Not Just Any Royal Pain

Chapter Seven:
The Prince!

“No, never again am I getting on that bike with a skirt on.” I told Harry when he had finally pulled over on a busy street.

“Oh come on love, no harm was done.” He told me, as he took the helmet off my head and placed it next to his.

“No harm was done?” I asked him. “When we were stopped the guy in the car next to us said something about showing everyone a little something-something.” I shuddered at the event.
Harry laughed.

I shot him a glare and he just smiled innocently back at me.

“Are you coming?” Harry asked me as he started walking towards a beautiful stone building. I quickly caught up to Harry and looked around.

“Where are we?” I asked, but I soon saw a sign that read ‘Museum of Garden History.’ I made Harry stop as I read the sign. “You took me to a museum?” I asked. I wasn’t displeased, in fact, I was thrilled. I loved museums, which I know made me sound like a nerd. But honestly, I could spend all day in almost any museum.

“Are you going to read every little sign?” Harry asked me, breaking me out of my thoughts. He hadn’t answered my question because he saw me walk up to the sign.

“It depends.” I told him, sizing him up. I could tell that he and I would either get along really well or not at all. I was hoping it wasn’t the latter.

He studied me for a second before looking behind me and then looking back at me. “Come on, let’s go.” He told me and guided me done a stone path, where a fountain was centered in the courtyard. The grass was a rich green, healthy and well-kept looking. We continued walking, barely saying a
word. I didn’t know what to say in order to start a conversation and I was enjoying the comfortable silence that seemed to pass between us. We only said something to the other if we wanted to point to something that the other might like.

“So you went to school with Bailey?” Harry asked, after a good hour or so without talking.

I looked over at him to see that he was still studying me, but with curiosity this time. “That’s right.”

“Are your parents rich?” he asked, catching me off guard. He seemed to notice. “Sorry, it’s just only a lot of elite people are accepted there unless you’re intelligently genius.”

I smirked.

“Ah, so you are?” he asked as we continued walking.

I couldn’t help but laugh. “No, not particularly, I mean smart enough to gain myself a scholarship.” I stole a sideways glance at the redhead. “My grandmother and great-grandmother went there. They accepted me because I was legacy, not because of my smarts or my status in society.”

“What about your mother?”

“What about her?”

“Didn’t she go to the same college?” he asked.

I shook my head, but then stopped. “Well, I guess technically you could say she did. She was a wild one.” I told him, being vague. I didn’t want to tell this British boy, who seemed to be a big shot in London, that my mom- my parents- were hippies.

“It’s him. It’s the prince, he’s here.” I heard a middle-age woman say.

“I can’t believe he’s here.” Another woman commented.

“You know…” I started telling Harry, “As much as I love London and Great Britain in general, I could never bring myself to learn about today’s monarchy.” I looked over at Harry, who was simply looking around, but my words seemed to have surprised him because his eyes looked directly at me.
“Never?” he breathed.

“Never.” I told him, as I continued to follow him. He had led me off path and I had no idea where he was going, but I followed him anyways.

“Why?” he asked, his forehead creasing.

“I mean, I know small details of them. Not enough that if I ran into one I would know who it was, but to answer your question, I feel like I wanted to give them the privacy that they deserve and didn’t get. Lame, I know.” I said, a slight blush creeping on my face. I’d never told anyone that.

“That’s not lame, I, er, I mean I’m sure they appreciate that.” He told me, this time grabbing a hold of my hand before starting to jog.

“They wouldn’t even know.” I laughed.

“I’m sure that if they did know, they would be glad that someone doesn’t want to know what goes on in their personal life.” Harry said, as he tugged me towards his bike.

“We’re leaving? Already?” I asked him, as he handed me a helmet.

“We’ve got other places to go.” Harry told me as he looked around before placing his helmet on his head and then getting on the bike. Not wanting to get left behind, I climbed on and wrapped my arms around Harry’s waist.

Not much later, Harry parked his bike and I got off as fast as I was capable of.

“Oh come on, this time wasn’t as bad!” Harry smirked.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Says the one who has no idea what was being shown.”

“You are wearing knickers aren’t you?” he asked.

I smacked him on the arm. “Of course I am.”

“Ah, but is it knickers or a thong?” he asked, the corner of his mouth turning up.

“Too bad you’ll never know.” I retorted.

“We’ll see about that.” He challenged me and then took hold of my hand. I would have let go, but now we were in a busier part of the city and I didn’t want to lose him in the mass of people. In fact, at one point it got so bad that I took the hand that Harry wasn’t holding and grabbed his arm, pushing my body against his.

“A little touchy are we?” he asked, laughing.

“Shut it.” I told him. “Where are we going anyways?” I asked.

“We’ve got a bit of a ways to walk, but there’s this amazing restaurant that I want to take you to.” He told me.

“I hope you don’t expect anything to happen after dinner.” I teased.

“I don’t know, you might be throwing yourself at me before we even leave.” He laughed again, his blue eyes turning down to look at me. I made it a point for him to see me roll my eyes at him.

“Fine, you’re missing out then.”

“Oh, you’re missing out all right.” I told him, as we finally made it to the restaurant. There were a bunch of people who were standing outside and looked like they were waiting. Harry walked right in, holding the door open for me and someone was instantly guiding us to a table somewhere in the back.

“You must go here a lot.” I commented as I took a seat on the booth so that I was able to see the whole restaurant.

Harry only nodded to me, signaling that he did. “You might want to eat something light considering who you’re staying with.” Harry told me, as he told the waiter what he wanted to drink.

“What do you mean?” I asked, after I had ordered my drink.

“Well Mrs. Marshall always has big dinners, whether she has guests or not.” Harry told me. “I mean four or five course meals.” Harry told me, trying to get his point across.

“I think I’ll be able to survive.” I told him, as the waiter came back.

“Are you two ready to order or do you still need more time?” he asked, paying more attention to Harry. I went down a list of famous ginger actors, but I couldn’t think of many and Harry didn’t look like any ginger actor I had seen before.

Harry told him whatever it was he wanted and then looked over at me. It was only when he cleared his throat that I realized it was my turn to order. I smiled apologetically at the waiter before I told him I would just take the garden salad.

Soon enough our food came out and Harry and I began eating, barely talking to each other.