Chapter 36

C HAPTER 36

DAYS UNTIL THE CORONATION: ONE

Theo slips out of bed just as the hazy dawn light is spilling across the rug.

I roll over with a tired groan. "Not yet," I mumble, snuggling deeper under the covers.

"Not yet," he agrees. He pulls on his shirt and bends to kiss me on the head. "But soon. Meet me at Buckingham this afternoon? I have good news."

"I can just walk in the front door?"

"Not for long, but today it should be okay," he says with a wink.

The next time I open my eyes he's gone, leaving the window slightly open and a breeze blowing through the drapes.

I do everything slowly, appreciating what might be my last day in this museum of a house. I take Comet out for his morning walk in the courtyard and let him coerce me into an hour-long game of fetch, because why not? Then I stay in the shower until the water runs cold and sample every kind of weird British candy from a box that was delivered to the house last night. I even sit on a couch that looks like it hasn't been touched this century and Google my name, where I see that Theo's press people have released a statement confirming we're not married.

When my stomach does a weird little somersault, I tell myself it's because I ate something called "wine gums."

I use my new phone to text Victoria and ask for a ride to the palace. She sends me a car in the early afternoon, and I load it up with all of the untouched gift baskets that will go to waste if they sit around this house. When I ask Comet if he wants to go to the palace, he barks in excitement and hops into the back of the car.

"Buckingham Palace, please," I tell the driver. It feels ridiculous, and I half expect him to laugh at me, but instead he drives me right past the crowds on the steps of the Victoria Memorial, through a set of black gates adorned with gold accents, all the way to the front door, where Louise is waiting for me.

I try not to think about the cameras pointed at me on the other side of the gate.

"You brought gifts!" Louise exclaims. "Andrew and Charlotte will be excited. Let me get them!" She runs into the house and returns minutes later with the two youngest royals and their nanny, Penny.

"You must be the infamous Wren. I've been badgering Teddy to bring you around." Penny folds me into a warm hug, her mom energy so strong that tears pool in the corners of my eyes. Penny has been the royal nanny since Theo was a baby. She's one of the people he cares about most in the world and the woman he tried to save by refusing to get in the bunker. I love her for loving him unconditionally when no one else did.

"I didn't know you called him Teddy," I tell her.

"I'm the only one who's allowed," she says with a chuckle and a wink, before looking at me seriously. "We've got a lot of catching up to do, but for now, let Andrew and Charlotte help you unload the car." Penny loads the kids' arms with gift baskets bigger than themselves, to their extreme delight.

The Buckingham Palace Grand Entrance Hall is darker than I expected; the windowless space makes me feel like I've stepped into something that belongs in a fairy tale. Red-carpeted staircases branch in every direction. Goose bumps trail up my arms as I take in dozens of marble columns and Greek sculptures displayed in golden niches. I mentally take notes on everything, including the scent of the thousands of bouquets at the palace gates, so I can describe it in perfect detail to Naomi.

"I'll give you a tour!" Louise says as she leads me to the Grand Staircase, and Andrew and Charlotte challenge me to a race up one side and down the other. Andrew wins (and does a victory dab at the top) and then Louise shows me half a dozen rooms, each with its own name: the White Drawing Room, the Green Drawing Room, the Music Room, the State Dining Room. Everything is blending together into a haze of gold and opulence when I stop dead in my tracks in front of an open door.

"Is this…"

"The Throne Room, yeah," Louise says.

You hear the word "king," you see the paparazzi, you walk through the palace, but nothing can prepare you to see a red-carpeted dais holding two honest-to-goodness thrones.

I swear under my breath. "He really is a king. Weird."

"And here I thought I was hiding it so well."

I turn at the sound of Theo's voice, and my stomach floods with heat to see him leaning against the open door of the Throne Room. "I'll meet you in here in ten minutes?" he says.

"In the Throne Room?"

He rubs a hand self-consciously over the back of his neck. "Why not?" He then turns to Louise. "We need to talk." He motions for her to follow him down the hall.

I hesitate at the entrance to the Throne Room, not sure what to do in his absence. Andrew and Charlotte come cruising past me, balancing one of the largest fruit baskets between them. "Go on now," Penny says, ushering them along. "Theo called a family meeting." She takes the basket from them and hands it off to me. "Find somewhere to put this? I overheard the kids plotting to drop a pineapple from the top of the Grand Staircase." She shakes her head in exasperation as she follows the youngest royals down the hall.

My stomach flutters with excitement as I wait for Theo to come back, and when I see Richard Graves walking briskly toward me, even that's not enough to ruin my good mood. "What are you doing here?" he demands.

I smile blandly at him. "Theo invited me."

"Where is he?" He looks over my shoulder into the empty Throne Room.

"I don't know."

His brows narrow in suspicion. "When are you leaving? You can't be seen here so close to the coronation. Especially not looking like that."

I smooth my hand over my messy ponytail and cross my arms. "Or what?"

His scowl deepens. "If you see His Majesty, tell him that I'm looking for him."

"Okay." I probably won't, and to make up for it, I hold out the gift basket. "Are you hungry? Do you want some pineapple?"

He looks at me dismissively. "I'm allergic to pineapple," he says as he brushes past me down the hall.

"Wait!" I call out, before I even know why I'm doing it. My brain trips over itself trying to remember something important, and then it hits me in the chest like a crashing plane.

I get a flash of Victoria dismissively rolling her eyes—not at me, but at Henry, poison-testing passion fruit on the island. "Pineapple gives you an itchy tongue."

Graves looks at me over his shoulder. "What?" he asks impatiently.

"I saw the articles about Henry playing football for charity. He looked great," I say quickly, hoping that I'm wrong.

Graves smiles, his dimples flashing. "He always looks brilliant, doesn't he?" He nods proudly and walks away, and all the jumbled pieces in my brain fall into place.

All at once, everything makes sense. No wonder Graves is constantly throwing Theo under the bus in favor of his younger brother. It's not because Henry is "more authentic" or "works harder."

Henry gets special treatment from the media because his biological father is the press secretary.

I pull out my phone and quickly Google old pictures of Richard Graves. Hidden in the depths of an old royal message board is his high school photo, complete with a mop of black curly hair.

I close my eyes as I'm hit with another memory, this one excruciating: Theo told me that his mom leaked the news of her own divorce in order to bury a story she didn't want out. Theo's dad died as a result of trying to cover up that story, and I'd bet anything that it had to do with Alice, Graves, and the child they had together.

I step into the Throne Room and close the door behind me, fighting to keep my breathing steady. My theory was right in all the wrong ways: it's not Theo who's ineligible for the throne, but Henry, the only sibling who ever really wanted it.

The door clicks open, and I jump. Theo and Henry walk into the room wearing matching smiles. Henry's nearly vibrating with excitement. Dread seeps into my veins as he slowly approaches the thrones on the dais.

"Has Theo told you the good news?" he asks in an unsteady voice.

I shake my head, too afraid to ask.

Theo crosses the distance between us, takes the fruit basket from my hands, and places it on the floor. Then he looks at me, relief and excitement written in his eyes and his smile and his easy posture.

"I've spent the last several days with my political advisers and every constitutional expert I could get ahold of, and now it's official." He grins at me expectantly, but I feel like I'm falling into quicksand. "Before the coronation tomorrow, I'm going to abdicate the throne, and Henry is going to become the king."

Henry pushes his hair out of his eyes, and with a deep breath that he's been waiting all his life to take, he sits on the throne.