Crowns & Chaos

eight

As soon as I got home, my mom was in my face, waving her phone like it was a flag. 

"Evie, your interview is up!"

I shrugged off my jacket and put my umbrella away. 

"Wow, that was really fast."

My mom scanned the comments.

"People are being really nice. I'm gonna call dad and tell him!"

She rushed off excitedly. I couldn't help but laugh at her antics. I pulled out my own phone and pulled up Lisa's video on her channel. It already had a couple hundred thousand views, which didn't totally surprise me because Lisa had over seven million subscribers. 

I scrolled down to the comments. 

jess98: Wow she's gorgeous!

catsarelife: This is some princess diaries type shit lol

blueivy: Oooooh I wonder if she'll ever meet Prince Peter?

Carakent: Does anyone know what the earl of Pembroke actually does?

Most of the comments were of a similar vein. People being very nice about my answers, asking where I got my sweater, speculating about different things. I scrolled down a little further, only for my eyes to stop on one comment. 

pink99810: I think her dad used to be an accountant lol, what a joke. 

My heart sank a little. At least most people were supportive, but I wondered if a lot of people felt like this. 

fluffyboi1990: None of them know anything about the politics here. I wouldn't be surprised if they get chased out of Wiltshire.

thekoolaidman: Ikr, she's stupid if she thinks people actually like her, let alone care what she has to say.

marilyn885: Omg I love her accent its hilarious

frederictaar: A bunch of fucking Canadians in the nobility? No ones gonna take them seriously.

I slowly put my phone down, not having the heart to read further. There seemed to be a pretty even split amongst people who seemed to think I was a new influencer, people who hated my family's guts for coming here, and people who quite frankly, couldn't be bothered by any of it. 

"Hey, mom?"

"Yeah?"

"Did you show dad the video?"

"Yes, but I managed to turn the comments off accidentally, so neither of us can read those nice things people were saying!"

"That's alright mom, don't worry about it. They weren't important!"

"Okay!"

I sighed, sinking into the worn couch. Adriana had sent me a couple texts, thanking me for talking about her in the interview, but I didn't have the energy to respond to them right now. Today had been a weird day. 

My mind was also still reeling from my impromptu meeting with the prince. I was having a hard time actually convincing myself that that had really happened and wasn't some elaborate fever dream. 

I blushed, realizing what a mess I must have looked like. My hair got chronically frizzy and curly in the humidity, and I'd been walking in the rain for a while when I ran into him. And he had looked, I mean wow. Basically a Disney prince come to life, with black hair and strong cheekbones and crazy eyes that looked like they were changing colour.

I rubbed my eyes with the heels of my hands until I saw spots. 

"Ugh."

I realized with a jolt that I hadn't warned my parents about a potential meeting with the King and Queen, which was still an insane concept, but I jumped to my feet.

"Hey Mom, can you come here for a minute?"

She waltzed down the stairs, looking very refined except for the grease stain on her t-shirt. 

"What's up? I'm just talking to Muriel about a meeting next week."

Muriel was the Pembrokes connection to a children's foundation that raised money against homelessness for kids and provided resources for minority children and kids part of the LGBTQ community. Muriel was a stout, blonde, powerhouse of a woman who was ready to fight anyone at any time with her bare hands. 

I loved her, she was hilarious. 

"Okay that's great, um speaking of meetings... I actually met Prince Peter today."

My mom froze.  

"Hahaha, very funny Evie."

I wrung my hands together.

"No, I actually did. I ran into him when I was walking home from the studio and he recognized me and said he wanted to have a formal meeting with you guys and his parents."

She looked shell-shocked. 

"His parents, as in King Edward and Queen Isabelle his parents?!"

"Uh... Yeah, those would be the ones."

"Holy shit Evangeline! I don't even know... hang on," she said, picking up her phone, "Muriel, I'm gonna have to call you back. Okay. Thanks."

"Please don't freak out. He said he would have someone contact Theodore, but honestly, we probably don't even have to worry about it! He probably realized that we're still figuring stuff out but that they can have someone lower down meet with us!"

My mom pinched the bridge of her nose. She opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, my phone buzzed. I pulled it out of my pocket to see an incoming call from Theodore. I put the phone on speaker before answering.  

"Hello?"

"Google your name right now. Do it."

My mom tapped away at her phone. She handed it to me. 

"What do you see?"

I looked at the screen.

"There's a link to the interview-"

"Above that."

I found the headline and read it out loud. 

"Prince Peter spotted with Lady Evangeline Windham outside Hyde Park today. Is there a new royal power couple on the rise?"

Underneath it were some pictures that someone had clearly taken from across the road. One of him holding my arm, one of us laughing, the umbrella... Oh no.

My mom gasped and snatched her phone back to read the article. 

"How... I just ran into him like an hour ago! Theodore??"

"I've actually just received notice that the King and Queen want to set up a formal meeting for tomorrow night. I'm sure they've also seen this article."

I looked from my mom's wide eyes to the phone. 

"Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?"

"I guess we'll go to the meeting and find out."

I gulped as Theodore ended the call. My mom was already on the phone with my dad, who was gonna have to come home from Wiltshire tonight. This just got interesting.