The building was very grand on every scale and living in a mansion hadn’t prepared him for it. Unlike the castle, the palace was crawling with security. Standing outside the entrance were two guards with visible guns. Edward found himself wondering how Sebastian had managed to sneak out unnoticed.
“Someone is coming towards us,” his father whispered to him.
Edward stood up straight and self consciously adjusted his suit. The invitation had stated formal dress so he was wearing his best suit that had been a present for his 18th birthday. He felt like he was going to be sick if the person approaching them turned out to be Camilla.
The person became more visible and he saw it wasn’t Camilla. It was a much older grey haired woman wearing a brown suit and glasses on a chain.
“Good afternoon, Lord Grey and Edward Grey. The prince is waiting for you in the second sitting room,” she said. “My name is Bernadette Berkley and I am the lead royal advisor in this
Edward took the innuendo in his stride. He couldn’t let Sebastian always have the upper hand when it came to teasing.“Please make it interesting,” he said.“I’ll make sure to,” his boyfriend replied with an even saucier wink.He opened the door and they walked down a narrow corridor to another door which had Sebastian’s full name and title written on it and the royal family crest.The first part of Sebastian’s bedroom was like an entranceway. It was just an area with a painting of flowers and a table with a vase on. Sebastian walked straight through into the main area.Edward was impressed with the scale of the bedroom. There was a seating area with sofas and a large television screen. There was a desk and high class computer by the window and the bed was at the other end of the room.The bed did look very comfortable but he didn’t pay much attention to it. He walked over to the computer
Sebastian made his way back to his study after Edward left. He was annoyed that they hadn’t been able to have much privacy.He was also annoyed that Bernadette had been watching them over the palace CCTV and had been monitoring where they went and how long they spent in rooms.The control wasn’t going to last forever. When they were married and had their own house, things would be very different. He just had to keep that in mind to get through this difficult period. They would be able to do what they wanted at any time. At least he had permission to visit Edward now. He would need to make arrangements with him in case Edward had a match to play.He had been embarrassed when Edward had found he liked watching videos of him online. He enjoyed watching Edward in action. It had probably seemed like he was watching the videos with a dirtier purpose in mind, but he really wasn’t.He sat down at his desk and looked over his schedule for the nex
Edward opened the door and let Sebastian into his bedroom. He had tidied up in the morning so Sebastian wouldn’t see any of the dirty clothes that were normally thrown on the desk chair or his underwear on the floor.Sebastian looked carefully over his trophies first. Edward was proud of his collection so he was happy to see his boyfriend admiring them.“I definitely picked the right person,” he commented. “I can’t believe you have this many sports trophies.”Edward pointed to his most recent trophy.“This is the one I won on the day I first met you.”“Let’s try to forget how badly that went,” Sebastian replied and turned around. “I like the bean bag corner. It looks cosy.”The bean bag corner had been something from his childhood and he had kept it despite the updates made to his room. He felt nostalgic when he sat there and had done a lot of his exam revision the
Edward looked fondly at his boyfriend and noticed his mother was staring at him with a curious look on her face. He took action to distract her. “Can we play it again so it’s a best of three?” he asked. As he predicted, his request drew his mother’s attention to his father. Lord Grey was the one who made the game playing decisions. “We can play again, then no more Cluedo- I know what you’re like when you lose, Edward,” he said. The game started again and Edward knew he had lost twenty minutes later when Sebastian announced he was ready to guess the cards. As he had expected, Sebastian was right and he was the winner again. “How do you get good so quickly?” he asked in admiration. He had seen it happen once before. When they had played Monopoly, Sebastian had started the game as a standard player and had been an expert by the end. With Cluedo which was a shorter game to play, he had lost the first game and sharpened up dramatically to s
Edward walked into the room that was going to be used for his training with a heavy heart. Sebastian was sitting at the table and waved when he saw him. At least his boyfriend would be there to watch him embarrass himself. Edward couldn’t see that he was going to pass his royal training with flying colours.“Please sit down,” Sebastian said.Edward took a seat next to his boyfriend. Bernadette, who had shown him to the meeting room, took a seat at the head of the table.“We are going to cover posture first,” she announced. “It really makes a difference.”Edward hastily sat up in the chair and lifted his head higher. Sebastian snickered quietly and Edward resisted the urge to elbow him in the side.“That’s the correct position to be in. Good posture needs to come to you naturally, you can’t just suddenly remember to sit straighter,” Bernadette told him with a glare. “Look at Pri
“Are you allowed to go anywhere on your own?” Edward asked a moment later.From what he knew Sebastian always had someone protecting him, even if it was from a distance for security reasons.“Not normally, I was promised I could have a week to go somewhere on my own with precautions of course, if I got the exam grades the royal advisors wanted,” Sebastian explained.Edward squinted at him. Exam results were announced in late August in Albion so Sebastian couldn’t already know that he could go on a holiday.“Did you get those results?” he asked. “I won’t get my results for another month.”Sebastian winked at him and Edward had a feeling Sebastian was going to one up him.“I took the same exams as you, just in a different setting. As I am a royal, the results were sent through as soon as my papers were marked, which was yesterday. I did get the results, by the skin of my teeth.&
Edward bit his lip. He struggled with dance lessons. They had been compulsory at his school for the first three years and he had muddled his way through them with a passing grade. He had never thought about dance lessons since his last one several years ago.“You look nervous,” Sebastian observed with a smirk.Bernadette looked at him analytically and Edward shifted under her gaze.“You’re right. Edward, does the idea of dancing make you nervous?” she asked.“It’s not my strong subject,” he admitted. “I’m more of an sports player.”The royal advisor looked sympathetic for once.“I understand. Unfortunately it’s a requirement. All royals have to know how to dance formally because it is important socially. You can refuse to dance with other people, but you will need to dance with Prince Sebastian at least once every time there is a social function with dancing.&rdquo
“I think I’m in the right place now,” Sebastian said as he drove up yet another hill. “If we reach a heavily locked gate that’s hard to see, we’re at the house.”Edward kept a careful eye out and saw a gate matching Sebastian’s description appear in his vision. They had been driving around narrow country roads for the past hour and he was keen to finally arrive at the house.“It’s there,” he announced.Sebastian stopped the car outside the gate and produced a set of keys for the multiple locks. The house was well secured which could only be expected as it was a holiday house used by the royal family. It took a few minutes to unlock all the locks and then Sebastian input a number into the coded one.Edward noted the concealed security cameras as they drove up the drive and came to a stop. He was confident that they would be safe from the media and anyone dangerous on their holiday.&l