Playing the Royal Game

‘Come on,’ he said to Allegra, ‘the chopper’s waiting. This thing is timed down to the last second—Matteo has asked that we not be late.’

‘Well, at least put on your tie,’ Zoe called as he took Allegra’s hand.

‘It’s a rock concert,’ he said.

‘And you’re a prince.’

‘Which means I’ll be the only idiot wearing a suit.’

As they walked to the helipad, he asked, ‘How have you been? Your bruise is gone.’

‘I’m much better thanks.’ She gave him a smile. ‘I feel a bit more myself.’

‘You look it.’ She wasn’t sure if it was a reference to her jeans, but there was no barb in his words; it was as if all the energy had gone out of him.

‘Are you okay?’

‘I will be,’ he said. ‘It’s just been a tough couple of weeks.’

There was no chance to talk further, the whir of the chopper was already chasing away their words. Instead they sat in silence for the short ride to the amphitheatre, Alex staring out through the glass. She could not fathom his thinking, wondered perhaps if he was missing Belinda, or just his life back in London, if seeing his fiancée at a charity concert was perhaps the last place he wanted to be. All the excitement just oozed out of her.

The helicopter touched down. The rest of the crowd had been there all day, with the Crown Prince and his fiancée arriving to enjoy the evening section. But instead of being amongst them, they were moved to the front, to a box surrounded by bodyguards.

And cameras flashed, not for five minutes, not for ten, but as the sun lowered and the sky darkened, the cameras continued and Allegra felt so exposed, because at any second someone in the crowd was taking her picture. Alex knew too, for every now and then he would smile and move his head to speak to her, but not once did he touch her. Apart from the walk from the helicopter where he had briefly held her hand, there had been no contact.

There was the most romantic song playing, she was sitting in the amphitheatre with her prince, the people surrounding them delighted by their presence, the whole place full of love, and never had Allegra felt lonelier. She had missed Alex so much, had looked forward to this night and ridiculously so, but now that it was here, it just rammed home the lack of love.

‘What was that?’ Alex leant forward and spoke to one of his aides. ‘There’s a change in the programme....’ Allegra could not care less; she just wanted the night over. She was sick of sitting, smiling and pretending to be having the time of her life, was sick of being with a man who felt so little for her. ‘Your sister is singing.’

And she could not smile, for she felt sick, absolutely sick to her stomach, that the Santinas would stoop so low.

‘So she can be publicly ridiculed this time!’ She wanted to dash over there, to warn Izzy, to tell her that this was the nail in the coffin, that she was being used just to confirm the Jacksons’ unsuitability; she cringed for her sister, how they had all been so derisive at the party.

‘I had nothing to do with this,’ Alex said.

And it was too late to do anything, Allegra realised. It had been too late since the day she met Alex in the bar and she had been naive enough to think that she could handle this.

There was Izzy, stepping nervous and shy onto the stage dressed in her trademark platform shoes, wearing impossibly short shorts. She looked beautiful to Allegra; she was beautiful, but she could just guess as to the palace’s reaction.

She watched as her sister took to the piano and offered a silent prayer—she knew Izzy could sing, but there had been sound engineers on that awful reality show. Now it was just her, unrehearsed too. Allegra felt sick to her stomach for her sister, except as the piano played, as Izzy started to sing, Allegra’s nerves for her sister faded. She realised she was hearing her true voice—away from the engineers and recording studio, away from people trying to make her conform. Tonight she heard the real Izzy for the first time—and yes, a star was born.

Her voice was like liquid heaven; it filled the amphitheatre and silenced the crowd. Even the cameras that had been trained on Allegra and Alessandro stopped. Izzy was centre stage and this truly was her moment, the crowd holding up their glow sticks. Allegra felt goose bumps as she watched her sister, her little sister, grow up in a moment, watched her shine, watched as her eyes glanced for assurance, not to the royal area, not to her big sister, but to the wing. She was singing for someone and it had to be Matteo. Suddenly Allegra wanted to cry, but she dared not, and she wanted to turn, to tell Alessandro that his plan had backfired, but she was too moved, too lost in the song.