A Royal Adventure [Ongoing]

Eleven

As we drove into the night, silence fell in the car. Pen had fallen asleep, her head against the window, a jumper under her head as a pillow. Saunders too had drifted off, the map laid across his lap, and he snored occasionally. Charlie drove in silence, and I rested my head against the window, watching the lights flash by us as we sped down the motorway. The roads were quiet, and at times it felt like it was just us out there.

I could hear the sound of the wheels turning against the road, and the constant motion was somehow reassuring.

Charlie glanced back at me in occasionally and smiled, but otherwise, he didn't say anything.

I liked the quiet. It was comforting.

Although, my mind kept taking me back to that awful moment, standing there in the petrol station with Penelope, and I wondered if things were only going to get worse. It was that image of me – taken over a year ago – that haunted me. It had been like the paper was mocking me, haunting me – reminding me that my reality was catching up with me, that it had never been that far away.

Really, it was a miracle that it hadn't caught up with me yet. Sure, I had asked for this secrecy and privacy, but I supposed that I expected it to crack sometime. But it hadn't. And so I had been allowed to live out the little fantasy and new life that I had found myself falling into it. And it had been fantastic. After a while, I had forgotten that it would have to crack at all. It had felt so normal. I could have lived like that forever. But still, there were times when I expected someone to shove a picture or a news article under my nose and ask me to explain it. After all, there were so many well-travelled people in the school, I was worried someone would work it out.

But they didn't. And I had been able to live my own little fantasy out.

'Alex?' Charlie's voice cut into my ponderings.

'Yes?'

'You still awake?'

'Can't sleep.'

'Have you spoken to your brother?'

'Not yet.'

'We'll get there.'

'I know.' I smiled in the darkness, glad that he couldn't really see my face. Because I knew he would get me there on time. I was just worried about what he would find when we did get there.