Ivy glanced up and saw Olivia’s camera on the desk by the computer. Olivia had been diligently snapping pictures ever since they’d arrived. It reminded Ivy that she should be doing more for her article. It wasn’t going to write itself! But now hardly seemed like the right time to interview Tessa.
Then Ivy had another idea. She stood up and picked the camera off the desk. ‘Do you want to check out Olivia’s pictures? Maybe it will take your mind off all the crazy wedding stuff for a bit.’
Tessa gave a tired smile. ‘OK.’
‘Great.’ Ivy pushed the power button and the screen lit up. ‘If I know my sister, she’ll have taken some killer shots.’
Sitting together on the narrow swivel chair, Ivy scrolled through the photos. There was a stunning picture of the rose meadow, and one of the mansion reflected in the glinting glass of the greenhouse. Olivia really did have an eye for this sort of thing. She had used different camera features to brighten the colours and the natural lighting to highlight certain parts of the scenery. If anything, Olivia had made the house and grounds look even more spectacular than they appeared in real life.
But what – or, who – was that in the background? Tessa craned her neck to take a closer look. Ivy leaned in, absorbed in Olivia’s shot. There was a figure lurking on the edge of the screen. She clicked the zoom button twice. It was the OTT caped vampire that she had run into on the side of the road. In the shot Olivia had taken, he was standing in a clump of tall bushes. Somebody’s taking this creepy horror-movie shtick too far, thought Ivy, noticing that in the picture he was staring up towards the castle. What was he doing?
‘That is the weirdest thing. I ran into that same guy on the road outside the palace,’ Ivy explained, staring at the shadowy figure lurking in the background of Olivia’s photo. ‘Total creepazoid, if you know what I mean. Do you think we should tell someone? I’m sure you don’t want anyone gate-crashing your big day.’
But when Ivy turned, Tessa was gone. Vanished. What was that about? Did Tessa know the guy in the picture? No – no way that guy could know a soon-to-be-princess. Maybe Tessa had just remembered some last-minute detail she had to attend to before the big day. Ivy didn’t know the first thing about weddings, so that was entirely possible. But why would she run off without saying a word?
This royal wedding was really beginning to mess with people’s heads!
Chapter Eight
So much food and so little desire to eat it! Olivia knew this rehearsal dinner for the wedding was going to be totally wasted on her. She rested her elbow on the arm of her chair and pushed her cheek into her palm. Buttery rolls, smoked-salmon roulades and miniature quiches were piled high on silver platters, but tonight, nothing could tempt her.
She should have been enjoying the candlelit banquet, but instead she was weak and clammy. Everything felt so distant – even Ivy and her bio-dad seemed a mile off, and they were on either side of her!
Lillian’s voice came from the other side of Charles. ‘The candelabra are just lovely. And who put together those gorgeous star-gazer arrangements?’ She sounded tinny and far away. It was like Olivia was living in a dream within a dream.
Jet lag plus Helga’s potion – which had to be the most vile thing she’d ever put in her mouth, including a non-vegetarian sausage she’d picked up by mistake at Ivy’s house that summer – were proving to be a powerful combination. She would be OK soon – any moment now. She just needed to catch her second wind, that was all. Perhaps she could distract herself by sharing her secret theory with Ivy.
‘Guess what?’ she whispered, leaning over to her twin. ‘I think there’s another romance blossoming here. I’m sure Horatio has a crush on the gardener, Helga.’ Before she could go into more detail she noticed something across the room. ‘Hey. What’s with Tessa?’ she asked. The bride-to-be was staring glassy-eyed into the distance, not paying a bit of attention to any of the conversations going on around her. She seemed in even more of a funk than Olivia.
‘I don’t know,’ said Ivy, whose chunky black bracelets jangled as she took another helping of chocolate marshmallow platelets for dessert. ‘It’s weird. She came to our room to hide out while you were napping. One moment she was there and the next she had run out of the bedchamber without saying a word. This wedding must be really getting to her.’
‘Seriously? She ran out?’ Olivia remembered how Tessa had run out on her own party last night too, like she hadn’t wanted to be there. Olivia had thought it was wedding nerves, but now she knew that there was definitely something going on. The question is: what can it be?
Prince Alex reached for Tessa’s hand, but she pulled it away to fiddle with her hair and then placed it firmly in her lap. Oh no! Had they argued? That would make the most sense, but they were usually such a happy pair. Was the wedding going to be called off? Olivia stopped herself, realising that she was letting her imagination run wild. But after everything that had happened with Jackson – not to mention her recent tumble – she didn’t feel able to judge anything any more.
Prince Alex stood up, clinking his crystal goblet with a knife. His teeth were sparkling white as he smiled out at the dinner guests as if nothing was wrong. He wore a cream-coloured suit and a slender crimson tie. If he had lived in the States, he might have had an impressive career as a male model.
‘Welcome, everyone.’ He held his glass high and the room fell silent. ‘I’m going to use my bad jokes tonight, since this is a rehearsal dinner and I would much prefer to save my best material for the wedding toast tomorrow. I hope you can forgive me.’ The group chuckled. ‘As many of you know, my relationship with Tessa hasn’t always been bats and blackness.’