Princess in Training (Prince Harry #3)

Chapter Two

Waking up the next morning, Meredith groaned as she rolled out of bed. Harry turned over and put a hand on her back, with his eyes still closed. He had no reason to get out of bed yet, not until his event later, which was her first event.

"I can make you breakfast," he murmured.

"I got it." Meredith stood and stretched. "You go back to sleep."

Standing in the bathroom, Meredith stared at herself in the mirror. Barely one day in and she already had bags under her eyes. Thankfully someone was meant to fix her this afternoon. Doing the best she could, Meredith kissed Harry on the cheek before going downstairs. Newspapers had already been delivered, and they sat on the kitchen table. While drinking coffee, she flipped through the pages, finding most of them to be about her. Her face flashed on all the front pages and the ring was showed off.

When the clock tolled, the knock came and Meredith didn't even have to answer the door. There stood her teacher, and her teacher didn't have a nice greeting. "You will stand when I come in."

"Sorry." Meredith popped up, almost spilling her coffee. "Sorry. Sorry. Sorry." Apparently that was the wrong response.

The teacher, one Ms Jessica Brown, frowned. "Do not apologize." She set down objects and observed Meredith.

Heat grew on her body, and she bit her tongue so nothing rolled off.

"We're not rude today, yes."

This obviously wasn't the first day of training, but before, it had only been her trying to get through the photos and the interview. There had been so much training for the interview. It was all the basics on how to act graceful, but now it was down to the hard parts, where it meant changing parts of herself. While Meredith knew this was meant for the public eye, she also knew parts of this were to roll over into her personal life.

"You're thinking hard about something," said Jessica. "Your face becomes hard and your eyes narrow, looking as if you are ready to murder."

Meredith tried to relax her face and smile.

"It is almost natural."

For the next days of her life, or at least until the marriage, Meredith had princess training-- or whatever the technical term was-- in the morning, afternoon or evening. It went back and forth with her events, which were to get more dutiful.

"Have you thought about charities you would like to invest your time?" The eyes narrowed on Meredith as she prowled.

"I haven't, not really." She sighed.

"Don't sigh."

Meredith knew that was going to happen. "Sorry." She bit her tongue, hating herself. "I thought about it a bit, and I do love to learn. Perhaps I will just do random events for now, but I like reading and to improve literacy rates. Maybe schooling rates too." Meredith paused. "But, then again, I don't know your school system anyway."

"Anything else?" The teacher paused. "You have good posture."

"Thirteen years of dance," Meredith explained. "I like dancing, so maybe I could bring that to lower class places. I really don't know." Shaking her head, she kept the rest of her body still.

"There are things you are passionate about."

"Everyone is passionate about something, yes, but I'm not sure what I want to dedicate my life to yet." Harry focused more and more upon the Invictus Games and Heads Together, among his other charities like Sentebale. "I like different things, and the other royals focus on larger topics. Maybe I can fight for the little guy."

"The Queen will enjoy that. Turn."

Meredith turned slowly.

"Your hair wasn't done properly today. Don't give me that look." Turning the back, the teacher strode away. "Did you read what I set out for you?"

"I do know how to read, so yes."

"No sassing."

Sometimes this all grew to be too difficult because in a normal moment-- that was to say, her old life-- sassing was common. When someone told her not to do something, it was a challenge to do it. Meredith accepted these challenges. And the worse it came was when someone told her not to sass, the first response was to sass.

"Did you bring down the heels?"

"All the pairs I own." Meredith pointed, and there were certainly enough.

The teacher looked over Meredith's shoes but did not have much to say. "You will not be allowed to use these. More will come to you."

"Is it because of the height?"

"Yes, and it will hurt your feet," the teacher explained. "Around His Royal Highness, too high of heels is discouraged, except for galas and others assigned. For private events, shoes will be chosen per event. However," the teacher picked up some shoes, "these will not be worn on events."

Meredith really liked those shoes.

"No comment, your highness?"

"I'm not your highness yet," Meredith mumbled.

"Don't mumble and get used to the title."

"Can I just tell people to call me Meredith, or nah?"

"There it is," the teacher said. "I knew you couldn't last too long."

Meredith pursed her lips, ready to say something else. A migraine struck her head from stress. Saying nothing, she put on a polite smile and waited.

"I would say you're very good at pretending."

"I shouldn't have pretend."

Jessica tsked. "Are you nervous for this afternoon?"

Yes. "No. Should I be?" she asked. "I act like myself, don't I? People like me. They can see I'm real. Or do I act like you would prefer me?"

"This is for your protection, your highness."

Fall in line, Meredith thought, but she immediately cursed herself. She knew better. Meredith loved Harry, and she knew this was meant to happen. She knew her next step. She had prepared. Her first event did make her anxious. She so badly didn't want to disappoint the Queen, or the monarchy, or the people-- or Harry.

"Put these on."

Meredith did as she was told, placing on the heels.

"Walk."

One foot in front of the other, Meredith walked.

"Clunky."

Thank you so much for that. I'm not nervous at all. You're so helpful, Meredith thought, and she tried to become more natural. Thankfully it worked.

"Better. What is that cracking sound?"

"My knees."

The teacher stopped. "Your knees?"

"I was a dancer for thirteen years. Do you think my knees are amazing because of it?" Because of her poor knees, at some point, the knees were to be replaced. At least bending in heels was going to be easier because she could rock back on the heels. However, bending wasn't easy because she couldn't spend too much time down.

"Practice is necessary."

"I assumed so." Meredith walked more, and heels clicked on the ground. It didn't take too long before Harry came downstairs from Meredith's constant noise. He wasn't upset.

"Your highness," the teacher greeted with a curtsy.

Harry smiled and grabbed a cup of coffee. "Having fun?"

"Of course," Meredith responded in kind. When the teacher turned her gaze away, Meredith snapped up a middle finger for Harry, who only winked.

When the time came, Jessica left, and Meredith slipped off her shoes and sat down. Putting down a cup of tea, Harry started to rub her feet. "Are you ready for this afternoon?"

"I don't have to wear heels-- I'm good. I've done the research. I've prepared," Meredith listed. "Let's go. Show me off to the world."