To Wed a Princess

When Eloise travelled, she travelled extensively. She spent the longest amount of time in Florence as that was before she decided the best way to forget her troubles was to skip from city to city, country to country to a point where she had no time to think even if she wanted to. After two weeks in Florence, she began her travels. She flitted from Florence to Venice, to Milan, to Paris, to Barcelona and continued throughout Europe. Once in a city she did everything there was to do there whilst accepting most invitations she received to different events, photoshoots or interviews. She only stayed in one place for five days at most before heading off to a new city.

Part of her loved it. A lot of the time she was never truly happy unless occupied – a lazy day once in a while was pleasant, but three in a row was enough to drive her mad. Two and a half months after the events of Charlotte's party, she sat on the balcony of her penthouse suite, looking out over the ocean and enjoying the last few rays of sunlight. She leaned back in her chair and sighed, thinking back on her conversation with Rafael.

They sat in her London penthouse, still in their party clothes although Eloise had excused herself to remove her make-up before they had settled down onto one of her sofas. He lounged back, cigar in hand, as she laid horizontally across the sofa, head in his lap.

“This guy is a piece of work, princesita,” Rafael murmured, running his free hand over his face “The boss's right hand man, for that matter. I dunno what you've done to get their attention but I'm worried.”

“I haven't done anything,” she spoke adamantly, feeling her blood run cold “I assumed he was just some other prat wanting to feel special by hanging around the upper classes....What could they want with me? If they want power they need the government, not the Royal family!”

“Political power means nothing if you don't have social power,” he sighed “I don't doubt they've got someone with a hand on the Prime Minister at this point, either...that or they're working on it. It makes sense, though. Britain loves you so they'd love any guy you date. It'd be easy for them to go for any kind of celebrity, but since you're royal it sends a different kind of message to those who know who they are.”

“Popularity is fickle,” she wrinkled her nose “If three or four magazines made articles at the same time declaring me a whore, by the end of the month everybody would agree.”

“You have too little faith in people...and a fucked up view of how people see you.”

“Rafael Cardona is telling me that I don't have enough faith in people,” she gave a light laugh, crossing one leg over the other “Now I know I'm a truly pessimistic sod.”

He gave a quiet, lower laugh at that before they settled into a comfortable silence.

“...What should I do?” she asked eventually “You know these kind of men better than me.”

“Is that code for 'You're one of those men', cariño?” he teased.

“Yes,” she replied simply “You've had more dealings with them. What would you advise?”

“They can't know you know,” was his instant response before he gave her a more carefully thought out answer “Find out what they want and why they want it. Don't piss off Haner, but don't act too differently – don't give him any reason to suspect. Tread lightly.”

“I'm going to stay out of the country for a while,” she spoke decidedly “Anywhere but the USA, of course, I don't want to walk right into his territory...Europe, perhaps Asia...maybe somewhere tropical for a while...He said he'll be in England for the foreseeable future, but perhaps if I stay away they'll have some sort of back-up plan for...whatever it is they want me for. What will you do?”

“Hate to break it to you, mi tesoro, but I won't fight them. That'd be suicide.”

“I don't blame you, guapo...Not at all.”

It was there that their conversation had strayed from Brian Haner and his formidable allies. Eloise snorted to herself. For people with such a fearsome reputation, they had stupid names. Synyster Gates? Was that meant to strike fear into the hearts of his enemies? It sounded like a stage name.

“All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players,” she quoted to herself with a sigh.

She'd been terrified for her first few days away – constantly looking back over her shoulder, convinced he would be there with that stupid smirk on his face. After three or four days, however, she realised it was pointless. It was impossible for a Princess to disappear. Eventually she'd have to return to England and they both knew it. Upping her security or showing any kind of paranoia would let him know she knew. She could do nothing. So she resolved to do just that and keep herself productive to stave off any worrying. All she let herself think about at that point was where she'd go next. She was considering Tokyo. Her musings were interrupted by her phone ringing.

“Hello?” she answered, grimacing slightly when she saw it was Charlotte.

“Hey, El! How are you?”

“Fine, thanks, you?” she put her feet up and listened carefully for Brian in the background, trying to tell if he was there or not.

“I'm great! I just need to know when you're coming back. We really need to catch up, see, and I need some opinions on the wedding and you've been away for so long...we need to have lunch. Plus-.”

“I'm in Finland,” she murmured, knowing that if she left Charlotte to ramble, she'd be sitting there for hours.

“Well you need to hurry up and come back!” she sighed impatiently “Plus, Brian wants to see you.”

She sing-songed the last part and Eloise frowned.

“Oh, he's said that, has he?” she asked sceptically.

“Well, not in so many words,” she could practically hear Charlotte roll her eyes “But I can tell!”

“I've met the man three times, Charlotte. Introduce him to, I don't know, Julia or Eva or somebody.”

“Julia's a whore and Eva's fat.”

Even Eloise flinched at Charlotte's harsh words, half wondering what Charlotte would say about her if she didn't have Royal status.

“Well then he'll love Julia then,” she muttered.

“You're so mean about him, El! You looked so cute dancing together at my party!”

“I was trying not to vomit,” she lied bluntly.

“Of course, then you sprinted off with Cardona.”

“Be careful, Charlotte,” Eloise snapped.

“Richard told me to tell you that Cardona's been asking after you,” Charlotte mumbled grudgingly, sullen at the fact that Eloise had snapped at her.

“What? When? Why?”

“I don't know. A few days ago? I don't see why he constantly has to follow you around, always dressed like some kind of drug dealer.”

Eloise held back a laugh. If only she knew. Pushing away the temptation to correct Charlotte and say “drug lord”, she sighed.

“Rafael shows up when invited. Mr Haner, however, is the one who seems to be following me.”

“When are you coming back?” Charlotte was clearly tired of the subject.

“...Soon,” Eloise made a split second decision “I need to see my family, anyways.”

“So we can have lunch on Friday?”

“Just us?”

“Yes!”

“Then yes, we can have lunch on Friday,” Eloise agreed before hanging up, mind already reeling on how she was going to deal with Synyster Gates when she got back.