“Could there be a strike that we didn’t know about?” I asked.
“I don’t think that’s it.” Andrew’s gaze had been drawn across the concourse to a small group of people now approaching; practically the only ones there. “I can’t believe she’s done this.”
I stared. The black suited men walking in our direction could’ve been anyone—they looked as if nature had designed them for anonymity—but there was no mistaking the figure in the middle for anyone else.
“She closed down the airport?” I gasped as the Queen drew closer, walking with a measured step. “Just to stop us from leaving?”
“Of course not.” The Queen apparently had better hearing than I thought. Or maybe she could read lips—it was strange the talents one acquired as Queen of England. “Some things have been moved about. This terminal, that terminal; nothing too drastic. No one will miss their flight, they just might have to walk a bit further to reach it. Now,” she smiled thinly, “how are you both?”
“How did you know we’d be here?” Andrew asked, his eyes narrowed. “And when?”
“I told you when you were little,” the Queen said, “I always know what you’re up to.”
“That worked when I was five, it doesn’t work now.”
“And yet here I am.”
I said nothing, but I had a pretty good idea how the Queen had found out. Rogers’ cryptic statement about having my ‘best interests at heart’ now came into clearer focus. But how was this ambush in my best interests? Unless Rogers knew something that we didn’t. I found myself starting to consider the Queen’s dramatic appearance here in a new light.
“You can’t stop us,” Andrew said, his voice steely. “Well, maybe you can today. But there’s always tomorrow. You can’t watch us all the time, and we’ll just keep trying. We’re not going to give up on our future and we’re not going to give up on each other, no matter how much you try to make us.”
As I watched, I saw tears rise in Queen Constance’s eyes. “You think that’s what I want? To wrench the two of you apart?”
Andrew looked a little taken aback. “Er…yes?”
The Queen tried to swallow back her emotions; a lifetime of suppressing them had clearly ill-prepared her for moments like this. “Yes. Yes, of course you would. I haven’t given you much of a reason to think otherwise. We don’t talk about things in our family, do we? I didn’t tell you when your behavior made me ashamed to call you my son and I didn’t tell you when I was proud of you either. And I have been, Andrew. Especially in the last forty-eight hours,” she said. “I’m sorry for the way I acted the other day, and I’m sorry for not coming to you to apologize sooner. And what I said about my future grandchild…I didn’t mean it. I was shocked, and I reacted terribly. That is no excuse, though.”
I looked at Andrew and saw the shock registering on his face.
“If you want to go now,” the Queen went on, “then I won’t stand in your way. If America is where you see yourselves, then that’s fine. If you really want to renounce your birthright and no longer be a prince, then it’s your decision. But please,” she choked back a sob, “please don’t abandon your family for good. You’re my son and I love you.”
It was an extraordinary sight to see that stern, controlled woman breaking down. Emotion had finally found its way through the cracks in the façade that she’d kept up for so many years, seeping through, widening the gaps until the flow became a torrent—years of repressed feelings pouring forth, desperate to be heard. Words were not enough, they no longer had the power to express what mother and son were feeling. But that didn’t matter, because words had ceased to be necessary. Andrew strode across to his mother and took her in his arms. She clung to him, seeming suddenly so small, the mantle of Queen discarded for a moment and leaving only Constance, the woman, the mother.
As I watched, the Queen held out an arm towards her. “Keira…I’m so sorry for what I’ve said and done. Please…”
I needed no other prompting, and I joined them, an arm around my husband-to-be and one around my future mother-in-law. After all, I was family now too. Andrew had made that very clear to me, and after everything we’d already gone through, it felt amazing to finally have a moment like this.
***
An hour later, the airport was back to normal, with nothing to indicate that anything unusual had happened beyond a few grumbling passengers—and most airports were filled with grumbling passengers anyway.