A Royal Adventure [Ongoing]

Five

'France! At last!' Saunders said jubilantly as the cars in front of us began to move and we saw chinks of daylight up ahead. He turned the engine on and I pulled myself up into a sitting position, excited despite myself.

After all, there was no turning back now.

'Viva la France!' he proclaimed as he drove forward onto dry land.

Penelope rolled her eyes and leant forward, between the seats. 'Remember they drive on the other side of the road here,' she told him.

'Oh bugger,' he commented, as he slowly inched the car forward, suddenly concentrating hard. As we pulled out onto the road, he asked, 'so where are we going?'

'Just head south,' Charlie said, his head buried in a map that I was entirely confident he had figured out. 'For now anyway.' It had felt odd to point out my small country there on the map to him and watch him figure out the best route. I had expected him to ask lots of questions, and for me to have to reveal everything, but he had simply told me that it looked rather straight forward and we shouldn't encounter any problems. And that had been that.

And now we were in France.

'South right,' Saunders repeated.

'Just don't drive into the sea,' Charlie told him.

Penelope, next to me, snorted.

And then, somehow, we were on our way, racing through France towards home – and the truth that I still wasn't ready to face.

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