Smythe:He’s conscious, then? And well?
Bright:He’s on the mend and furious that Kit and I put ourselves in danger. But he gets it, I think. Or at least I hope.
Smythe:I imagine he’s very, very proud of you.
Bright:I hope so, but…I’m just glad the ABR can never hurt him or the rest of my family again.
Smythe:And how are you two? You’ve been dating since July, is that correct? That’s an awfully short periodof time to suddenly be thrown together in what is essentially the death-defying thriller of the year. How has your relationship held up?
[pause]
Clarence:As they say, the strongest steel is forged in the hottest fire, and Evangeline and I have never been closer.
Bright:He’s a good one. I think I’ll keep him for a while.
Clarence:Just a while?
Bright:Maybe forever.
—Excerpt from the BBC One interview of Evangeline Bright, Christopher Abbott-Montgomery, Earl of Clarence, and Agent Suraj Singh, by Henrietta Smythe, 12 February 2024
There’s a moment after theinterview is over, when Henrietta Smythe has shaken our hands and everyone is standing around congratulating themselves on a job well done, when Kit guides me to a corner of the hotel suite and wraps his arms around me like he alone can protect me from every miserable minute of what we’ve just had to do.
“Are you okay?” he says softly, his lips brushing the shell of my ear. I shake my head against his dark button-down shirt, sliding my arms beneath his suit jacket and hugging him in return, ignoring the mic pack still hooked to his belt.
“Not really,” I say just as quietly. “Are you?”
“Not yet, but I will be,” he admits, his voice thick and on the verge of breaking. He was cool and composed throughout the interview, which picked apart every salacious detail of the pasttwo months that Henrietta Smythe could get her hands on, from the bullet wound that we shared at Sandringham to what our living arrangements in Oxford were like to what really happened when I was kidnapped by Guy Fawkes himself—or, as I now know, John Phillip Michaels, the son of one Baron Michaels, which is so ironic that I almost choked when Singh told us right before the interview began.
But now Kit is beginning to show the cracks, and I hug him tighter, determined to hold him together as best I can.
“I’m just glad it’s finally over,” I whisper. The walls I’ve struggled to build over the past month begin to crumble, too, and I sniff into his chest, a wet sound that should embarrass me, but Kit buries his nose in my hair, and I don’t care about anything but him. “I love you.”
“I love you, too,” he murmurs. “Whatever happens now…it was worth it.You’reworth it.”
“So are you,” I manage shakily. “Thank you. For being you. For being here. For loving me. For all of it.”
I can feel his faint smile against my scalp, and he kisses the top of my head. “Loving you will always be my greatest privilege and greatest pleasure, Ev. Never doubt that for a moment.”
Neither of us realizes that the cameras are still rolling. And the next day, when our interview is being replayed and dissected endlessly on social media, and by gossip sites and news channels that were cursing our names only a week ago, that’s the clip they show the most.
That’s the clip that changes everything.
Seven Months Later
Chapter Nineteen
rebel, Princess, Terrorist, Spy—And Instant Bestseller
If Henrietta Smythe’s first foray into Evangeline Bright’s life,Royal Rebel,released in December 2023, was a sympathetic look into the curious and sometimes pitiful life of the illegitimate American daughter of His Majesty, King Alexander II, then consider this to be a tour de force of an apology for ever casting Miss Bright as a victim.
Instead, inRebel, Princess, Terrorist, Spy,Smythe shows the now 19-year-old Bright for what she truly is: a survivor hell-bent on protecting her family and loved ones no matter the risk involved. Despite the Hollywood-esque plot based on the real-life spy mission to find and capture John Phillip Michaels and the rest of the Army of the British Republic, the narration takes care to highlight both Bright and her partner in supposed crime, 20-year-old boyfriend Christopher Abbott-Montgomery, Earl of Clarence, as human beings rather than polishing them with a superhero sheen. They are flawed. They make mistakes. They even argue in the narrative, which, according to Smythe, contains “no fabrications, inferences, or filling in of blanks.” Every word in the book is true, including a read-it-to-believe-it account of Bright being kidnapped by Michaels, the head of the ABR, though the narration is straightforward with the fact that some details are still classified. An updated edition will be released after all legal matters surrounding the arrests have concluded, according to the publisher and a spokesperson for MI5. Both Bright and Clarence are expected to be called as witnesses during Michaels’s upcoming trial.
The highly anticipated film adaptation is also set to premiere this week, with members of the royal family—including the subjects themselves—in attendance. Though typically adaptations take years to develop, produce, and edit, Smythe worked sideby side with a team of screenwriters to ensure the film could be rushed into production this spring. Thanks to the generosity of both the royal family and Oxford University for allowing most of the real-life locations to be used during production, the book and the film are set to be released within days of each other. A savvy move from Buckingham Palace, considering the popularity the young couple are currently enjoying.
Written after a series of in-depth private interviews with both Bright and Clarence,Rebel, Princess, Terrorist, Spyis a captivating, edge-of-your-seat thriller, made all the more so for knowing it is, according to the author and subjects themselves, entirely true.
?????5/5 Stars
