Black Sheep

Days flew into weeks and soon Christmas had come and gone. I spent Christmas afternoon having to be on my guard.
“So have you got yourself a fella yet? Your cousin Emily is married, and she’s a lot younger than you.” My auntie Pamela said on Christmas evening when we were all sat talking.
“I have a boyfriend.”
“well, what’s he called then?”
“He’s called Harry.” I said, almost giggling to myself.
“And what does he do?” This question caught me off guard. I could hardly say he’s the third in line to the throne to the most indiscreet woman in Britain, if not the whole of the EU.
“He’s in the army.”
“A man in uniform. You’ve done well for yourself there.” My six year old god-daughter, Poppy, came and sat on my knee to join in the conversation.
“So what part of the army is he in, because one of my friend’s daddies is in the army and she said that he just shoots guns a lot?”
“Harry flies planes,” I started, taking a sip of my wine.
“ooh a pilot, you definitely have done well for yourself.” My aunties cooed. Poppy’s baby sister was passed to me, as she was passed around the room. I looked down at the baby in my arms and smiled, she hardly knew about the world. What would I give to be that naïve and innocent again.
“So will you be getting engaged anytime soon? Because I need another hat.” My grandma piped up from her nap in the corner. My granddad shaking his head and tutting at her.
“I don’t think so grandma.” I smiled. Poppy jumped from my knee to go and play with her new toys and the baby in my arms stopped wiggling and started cuddling in to me. ‘one day’ I thought.
“I guess someone wants to go to sleep,” my cousin commented.
“Who, Becca or the baby?” my brother commented.
“It’s fine, I’ll take her up.” I said standing up and heading upstairs. I found the baby’s room and sat in the rocking horse, baby on my knee. ‘I think I could do this; the whole babies and Stepford wives thing.’
“Hi there baby.” I smiled down at the baby, who quietly gargled and stared up at me with blue eyes, I gently stroked thefew soft blond curls on the top of her head, both of which we had inherited . “I’m your auntie Becca and it’s Christmas day. Santa Clause came last night and left everyone lots of lovely presents,” her hand tightened around my finger, “and we all had a lovely Christmas dinner, and now your grandma has had a bit too much to drink. But there’s someone missing, my lovely Harry who is away fighting all the bad guys, but when he comes home everyone will start calling him Prince Harry because his mummy married another Prince called Prince Charles,” The door slight opened where my mum stood.
“I was just wondering what was keeping you.” She said quietly as she stepped in the room.
“How much did you hear?”
“All of it. But don’t worry, it’s just me here.” She came and sat on the chair opposite me.
“I meant to tell you before, but-”
“I understand fully, this is a big thing darling.” We both sat in silence for a while, looking in the baby that was slowly drifting off. “We, your father and I, we’re so proud of you. Nobody would ever have thought that you would be writing for a big newspaper and living the life in London, never mind having a Prince as part of that life. When you first moved down to London I was scared I would lose you, and that you would lose the person you are, and, for a while, we did lose you. The partying, the drugs, the debauchery, we lost you. But now you’re you again. You’re the kind, caring, clever girl that you always have been, and I can only thank Harry for making you, you again.”
“Thanks mum. I think little’n is out for the count.” We both looked down at the sleeping baby, her hand wrapped around my thumb.
“Do you ever think you’ll ever have kids, I would love your grandparents to see you have children?”
“One day mum. Definitely one day. Actually can you take a photo, I don’t have any photos with her yet.” My mum nodded and took out her phone to take a picture of me looking down at baby Emily.
“You should visit more. So much happens so quickly nowadays. It’s your cousin’s wedding soon and your grandparent’s wedding anniversary coming up. We’d love you to be here.”
“I’ll definitely try and come, I feel like I’ve missed so much already.” I stood up to put the baby down in the cot.
“We’ve all missed you, even your brother.”
“I’ve missed you all too.”

*****
I returned to work after Christmas and started counting down the days to Harry’s return. I was still living with Will and Kate, who had cut down their royal duties until Kate was well enough, which meant that we spent a lot of time together when I finished work. I filled Kate in on my day and she told me about what she was up to, which usually consisted of TV and walks around the gardens with Lupo if she felt well enough. Harry’s phone calls carried on, almost nightly, but I still didn’t have the heart to tell him about Steven. I decided I would let him know as soon as he got home. I carried on with work and once again moved jobs to a management position, which was in some ways a deputy, deputy editor. I called my mum at least three times a week. She always kept chat about Kate and Will to a minimum, but usually I found myself telling her about what we were up to, to which she reacted as if they were friends I’d had for years, which is what it felt like.