Free The Golden Prince by Rebecca Dean

with the Houghtons, Bertie. I
have
to.”
    “C-Cullen will find out.”
    “Captain Cullen was with me. I think he’s fallen for one of Lily’s sisters. We all played tennis that first afternoon and he partnered with Marigold in a game of mixed doubles. She’s a redhead and a demon of a player. He won’t say anything because he wants to keep going back there—I can tell—and if he did say anything, it would come out that he hadn’t done so when the first visit took place. Then the King would dismiss him.”
    Bertie didn’t think it odd that David often referred to their father as “the King.” It came more naturally to both of them than the word
father
did.
    “L-lady Houghton will t-talk. She’s b-bound to. She’ll want everyone to know that the P-Prince of W-Wales is a family f-friend.”
    “No, she won’t, Bertie. She’s remarried and lives in Paris. Lily and her sisters won’t talk either, because we’re friends and they understandhow very difficult it is for me to have a private life and how much I enjoy visiting Snowberry. They won’t do anything to spoil the fun we all have.”
    “F-fun?”
    Bertie looked even more bewildered. Since their grandfather King Edward VII had died, fun wasn’t something either of them had had much experience of.
    “Yes. Just being at Snowberry is fun. There’s a lake, and when I visited on my way back here, we all swam—or at least everyone but Marigold swam. She was in London, staying with her great-aunt, Lady Harland, who has a house on St. James’s Street.
    “Marigold,” he added, “likes parties and dancing. Unlike Rose and Iris and Lily, she spends a lot of time in London.”
    “She sounds pretty r-r-racy.”
    David flashed him the smile that so totally transformed his face. “I think she is. I also think Piers Cullen is pretty besotted with her. He was terribly moody yesterday. Just kept staring at Lily and barely speaking to anyone. He didn’t make any objections to being there, though. I expect he was hoping Marigold would turn up.”
    “After the s-swimming? W-what did you do then?”
    “We had tea, picnic-style on the lawn. Lily’s pet goat launched itself into the chocolate cake Millie had made, but it was so very funny it didn’t matter.”
    “M-Millie? Is she another s-sister?”
    David dropped his cigarette stub to the grass. “No. Millie is the cook. There is also a butler, William, who has been in service with Lord May since the two of them were young men, and though there are parlor maids and kitchen maids, there is no housekeeper. Rose acts as the housekeeper. She doesn’t seem to mind. She’s frighteningly capable and sensible and she doesn’t let anyone get away with any nonsense—me included.”
    “G-Golly.” To Bertie it seemed a very strange setup, and he didn’t know whether to be impressed by it, or alarmed.
    “The Harland side of the family also have a home on the Isle of Islay. It’s where Lily’s cousin Rory lives. He often visits Snowberryfor a week or so at a time—it was his swimming gear Cullen and I borrowed—and so he’ll probably have to be let in on my visits there. But no one else is to know, Bertie.”
    “N-No. Of course not.” Bertie tried to imagine what would happen if their father discovered David’s secret. The thought of a rage that would be nothing less than apocalyptic made him feel giddy. He took a deep, steadying draw on his cigarette, waiting for David to tell him some more.
    David didn’t do so. He was staring dreamy-eyed into the middle distance, reliving the magical moment when he and Lily had left the picnic together.
    “I’m going to take all the fruit and salad we haven’t eaten down to the buns,” she’d said. “Would you like to come with me?”
    “The buns?” He’d wondered if she’d meant to say “bins” and if clearing up in such a way after a picnic was a strange Snowberry custom.
    “Buns is short for bunnies,” Rose had said, seeing his confusion. “Lily’s