Princess - A Love Story

Chapter 11

Philip did heed her words and when the Pallis family invited them for lunch to celebrate Lord and Lady Pallis' thirty fifth anniversary, Philip accepted.

At the appointed time, he knocked on Emily's door. Marie opened it and greeted him, smiling widely. "Good Afternoon, Your Highness. Emi...Lady Emily will be right out." Philip ignored her slip. She didn't make him wait. She stepped out wearing a wide white skirt, with big red flowers all over, and a white blouse. She had put her hair up in a simple knot and it showed off her small ears with simple garnets on her lobes and a small gold stud at the tips. He normally associated people with multiple piercings as vulgar but on her it looked charming. He figured she would start a new trend among the younger women. When he said as much she said. "It may have already started. I forgot about them the last time I went out and Irena and Anita were in ecstasies about it. Lady Pallis now has two girls nagging her and really there's nothing she can say because, "Mama, the future Princess has one,"" Emily laughed mimicking the girls.

"Lady Pallis must have thrown a fit," Philip commented.

Emily laughed, "No, she managed it nicely in the way that mothers do by informing that they had their father's ears and no amount of ornamentation was going to make that sorry fact go away. That was the end of that discussion now the girls are mourning that God didn't give them nice ears."

All in all, it was turning into a satisfactory afternoon. Philip found himself relaxing in the company of his peers. There were members of Parliament present as well and the atmosphere was genial due to Lady Pallis' excellent hospitality. The two people he wasn't pleased to see were Savina and Matthew Wright. Of English descent, Matthew was heir to a large holding currently held in trust by his uncle Mr. Edmond Wright, a minor member of parliament. Rumour was that Mr. Wright wanted the holdings to himself and thus kept Matthew out of most things involving his own inheritance. As a result, it left Matthew with large amounts of time on his hands. It made him, Philip mused, unpredictable.

Philip found himself keeping an on Emily. He frowned when he saw Savina walk up to her and there was a brief exchange. All too soon Savina walked away. He wondered what happened.

Then before he knew it Savina was at his elbow. "I don't know how you can do it Philip." She slipped her arm through his. "I can still call you that, can't I?"

"Do what?" he asked ignoring the second part of her question.

"Marry that girl. Lord Stylianou must really be making a nuisance of himself." She smiled knowingly, inviting him to agree with her that really, there was no other way he would consider Emily. "What do you want Savina?"

"Walk with me Philip," Savina entreated prettily. Hoping it would deflect attention away from Emily, he agreed. As they walked, he was uncomfortable the whole time as Savina hung onto his arm, very unsubtly squeezing it and often pressing herself against him. Suddenly she stopped and came to face him. "Oh Philip, what happened to us? We used to be so close..." she batted her eyes at him. She was outright flirting with him and poor Philip, didn't know how to extricate himself politely. "Err, Savina...please..." he started. "I don't want to lose our friendship Philip." she said looking downcast.

"Err, well..." How had he managed to get himself stuck here again? But before he could say anything further, to his dismay, he saw Emily round the corner with Matthew Wright. He could only imagine what it looked like from a distance. His brain seized in horror as he saw Emily stop dead in her tracks, her mouth dropping open in surprise.

Emily had wondered why Lord Wright was so insistent on her company. She was suspicious of the glint in his eyes and the minute she saw Philip she understood what was going on. It looked like Philip was clutching Savina's hands in his own and she was looking into his eyes dreamily. Even as she understood her temper made her see red rings around her vision. "Oh Philip", she thought, "You stupid chump." She strode towards them longing to smack that triumphant look on Savina's face. No worry, there were other ways to do it. Reaching Philip, she hooked her arm through his. "Philip," she said cheerfully, "Aren't the Pallis gardens gorgeous? That is," she looked between them innocently, "what you were doing here right?"