Princess at Heart (The Rosewood Chronicles)

Alfred Tompkins’s funeral was at Sweetmill Crematorium on a rainy Saturday morning in October. The service was quiet, only attended by his remaining family and closest confidants in a lily-lined chapel, preceded by the matter of the will. Lola and Micky did not return to school the week following their father’s passing, nor did Percy. Their two family businesses, Tompkins and Butter, had recently merged to become the world’s largest confectionary empire, and, to honour Alfred, the Butter family joined the Tompkins in grieving their loss.

Without the twins around, Rosewood felt bitter, their absence a constant gloomy reminder of what Lottie’s world would be like should any of her friends get taken away from her. This vision of her world splintering only made Lottie that much more determined to give them the perfect welcome home, and she wasn’t the only one striving for perfection.

‘I said yellow, green and pink icing, not yellow, green and orange.’ Anastacia spoke sharply, pointing at the tray of fondant fancies and macarons being held out by the Conch girl before her, who was supposedly top of the food-tech class in their year.

‘These are lovely, thank you,’ Lottie said, taking the tray off the gaping girl.

Rolling her eyes, Anastacia picked up another tray of cakes, falling in line behind Lottie to head to the Conch House reception room they’d commandeered for Lola and Micky’s return to Rosewood.

‘I clearly requested pink, not orange,’ Anastacia mumbled to herself as she laid out the tiered cake tray and teacups, indicating to Ellie and Lottie where to place each item while continuing her rant. ‘Everyone in the whole world knows pink and yellow are the twins’ favourite colours. I mean, what kind of idiot confuses orange with pink?’

‘Ani, they’re going to appreciate it regardless.’ Saskia wrapped a supportive arm round her girlfriend, before laying out the remaining teacups on the round oak table.

‘I just wish … you know …’ Anastacia’s mouth quickly zipped shut when she met Lottie’s gaze.

Lottie did know, they all did, that Haru’s rules meant they had to stay within the school grounds. None of them could so much as offer to attend Alfred’s funeral or ask the twins if they needed help at home, and they couldn’t risk dragging them into this situation with Haru and Leviathan when they were already going through so much.

‘I just want to see them happy again,’ Anastacia continued, winding and unwinding a strand of mahogany hair round her finger.

‘Ani, the most important thing is that everyone’s safe – and, besides, we also made a gift for them,’ Lottie said, grabbing a cloth-covered canvas by the table and holding it up, but her attempt to add a positive spin was only met with blank stares.

‘Yeah, safe,’ Ellie mumbled drily, and there was something sharp in her tone, like she was coughing up needles. ‘Everyone is so safe.’

Lottie chose to ignore the remark. A degree of unpleasantness had continued to linger since their argument the week before, and if Lottie thought about it too much she’d have to think of that postcard from her dad again.

Seeming to know exactly where Lottie’s thoughts were going, Ellie exhaled sharply.

The door squeaked open in a welcome distraction, revealing Jamie and Raphael with a gaudy candyfloss-coloured collection of party hats and decorations, which to anyone else would have seemed wildly inappropriate, considering the circumstances, but made perfect sense for the twins.

‘Percy and Binah are going to be here with the twins in ten minutes,’ Jamie relayed, already setting up a welcome sign.

There was something distinctly odd about watching Jamie, dressed in a black shirt and trousers, with all the gloomy concern of an Edvard Munch painting, meticulously putting up bright decorations covered in glitter. The two things were so at odds that Lottie stared at him until Raphael came over and shoved a party popper in her hand.

‘Set this off when they come in the room.’

‘Five minutes,’ Jamie announced, stepping down to take his place round the table.

Lottie found herself sandwiched between Jamie and her princess, the three of them not quite touching, like they were opposing sides of a magnet. When she looked at them to try to grasp their odd behaviour, both of their eyes were firmly focused on the door, as if even looking at her might break some unspoken rule she wasn’t aware of.

What on earth is going on with them?

Lottie remembered the strange blistering she’d seen on Ellie’s ribcage and the odd look in Jamie’s eye. She wanted so badly to call them out right then and there, only now was not the time. Then the door was opening, with Binah rushing in to give them the signal.

‘Welcome back!’ they all called, pulling on the party poppers and spreading confetti and glitter in a colourful explosion.

Standing stiff as statues in the doorway, Lola, Micky and Percy were three ghostly figures, their blank confused stares obscured by streams of coloured paper and ribbon. They didn’t move, and for a white-hot moment Lottie wondered if they’d completely misjudged what they thought would be a good way to welcome them back, until, like a rainbow emerging from the grey, an apple-cheeked smile spread over Lola’s lips and her beaming aura scattered through the air like sugar powder.

‘You guys, you didn’t have to do this.’ Lola’s eyes were glittering, and she squeezed her brother’s hand.

‘We made this for you.’ With one swift motion, Lottie pulled off the cover, revealing a detailed oil painting of Alfred Tompkins surrounded by all his marvellous candy creations, their father immortalized forever in the golden frame. She didn’t need to let anyone know that working on a picture of someone else’s father had been a welcome distraction from thinking of her own.

Binah laughed. ‘She’s being modest. Lottie painted it; we just got it framed.’

‘Your dad was clearly an amazing man, so we wanted to pay our respects however we could.’ Lottie handed the portrait to the twins, delighting in how it made them light up.

‘Come, sit, eat.’ Binah pulled a chair out for them, everyone following suit to take a place round the overflowing table.

‘And let us know if we can help with anything now that you guys, you know –’ Raphael shoved a Florentine in his mouth, the chewy caramel distorting his words – ‘own the biggest confectionary company in the world.’

‘Raph, please, what did I teach you about tact?’ Jamie scolded, only to be met by an impossibly charming shrug, the kind that only someone as unfairly attractive as Raphael could make look endearing.

Percy rolled his eyes but there was humour behind the gesture as he took a seat next to his boyfriend and plated up cakes from the tiered tray.

‘We’re not taking over until we finish school,’ Micky said, methodically adding three sugar cubes to his tea while Lola picked up the rest of the explanation.

‘Nadia – you met her at the factory tour – she’s going to handle the company for the next few years and finish all the legal stuff to do with the company merger.’ Lola looked between her brother and Percy, lifting her shoulders as she grinned contentedly. ‘And then the three of us will take over once we graduate from university, together, as a family.’

Both Lottie’s and Ellie’s eyes shot up at the mention of ‘family’, it having become a dirty word since their dispute, and Lottie shifted uncomfortably under her princess’s piercing dark stare. It took only a second for Jamie to catch on, his eyes narrowing between the two of them with such intensity she was sure he could read their minds.

‘You were lucky to have such a wonderful father.’ Lottie couldn’t help the pointed tone as she spoke, and prayed that no one but Ellie would pick up on it. ‘A close family is very special.’

Stirring her tea, Lola hummed an agreement, the sound strangely melancholy. ‘It wasn’t always a perfect family, though.’ She didn’t look up from the whirlpool at her fingertips, like she was stirring up a memory. ‘Alfred had to make his own family. That’s what happens when you have a bad parent sometimes.’

The room went still and Lottie felt Ellie stiffen, her fingers twitching with the strain of not looking at Jamie or Lottie. It was no secret that Lola and Micky’s grandfather was the man behind the twisted Hamelin Formula, and, although he’d tried to make amends for it and hide it away, nothing could ever make up for the terrible acts he’d committed. Some evils are simply too great.

‘When you’re a little kid, all the stories tell you how important family is, how they matter above everything else, but it’s not true,’ she said, her voice soft. ‘Sometimes you’re lucky and the family you get given is great, like us with our mother and father, but sometimes you’re less lucky and you have to find your own family.’

In perfect unison, Lola and Micky looked up at the painting and, as if like minds had melded together, Micky finished the sentiment.

‘Alfred found his own family, with our mother, and everyone who helped to build Tompkins Confectionary.’

Their words settled over Lottie’s skin with the gentle touch of blossoms in spring, sweet and fleeting, and she was captured by it, not wanting to let the feeling go.

‘I think, for some people, the family you find is just as important,’ Lola went on, looking round the table with Micky, a shared look of warmth in their sky-blue eyes. ‘For some people, that family you find, they’re your real family.’

The twins beamed, bringing everyone in, and spoke together: ‘All of you, you’re our family too.’

The stillness continued to creep over everyone, the dust of the twins’ words settling over the room, and Lottie wanted to smile back, to say yes, but all she could think of was the postcard from her dad and its scent of cheap alcohol. And right behind her was a shadow she could never get rid of – the Goat Man, telling her that even these happy moments were only a mask.

‘I’m going to tell my dad that Saskia’s my girlfriend,’ Anastacia announced, immediately covering her mouth, as if she was shocked at what she’d said.

Saskia nearly fell backwards off her seat in surprise.

‘I want to give him the chance to accept us, to do the right thing,’ Anastacia explained, a blush creeping on to her face that was entirely out of character.

‘But what if he doesn’t?’

‘It doesn’t matter any more. Lola’s right – we have other family.’ Anastacia tried to hide her red face behind her teacup, and when that failed she gave everyone a stern look. ‘You can only give people so many chances, even your parents, and I want to know for certain if there’s no hope with him.’

For Lottie, the cakes and candies began to slip out of focus, their sweet smells replaced by the sickly scent of rum, the room blurred and she caught a glimpse of herself in the black Assam tea. She didn’t look anything like her father. All she could see staring back was her mother’s side of the family and the wolf round her neck sparkled white in the sunlight from the window.

Lottie knew Ellie had been right, that she couldn’t ignore the postcard from her father, that doing so was only prolonging something she should have done a long, long time ago.

‘That’s a really brave and good idea, Anastacia.’ The look Lottie gave Anastacia let her know she understood, only Lottie had already reached her threshold when it came to chances, and it was time to stop pretending otherwise. ‘Now, would you excuse me? I’m just going to pop to the girls’ room,’ she announced.

Ellie immediately clocked on to her. ‘I’ll go with you,’ she said, standing up and following Lottie out of the room so fast that the door barely had time to shut behind them before Ellie began her tirade.

‘I could practically hear the cogs turning in your brain in there.’ Ellie’s voice followed her while Lottie continued firmly on to the bathroom, shuffling awkwardly between confused Conch students while Ellie pushed past them, indifferent to the scene she was causing. ‘What are you thinking? Did what Anastacia said get to you? Are you going to speak to your dad?’

Sighing, Lottie rounded the corner of the corridor, the oak floorboards creaking under their fast steps. She didn’t know why Ellie was so desperate for her to build bridges with her father. She could only assume it was to do with the guilt she felt around her uncle and Haru. But Ellie had to understand that she was everything to Lottie, the most important thing in her world, her princess and her best friend, the reason she carried the weight of Claude’s letters and why she could stay strong in her role as Portman. She’d always choose her, no matter how hard it got.

‘Ellie, I’ve thought about what you said in our dorm the other day, and you’re right – I do need to speak to my father – but Lola’s right too.’ Lottie pushed the bathroom door open, relieved to find it was empty, and she turned fast to Ellie to make sure she was really listening. ‘I know who my family is.’

‘Wait, what?’ Ellie shook her head in confusion, her fist coming down hard on the tiled wall, trapping Lottie in the corner by the sink. ‘So you are going to contact your dad?’

The way Ellie glared down at her made Lottie understand completely why the royal crest was a wolf. She was practically panting, a hunger in her eyes, determined to get her way.

Lottie’s gaze flickered down to Ellie’s ribcage, knowing that odd blister probably still lay there, and seeing the bubbling clump of stretched red skin in her mind’s eye only confirmed that she was making the right choice. She had to get to the bottom of this sickness that Ellie had inflicted upon herself and help her.

‘Yes, I’m going to get permission to call him,’ Lottie said simply, and Ellie’s whole body seemed to go slack.

‘Lottie, that’s great, that’s … that’s really fantastic. I –’

Lottie took the opportunity to dive out from under Ellie’s arm before continuing, looking Ellie right in her dark stormy eyes, making it clear what she said next was not up for debate.

‘I’m going to talk to my dad and I’m going to tell him that he can sell the house in Cornwall and that I never expect to see him again, because I’ve found my real family.’