They went to dinner at a local restaurant in Kent on her birthday, and the day after, Sir Malcolm called to tell them that all of the papers appeared to be authentic.
The handwriting on the Queen Mother’s letters had been verified. The letters from Henry Hemmings appeared to be all right. The town hall county record office near Ainsleigh had registered all the documents. Charlotte’s cause of death on her death certificate had been a discrepancy, and the doctor who had attended the birth was long dead, but a nurse who had worked for him remembered how distressed he’d been when Charlotte had hemorrhaged shortly after the delivery. She had died after childbirth, but the nurse recalled that the countess had asked the doctor to list the cause of death as pneumonia to spare her parents embarrassment, since neither the pregnancy nor her marriage were known to her parents at the time, so the doctor had agreed. The marriage certificate was genuine. The vicar was still alive and had verified it, and said they were lovely young people and very much in love on the eve of his going to war, and Henry died shortly after, so the vicar was glad that he had married them, and had therefore legitimized Annie’s birth. And Her Majesty the queen had instantly recognized the little gold bracelet Annie was wearing, that the queen had given to her sister Charlotte. Annie could have gotten it from someone else, which all of them thought unlikely. It was credible that she got it from Lucy, who probably found it among Charlotte’s things after she died, along with the papers and letters. And the Queen Mother had acknowledged the brown leather box as hers as well.
Everything was in order, so far, and MI5 was doing some further investigation, but Sir Malcolm did not explain it. He promised to stay in touch and call when the investigation was concluded.
Annie wondered after she hung up if Lucy would have felt betrayed by their trying to have Annie recognized as a member of the royal family, or if she would have been pleased. She had gone to such lengths to make Annie her own, that Annie felt guilty about it at times, but Jonathan kept telling her that it was her birthright, and encouraged her to see it through to the end. And Lucy had told him the story herself and wanted to right the wrong she’d done. Nothing had been leaked to the press about it. The royal family was keeping it quiet in case she turned out not to be related to them after all. None of them wanted the embarrassment of discovering that Princess Charlotte wasn’t her mother, in which case Annie didn’t know who was, maybe Lucy after all. It was hard to guess the truth after silence for so long. And if Annie wasn’t Charlotte’s daughter, what had happened to the infant born to Charlotte at Ainsleigh Hall, now that they knew the rest?
It was another two months before Sir Malcolm called again. None of the Ainsleigh Hall servants were still alive, but they had spoken to the daughter of one of the maids, a hall boy, and the doctor’s nurse again. Blake and Rupert were screaming over a soccer match on TV when Sir Malcolm called. Annie could hardly hear him, and shouted at the boys to turn it down, and stop screaming. They were rooting for opposing teams and driving her insane. They had just turned sixteen, and the cottage seemed too small now for four of them. They were turning into big, brawny men, and they left a mess in their wake everywhere, which Annie constantly cleaned up for them.
“I’m sorry,” she apologized, “I couldn’t hear you. My brothers were behaving like savages.” She glared at them as she said it, and turned off the television. “Could you repeat that?” she said to Sir Malcolm, as her brothers left the room, grumbling.
“Your Royal Highness.” It struck her as odd when he said it. “The investigation has been concluded to everyone’s satisfaction. Her Royal Highness Princess Charlotte was your mother, and you bear a remarkable resemblance to her.” He was smiling as he said it, and much to her own surprise, Annie had tears in her eyes, and sat down suddenly, feeling dizzy. She had wanted this result and didn’t even know it. It was now confirmed that she was Her Majesty’s niece and the Queen Mother’s granddaughter. “Her Majesty is very pleased. We will be releasing a statement in the next few days. You might want to prepare for some media attention. They can be quite intrusive, no matter how discreetly we frame the news. It’s liable to cause considerable excitement.” Her heart was pounding as he said it. She was a member of the royal family after all. And she had no idea what would come next.
“What are you going to say in the announcement?” She was curious about it.
“Her Majesty’s press secretary is handling it. We want to keep it as discreet as possible, so it doesn’t raise too many questions of a delicate nature. It will say that you’ve been living abroad with distant relatives who brought you up, since your parents’ tragic deaths during the war, you’ve completed your education, and you have now returned to England to take your rightful place with the royal family. Her Majesty is immensely pleased at the return of her youngest sister’s daughter. It’s hard to make much of that, but the press will always try.