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“Yes, thank you. Maybe about 11am.”
“Of course, I’ll have Jess organise the packing and I will have the drivers and security team briefed and ready. I will inform the castle staff.”
“Lovely, thank you. I’ll want you there as well Friday and Saturday so we can plan the Scotland trip. Erin will be heading over tomorrow on her own so she can get some more riding in with Victoria.”
“Of course,” Julia nodded. When you work for extremely wealthy and important people, it is a well-known fact that you say yes to everything. Whatever they ask for, you say yes, then you find a way to make it happen. These kinds of people are not normal people, they aren’t used to people saying no to them. They are used to things happening exactly when and how they say and if you want to survive working for them, then you get used to being the person who makes things happen. Julia was very good at making things happen and aside from her obvious political and world current affairs knowledge, which she used to offer advice to the Queen, she was exceptional at getting things done.
The advice and knowledge of worldwide politics was her job; the getting-things-done part was not technically her job, but she knew damn well that anything that made the Queen’s life easier was what made her indispensable.
Julia was the Queen’s right hand. It was the highest position she had ever held and she was proud to serve Queen Alexandra at every turn.
“How is Victoria?” Julia asked politely. “And Hyzenthlay?”
Victoria had gone into labour at the same time as Alexandra, and at the time, the best thing that Julia could have done for Alexandra was to take a wild Victoria off her hands. She had supported Victoria through her birth, because she had nobody else, but hadn’t seen or heard from her since Alexandra and Erin had moved to the palace in London. Although Alexandra and Erin still visited the castle regularly—it was only an hour’s drive out of London to the beautiful Surrey countryside— there hadn’t been much call for Julia to be there, until this weekend coming it seemed.
Alexandra smiled, “Oh, she’s much the same old Vic. I envy her, honestly, she makes motherhood look like it is no big deal, she hauls Hyzenthlay around with her, out to the stables, playing with the dogs. She was back riding not two weeks after the birth. Her body looks exactly the same as it always did, just like nothing ever happened. She breastfeeds all the time as though it is easy—I just couldn’t do it, you know. It was so hard. I had no idea. I tried so hard. I really wanted to be able to do that for my babies and I just felt like such a failure that my body wouldn’t cooperate. Especially when Vic was there just making it look like the easiest thing in the world.”
“Maybe it’s an Olympic champion mentality? Maybe women like Vic are just used to being the best at everything? Maybe motherhood is a bit like a sport to her?”
Alexandra laughed, “Oh, of course! That’s the wild Victoria, Olympic champion, bad language champion, motherhood champion, everything is a sport to her. Never offer to play her at tennis, she won’t let you win, even if you are the Queen.”
Julia smiled, thinking for a moment about the wild Victoria. Victoria was wild and unpredictable, like some of the horses she rode. Julia realised she missed her. Victoria was Alexandra and Erin’s closest friend. She had been a huge part of the family when they all lived at the castle. Victoria never failed to make all of them laugh, and Julia realised she missed that. She also missed the view from the window of her office at the castle where, in the early mornings, she would often see Victoria riding. Her long, lean legs capably guided any horse. There was something about Victoria that was just different from everyone else in the world, maybe it was the Olympic thing?
Julia remembered watching her in the Olympics Equestrian Eventing on TV years ago, before she had started working for Alexandra and met her in person. Julia was one of those people who didn’t watch sport regularly at all, but had found herself between job contracts with days off getting absorbed into watching the Olympics—every obscure sport she could find—and she adored every second of it.
Victoria Grey-Hughes had led after the first phase of the competition for Great Britain and had been interviewed. Julia remembered watching her fierce green eyes vivid on the TV screen, her hair was a messy tangle of gold and light brown and she wore an immaculate, tight-fitting, navy blue jacket with gold buttons. There was something about equestrian-wear that you saw in no other sport. The British flag was sewn into the chest of the jacket raised slightly on the small swell of her breasts.
“So, Victoria, congratulations on being in the lead after the first phase, the dressage, this is wonderful news for Team GB,” the man doing the interview had handed the microphone to her.
Her face had broken into a wide smile. “Oh, thank my horse, Excelsior, he was fucking spectacular, wasn’t he?”
The interviewer’s face had gone ashen as he snatched the microphone off her, and Julia remembered laughing at the swearing.
“Thank you, Victoria, yes, Excelsior was indeed exceptional. Can I just remind you we are live on air,” he looked at Victoria pointedly. “Very sorry to any viewers who may have been upset by Victoria’s choice of words; she is just excited.” The camera panned to Excelsior who was standing looking bored behind Victoria.
He took a deep breath and smiled, “So, going into the second phase of competition, the cross country jumping test, how are you feeling about the jumping course? Can we expect to see Victoria Grey-Hughes and Excelsior still in the lead for Team GB at the end of that phase tomorrow.”
Victoria smiled and took the microphone from him. There was fierce determination in her eyes. “Well, thank you, Matthew. So, I have walked the course a few times. It is four and a half miles and 34 jumping efforts. It is a beautiful track; the Olympic committee have made a great job. Excelsior will eat it up. So, yes, you can expect to see us still in the lead tomorrow. Excelsior is the best horse in the world. I didn’t come halfway round the world to not fucking win gold.”
The interviewer had snatched the microphone back from Victoria’s hand again. “Thank you very much, Victoria Grey-Hughes and Excelsior. They lead for Team GB after phase one of the Equestrian Eventing. There are three phases to this sport, can they hold their lead for the next two phases and win gold for Team GB? Victoria seems confident that they can. Back to Mike in the Studio.”
The camera panned once more to Victoria and the big horse in the background with his glossy golden brown coat.
Julia remembered being transfixed by Victoria’s absolute confidence in herself and her beautiful horse.
Oh, what it would be to have that level of sheer unapologetic confidence in oneself.
Julia had followed the competition avidly and watched proudly two days later as Victoria received her gold medals as though they were her due. One for her individual performance and one for the team eventing competition, which Team GB had just scraped a win in. The team competition was composed of four riders and horses for each nation competing as individuals and then the three best individual scores were combined to give a score for that nation. Victoria’s score was the one that had ensured the win for Team GB.
Victoria was not a humble champion and Julia remembered thinking there was something refreshing about that. She knew how good she was and she wasn’t afraid to embrace that. Her gold medals sat around her neck as though they had always been meant to be there.
When Julia had finally met Victoria in real life through her work for Alexandra, she had found a different side to her. Victoria was awkward, funny, and all over the place. On the surface, you couldn’t see the champion that she was. You had to look deeper to see that fierce determination and that unshakable self belief. Julia realised that she was someone who had looked deeper when it came to Victoria. She had seen her at her most vulnerable, twice. First when she had planned to get an abortion and ultimately decided not to go through with it. Then, when she subsequently gave birth in a birthing pool in the castle, high on gas and air and squeezing the life out of Julia’s hand and splashing and soaking her with the water. It had felt intimate and so magical to be in there with Victoria and the midwife, seeing Victoria naked in every way, seeing the wonder of the female body in action. Victoria had been dramatic, but determined and capable. She had been flirty and so very grateful to Julia. For a moment, Julia had felt like there was something between them, but then, afterwards, she had not heard from Victoria. It must have been the entenox that Victoria had been sucking on enthusiastically. Victoria had been high as a kite, no wonder she was flirty. It had been a ridiculous thought. Victoria was so much younger than her, it had just been the drugs and the extreme situation. Julia had sent a card congratulating her on her baby but never heard back. She realised she still had a fondness for Victoria and was looking forward to seeing her, and seeing how much Hyzenthlay had grown, when she visited the castle this weekend.
“I’ll never offer to play her at tennis,” Julia smiled to Queen Alexandra, shaking herself from her thoughts. “Now, where were we?” Julia said. “Let’s get down to business.”
3
It was Friday, and Vic headed back up to the castle from the stables with Hyzenthlay safely on her back and Bear, Linda and two spaniels following along behind.
