Fiona was the first to see them when they got back, and she smiled at them both. She had just gotten back from a difficult delivery that had taken all day but went well in the end. She looked tired but happy to see them, as she always was.
“How was the trip?” she asked with a tired smile. She was almost envious, but liked them both too much to be truly jealous. And it was so nice to see them happy, which they obviously were. They were both beaming as they walked in.
“It was perfect,” Christianna said, glancing over her shoulder at Parker for confirmation.
“Yes, it was,” he said, smiling proudly at her.
“You lucky dogs!” Fiona complained good-naturedly, and they told her about the travel details of the trip, but obviously not the rest.
Everyone teased the young couple that night at dinner, and Max and Sam looked particularly relieved. She had thanked them profusely moments after they returned, and had returned the gun to Max. They had both hugged her fervently, immensely happy to see her in one piece. They had spent a tortured weekend, worrying about her, and she told them again what an incredible gift it had been, to let her go away with Parker alone.
“Let's not do it every weekend,” Max said wanly, putting the gun back in his own pocket.
“I promise,” she said, although she and Parker had said on the way back that they wanted to go away again. Next time to Massawa, to enjoy the water sports there. It was the port that the Ethiopians had coveted for years.
Dinner was festive that night, and everyone was in good spirits. Parker and Christianna seemed particularly close. The three days alone, staying in hotels together, had cemented the bond of their love. Christianna had to almost tear herself away from him that night, to go back to her own tent, and she slept poorly without him. They met at the dining tent at six the next morning, and were the first ones there. They fell into each other's arms like lost lovers, and Parker told her he couldn't even imagine a life without her anymore. Worse yet, neither could she, and it was dangerous for her to feel that way. In the long run, becoming that attached to him would break her heart. But it was already too late for those concerns.
In late May, Parker went to the post office with Max and Sam one day when they were calling her father. He called his supervisor at Harvard, and got an extension to stay until late July. He told him that he felt the work he was doing, and data he was gathering, was important, and it would be a mistake to leave prematurely in June as planned. The supervising doctor of his project took his word for it, and granted him an extension till late July, even August, if he felt he had to. He gave out a war whoop of glee when he hung up the phone. All he wanted was to stay in Senafe with Christianna. Sam walked him outside to celebrate, so Max could talk when he made his call. Sam didn't want Parker hearing Max call the palace, or asking for His Serene Highness. Parker gladly followed Sam outside, and Max made the call to give Christianna's father their usual report, that all was well and she was fine. She made the trip into town to speak to him herself roughly once a week, and he always told her how much he missed her and couldn't wait for her to come back. It made her feel guilty to hear his voice, but never guilty enough to want to leave. Far from it. And she was far too happy with Parker to go anywhere without him. She was doing all she could to hang on to their little world for as long as possible. One day the end would come, inevitably, but she wasn't ready for it yet, and couldn't even remotely imagine getting there. But at some point, they would have to face it, and she knew she would have to tell him the truth. She just prayed that that moment wouldn't come soon.
Parker was in a celebratory mood as they drove back to the camp outside Senafe. He immediately ran to find Christianna to tell her the good news. She was as excited as he was. She threw her arms around his neck, and he lifted her easily off the ground and spun her around. Their mail had come that day, and everyone was in a good mood. Christianna took a walk with Parker once she finished work, and they talked about their plans to go to Massawa, which they hadn't managed yet, but still intended to do.
When they got back from their walk, Parker went back to his own tent, and Christianna to hers, an arrangement they still found irksome. She was dying to spend the night with him again, and leave on another trip. They were also talking about getting a tent of their own. But she was thrilled with his good news, and the extension granted by Harvard. She was about to tell Fiona, who was lying on her bed reading a magazine, when she noticed that the little Irish woman she was so fond of was very pale. She worried for a moment that she was sick, as Fiona raised her eyes to her friend's. And for a long moment, she said not a word. Her milky-white skin became almost translucent easily, whenever she didn't feel well, or was upset, or enraged. She had a fairly hot temper, and the whole camp teased her about it. Once in a total fury, she had even stamped her feet, and then finally laughed at herself. She was looking every bit as pale as that day now.
“Are you okay?” Christianna asked her, looking worried. Something was very obviously wrong, as Fiona laid the magazine down and stared at her. “What's up?”
“You tell me,” she said cryptically, and handed the magazine to her, for Christianna to see for herself. Christianna couldn't imagine what might have upset Fiona so much, and glanced across the page. And there she saw it. A photograph of herself, five months before, with her father, at the wedding they had attended in Paris before she left for Africa in January. She was wearing the blue velvet evening gown, with her mother's sapphires. And the caption under the photograph said simply, “Her Serene Highness Princess Christianna of Liechtenstein, with her father Reigning Prince Hans Josef.” There wasn't much to say. It was all there. Christianna's face went instantly as white as Fiona's. There was no one else in the tent at the time, which seemed like a good thing to Cricky. This was not a piece of news she wanted to share with anyone, not even Fiona. She had been reading Majesty magazine, which listed all the doings of royals all over Europe. Christianna had often been in it, and was obviously badly shaken that the magazine had fallen into Fiona's hands. Her mother always sent it to her from home. Christianna just hadn't expected to be in a current issue, or she'd have worried about it. But the photograph was five months old. She hadn't counted on that. “Would you like to explain this?” Fiona said, looking furious. “I thought we were friends. It turns out I didn't even know who you were. Your father is in PR, my blooming ass.” In Fiona's mind, friends didn't keep secrets from each other. She was livid, and obviously felt betrayed. And if Fiona felt that way, Christianna was even more terrified of how Parker would react when he found out.
“Well, it is kind of like PR,” Christianna said weakly, still just as pale. “And we are friends, Fiona …it changes everything once people know. I didn't want that to happen here. For once in my life, I wanted to be like everyone else.”
“You lied to me,” Fiona said, throwing the magazine on the floor.
“I didn't lie to you. I didn't tell you. That's different.”
“My ass it is!” She felt utterly foolish and betrayed as she looked at Christianna with fire in her eyes and rage in her heart. “Does Parker know?” she asked, even more furious. Maybe they'd even been laughing at her because she didn't know, which was not the case.
“No, he doesn't,” Christianna said with tears in her eyes. “Look, I love you, Fiona. You are my friend, but it wouldn't have been the same with you or anyone here, if they knew. Look at you now. You're proving the point.”
“The hell I am!” she raged. “I'm pissed off because you lied.”
“I had no other choice, or I might as well not have come. Do you think I want everyone here kissing my ass, waiting on me hand and foot, calling me Your Serene Highness, preventing me from doing any worthwhile work, or putting a doily under my sandwich at lunch? This is my only chance in my whole life to be normal and real. I had to beg my father to come here. And when I leave here, it's all over for me. I am going to have to be that person for the rest of my life, whether I like it or not. And I don't. But it's my duty. This is the only moment of ‘real life’ I'll ever have. Can't you at least try to understand that? You don't know what it's like. It's like being in prison. Forever. A life sentence, until I die.” It was how she truly viewed it, which was sad. There were tears pouring down her cheeks as she said it, and there was a long silence as Fiona stared at her, and the color slowly came back into her face. She had heard what Christianna had said, but said nothing as Christianna choked on a sob. She didn't reach out to the Irish woman again, she just sat there in tears, feeling the whole weight of the crown she wore, whether visible or not, crashing down on her head again, even here.