Close to the Crown (On hold until 2021)

Chapter Four (REWRITTEN AND EDITED)

A/N: This has been re-written and edited, but there may still be the odd mistake.

- - - - - - - - - - -

The rain and wind had continued to affect Western Europe over the next few days, and had led to localised flooding in some parts of the country. Due to this, the press conference and the engagement celebrations had been postponed until the following week. Instead, I was tasked with the job of moving into the palace. However, I was dragging this out as long as possible, as I believed I wasn't yet ready to move in.

The lock on my door had been wedged firmly shut from the moment I had heard William, Elizabeth and Jamie arrived at my family's manor on the same Friday morning when the press conference was originally supposed to be. All three of them had taken turns to try and get to me to come out of my room, so that the maids could finish my packing.

I, on the other hand, wanted to pack everything myself, as I didn't like making others help me. This angered William, as not only was I ignoring him but I was pre-longing my move into the palace. Every ten minutes, he would knock on the door, as he slowly got more angry and would demand that I let him in. Instead, I had on my floor and carried on with the packing of my clothes.

"Lily?" A voice asked from the other side of the door.

My head snapped up when I realised that it was not William's voice, nor did it belong to Jamie, my father or the Quen.

"Are you alone?" I responded quietly.

"Yeah, it's just me," the voice replied, "Quickly before William comes back up."

I quietly stood up and scrambled over to the top. Quickly opening it, I pulled them inside and then locked the door firmly shut behind us. She looked around my room, before sitting beside the suitcase I had been filling with my dresses.

"He is going to kill me when he finds out that you let me in here and not him," Harriet rolls her eyes.

Harriet Kingston was a younger cousin of William and Adelaide, and at 17, she was the youngest in the family; her and her brothers were the children of the Queen's younger brother, Edward. She had two older brothers, Oliver and Blake, who were 20 and 22 respectively. In fact, Oliver was only one week older than I was, and because of this we were rather close.

"Well that is his fault for being so rude," I shrugged my shoulders at her. "He never once asked nicely."

She laughed, "Manners were never his strong point."

I nodded my head in agreement, "When did you arrive here anyway?"

"Jamie called Oliver here, in hopes that he might be able to convince you to open the door," She replied. "I came along as well, I haven't seen you in forever and thought that I would do a better job. He is currently downstairs arguing with William over how badly he is dealing with this situation."

Before I could reply, the banging on the door started again, "Harriet, for goodness sake! Open the damn door and get Lilliana out here, now!"

Harriet rolled her eyes, "Come back when you have learnt to be a gentleman, William! We are having girl talk!"

I heard a thump in the wall, before Cursing and heavy footsteps echoed down the hall. William had left in a fit, but I knew it would only be another ten minutes or so before he was back.

~~~~~~~~~~

One hour later and William had only been back once, and he remained for a long time, just standing outside of the door, quietly. He was alone, I could only see one shadow underneath the door, and it only shifted slightly over the half an hour he had been there.