Not Just Any Royal Pain

Chapter Eight
Work My Magic

Harry got me back at Mrs. Marshall’s place around nine-thirty. He cut off the engine to his motorcycle and walked me up to the door. I was slowly following behind him, not knowing the type of reaction I would get from Mrs. Marshall or from Bailey. Harry was supposed to get me home before dinner, but he wound up showing me more of the city. It was a lot of fun, but for some reason we couldn’t stay in one place for too long. We would just arrive at some building or whatever it happened to be, then ten minutes would pass and Harry would have me back on his bike.

“You better take the blame for this.” I told Harry when Nigel opened the door.

“It’s not all my fault.” He retorted.

I mocked him, but stopped when I realized he was standing right in front of me.

“Is that any way to treat your tour guide?” he asked.

“That was a very rushed tour.” I criticized him.

“Had to make sure you saw everything.”

“It’s not like I’m leaving tomorrow!”

“How long are you staying?” he asked, his eyes sparkling.

“Oh no. No more tours from you, Harry.” I told him, my finger poking his chest. “Skirts and motorcycles do not mix well and I would like to spend a little more time at each place I visit.”

Harry grabbed my hand in his, preventing his chest from being poked anymore. “What if I told you I could get you a full tour of Buckingham palace?

I froze and stared at him with, I’m sure, my mouth wide open. I soon recovered. “And how would you be able to swing that?”

“I know some pretty powerful people.” Was all he said before we heard both our names being called.

“Harry! Skye! You missed dinner.” Mrs. Marshall was scolding us. Standing beside her was Bailey, the brunette from last night and another girl who was very pretty. She was holding hands with the brunette.

“Sorry, I ran into Skye this afternoon and thought I would give her a tour of the city and we lost all track of time.” Harry told her. I rolled my eyes.

“We, I think you mean you lost all track of time.” I said.

Mrs. Marshall simply laughed and gestured for us to join the others for some tea in the sitting room. I found myself sitting next to Harry and across from Bailey who kept shooting me questioning looks. I shot her a look telling her I’d explained what happened later.

“So William,” Mrs. Marshall started to say as she placed two sugar cubes in her tea, “Do you and Kate have any planned vacations this summer?”

William! I now had a name.

William shook his head. “At the moment we do not.” He sounded so diplomatic as he spoke. He talked of how he and Kate were thinking of going to Africa, but they weren’t sure. He continued to rattle on and I pretended to look interested.

“He can be such a boring lad sometimes.” Harry leaned in and whispered to me. Bailey shot me another questioning look and I tried to ignore her this time.

I saw Kate place her hand on William’s knees to silence him. “We haven’t completely figured out how we want our summer to go about. Vacation is somewhat on the bottom of the list to think about.”

Mrs. Marshall nodded knowingly. “You two are always so busy these days. I’m just glad you made it to dinner.”

“He could have gone on another hour discussing absolutely nothing.” Harry whispered to me again. I shot him a look, not wanting to get caught in a side conversation.

“So Harry and Skye, how was your afternoon?” Mrs. Marshall asked. She still hadn’t apologized for leaving me behind and I figured she probably wouldn’t mention it at all. “I hope you gave Skye a nice tour of London. You know your way around there pretty well these days.”

I wanted to roll my eyes.

“I only showed her the best.” Harry told Mrs. Marshall, giving her a wicked grin. He was leaving out details and I knew that was why he was smiling so widely. He was secretly laughing at me. Mrs. Marshall seemed to have clapped her hands together and beamed at him. “We went to quite a few places. Apparently, we never stayed long enough. Skye here wanted a more in-depth tour.”

I sourly crossed my arms. “Considering it’s my first time to London, I would like a couple minutes to soak up the image and the beauty and then a couple more minutes to wander around.” I told him in my defense.

“If we did that, we wouldn’t make it through a quarter of the city.”

“I was only asking another five minutes out of the ten you let us stay.”

Mrs. Marshall laughed, while William, Kate and Bailey watched us with amused looks.

“I did promise you I’d give you a full tour of the Buckingham palace, did I not?” Harry reminded me.

“You did what?” William asked, surprise evident in his voice.

“As long as there are no more motorcycle rides.” I told him, ignoring William for the moment.

“I’ll just have to remind you to wear some trousers.”

“Harry, how exactly do you plan on letting Skye get a full and detailed tour of the Palace?” William asked Harry.

“I’ll just work my magic.” Harry shrugged, but his eyes locked on William’s in an intense stare. At first William seemed stunned, then his eyes shone understanding to whatever it was that Harry was trying to communicate to him from the stare.

“When will this be taking place?” William asked.

“I was thinking tomorrow.” Harry stated, and then looked at me. “Of course, as long as the royal guest of honor doesn’t have any other plans.”

I blinked a couple of times before I could answer. I was still stunned that he actually thought he could swing this. I quickly looked over to Bailey then Mrs. Marshall for guidance.

Mrs. Marshall’s lip was in a thin line and I wasn’t sure if that meant she was contemplating whether or not I had to come along and run whatever errands needed attending to. But then she broke out into a smile. “I believe that Miss Skye will be available after brunch tomorrow. Bailey and I have some last minute issues with the party we need to fix. If you’d like, you could join us for brunch.”

I glanced over at Bailey, hoping she wouldn’t be mad at me for leaving her with her grandmother. But when I caught her eye, she was smiling so bright and she seemed to be almost bouncing in her seat with glee.

“Well it’s settled. Tomorrow I shall come for brunch and then Skye and I will be off to a tour of the Buckingham Palace.” Harry beamed.