Page 57 of In Shining Armor

Why Flicka Married Pierre Grimaldi

Flicka von Hannover

Heartbreak changes people.

For a year after that, Pierre Grimaldi courted Flicka, escorting her to all the right charity and high-society events during the holiday season and through the spring.

As Flicka finished her piano performance degree in June, she and Pierre were seen at more and more of the usual events for their status, and people began to whisper that a proposal must be imminent.

He even watched her compete at The Leeds piano competition in September. Flicka played Prokofiev on an enormous concert grand in a huge hall in front of an orchestra, her fingers flying over the keys, and she made the Concerto Finals. Chang Lin won that year, but Flicka came in third. It was more than a respectable showing, considering that she had eight years left to compete before she turned thirty.

Flicka drifted through it all, concentrating on her music, her charities, and occasionally slipping away from the palace security staff for a day of walking in the park in silence. In those moments, she considered walking away from it all forever, to walk the Earth like a normal person who did not worry about assassins or dynasties.

She knew the German word for what she felt:fernweh.It’s the opposite of homesickness. It’s a desire to be anywhere else, a loneliness for leaving.

She didn’t let herself consider what else she might actually be longing for. Flicka did not torture herself.

But she always went back to Kensington Palace to listen to the personal protection detail’s scoldings, which she dutifully nodded along to, until the next time she slipped away.

A year later, Pierre proposed.

It was perfectly reasonable that she, a princess of Hannover, would marry the heir to the Prince of Monaco, even though he was ten years or so older than she was.

Dieter Schwarz had married someone else months before, she had heard through the Hannover family grapevine. Wulfram had attended the elopement. That was nice for him.

London seemed dreary and gray all the time that winter, more so than usual. The chilly rain arrived early, stayed late, and was unrelenting.

Flicka tried every day to get over Dieter, to put him in her past and chalk their entire affair up to an immature infatuation, but the best she ever managed was to numb that raw part of her wounded heart and go on.

Hannovers shouldn’t love anyone, anyway. She should be like her brother Wulfram, floating through life with a cold, insubstantial touch.

For her, a marriage to Pierre Grimaldi, Prince of Monaco, was a logical choice. They had a special understanding about their personal lives, which was fine with her.

Pierre was affectionate whenever they were together, and he loved her in his fashion. He took special interest in her security, and he finally sat down and talked to her, asking her not to go on her walkabouts any longer. He would be devastated if something happened to her, he assured her, his dark eyes solemn.

So she stopped slipping away for even those moments of privacy.

Flicka’s piano performances took on new energy and urgency, tapping a deeper wellspring, as she poured her broken heart into her music.