Page 99 of Scandal Queen

Twenty-Three

“Leia Lawrence! How did you manage to ruin this for all of us?!” Nana glared at me, not even bothering to smooth down her silver bob that swept wildly with the snowy wind as she opened her front door.

“I didn’t!” I protested and Ollie rubbed a hand in a circle along my back.

“She really didn’t, it was all on me. I’m sorry to impose, Nana. I usually wouldn’t allow this situation to arise but truthfully we couldn’t stay at the palace.” I loved it when he spoke all princely.

Nana’s face scored with a deep frown, but she watched Ollie for a moment and then smoothed it away. “Well I don’t know what you are expecting here. I haven’t got anything in because I thought I was going to have an amazing Christmas lunch at St Mark’s, not be housing some royal refugees.” I pulled a face. Technically Ollie was the only official royal refugee.

“What the hell are we going to do?” I asked, but there wasn’t really any answer for anyone to give. “Could we stay here and order a takeaway tomorrow? There will be places open won’t there?”

“Leia! Nowhere opens on Christmas Day that isn’t already pre-booked back in August. Remember the year I decided not to cook and we tried to get into the local pubs and we got laughed at every time I tried to ring and make a reservation?” Nana said, bringing back memories of that rather pathetic Christmas Day.

I nodded, my stomach sinking.

“Sorry.” I slumped a little. Everything kind of was my fault. If I hadn’t gone to the flats to see Mrs Patten we wouldn’t be here right now.

Would I change that if I could? Possibly not. No, actually, definitely not, but that didn’t mean I didn’t have a crushing weight of guilt pushing down on my shoulders.

I opened the front door and peered at the snow. It seemed to be holding at a steady downpour, not a cute blizzard for Rudolph to trot through. With a sigh, I sat near the door and turned to Nana, Ollie, and Daisy.

“Well I know where I’d suggest people go when stranded at Christmas.”

Ollie’s eyes met mine and his lips curved, his thought connected with mine on an almost freakish level. “The shelter along from Bright Futures?”

I shook my head, out of all my dumb ass ideas this one took the biscuit. “Ollie, the future king can’t go and spend Christmas Day in a homeless shelter.”

“Wasn’t that the whole point of leaving the palace? To prove that we can do anything?”

“The press will have a field day.”

He shrugged but his silence didn’t fool me. In the back of my head John’s words from the night of the Russian state dinner rang loud and clear, ‘he’ll always put the family first’.

Well now he was putting himself first.

“You want me to go to a homeless shelter for Christmas?” Nana looked aghast and I quirked my lips at her.

“Nana, it’s Bernie. I’m sure she’d love your help.”

Oliver slipped out his phone and dialled a number. “Freya,” he snapped when the call had been answered.

My stomach dipped a little.

“Can you ring around and see who has last-minute food stock; all of the major stores. We will take everything they have. Can you arrange for it to be delivered to the shelter near Bright Futures?” There was a moment of a pause and I stared at him, although he didn’t meet my eye. “Yes, that’s the one. And yes, I know it’s snowing. Can you do it, or shall I call around myself?”

Ooh. Grumpy prince was back in town.

He gave a curt thank you and hung up. “Hopefully we can send some food over.”

“This is like Mary and Joseph when they had Jesus,” Daisy spoke for the first time and we all stared down at her.

A wild giggle built in my throat.

“Daisy!” Nana admonished. “My house is not a stable.” Her gaze flashed down over my flatter-than-ever-in-the-last-six-years stomach. “And also I don’t think your mother is about to give birth.”

“God, no!” I pushed my hand against my stomach. “This is the year Leia Lawrence broke Christmas. It’s not the year I broke everything.”

Oliver smiled and leant over to kiss me, but his eyes held a darker shade of green.