Third In Line

Chapter Fifteen - Sir Ben

"And you're sure the press are all in the same room?" Kate asked as they made their way towards the last stop on the tour.

"Yes Ma'am, only a few cameras are allowed to follow us. The rest are confined to the press room on the other side of the complex" Richard told her.

But when have the paparazzi ever followed the rules?

Her heels were practically the only objects that were making a sound, click clacking on the hard wooden floors of the building. Richard's rehearsed speech about the history of the building had finished already, and all that was left on the tour was to see the children. In truth the children were the main reason she scheduled this event, along with giving her daughters a chance to play with kids their own age. She had toured the home many times before with Richard's predecessor, and knew the building almost as much as the orphans did. The building never changed, so she wasn't as interested in the architecture, but the orphans were always changing and growing up. The building tour was old news, it was the kids that she wanted to see again.

On this occasion, there was even more urgency to reach the room where the kids were being held. They had decided it was the most likely place that Ellie and Alex would try to find, since she and Richard both knew the orphans were the most interesting part of the children's home, even if Richard didn't want to admit it.

She'd been blaming herself ever since they realised the girls had gone missing. If the orphans had been allowed to roam freely around the complex during the tour, as she hoped they would, then the girls would have had a lot more to do rather than just tag along in the background.

I need to keep them in front of me on the next engagement, she reminded herself.

"Through here Ma'am" Richard directed her to a set of double doors. One door was opened slightly and the sound of children's laughter was echoing through the gap.

The sound was calling to her, dragging her towards the door. Richard and the entourage of officials and photographers vanished behind her. The sound of her heels clicking on the floor slowly quickened as she got closer to the doorway. She didn't care if the cameras caught her breaking out of her calm and composed shell, if anything it was good publicity for the world to see how excited she was to see the children again.

She calmed herself enough to not throw the door open, instead she slowly edged it open and stepped into the room. The immense noise of children laughing and playing was echoing all around the room, filling her ears with more joy than Richard could have ever managed with his long speeches.

The children had noticed her before she had even planted a whole shoe into the room, and the cacophony of noise turned into huge combined cheers of her name.

"Hi guys!" she had to shout to be heard over the chaos as everyone in the room rushed towards her, but still wasn't sure if anyone had understood her.

She bent down, lowering herself to the eye level of the children. After fifteen years of greeting children, she had perfected the technique, even in high heels.

"Look how much you've all grown!" she shouted again whilst the children continued to say hello. They were crowding around her with their arms reaching out, waiting for Kate to give them a hug. She could hardly hug them all one by one, so she swept her arms around as many children as she could and hugged them all tightly.

Richard and his entourage started pouring into the room, followed closely by the cameras that were watching over everyone, but with all of the children surrounding her and screaming in her ears she hardly noticed the room fill up with more adults.

"We're really happy to see you Duchess" one of the younger boys told her. He was perhaps six or seven years old, with glitter and specks of paint splattered over his face.

Kate shook her head gently and smiled at the little boy, "You guys can call me Kate, remember?"

The boy's chubby cheeks turned bright red as he smiled back at her, whilst the rest of the room shouted "Miss Kate!"

"Why don't you guys show me what you've been up to?" she asked whilst standing up.

Masses of little hands grabbed a hold of hers and started pulling her across the room to different tables, whilst the smaller children clung to her legs just like Ellie and Alex used to do when they were younger. That was another reason why she enjoyed meeting little children, they reminded her of her daughters when they were younger and more carefree.

They always clung onto me for dear life, but they're now older and say they're too old for that stuff.

Kate was dragged from one table to another, where different stations had been set up for different activities. Eventually glitter started appearing on her dress and skin, just because there was so much floating around in the room, along with all of the children holding onto her.

She made sure to say hello to every child in the room, from the familiar faces of kids she'd seen before, or the new faces of younger children that had only been at the home for a couple of months. The newer arrivals were always the least talkative, since the newest arrivals at what was essentially an orphanage were the ones that had been more recently orphaned.

Kate was glad to see that the children were socialising with each other, leaving nobody alone. In her letters she was always telling the older kids to look after the younger ones, and to make the new arrivals feel as welcome and as comfortable as possible.

When she finally had the chance, she moved across the room towards two older girls sitting on a bench, who appeared to be ringleaders among the children. They were wearing colourful masks that hid their faces, but they also wore strange red cloaks that engulfed their entire bodies. When every other child was wearing the most casual clothing possible, these two girls were dressed up like ancient Goddesses.

"I don't think I've seen any of the children dressed as elegantly as you two girlies" she said with a grin as she knelt down to their level.

The two girls stared at each other and didn't say a thing, they only turned back to her and nodded. Kate could sense that they were both nervous, and hesitant to reveal their faces to her. These two must be new, and sisters too I bet.

"Have you been staying here long?" she asked kindly, trying to make them feel comfortable enough to talk. Both of them shook their heads in unison.

"Can I sit with you?"

They both nodded, albeit a little tentatively, and Kate sat herself next to the taller of the two girls. Everyone in the room gravitated towards them, the children desperate to be near her and the cameras eager to film her every action.

She wanted to meet and talk to every child, but these two were different. In a way, they reminded her of her daughters with the way they stuck close together, the older one looking out for the younger one. Both of them had long and luscious brown hair much like her own, and even if she couldn't see their faces or hear their voices, she could tell they were both beautiful. The similarities they shared with her girls just made her want to help them even more.

"I know it's hard being here, but you can talk to me" she smiled reassuringly down at the two girls. "And if you're too scared to talk here, you can always write to me like the rest of your friends"

Before she could say another word, a little boy, this time around five years old, rushed into the room shouting "Princess! Princess! I found Sir Ben of Rollseeroyce!"

Kate turned to the boy, and everyone in the room followed her gaze. Behind the little man stood someone much taller, in his thirties, and dressed like a knight in plastic armour.

She stared at the plastic knight in stunned surprise, "Ben?"

The doors behind Ben opened, and Will entered the room with the rest of his search party. The girls beside Kate were whispering "Mikey go! Run!"

Before the two masked children could sneak away, Kate placed her hand on the taller girl's shoulder and gently lifted up her mask, revealing a cute eleven year olds innocent smile.

"Eleanor!"