Henry nodded, then stood and walked into the shower. Surprisingly, the water was suspiciously cool, but he washed himself down anyway as Janelle waited outside. As soon as he was out of the shower and drying himself, she was inside, washing the sweat from her body as fast as possible. He wondered, suddenly, if she regretted what they’d done. But then, one of the more practical pieces of advice his father had given him had been that some girls grew moody and sad after losing their virginity, no matter how much they’d enjoyed the experience. All the man could do, his father had said, was wait for them to get over it.
But was it a good piece of advice? Henry had never realised just how warped a royal upbringing was until he’d seen other teenagers, long before he’d decided to go to the Academy. Could it be that his father was wrong?
He dressed slowly, then watched as Janelle dressed. She seemed to be moving slowly, without the simple joy of living she’d shown earlier; perhaps, he told himself, she was depressed. He gave her a hug and a kiss, then held her hand as they walked out of the compartment… and straight into the XO.
“Commander,” Janelle said. She sounded startled, even though they hadn’t actually been doing anything wrong; she hastily let go of his hand. “I…”
“I need to speak with Augustus,” the XO said. She waited until Janelle had walked through the airlock, then swung around and glared at Henry. There was something in her furious gaze that made him quail. The only other person who had looked at him like that was a female relative who had given him riding lessons and threatened to whip him if he ever mistreated one of her beasts. “The Admiral’s office, now!”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Years ago, Ted had been called out of class and sent to face the headmaster of his school for something that hadn’t been his fault. He’d hated the feeling of being stared at by the old bastard who’d run the school and resolved that if he was ever in the same place, he would treat his students with considerably more respect. Now, as a grown adult, he understood the old man more than he cared to admit. It had been his job to maintain a distance between himself and his pupils. He couldn’t serve them by being their friend.
He looked up as Prince Henry was escorted into his office by the XO. Ted had heard from her while the Prince remained outside, but he found it hard to come to terms with what he’d heard — and what he could do about it. Going by a strict reading of the regulations, the Prince had done nothing wrong, not when Ted’s Flag Lieutenant and he were in different chains of command. But morally? Ted had to admit that he was coldly furious about the whole affair, no matter the legal rights and wrongs. The Prince would do uncounted damage to Lopez’s future career if the media ever found out.
Or even another officer, Ted thought. The Royal Navy was hardly free of favouritism or nepotism — the Old Boys Network saw to that — but anyone who might have been tainted with either tended to be tested to the limits by their new commanding officer. After all, it had been uncontrolled nepotism that had caused some of Britain’s greatest military and political disasters. It might have its uses, but the government was determined to keep it firmly under control. If Lopez was believed to have benefited from her relationship with Prince Henry, her next CO might be very suspicious of her until she proved herself.
He studied the Prince for a long moment, trying to gauge his mood. Unfortunately, growing up in Buckingham Palace had made the Prince a practiced dissembler, at least when he wanted to conceal his emotions. Captain Fitzwilliam had said the Prince had a chip on his shoulder, but Ted didn’t see it, not now. Or perhaps he’d reached a point where he tried not to give in to the temptation to start screaming and throwing tantrums. It wasn’t something he could ever ask the younger man.
And he is young, Ted reminded himself. He’s only nineteen years old.
“So tell me,” he said, as the Prince came to a halt in front of his desk and saluted. “What were you thinking?”
The Prince looked, for a long unguarded moment, remarkably sullen. “I was thinking that I had a chance at a proper relationship,” he said. “And I took it.”
Ted met his eyes and held them, firmly. “Tell me,” he demanded. “Does she know who you are?”
“I don’t think so,” the Prince said. His demeanour started to crack. “Did you tell her?”
“No,” Ted said, shortly. He’d been careful not to discuss the matter with anyone other than Captain Fitzwilliam, Commander Williams and the CAG. It was possible that Lopez could have accessed the file belonging to Charles Augustus and realised there was something wrong with it, but it would be a jump from seeing that to recognising that she was dating Prince Henry. “But that raises another question, doesn’t it?”
Henry pulled himself up to his full height. “Sir,” he said, “with the greatest of respect, have we broken any regulations?”
Ted glowered at him. “If you were a normal pilot,” he said, “you would be enduring backbreaking punishment for speaking to a senior officer in such a manner.”
The Prince flushed, brightly. “It doesn’t make the point any less valid,” he said, sullenly. “I don’t believe that we broke any regulations.”
He was right, Ted knew. Hell, the aristocracy were encouraged — sometimes quite firmly — to marry anyone but their fellow aristocrats. There was no reason to suspect Lopez of being disloyal, quite the opposite. Her background had been firmly scrutinised when Ted had nominated her as his Flag Lieutenant and nothing suspicious had been found, apart from her odd desire to serve on Ark Royal before the carrier became famous. Given her family history, Ted knew, it was quite understandable.
But morally… it would cause all sorts of problems.
“You are a Prince of Great Britain,” Ted said, tartly. “You may, depending on which way the lawmakers actually jump, be the Heir to the British Throne. Like it or not, anyone you wind up dating is going to draw attention from the media.”
“No one knows I’m here,” Henry said.
Captain Fitzwilliam stepped forward. “Do you think that will last?”
Henry’s face darkened. “Sir?”
Fitzwilliam looked oddly grim. “If you cover yourself in glory, and you have done very well in a quite stressful situation, the Royal Family will take advantage of your success to prove that it is sharing the burden of the war,” he said. “They have faced far too many charges of sending young men and women to war while staying behind in safety themselves. Your success will become their success. And, once they start bragging, they will have to provide details of your false identity to convince the media that they’re actually telling the truth.”
He was right, Ted knew. The media sometimes took what they were told on faith, but in the long term fact-checkers and researchers inspected every story, just to avoid the embarrassment of discovering that they’d been made fools by someone’s PR department. If they knew that Charles Augustus and Prince Henry were the same person, they’d pick apart every last part of his career, looking for signs of favouritism or anything else that would reflect badly on the Prince. And, somewhere along the line, they’d discover that he’d started an affair with the Admiral’s Flag Lieutenant.
Lopez hadn’t known to be discreet, Ted suspected, even though she was a naturally careful person. Someone might well have noticed her and ‘Charles Augustus’ sharing time together, particularly when they weren’t in the same section, without any actual reason to spend time together. That person might tip off the media, once the reporters started handing out money and other rewards for useful insights into the Prince’s life. And Lopez’s life would be completely ruined.