Grace

Chapter 41.3

"How are you feeling?"

"Well, I'm away from people and I'm not hot anymore."

"I was talking about what the reporter said."

I sighed and paddled my feet a little. "I'd just never looked at it like that. Mostly I forget you're a prince. It's so easy to do at school. Do you think people are really wondering that?"

"Probably. Grace," he said seriously, "people are going to think of the dinner tonight as you officially meeting the family. I guess that's true, but they'll think of it as more than that as well. They'll take it as... as a statement that though we're not engaged we'll be together probably forever."

"Oh. Could have kept that to yourself. Still should have told me about the dresses sooner."

"Found some didn't you?"

"It's not that easy, Ben! The only reason I have this one is because Caroline figured you'd forget to tell me about the match."

"And you have dresses for later. What you worried about?"

I just pushed him in the pool. He surfaced quickly and then pulled me in as well. I was too busy laughing at his yell to realise what he was doing so when I felt him pull my waist I screamed.

"Ben!"

He laughed. "I'm in clothes too."

"Yeah, well, yours haven't gone see through."

Typical man he looked down at me.

"Ben!"

His eyes snapped up. "Neither have yours."

I looked down at myself and was glad to see that he was right. So what did I do? I lunged at him knocking him under water. Then I swam away. He swam after me and quickly caught me around the middle. I yelped but then my face went under water for a moment and I got a mouth full of water.

"Ben!" Johnny snapped. "You know you're not supposed to wear clothes in there!"

I stopped splashing my boyfriend and looked a Johnny. Had he said what I thought he had just said?

"Swim wear, Grace," Ben murmured to me.

Oh right. Yeah.

"Well, Ben?"

"Grace pushed me in first."

"Grace doesn't know the rules. You do. Out, the pair of you."

We swam over to the side that he was stood and pulled ourselves out.

"There're towels and robes in the changing rooms. Don't drip all over the floor. We're leaving in half an hour. Your things are in your room, Ben. Grace's too."

Like two children leaving the headmaster's office for punishment to commence, we both headed into our respective changing rooms.

The whole room was tiled white, there were showers in stalls at one end and sinks along the wall that joined the men's changing room. I left my wet things in a sink and stepped into one of the shower stalls. It was a proper shower with a rack of expensive shower gels and shampoos in dispensers in the corner. I managed to shower in five minutes using scentless stuff rather than the berry and spice scents and then pulled a towel around myself. They were in a cabinet in the dry side of the stall. Robes were hung by the sinks. I pulled one on and then wrung out my clothes as well as I could. Then I wrapped them up in another towel to make sure they didn't drip everywhere.

Ben got out of his changing room a moment after me. He smiled at me and pulled me from the room stopping only long enough for me to slip my shoes on. Then he dragged me through the palace, down corridors and up stairs, through a lounge passed the rest of his family and finally into his room.