Ben glanced out of the open flap. It was getting dark, a beautiful turquoise twilight full of birdsong and the soft bleating of moorland sheep.
‘How quiet can you all be?’
All the children took small gasps of breath. Ben glanced away, clearly trying to repress a smile. He held out his hand to Molly, and she scrambled out of her sleeping bag and sat on his lap. ‘Do you think they can keep a secret, Lady Molly?’
She nodded. He’d just told them to be quiet: she was clever this child—she didn’t fall easily for tricks.
Ben put her down and stood up. ‘Come on then. But you have to be completely silent and promise on your oaths as knights never to betray this location. Agreed?’
Huge eyes and nodding heads followed. Hand in hand in a little snake they followed him down to the stream. He got them to lie down on the bank. One or two fell instantly asleep, but Phillipa gave them a nudge with her boot which seemed to do the trick nicely. She stood next to Aleksey, her arms folded and a look of complete delight on her face as she watched the proceedings.
Aleksey didn’t want to speak to break the silence rule and was glad he hadn’t, or he’d have missed the gasp of wonder and tiny cry that Molly gave out when she saw something in the pool.
It was a minute house illuminated from the inside as if some tiny creature had just got home from work and had lit the fire. Another little cottage came alight, then a church, then a tiny row of lights as if along a lane. Every single one of the children was spellbound, and Aleksey was fairly sure if they didn’t breathe soon they’d have fainting toddlers on their hands. The entire bottom of the dark peaty pond became a miniature village lit with multi-coloured fairy lights, and then, one by one, as if it was now bedtime, they began to go out.
Again demanding silence, Ben took Molly’s hand and she grasped Jemima’s, and in a line, now in the dark, they made their way back to the palace.
Some were asleep before they got in their sleeping bags and had to be stuffed somewhat unceremoniously into them, for it was getting noticeably chilly now. Phillipa and he stayed by the pond, watching this from afar. She chuckled. ‘I should have taken you to bed when we first married. I could have had one of those then.’
‘You wouldn’t have had to try too hard.’ This wasn’t actually true, but he was a generous ex-husband, especially now she seemed to prefer him to her new one.
She nudged him fondly.
‘How did you get here?’
‘By car?’
He rolled his eyes. ‘I mean, why are you here?’
She laughed delightedly. ‘Ben was listening to my story. It’s a bit novel having a man who actually listens to me.’
‘What story?’ Realising what he’d said, he had the grace to laugh too.
‘Nanny? I did the training? He phoned and asked my advice about running a birthday party.’
‘Really? Huh.’
‘I said simple party games. I meant pass the parcel and pin the tail on the donkey, but I think he gave it a rather novel twist, don’t you?’
Aleksey just nodded. He was so overwhelmed and in love with Benjamin Rider-Mikkelsen at that moment that he didn’t want it to be too obvious to her. She suddenly nudged him again. ‘Do you know what he said?’
‘Obviously not.’
‘He said it was just going to be family, and so would I come.’
Aleksey looked at her frowning then grinned. ‘Excellent.’
She scoffed and kicked his ankle, which he thought pretty un-future-Queen-of-England like.
Aleksey turned around to see if he could spot Ben in the gloom. There were some bobbing lights coming down the hillside. Squeezy and his team were leading the parents down from the road which ran behind the tor.
Ben was by the barbeque with Babushka and Emilia, and they handed out plates of food, and some wine bottles were cracked open.
‘He’s special, isn’t he?’
Distracted, thinking about Ben, it was a moment before he realised once more that it wasn’t he who had spoken. He made a non-committal sound.
‘He’s like Guillemot in a way.’
