Royals and Rebels 2: Love and War

Nineteen: Penelope Peters

Chapter Nineteen

Penelope Peters

I had never been more relieved or terrified to get out of an exam. Finals were hellish. I locked myself in my room, doing nothing but studying for hours on end. I even kicked Audrey out.

She didn’t seem to mind, preferring to stay with Gwyneth while the scary rage monster was in her room. Her words, not mine. The night before our last exams, I was up, memorizing Latin and ancient poets.

There was a knock on my door. “There once was a maid from Madras, who had her a pretty young ass, not pretty and pink as though you might think——“

I recognized the voice instantly as Cadocs. I put down the notecards that I had been memorizing, and got up, storming across the room to the door preparing to tell him to sod off.

I opened it, and he smiled, holding a bottle of champagne and a box of chocolates.

“Cadoc, you can’t seriously be here.”

“I am the Prince,” he said, “I am the future kind of Wales. I am always serious, especially when I am making sure the well-being of my subjects is being taken care of.”

“I’m fine,” I said, “I would be even better if a certain buttfaced miscreant would GO AWAY.”

He chuckled. “I’m so glad I can’t flatter you. That would make this much less entertaining. Pen, you need a break.”

“I’m fine,” I insisted.

“You snapped at Audrey, locked her out of her own room, and made her cry.”

“Audrey cries at everything. She’s an actress. She cried once at a Tiffany’s so she could get a discount. She told me.”

“She’s a softie.”

“No, she’s dramatic,” I said, “I realize school is a lark for you, but my whole future is riding on this. I don’t have a trust fund or a movie career to fall back on. If I flunk out—-“

He placed his hands on my shoulders, as if steadying me. “Pen, you need a break. I haven’t seen you in almost a month. Just take a break with me.”

I sighed. I hated him. I hated that he was standing there, with that stupid, charming smile, and a twinkle in his eyes. I hated that all it took was for him to flash his pearly whites as me and I would buckle.

“I hate you,” I muttered.

“You love me,” he said.

“I hate you,” I repeated. I threw on my jacket, and beanie, and I followed him out of my dorm room. I closed and locked it behind me.

He wrapped an arm around my shoulder. “You look like Helena Bonham Carter in every role that she’s ever played.”

“Shove off,” I said, “I can’t believe you conned me into having you at my place for a week. We’re going to kill each other. And I can’t believe my mother agreed to it.”

“It’s fine, I planned on stopping by anyway. I have to visit Rose and Apollo. She just had a baby, and Apollo’s been trying to gather intel on Coleum.”

“What’s there to gather? As far as I knew, there was nothing left of Coleum but an abandoned island. I know a few of the refugees have come to Hay-on-the-wye, but I didn’t think it meant anything terribly important other than that they didn’t have anywhere to go.”

“It’s nothing,” he said, “but Apollo’s on the town council there, and I like to keep in touch with him. You should meet them.”

“I know them,” I admitted, “our mail sometimes gets lost there, because we’re neighbors.”

He stared at me. “You’re neighbors?”

I nodded.

“I’ve been going there on the last Friday of every month for over a year,” said Cadoc, “how haven’t I seen you before?”

I bit my lip. “Well, I had a life there you know. School, friends…a boyfriend.”

“A boyfriend?” Cadoc blanched. “Who was this boyfriend?

“Seamus Flannigan,” I said, “we’d been friends since grade school, but we parted ways because he’s obsessed with being the next Ed Sheeran. I’m also pretty sure he’s a little bit in love with my cousin Annie.”

“Seamus Flannigan,” Cadoc muttered, “I hate the name Seamus.”

I rolled my eyes. “Don’t get jealous. Anyway, was there a point to these late-night wanderings? Because I’m cold, and it’s snowing.”

“Yes. C’mon.”

He took my hand, and we ran through the quad, through the dark, quiet school, not stopping until we reached the astronomy tower. The lights were off, and he flicked them on low. He placed the champagne and the box of chocolates on the ground.

“I’ve got something I want to show you,” he told me.

“Cadoc, I swear, if you get down on one knee, you won’t have any knees left.”

“You know, it’s treason to threaten a member of the royal family. Just remember that.”

I rolled my eyes. “Just get on with it, Mr. Dramatic.”

“Alright, alright.” He shrugged off his coat, then to my shock, started to remove his shirt.

“What the bloody hell are you doing?”

“I’m showing you something,” he said.

“Cadoc, I’m not sleeping with you.”

He smirked as he wrenched his shirt off. “It’s a good thing that I am not thinking of that then.”

The Prince of Wales was there, shirtless, in front of me. He was muscled, I noticed. I had somehow missed his cut figure in the school uniform. He also had a tattoo. Right above his heart, that looked relatively new.

I gasped.

“Cadoc, what did you do?”

“I needed a reminder,” he said, “that we were worth fighting for. Shakespeare seemed appropriate. Do you like it?”

I crossed the short distance between us, running my hands over the tattoo, slowly tracing each inked word with my finger. Cadoc breathed in sharply, as if it physically pained him to have me so near.

Forever and a day.

“It’s beautiful,” I said. I could think of no other words for it. There was something romantic about it, physical proof of our connection, hidden away where only those who knew where to look could see it.

“So are you,” he said.

“Is the part where you get me drunk and have your way with me?” I joked.

He chuckled. “The chocolates and the champagne were really backup gifts. Just in case this failed to impress you.”

“Good, because I can’t get drunk before finals,” I said, “I would, however, like very much for you to take advantage of me.”

He stared, shocked, as if I had just announced that the world was ending and he was the cause for it. “Are you…. are you sure?”

I nodded, and shrugged off first my heavy jacket, then my shirt. “Could you help me with my bra?”

He nodded wordlessly, looking at me in wonder. Cadoc went behind me, fumbling with my bra, until he tossed it on the ground.

When it was gone, I turned to face him. “You showed me yours. I thought it was only fair that I show you mine.”

“You didn’t have to,” he whispered.

“I wanted to,” I said, “I get it, what that tattoo is for. I won’t ink you on my body, but I’ll let you have me just a little. I’m not…we can’t go too far, but I’m open, Cadoc. If you’re willing.”

“Absofuckinglutely I’m willing.”

I thought he would caress my breasts first, instead I found him looking at my lips.

“Anywhere but the lips,” I told him, “the lips are for New Years Eve.”

“Woman,” he let out an agitated growl, “you’re going to drive me mad.”

“A kiss is different from a touch. A kiss has emotion, a touch…. a touch can be nothing, if you will it,” I told him.

He reached out with his hand, and he caressed my lips with his finger, softly tracing them.

“You know what I want?” he asked.

“What?”

“To sleep with you in my arms,” he answered, “skin on skin. Do you have any idea how much I envied Jasper the night of the ball? I have never envied the help before. It was quite a strange feeling.”

“If you’re calling Jasper The Help, I swear I’m leaving,” I told him.

“I’m not,” he said, “I just hated being jealous of my best friend. If you told me…if you said that I stole you away from him, I would give you up. Did I steal you away from him?”

I shook my head. “You didn’t steal me away. There was nothing to steal. I think I would have ended up here after you begged me not to hate you.”

“Honestly?”

“Honestly,” I said, “I don’t know what we are, or if we’ll ever be anything more than a series of almost moments. But I do know that whatever this is, you and I were supposed to be together. Even if it was just for right now.”

“Good,” he said, pressing his forehead against mine, “because I’m going to kiss you on New Years Eve, and on New Years Eve, your world is going to change. Then, I’m going to spend eternity making you mine.”

I breathed in deeply. “You’re going to break me.”

“Not break, my darling girl,” he said, cupping my chin in his hands, “I just want to make you bend a little for me, to meet me half away.”

He wrapped me up in his arms, and then we lay down. We fell asleep on the floor of the astronomy tower. His heartbeat was the lullaby that put me to sleep.

“Christ!” a voice sounded urgent, and there was the murmuring of other voices as well.

“Your highness.”

“Go away,” Cadoc said sharply.

“Your highness, I must insist——“

“This will wake them up,” a second voice said.

Cold water hit my skin, and I jolted awake. I was topless, I realized, covered only by Cadocs jacket. Surrounding us was a first period group of students, smirking and laughing, and a frowning astronomy teacher.

“Cadoc,” I hissed.

“Pen?” he whispered. “Is that you? Arthur’s dragon, you smell good.” His eyes still closed, he pulled me to him and buried his face into the crook of my neck. He breathed in the smell of my hair. Any other moment, I might have swooned.

But everything was ruined now. I’d be kicked out, Cadoc would get a slap on the wrist, and I’d be a laughingstock.

I got up and tried to slip my bra and shirt on without being seen but I could hear the muttering and the whispering. The only one who had the decency to not look was the teacher.

I smacked Cadoc, and he started awake. “What was that for?” he demanded.

“We’ve an audience,” I said.

He blinked, looked from the teacher, to me. “f*****g hell.”

“Your majesty. Miss Peters. Follow me.”

Cadoc shrugged his own clothes on, and he tried to place his hand on my back, but I moved away from him.

My face was flushed. I wanted to disappear. I had never been more humiliated in my life.

I knew what it looked like. But we had only fooled around, we hadn’t gone that far. It wouldn’t matter. By the time that word got out, it would be a scene worthy of HBO. A moment that was meant to be between us would be everywhere.

And I’d be expelled.

All for what? A foolish moment with a boy? It didn’t matter if he had a crown or not. I’d ruined my future for a fling.

I could never look at Cadoc the same way again.

We were marched along, like soldiers on a death march, to the Headmasters office. The Headmaster was an older man, in his sixties, who looked between the two of us as if we were the worst criminals. “Public indecency,” he said, “s****l fraternization. Gross misconduct on multiple levels. I should expel the both of you.”

“Sir, please don’t,” Cadoc begged, “if you’re going to expel someone make it me.”

“You both know as well as I do that I cannot allow that. You two broke so many school rules in one night, I should be marching you out of here myself personally. However, the school board won’t stand for it and I’m not fool enough to think that the King will either. But this cannot go unpunished.”

“I’ll take a suspension,” he begged, “I’ll take both of ours.”

“No,” said the Headmaster, “we are a school that does not believe in special treatment. Miss Peters will be suspended as well. The both of you. Two weeks. Starting now, through the first week of the New Year.”

“Sir, please,” I said, “I’m a scholarship student. I’m part of the new coed program——“

“Then you should have thought better of how you conducted yourself!” he barked.

“What about finals?” I whispered. “My grades….”

“You are both banned from taking finals. Make sure you have removed yourselves from campus by the end of the day, or I will do it myself. I’ll be calling both of your parents.”

We were shoved out of the office, the door slamming behind us. If you had told me that Cadoc would have been the thing that would have destroyed my time at Hollow Hills, I would have said you were crazy. I would have told you that the only person who would have destroyed me was Andrew Addington.

He was the one out to get me. Not Cadoc. Cadoc only had my best interests at night.

How foolish, how stupid I’d been.

“Well,” he said, nervously running his hand through his blond hair, “at least we get extra time to spend together.”

Fists clenched, I whirled around, my withering gaze looking at him. “You have to be ludicrous to think that I would do anything with you, ever. I just ruined everything. This is why…Jesus….no one’s ever going to take me seriously again. I’m just going to be the girl who got suspended for shagging the Prince!”

“We didn’t shag,” he insisted, “we were just sleeping together---”

“Don’t be a fool, Cadoc. You know as well as I do that by the time this gets out to the Weekly Wales, it will be a scene from HBO. I’m going to be known as the school slut.”

“I’ll lock anyone in the tower who dares to utter the word,” he said, with such seriousness I believed that he would actually do it, “I’ll tell the press that it was all my fault, that----”

“No,” I shook my head, “no. Just stay away from me.”

“Pen, what about the holidays…”

“Everything’s off, Cadoc. Everything. I’m done. You’re toxic.” I was shaking now, sobbing, and I hadn’t even realized it. “I’m leaving now. Stay away from me.”

I stormed off, my heart aching in my chest. I had let myself get distracted, swept up in Cadoc’s world of wealth and privilege. I’d forgotten the real reason I was there, which had nothing to do with boys, or love, or the crown.

I was there only for myself. I couldn’t let myself get distracted by boys, or love, or anything else. I stormed to the dorm alone and knocked on the door. Audrey opened up, looking at me with her wide, doe eyes.

“Penelope?” she said. “What’s wrong? My phone’s been blowing up. Everyone’s asking if you had s*x with Cadoc, and I’ve been telling them to f**k off.”

I could not help the tears that came.

Audrey’s eyes widened even more, and she wrapped her arms around me, pulling me inside and closing the door. “I’m so stupid, Audrey,” I wiped tears away from my face, “so stupid.”

“What happened?” Audrey asked. “I should have known something was wrong when you weren’t here studying. I came back to get my toothbrush, because I forgot it but then I saw you weren’t here so I thought I’d take a nap in my own bed for a bit.”

“It was so stupid. Cadoc came, he was trying to get me to take a break. We snuck out, and we went to the astronomy tower. He said that he had something he wanted to show me…. oh god, that stupid tattoo…”

“Penelope, tell me you didn’t!” Audrey gasped.

“I didn’t. He did.”

“Your name?”

“Shakespeare,” I said, “forever and a day. He got forever and a day tattooed on his chest, because he wanted something to remind us of our future. But I can’t…I can’t be with the boy who ruined everything.”

“Okay, you have to tell me what happened because I swear, if he did something, Prince or no Prince, I will turn him into Theon Greyjoy myself.” Audrey’s eyes were filled with so much rage as she spoke, even I was almost scared of her.

“He didn’t force me,” I said, “if that’s what you’re thinking. I was just an i***t. I wanted us to have something, just for that night. I took my shirt off, thinking we could….”

“Ah. Fool around?” Audrey guessed.

I nodded. “He told me he didn’t want to take advantage of the situation, he just wanted to sleep, and so we fell asleep in the astronomy tower half clothed. We didn’t wake up before the first class, and the whole of first period astronomy including the teacher saw us.”

She let out a gasp. “Oh my god. Pen! Tell me you’re still a student here. If you’re not, I will riot.”

“I am, for now, but I got suspended from now until the second week of the new term, and I’m not even allowed to take finals. I studied so hard, Audrey. I’ve worn myself out, all for nothing, and my grades are going to be tanked for this semester.”

“When do you have to be off campus by?” she asked.

“End of day.”

“Pen, I’m so sorry. So sorry.” She hugged me tightly again, then pulled away, her brows furrowed. “What does this mean for holidays? And New Year’s?”

I shook my head. “I can’t even look at him right now, Audrey. I almost ruined my entire education for him.”

Her face fell. “I get it. I don’t like it, but I get it.”

“Can you help me get out of here without seeing him?”

She nodded. “Of course. What are best friends for?”