Page 20 of Club Royal: Calendar Collection

George

The best thing about being Prince George Henry Sutcliffe was that he could get away with murder.

Probably. Maybe. But at that point in the day, he was ready to commit murder, dig a grave and hide the bodies to be found centuries later.

And who was the person he fantasised about killing? His brother.

Douglas was an asshole of epic proportions. George had gone out of his way to make their Halloween celebration the absolute best it could possibly be, and Douglas had outed the secret he’d kept for weeks—weeks!—with only a mere day to go.

To put it rather impolitely, Douglas needed to piss off and leave him alone for the foreseeable future.

“Sweetheart, I know it’s not ideal, but we can still have an amazing celebration,” Eddie told him, smoothing his hand along George’s back, like he liked.

“That’s not the point. It was supposed to be a surprise for those kids, and he went and blabbed on social media!”

George stormed away, very aware of the fact that he was overreacting.

He and Nick had been working on this party for weeks, providing little clues for the kids who were coming, and giving them something exciting to look forward to.

And Douglas had ruined the surprise by putting one tiny post up on social media to say he was “looking forward to meeting Jack” with a skeleton photo, and he’d ruined it all.

He’d taken it down as soon as George had told him to, but it was too late. The damage was done.

“How about, instead of pacing a hole in the carpet, you use it as a jumping block to advertise more stuff?” Timothy said.

“Yes, the main attraction is no longer a surprise, but they didn’t know that it was the surprise.

Why not get some of the others to put up more posts about who they’re looking forward to seeing?

Like, get Freddie to post that he’s looking forward to meeting a witch. ”

“But we don’t have a witch coming,” George argued.

“Why don’t we do that then?” Eddie said. George frowned, and Eddie waved his hands around. “Get the others to dress up. I know Nick was going to be Jack, but get the others to dress up as wizards and werewolves and vampires… and anything else I can’t think of right now.”

George’s mind started whirling. The party was tomorrow, but that was more than enough time to get the costumes ready.

“You’re all amazing!” he said, racing to the door. As he opened it, he came to a startled halt. “Nick, jeez!”

“Sorry, Your Highness,” he said, even though it wasn’t his fault. “I came by to see what we could do about the slip.”

George rolled his eyes. “Is that what we’re calling it?

” He brushed it aside. “My amazing husbands have given us the answer.” He pushed past Nick.

“To the receiving room!” He strode off and then paused before running back to the suite and putting his head around the still-open door.

“Thank you so much! I love you!” He blew them a kiss and raced back to where Nick looked slightly bemused.

George grinned. “Never leave without saying I love you. That’s my tip of the day. ”

“I’ll have to remember that.” Nick grinned. “Anyway, what do you have to tell me?”

“Everyone is now involved in this, Nick. Everyone. They have no choice. We have to batten down the hatches and make this the best Halloween party ever!”

“Even if I do say so myself, it already was.”

George chuckled. “It was, but now it will be even better. We have to think of enough characters that will get every single Sexy Sixteen to dress up.”

Nick stared at him as if he’d grown another head. “Sixteen costumes?”

“Yep. Sixteen costumes.”

“I’m not sure Your Majesty will agree to that.” Nick raised his eyebrows.

George grinned. “Oh, yes, he will.”

Nick shook his head, a smile crossing his face. “I’m not even going to ask. All I’m going to say is that you can deal with him.”

“Understood.” George clapped his hands. “Now, let’s get to work. The first thing we need to do is decide who is going to be who, so we know what size costumes to get.”

Eddie

“You realise you’ve just voted for us to dress up as well, don’t you?” Timothy said, tugging Eddie into his lap.

Eddie curled into him, grinning. “Yes, I do. But why can’t we embrace Halloween fully for one night of the year? Especially when it’s for the kids.”

“I have nothing against doing it, but I’m worried about what Freddie and Damon would think.”

“They’ll be fine with it. They both love kids and will do anything for them. You know that.”

“Yes, but dressing up? Might be a step too far.”

Eddie didn’t agree. The entire group would do whatever it took to make it the best event ever.

When George had approached Nick about doubling up and creating an enormous Halloween party for the kids, he’d jumped on the idea, and what they had come up with was nothing short of miraculous.

Nick was a whiz at party planning, and he had contacts far and wide, but even this tested his ability.

But they’d got it done, and although Douglas had ruined the surprise, they would bounce back.

“I suppose we need to go and lend a hand,” Timothy said. “I can feel my bones aching already.”

“You’re an old man, sweetheart, and I love it.”

Timothy dug his fingers into Eddie’s sides, making him squirm, but then took his mouth in a heated kiss. “I love you.”

“I love you.”

“Let’s go tell our crazy husband the same.” Timothy stood, holding out his hand to Eddie, who had slipped off his lap during the short tickle session. “And try to keep him from throttling Douglas when he sees him.”

They headed to the door. “Nah, George will be over it by now.”

“Maybe, but he’ll get his own back somehow.”

“Oh, absolutely.”

There were already several other people in the room when they arrived, and most were bustling around with fabric and tape measures and who knows what else. They found George in the middle of it all.

“Anything we can do to help?” Eddie asked.

George beamed at them. “You two get to choose who you want to be. So, Jack’s already taken, but we have a vampire, werewolf, wizard, zombie, ghost, mummy, Frankenstein, alien, grim reaper, pumpkin head, devil, Jekyll, clown, monster and cat. Which would you like?”

Eddie knew right away which one he wanted.

He’d always dressed up as it when he was a kid.

“The mummy!” He remembered the rolls and rolls of toilet tissue his parents had used to get him into the roll, and the amount of time it took to get it off him was surprisingly long.

That time, he wasn’t getting toilet tissue, though.

This was an entire, amazingly real-looking mummy.

“Um, are you sure it won’t scare the kids? ”

“No, it’ll be great. The designers will be changing the expression a bit to make it less evil-looking.”

“Good. I love mummies, but even I think I’d run from this one.” Eddie laughed.

“What about you?” George nudged Timothy. “I know it’s not your favourite pastime, but do you have a favourite?”

“I think I’ll take the vampire.”

“Good choice,” Eddie said, linking arms with him. “You’ll look cute with little sharp teeth.”

Timothy leaned down and bit his neck, making him laugh. “I always look cute, remember.”

“Always! Always!” Eddie snorted and pushed him away. “I forget how much of a kid you can be sometimes.”

“Never!” Timothy said, standing tall. “I’m never anything but the most polished man in Windsor.”

“I think the rest of the royals will have something to say about that,” a voice from behind them said.

Eddie turned, his heart racing from the scare. “I know it’s Halloween, but you don’t have to sneak up on me!” he said, slapping Freddie’s shoulder.

“Sorry. Thought you’d heard me.” Freddie glanced at George. “So what’s the call out for?”

“Where’s Damon?” George asked.

“Here,” Damon answered. “I’m here, sorry.”

“Good. You two are going to be the Grim Reaper and a zombie. In that order,” George stated, as if he already had them sorted and hadn’t been pulling them out of the air, which he potentially had.

He knew Eddie and Timothy well enough to be able to guess what they would want to be. Maybe he had already sorted everyone.

“Thanks,” Freddie deadpanned.

Sometimes, Eddie wondered whether he was putting on the grumpy air he occasionally wore because it could be turned on and off whenever he wanted to, it appeared. But there was no telling. The guy had an amazing poker face.

“Henry! Robert! Come here!” George shouted, causing those nearby to wince.

“Yes, Your Highness,” Henry said, rolling his eyes and making Eddie snort.

“Henry, you are the werewolf, and Robert, you are the pumpkin head.”

“Um, thanks?” Robert said. “Any reason why I need to be orange and pumpkin-shaped?”

George grinned. “No reason.” His head jerked to the side, and he shouted again. “Christian! Oscar!”

As called, they came over, bringing Patrick and Kieren, too.

“Okay, so Kieren, you are a wizard; Patrick, a ghost; Christian, Frankenstein; and Oscar, a cat.”

Oscar clapped his hands together. “Yay!”

Christian smiled at him like he hung the moon—kind of like how Eddie was sure he looked at Timothy and George most of the time.

“Kean and Kendal, I’m so glad you’re here. Are you ready for your costumes?” George asked.

“Yes, looking forward to it,” Kean said.

“Good, good. You are going to be a clown—a nice clown—and Kendal, you will be an alien. Is that okay?”

Kendal smiled. “Sure. Sounds like fun.”

“Great. Where are Dad, Douglas and Mav?”

“I’m not sure. Do you want me to go look for them?” Freddie asked.

George waved him off. “No. You need to find your designer and get the fitting sorted. All of you. Scram!”

“Sir, yes, sir!” several of them said.

Eddie chuckled to himself and found the person who would be altering the mummy costume to fit him—and be less scary.

“Thank you for doing this,” the woman said. “Most people would be annoyed about doing this for a bunch of kids they don’t know.”