Archie the Royal Hot Water Bottle Read online

  Chapter 6

  The backpack was put into the back of the Range Rover as Crystal came out of the house and seeing the front seat of the Range Rover free jumped in, putting the plugs of her iPod into her ears.

  'Are you ready Miss?' a deep voice asked her.

  She nodded without looking up and Jeff started the car. They drove away from the house and took one of the estate roads up into the hills. The road was wet with melted snow. Drifts were piled up at the road edge and frost was clothing the trees with white lace. A biting wind whipped around the car which climbed steadily uphill.

  Crystal shivered as she looked out the window with thoughts of Siberia pervading her thoughts,

  'Where exactly are we going?' she asked without looking around.

  Jeff looked over and said to the back of her head, 'About ten miles north. The camp is at the far edge of the estate.'

  Crystal looked around and saw his face for the first time, 'What did you say...?' She said as she took in his startling blue eyes and a slight smile at the corners of his beautiful mouth. He was wearing a black jumper and heavy outdoor walking coat.

  Jeff pointed to her earplugs and waited. Crystal pulled one out and raised her voice,

  'I said...'

  'I heard you Miss, you couldn't hear me.'

  Jeff waited. Crystal was unused to the help pulling her up for bad manners and said in a short voice,

  'What did you say?'

  'About ten miles north, into the hills. We're meeting the kids at their camp at the old lodge on the edge of the estate. They've been there since yesterday. You'll have dinner, spend the night and continue the trek with them in the morning.'

  'Oh, I see.'

  'There's a folder in the glovebox with some information on who they are and what the trek's about.'

  Crystal ignored this and put her earplug back in. She looked back out the window.

  Jeff reached over and pulled the nearest earplug out. Crystal looked at him, outraged that he should touch anything to do with her, but he was unconcerned and said without taking his eyes off the road,

  'They're all underprivileged kids from the Midlands. Some of them have been in foster care for years and have never left the city. This is a huge adventure for them and you coming along is the icing on the cake.'

  'What do you think you're doing, lecturing me?'

  Jeff took in her young, pretty but spoiled face,

  'Not lecturing, I'm looking after you, which is my job. If you go in there knowing nothing you'll look stupid. We can't have that, can we?'

  Crystal had no idea what to say. Her mouth, which she'd opened to speak, closed. Jeff kept driving as she reached into the glovebox and took out the folder. She started to read. When she finished she was momentarily saddened by the hardships the children had, and continued to, experience. As she did when confronted with anything unpalatable she resorted to comfort. She said to Jeff,

  'Would you like some chocolate?'

  'Yeah, thanks, why not.'

  Crystal reached over to her pack and pulled out a block of Lindt. They shared it for the rest of the journey.

  Archie and Terri's experience was less pleasant. The hiking boots had landed on them and pinned them down. Terri in particular was for the first time in her life claustrophobic, the nearness and heaviness of the boots seemed to remove the air and press upon her.

  She struggled and shouted to the boots,

  'Can you get off? I'm suffocating here.'

  The boots were horrified. Sensitive souls, the last thing they wanted to do was cause discomfort to anyone.

  'Apologies,' they said in unison. 'It's difficult for us to move but at the next bump in the road we'll throw ourselves to the right and hopefully relieve the pressure. Please hold on.'

  They were as good as their word and Terri heaved a great sigh of relief.

  'Thank you,' she said to the boots.

  'You're welcome,' they said together.

  'Do you two always speak at the same time?' Archie asked.

  'Of course, we're a pair. It's like being a Siamese twin. Joined at the hip so to speak even though we're separate. Most disconcerting if one of us is lost.'

  The left boot turned to the right and then they said together, 'Do you remember last summer in the Alps, she left you in the hotel room? I was nearly out of my mind for days until you were found.'

  The boots continued their conversation which centred on the thoughtlessness of their owner, oblivious of anyone else. As they listened Archie and Terri gained a great deal of information about Crystal.

  Crystal was surprised when she relaxed during the journey and started to enjoy the ride as Jeff powered the car through mud, slush and snow. It was quite a trip, up high into the hills on narrow roads, part of the estate she didn't know. There were views down wide valleys to clutches of stone houses with trails of smoke rising in the cold air. She wondered who lived there and what their lives were like.

  After some time Jeff said,

  'I found your grass and burnt it.'

  Crystal almost gagged on the chocolate in her mouth. She put her hand up to cover her lips as she started to cough.

  'What?'

  'I took it, on orders of course. Your grandmother knows all about Jade and your supply arrangement. The orders came from her. I thought you should know. If you get any more I'm to remove that as well.'

  Jeff let Crystal digest this in her own time. From experience he knew she'd go through a number of emotions: rage, fear and betrayal. If he was lucky the last would be acceptance as she realised he meant what he said.

  Crystal seemed to slump in the big leather seat, her still chubby frame collapsing into itself as she tried to cocoon herself from this terrible truth.

  'Grandmother knew. She knew but hadn't said anything. She knew...'

  In her young life Crystal had taken many things for granted, her grandmother's love was one of them. It had been the strength that carried her through the loss of her pleasure seeking parents when she was a small child. Their loss in a small plane crash in the Amazon had left her an orphan. Since then her grandmother had raised her. Despite all her bitchy, teenage behaviour, in her heart Crystal loved her for it. For the first time she realised losing her grandmother's love and regard would leave her in a vacuum of sterile privilege, alone. She didn't want to be alone.

  Crystal's trouble was she had been spoiled by being left too much in the care of servants who did her bidding. Even her nanny had been powerless to deny her, only her grandmother had done so but not often enough. Her Grandmother's frequent absences on royal duty took her out of Crystal's day to day life when consistent discipline and guidance would have checked her more precocious impulses and self indulgent urges.

  Crystal had not known that experience, until now. In only a day Jeff had controlled her life more than anyone else had.

  Jeff concentrated on the road which was becoming narrower and more slippery. They were nearing the camp and would be there in a few minutes. His job was to help Crystal grow up. His interview with her grandmother at the Palace had made that clear,

  'My granddaughter is an intelligent child, not yet a woman. Despite being nearly nineteen she is immature. She thinks and acts impulsively. It's time she started to think about others, not just about herself. This smoking of drugs is just a symptom of her selfishness. It has to stop.'

  'Yes Ma'am,' Jeff said. Her Majesty was silent, looking away to a far wall. Jeff couldn't speak unless she asked him a question. He waited. Her Majesty turned the force of her clear blue eyes upon him,

  'Your job Constable is to keep my granddaughter out of trouble until she learns to control herself. Can you do that, without making her fall in love with you?'

  Jeff was surprised by Her Majesty's directness but saw her eyes were crinkling at the edges. He suspected this incredible woman had heard and seen just about everything. He felt very young and inexperienced in her presence; nevertheless he didn't hesitate with his answer because he'd thought a
bout how he could be Crystal's minder while she lived her life.

  It was a fraught business: there would have to be care, a measure of steady control, understanding whilst at times frankly denying her wishes. For a relatively young man it was asking a lot. But Jeff wasn't just any young policeman, he was, for reasons best known to himself and his upbringing, mature beyond his years: he was stable having come from a loving family and had survived a few escapades himself, survived and gone to university and unexpectedly for him, was in a relationship with a woman five years older than himself. He'd learnt a great deal about women from the lovely Ursula.

  'Yes Ma'am, I can.'

  'Tell me constable, how you intend to go about it.'

  'By remembering what it was like to be a teenager. I had a few close calls myself but I didn't get into a lot of trouble. Some of my friends did: trouble of all kinds. If I remember how that happened I can help Crystal. And my police training, I know something about the criminal mind.' He smiled at his own irony and received a smile in return.

  'That's admirable Constable. However, I am informed that my former page, Jade, poor girl, lost her self control once exposed to you. How do we avoid that particular problem with my granddaughter?'

  Jeff was embarrassed. Being some kind of chick magnet was a relatively new experience for him. The Jade incident wasn't one of his finer moments but he did understand why it had happened.

  'Ma'am, Jade was a girl without any internal controls. She had no limits. Crystal isn't like that. She has values but chooses, at times, to ignore them. There's a difference. One of the restraints Crystal will have with me is my relationship with a very lovely woman. I'll let her know about it. It puts me off limits.'

  Her Majesty studied him and Jeff felt uncomfortable under the scrutiny. She wasn't quite convinced but she was impressed with Jeff. She needed someone around Crystal who knew how she thought and could anticipate her stupidity. She would trust this handsome devil, for he was handsome and she liked handsome men, and see how things went.

  'Thank you Constable,' she said as she stood up, 'Keep your superiors informed. I expect to know of anything untoward.'

  'Yes Ma'am.' Jeff left the room feeling he had survived one of the biggest tests of his life.