Chapter 36
Jeff and Crystal's babies were to begin the peripatetic life of a royal at a mere three months of age. From the time they came home and were installed in the beautiful nursery created for them, plans were underway for their first tour.
Jeff and Crystal had to undertake their third, delayed tour of the year to Greece, Rhodes and Malta. Neither Crystal nor Jeff would leave without the babies. The family was to travel on the royal yacht and combine their duties with a short holiday as the ship made its way through the Mediterranean to their first stop in Valetta.
Before then Crystal, already a mother of three and her grandmother's heir was to celebrate her twenty first birthday. On that day the babies were to be christened followed by a family lunch and then Crystal's birthday gala in the evening.
The christening robes were ready: Henry, the eldest, would wear the family's heirloom gown used for generations of royal babies. Adelaide and Charlotte had new, delicately embroidered long muslim dresses with deep hems of fine lace, satin ribbons on puff sleeves and tiny pearl buttons. Constance and Sylvia, the embroideress, had worked on them for months. The names, four for each child, had been chosen and approved by the Queen.
On Crystal's birthday the Queen and Crystal's grandfather travelled to the church with them and after the service the family appeared on the balcony: Her Majesty held her daughter's namesake, whose full title was Her Royal Highness Princess Adelaide Alexandra Amelie Louise.
'The kid's got a triple A rating already,' Jeff had said when Crystal put the combination together.
'I can't help it, they're family names so shut up,' Crystal said, concentrating hard on the family tree.
Jeff held Charlotte who had been named for his mother. Grandmother Davis was so proud she spent the day wreathed in smiles. Charlotte was anointed with oil and baptised Charlotte Elizabeth Alice Victoria while their son, blissfully asleep, was named for his great-grandfather, Henry David Arthur, grandfather, James Davis and his father: Henry David James Jeffrey.
Crystal stood on the balcony in the centre of her now large family and waved to a huge adoring crowd.
'It's incredible,' she said to her grandmother who agreed but had a private thought, 'It seems we're not quite ready for a republic yet.' But she was happy, it seemed the right person had, by chance or fate, become her heir and secured the succession with these three beautiful children, an heir and two spares. She looked at Adelaide and thought of her lost daughter. She kissed the tiny head and whispered to her, 'She would have loved all of you.'
The evening gala was less stiff than usual with dancing, champagne and interesting people. As they lay in bed after the band had stop playing and their guests had gone, Crystal said,
'What a wonderful day.'
Jeff was nearly asleep but jumped up as he remembered something very important.
'I haven't given you your birthday present.'
He went to Terri and Archie's drawer where he'd hidden it from Crystal, who had turned out to be very good at finding his secret hiding places. He reached under the lining where the hot water bottle and cover were sleeping and lifted out a slim velvet box. He put it in Crystal's hands and kissed her,
'Happy birthday.'
When she opened it she found a bracelet with three finely wrought oval cameos surrounded with pearls, hung like charms on a pearl bracelet.
'Oh...they're silhouettes of the babies. They're so tiny, so perfect.'
'And different. Have you noticed that Adelaide's nose tips up a little and the lobes of Charlotte's ears are slightly smaller?'
'No,' she looked closely at the cameos. 'I never would have seen that.'
'Neither would I. The guy who carved them showed me. Henry is of course himself.'
'It's beautiful Jeff. Will you put it on for me?'
There was a light knock at the door and Angelique brought a squirming Adelaide to her mother for feeding. She said,
'It was Charlotte's turn but she wouldn't wait so I gave her a bottle.'
'Thank you,' Jeff said as Crystal settled their daughter to the breast, her newly revealed tipped up nose snuffling as she gulped her milk.
Crystal wore her cameos when they boarded the yacht for the start of their holiday with three nannies, Jessie, Smith, Sir Robert, two ladies in waiting and a team of protection officers in tow, to say nothing of a couple of tons of luggage. There was also a new member of the entourage, Crystal's new equerry, Major Kenneth Bray.
'What does he do exactly?' Jeff asked Sir Robert.
'Basically he makes things go smoothly. He's part of the planning for tours and events and makes sure the right people are introduced. He also pours the drinks on occasion.'
'Do we really need him?'
'Oh yes Sir. It surprises me that her Royal Highness has managed without an equerry so far. He will help us all.' Jeff wasn't convinced but Sir Robert added, 'It is also a great honour to a distinguished member of the armed forces. I'll get you his record; he's seen his share of action.'
One of the young sailors carrying bags to the ship's temporary nursery said to a compatriot,
'I thought little kids didn't need much.'
'You must be single or stupid; babies travel with more stuff than movie stars. Get moving; there's still a pile to come on board.'
Their Mediterranean cruise was to last five days. The royal yacht and its destroyer escort slid through a calm sea, undisturbed. The weather was glorious and it was easy to spend the whole day under the striped awning on the verandah deck, watching the sea and their babies as they slept top to tail in a portable cot.
Mary was delighted with the cruise and its effect on the triplets' health, and said on the first day,
'The sea air is so good for them.'
Jeff and Crystal were also enjoying some nostalgia. They had spent their first nights together on the yacht; Crystal in a cast with a broken leg after being kidnapped in East Africa when Jeff was still her protection officer. Installed in the honeymoon guest cabin, respectably married with three children, it caused them some amusement to remember their beginning in Crystal's smaller cabin and single bed,
'I didn't mind the plaster,' he said.
'I forgot it was even there.'
On the fifth day Crystal noticed that Charlotte, their youngest child, looked thinner in the face than her identical twin and wasn't, in spite of the sea air, as rosy cheeked as she had been. Their nanny, Mary, said to her,
'I agree with you Ma'am but I don't know why. I'll have the doctor and Adam look at her now.'
The doctor's view was that Charlotte was undernourished.
'How could she be?' Crystal asked. She began to feel the failure may lay with her. She was trying to feed each of the babies twice a day; their remaining feeds were with formula. 'She has the same as Adelaide and Henry. Isn't she getting enough? Could she be ill?'
The doctor said the baby didn't appear to be ill but extra feeds were arranged. The night before they were to arrive in Valetta the yacht was making its way through the still night, on a schedule to arrive on time in the morning. The ship was settling; the only crew moving about were on the bridge and below decks.
Angelica brought Charlotte to Crystal's bedroom for her ten o'clock feed saying she would be back in half an hour. Jeff left the book he was reading and came to see the baby as she lay in Crystal's arms, nuzzling for her nipple. He bent down to touch her and said,
'Sweetheart, that's not Charlotte; it's Adelaide.'
If the babe's chubby rosy cheeks weren't evidence enough Jeff touched her tiny upturned nose, 'That's Adelaide. What the hell's going on?' he said as he went down the corridor to the nursery. As he went in he saw three empty cots. Adam came in from the laundry, his arms full of folded clothes. Mary came out of the bathroom with Henry wrapped in a towel,
'Hello Sir, I was just giving Henry a bath; he has a bit of colic.' She looked at Jeff's stricken face and asked him, 'Is everything all right'?
'Where's Charlotte?'
> 'With her Royal Highness, Angelica just took her in,' Mary said.
'Look,' he said and pointed to the empty cot. Mary's hand went to her throat. Jeff began to panic, 'She brought Adelaide. Where is Angelica?'
It took a second for them to take in what Jeff had said. Mary pressed a bell on the wall and three protection officers streamed into the room. Jeff tried to be calm as he said,
'Charlotte is missing; Angelica has taken her. Get the Captain and the crew to search the ship. And for God's sake, hurry.' He said to Mary, 'How long has she been gone?' Mary thought before she answered,
'I was here when Angelica took Char...I mean Adelaide to your cabin. Adam was still here, weren't you?'
'Yes, but as she walked out with the baby I went to the laundry.'
'The bathroom door was open, Mary said, 'I didn't hear anyone come back in.'
'So she's been gone how long?'
'Less than five minutes.' Crystal came into the nursery with Adelaide in her arms. Her face blanched as Jeff told her what had happened and said,
'I'm going on deck.'
What he saw when he reached the companionway left him feeling empty and helpless. Angelica was standing at the stern of the ship, gripping the rail above the churning propellers. She was alone and as he and the protection officers were no more than ten feet from her. As they moved toward her and without a word she threw herself over the ship's rail. The heavy propellers continued to churn, spewing a wide wake behind the ship.
Jeff heard the Captain shout, 'Man overboard. Stop the ship. Radio the destroyer to get ribs in the water.'
Jeff reached for the ship's rail. He was close to collapse. Kenneth Bray caught Jeff before his legs went from under him. He let him down against the ship's side.
'Easy Sir,' he said.
Jeff's mind was reeling with the unthinkable, that Angelica had dropped the baby overboard before she threw herself into the swirling wake of the propellers.
'We have to search...' he said, the futility of it came to him even as the words came from his mouth. Adam and Crystal came onto the deck together. Adam bent over him,
'Let's get you inside,' he said. Jeff tried to push him away but Adam nodded to the equerry and they supported Jeff to a chair in the sitting room. Crystal was beside him,
'What happened? Where's Angelica? Jeff!' She shook him, 'Where's Charlotte?'
With tears in his eyes he said,
'I don't know. She...Angelica threw herself into the propellers. My God, Crystal...'
Crystal slumped to the floor, her arms around Jeff's legs. Bray said to Adam,
'Would she have...?'
Adam's mind began to work. He knew a great deal about women stealing babies; about the irresistible urge to have a child that wasn't theirs; the compulsions that drove them. Charlotte's weight loss was probably due to Angelica keeping her from Crystal by substituting Adelaide, irrationally depriving her of her mother's milk and failing to feed her enough to compensate.
Her tendency to want to look after Charlotte all the time became clear as he remembered her rebuff of his attempts to rotate the babies' care in the last few days. The psychology of her actions was complex but Adam suspected she would not have intentionally harmed the baby.
'I think the baby's still on board; probably hidden somewhere. I don't think she would have hurt her.'
Bray went and spoke to the Captain and the head of the protection detail. Every inch of the ship was to be searched. Jeff put his arms around Crystal; a spark of hope remained. He asked for a brandy and put it to her white lips,
'Just sip a little.' He tried to reassure her with a small smile, 'I'll have the rest.'
They waited in their cabin, Adelaide and Henry tucked into the middle of their bed. Mary waited with them, weeping and tearing a handkerchief to shreds. She blamed herself; she had hired Angelica.
The Captain directed the crew to begin with the five upper decks as it was unlikely the deranged nanny would have penetrated the lower levels without detection. In any event she hadn't had time to go very far before they found her.
The ship was more than four hundred feet long and over fifty wide. Two hundred sailors began to open every door, hatch and hold in the ship. It took them twenty minutes to find the tiny girl, wrapped in a rug, crying softly and sucking her fist, under a bunk in an empty cabin used to store luggage. Adam brought her back to her parents and then whispered to a shattered Mary,
'I think we'll manage with just the two of us in future.'
The rest of the night passed in peace. The babies stayed with Crystal and Jeff in their cabin. The doctor had declared Charlotte unhurt but hungry so Crystal fed her and thanked God Adam had been right that Angelica would not harm the babe.
She and Jeff had been beyond terror, in a place where the world ends, while Charlotte was missing. Crystal had imagined her tiny body in the sea, lost and, as the search went on, she had despaired, imagining her child mangled by the propellers.
As for Angelica, Crystal had no empathy with her. The woman had caused her pain and struck Jeff where Crystal saw he was most vulnerable: in his love of their children. He had felt and been powerless, overwhelmed with his inability to keep Charlotte safe. It would only be later when the young woman's tragic story was finally known that Crystal would forgive her for the hurt she had done and say,
'No-one should have to go through that.'
As the night wore on Henry and Adelaide slept and when they woke, Adam, who spent the night in a chair, fed them in the room. Charlotte nestled next to her mother and fed at will, barely waking as she sought the nipple. Adam had sent Mary to bed; she was exhausted and feeling guilty. He comforted her and dispelled some of the guilt with a few words,
'You'll have to do the day shift tomorrow.'
She went and slept but was in the room soon after dawn, helping with nappies and the early feeds. Crystal and Jeff had slept at the edges of the bed, their children safe between them. Adam watched and guarded them all. He understood completely that Jeff and Crystal would not part with them that night.
When Jessie took Archie and Terri out of their drawer in the morning everything in the room was talking, albeit very quietly as the triplets slept like cherubs, oblivious to the activity around them. Archie and Terri heard what had happened from Jessie who took them to the dressing room with her as Crystal dressed, ready to fulfil the day's engagements.
A police launch from Malta had joined the ship as it neared the island, alerted by the yacht's captain of the night's tragic events. A team of police went about their work quietly, not interfering in the preparations for the ceremonial entry to Valletta's grand harbour. When they were ready to leave Jeff and Crystal stood together beside the bed and looked at their babies and then at each other. Jeff put his arm around her waist and said to Adam and Mary,
'They'll be fine now. Let's get on with it.' To Adam he said, 'Thank you. '
Crystal gave Mary a kiss and said to her,
'It's over; please don't blame yourself. We all need you now.'
Jessie and Reggie helped Mary bath and dress the triplets that morning as Adam had a well earned rest. Reggie said to his clucky wife,
'Do you think they'd let us do a little? We could do the clothes and help them out at times.'
'Let's ask; they're so beautiful.' She had Henry on the change table in a cotton vest with a nappy ready to wrap around him when his tiny penis reared up and he sent a fountain of spray right into Reggie's eye. She laughed as the baby gurgled with satisfaction. Reggie said while mopping his wet face with a towel,
'He's all boy that one.'
When Jessie came back from the nursery she was humming and happy; the babies were bathed, dressed, fed and sleeping in their beds. Mary had thanked Jessie and Reggie for their help and before they could ask had said,
'We couldn't have managed without you this morning. You wouldn't have a little time each day would you? Just to give us a hand. When Crystal is away Adam and I will be pressed to
feed them if they're all hungry at once.'
Jessie couldn't agree fast enough and added, 'The baths; when we're free we'd love to do the baths.'
Reggie wasn't quite as enthusiastic about the bathing as Jessie, his recent experience with Henry fresh in his mind, but he thought if he was just a bit quicker he could avoid a repeat of that morning's hit in the eye.
Nothing more needed to be said; Mary and Adam had two part time, doting assistants. Archie and Terri were jealous; they loved the babies and would have been in the nursery if they could. But that was impossible; as tiny as they were the babies were still bigger than both of them. But Terri wanted to help and it had occurred to her that something in the nursery must have seen Angelica's obsessive behaviour with Charlotte. She said to the still melodious Jessie,
'Did you speak to any of the objects in the nursery Jessie? They'd know what's been going on.'
'Yes, they would,' Archie agreed but he also thought they may have had no-one to tell, 'Mary and Adam don't know about us do they? The furniture and objects probably couldn't make them hear.'
Jessie stopped what she was doing and saw the wisdom of what Archie was saying. 'I'll go back there now and see what I can find out.'
'Jessie...' Terri called out as she went to the door.
'Let us do it; they might not speak to you. Leave us down there for the day. We'll find out.'
Jeff and Crystal returned in the afternoon after an enthusiastic welcome from the people of Valletta. Crystal was full of milk and said to Jeff,
'Give me a baby to feed, I'm bursting.' He laughed but didn't have to move; Mary brought Charlotte and Adelaide to her.
'You probably have enough for them both by now; let's try one each side.' The girls were tucked under their mother's arms and suckled happily as Adam brought Henry to Jeff with a bottle.
'He'll have to make do with you Sir.' Henry didn't seem to care; he took the bottle from his father greedily. As Jessie helped to burp Adelaide, with Reggie hovering with a linen cloth to catch any spill, she said to them,
'Archie and Terri spent the day in the nursery.'
'Why?' Crystal asked.
'They wanted to find out about Angelica. They have something to tell you.'
Archie and Terri had heard the whole story from the nursery rocker. Archie related what it had told them. On the third day at sea Angelica had started to sit in the chair and talk to Charlotte late at night when Mary and Adam were asleep.
The chair heard that Angelica had become pregnant at fourteen to her uncle. He had raped her and when her parents found out they were not sympathetic. They blamed Angelica because she was bright and outgoing and they said, 'put herself about'. Which Angelica had said wasn't true.
Her parents had been desperate to keep the pregnancy a secret and sent Angelica away to live with an Australian cousin until the baby was born. After the birth the cousin kept the baby and sent Angelica, who was only fifteen, home. She never saw the baby, a little girl, again.
'I can't believe people still do that.' Crystal was appalled. 'She must have been so damaged; her parents betrayed her.'
Jeff thought about the vetting Angelica had been through and said,
'Poor Mary; she could never have known; something like that just doesn't show up. Are we going to replace Angelica?' he asked.
'No,' a chorus of Adam, Jessie and Reggie said. 'We're all going to help Mary.'
The offer of help from Jessie and Reggie was just in time because the next morning Jeff and Crystal decided to show their babies to the people of Malta. There was a flurry of activity to get them dressed and ready for an appearance on the yacht's deck as it pulled out of the harbour. They thanked Malta for its hospitality with their babies in their arms, Mary holding the increasingly healthy Charlotte for them as they waved and the great yacht sailed for Rhodes, home of the Knights Templar, a great medieval bastion of Christianity. They spent two days on the island, entranced by its beauty and antiquity.
They moved on to Athens and moored at the Piraeus. They hosted a large drinks party on board for their expat countrymen and dignitaries from the Greek government and community representatives. What became apparent to Crystal as the tour had gone on was the faultless planning of the onboard events and the apparent ease the crew displayed in serving two hundred strangers in what quickly became quite a small space.
She put it down to a number of things which included her new equerry knowing his job. Kenneth Bray moved quietly and unobtrusively through the crowd, bringing people forward to be introduced, disentangling Jeff from a bore, making sure the table arrangements were perfect, he even worked with the chefs checking menus. Crystal was unable to do these things; she had another job, to represent her grandmother who relied on her own equerry in both her public and private life. Now she knew why. He was the major domo and like the other people who served them, Jessie, Smith, Sir Robert, Mary and Adam, indispensible.
Their stay in Greece was three days and two nights: one to be spent away from the yacht and their babies. Crystal was stoic but she cast a small backward glance at the yacht as they got into the car to drive away. She was sure the children would be fine but Jeff was also nervous about leaving them for nearly eighteen hours. The evening seemed to drag; a great dinner with speeches then their overnight stay in their host's great house in a distant province was torture as they waited for the dawn so they could return to the ship.
But before that they had to attend a seemingly endless display of folk dancing that Crystal would try to show some interest in. Then it was to be a school and a lunch, speeches, hand shaking and goodbyes. Throughout her mind would be, of course, elsewhere. The short time away from her children was a taste of longer separations to come. She didn't enjoy it and she wasn't looking forward to the future.
If they had had one child and wished to have it with them they may have been able to impose upon their host for the extra and considerable accommodation they would need. Three children and two nannies, to say nothing of the nursery paraphernalia that was apparently necessary to their daily well being, made moving the whole entourage for one night a mammoth task.
Crystal thought as she looked at the ceiling of women who were able to and chose to be with their children all the time. She didn't know if she was one of them but one thing she did know: she would do her duty and her children would know from a very young age what that meant. There would be tears later but for now she moved into Jeff's arms and held him.
'We can go back to them tomorrow,' she thought just before she slept.
On the yacht the nursery was quiet, the babies' breathing and the movement of the ship at anchor the only sounds. Archie and Terri watched them sleep from the nursery rocker where they had asked Jessie to leave them until Jeff and Crystal returned.
As Archie said to Terri,
'We'll be here just in case anyone needs us.'
'I'm missing our drawer already.'
'Me too.'
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Thank you for reading Book 1 in the Archie Series.
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Suzie Louis's website
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