“Let’s sit down and I will tell you everything. I need to get under a blanket,” Evelyn said, rubbing her hands together to warm them.
Linking my arm with hers, I led Evelyn to one of the couches and held out my hand as she lowered herself into the cushions.
“Here you go,” I said as I grabbed a blanket from the back of the couch and laid it across her lap.
She swatted me away and adjusted the blanket. “I may be an old bird, but I can cover myself up. Your chivalry is too much sometimes, Knox.”
All I could do was smile. I was a gentleman, but caring for Evelyn was more about love than chivalry.
“All right. Now that I’m settled, let me tell you about the night of that state dinner. Francis was about to become king and needed a wife, just like our Oliver here. My father ran one of the country’s largest law firms, and they decided that merging the royal family and my own would benefit everyone.
“I had zero desire to get married. I loved the life that I lived, out of high society. My mother had badgered me for years about attending dinners and dances, but I preferred staying home to read or riding horses with my friends. My father gave me no choice, and I was very resentful about his decision.”
She adjusted the blanket on her lap. “What’s funny is that, looking back on it now, I wouldn’t have changed anything other than taking the opportunity to meet Francis sooner.” She smiled, briefly lost in her memories.
Around the fire pit, Adelaide and Birdie watched Evelyn with doe eyes, entranced by her story. You could practically see the wheels turning in their heads, planning out their own love stories.
“Francis and I had been engaged for two weeks by the time the state dinner rolled around. It was our first royal event since announcing the engagement. I had sat in my room for three days at that point, refusing to do anything with him. I hated life and didn’t want to be queen. I would stay up late at night, reading through my father’s law books and trying to find a loophole to get out of the marriage arrangement. Then I moved on to trying to figure out how I could run away and live in some mountain cabin and survive by myself, even though I had zero experience being on my own.
“But Francis was a kind man, and he knew I was having a hard time. He offered the olive branch of inviting my friends to the dinner so I had someone with whom I could talk and mingle.”
Birdie and Adelaide looked at each other. Birdie gently bumped Adelaide with her shoulder as they shared a smile.
“The night of the dinner arrived, and I hadn’t seen Francis in a week. He had no idea I had concocted a plan to get the hell out of dodge and fly to Switzerland. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do when I got there, but I would figure it out.”
“Why Switzerland?” Birdie asked. She was leaning forward with her elbows on her knees, her gloved fingers laced together, completely entranced in the story.
“I had found in Papa’s books that Switzerland had made a treaty to house any refugees from Wexstone when the war broke out in previous years. They refused to deport anyone who came there to find solace.” Evelyn smiled ruefully. “I thought I had it all figured out at eighteen years old.”
“Oh gosh. I can’t imagine what I would do at eighteen, knowing the things I know now and the things I didn’t know at that age,” laughed Adelaide.
“Exactly,” Evelyn replied. “The night of the state dinner, I pulled Polly and Hilda aside and told them my plan. Polly hadjust gotten her pilot’s license, and she said she could get us a plane. We just had to find a way to sneak out of there.”
“I still don’t know how you slipped security,” Oliver laughed.
“And I will never tell any of you because I love you and want you to always be safe.” She patted Oliver on the cheek.
“So did you end up getting to Switzerland?” Birdie asked.
“Yeah, what happened with the plane?” I smiled at Evelyn, knowing exactly what had happened.
Evelyn let out a laugh.
“We were able to give security the slip and Hilda found a chauffeur who drove us to the small airfield in the back of the palace grounds. I still don’t know how she got the keys, but Polly unlocked this little puddle jumper and we all quickly climbed in, skipped the safety check, and got going so no one could stop us. Well, Polly kept feeling resistance, and I looked back and there was a banner trailing the plane that read, ‘Congratulations, Prince Francis and Evelyn.’ As we flew over the palace, everyone outside started cheering and celebrating, and that’s when they noticed I was gone.
“A few minutes later, Francis came over the radio and let Polly know that if she didn’t return me and the plane, she would be an enemy of the state and that the poor chap she took the keys from would lose his job. She was all for still flying me to Switzerland, but I couldn’t do that to my friend and the man who worked at the airfield.”
“Oh my gosh!” Adelaide exclaimed.
“Those are some great friends!” Birdie laughed.
“After that incident, the Golden Gals weren’t invited to any more events and we grew apart for a few years. When I had Leroy, I had the baby blues very badly; we didn’t understand it very well back then, and Francis tried everything to help. He called the girls to the palace, and they helped asmuch as they could. They weren’t the answer, but they really did help. Having them back in my life healed a little part of me.”
I watched as Adelaide grabbed Birdie’s hand and they gave each other a smile. I had seen how close Birdie and her friend Sam were. I could understand how it must be for her to be away from her best friend—I had felt that when Oliver went away to university. I was happy that Birdie was making a friend here, especially someone who understood what she was going through.
“But just because I was queen does not mean they stopped causing a ruckus,” Evelyn chuckled.
“Another of my favorite stories when I was a kid was when my father announced some new farming plan. They showed up and started throwing bruised and battered fruit at him. I had never seen security move so fast in my life. I remember that a strawberry hit him straight in the chest and he thought he had been shot,” Oliver laughed.
