re hanging about with us.” Will smiled at them both.
Kate grabbed Natalie’s hand and tugged her towards the door. Natalie looked at David.
“Um, Kate, Will.” They both looked at her. “Um, I guess you’d best call me Nat.”
Will smiled at her and David.
“You know, I think we are going to get along just fine.”