The Royal Heir - Dancing with my eyes closed

A ritual poodle drowning

(No fictional poodles were harmed during the writing of this chapter)

(Some strong language though)

***

The next week goes pretty quickly. Tommy's been really busy – we're now officially past the planning stage of the vineyard development, and into the implementation stage. There's been a load of deliveries of equipment for the winery, which means Tommy's been spending most of his time down at the vineyard site during the day, which is a good five- or ten-minutes' walk from the house. So, I'm not running into him as much, not seeing him at lunchtimes, and then he's working later into the evenings to get everything set up. And while I am a little frustrated by this, I have to keep reminding myself that this is what he's actually here for and I've got to scale back on distracting him from it.

He's usually back at the manor by the time Bella's asleep, so we've made the most of the last few hours of our days together. I've also been able to make the most of any time I get to myself during the day by figuring out where this book is going. I guess I now know what the ending is going to be – the outcome of the vote. It needs to be a happy ending though. Grayson said it had to have a happy ending. So that's it, good dad winning over bad dad. The end. It has to happen. There's no other option. Otherwise there won't be a book at all.

We're needed at Penelope's wedding rehearsal on Friday afternoon, so we have to leave the estate fairly early. As a result, operation 5.30 alarm is activated for the second Friday in a row (and this time Tommy joins me in the shower afterwards, result!) I feel terrible leaving him for a second weekend in a row, but he's still adamant it wouldn't be right for him to come along. He's going to take advantage of the situation and get on with some vineyard work tomorrow. I'm gonna miss him like hell, but at least we'll be home on Sunday.

Hana came back to Valtoria while I was in LA, and now me and Bella (and Mara, who's on mobile heir-protection duties this weekend) are sharing a car to Portavira with her. She's meeting Drake there, he's travelling down with Rick.

Bella's a pretty good traveller, so Hana and I have a good catchup. I tell her all about my trip to LA and the premiere, about the movie itself, about the documentary, about my progress on the book, and I update her on the menagerie and the vineyard. She tells me all about where they've got to with ensuring that Rick wins the vote in what is now, scarily, only six weeks away.

"I feel certain we'll make some progress this weekend," she says. "Barthelemy will be there of course, but so will both Landon and Hakim. If nothing else, we should be able to demonstrate how happy Annabelle is, which will go some way to swaying their votes away from Barthelemy. Madeleine is working hard with Rick to convince them Rick's foreign policy is sound."

"I hope so, Hana," I sigh. "The thought of not seeing Bella every day... it's terrifying. Jen would have hated it." I don't say this to Hana, but I know if she was still alive, she'd have been willing to die to keep Bella with me. And I guess I'd have done the same for her. But Bella needs one of us.

"She would, and I'm sure she's fighting with us right now," Hana says, gazing over at Bella who's finally nodded off for a nap. "Bella belongs with you. We all know it."

"Thanks, Hana," I sigh. "You know, I was thinking to myself the other day, I didn't know how good things were for me right now until all this happened."

Hana looks curiously at me. "You do seem as if you are in a good place, putting all of this aside of course."

"Yeah." I'm going to tell her. "I am." I'm not actually sure how to put this into words, so I use what worked with Miley. I get my phone out, and show her the picture of me and Tommy.