The Heir Apparent

Lexi dreams of floating on a raft with Isla and wakes up hungover. Vikki enters her room, and Lexi remembers the cruel way the press treated the Shankars, falsely claiming that both Vikki and Madhav had poor etiquette. Lexi asks Vikki about her time in India, and Vikki informs her that she was in Switzerland collecting Kris’s body, as the palace refused to fly his body back with Frederick’s and Louis’s. Madhav wanted to adhere to Hindu customs, so Kris was cremated. Vikki isn’t sure what to do with his ashes; she thinks she should scatter them in the South African hunting lodge, but Amira wants to put some ashes in a necklace for herself, Vikki, and Madhav. Lexi says both are good ideas.

Vikki shows Lexi a tabloid article from that morning that claims that Lexi and Amira were up late partying, playing loud music, drinking, and laughing rather than mourning. The story also mentions the death of Isla, who passed away after taking a yacht out alone late at night, slipping and falling while under the influence of medication and alcohol. At the time, she was traveling in Italy with Lexi and Louis, who woke the next day to find her missing. Lexi knows that Richard is behind the leak and apologizes to Vikki, who worries that Lexi’s publicity will harm Amira. Vikki also tells Lexi that she needs to fight for the crown or leave now, as the fight will get ugly and both she and Amira will get hurt. Lexi remembers a tabloid story that Frederick leaked after press criticism. When Amira married Louis, she was offered a royal tiara, and the ladies-in-waiting chose the Heart of India, which featured a diamond stolen from a young maharajah. Amira either had to upset the crown by rejecting the tiara or upset India; Louis resolved it by ensuring that she received a different tiara.

Vikki leaves to check on Amira, and Lexi looks at the news about her and Amira, seeing some articles defending them and blaming Richard for the leak, some insisting that Lexi and Amira are in a romantic relationship, and others claiming that both Louis and Lexi are gay and that Amira and Kris were their fake partners. Lexi goes back to sleep.

Lexi reflects on the Villiers family’s role in the public eye; after World War II, European royalty began to fade in relevance. Some royal families accepted their irrelevance and found other ways to live, but Lexi’s grandparents ensured the survival of the British royal family by making the whole family into “tabloid stars.” The royals supply entertainment in exchange for taxpayer money funding their lavish lifestyles; their lives “became storylines, and there are no greater plot points than weddings, babies, and funerals” (101). As such, Amira and Lexi spend the four days before the funeral being “groomed and detoxed and lasered” in preparation for Louis and Frederick’s funeral (101). They fall back into their routine from Astley, watching TV together and reminiscing about the time before their relationship fell apart.

Aides arrive to dress them on the day of the funeral. Lexi’s hat gives her the privacy to cry while looking down, but Lexi hasn’t cried yet. Amira wears Isla’s engagement ring, which Louis used to propose to her. Mary arrives and presents Lexi with a piece of royal jewelry: a brooch created by a Scottish jeweler that Frederick and Isla gave to Eleanor for her 70th birthday. Amira notes that the brooch shows that Eleanor is claiming Lexi as her own.

The lesser royals arrive early at Westminster Abbey for small talk with Commonwealth politicians, while Amira enters last. Lexi rides with Mary to Westminster Hall and learns that Mary is 24, attended Astley, and has only ever worked for the royals. At Westminster Hall, Lexi takes a moment to be alone in front of Louis and Frederick’s coffins. She remembers being with them for Isla’s funeral and looking at her coffin covered in lilies, a flower Isla hated. Now, Lexi is alone.

The walk to the abbey is a blur, and the funeral passes quickly. Lexi sits beside Annabelle, whose hands shake in her lap. Lexi doesn’t comfort her. Annabelle was the woman whom Frederick loved but couldn’t marry because she was a Catholic divorcee. Frederick maintained his relationship with her after his marriage to Isla; the tabloids publicized the story, and his infidelity broke Isla’s heart. Eleanor let Frederick and Annabelle wed seven years after Isla’s death, but Annabelle had to convert and did not receive the title of princess. Louis attended the wedding in a show of maturity; Lexi attended after her father offered her access to investment bonds to buy herself a used car.

After the funeral, the royals attend a reception, though Eleanor goes to bed early. Florence, Richard’s wife, approaches Lexi and Amira and attempts to console them. Richard cheats on Florence constantly, but she stays married to retain her royal perks. Demelza and Birdie also approach. Both flit between jobs while coveting the crown. Now, they snub Amira and insinuate that she’ll have to give up her apartment, as Cumberland 1 goes to the heir. Richard puts his arm around Lexi and asks the women how they’re doing; his military uniform reminds Lexi of Frederick carrying her to bed after her grandfather’s funeral years ago, a rare moment of affection. Amira and Lexi retire early, and on the walk back to Cumberland, Amira angrily asks Lexi what she intends to do. She then calls Lexi a bad friend and bad sister for leaving her and Louis to deal with the royals alone.

When Lexi turned 15, she developed acne and began to grow a fuller figure. Lexi decided to take up ballet in hopes of conforming to beauty standards. Meanwhile, she struggled with disordered eating, and she knew that Louis was noticing.

Louis and Kris were in cadets, a program that began in the 19th century to prepare young men for military service and then transitioned to teaching discipline and wilderness survival skills instead. The night before a cadet parade, Astley hosted a dance for the students. Most of the girls, including Amira, wore tight bandage dresses, but Lexi wore a looser dress to hide her figure. Amira flirted with a boy named Rafe, whose father was a baron; Vikki had long encouraged Amira to marry into royalty. After the dance, Amira couldn’t find her coat, so she and Lexi searched for it. While doing so, they found Louis and Kris dancing slowly and tenderly together. Lexi and Amira said nothing and returned to their dorm, though everything as they knew it had changed.

After Kris’s cremation, Amira took her necklace with his ashes and slipped it into Louis’s coffin so that “the two men she loved could finally be together” (129).

While staying at Watford Castle with Eleanor and the other royals, Lexi calls Ben, her supervisor. Lexi only has two weeks off left, and Ben tells her that she’ll have to take a year off and start over in January of next year if she misses more than her allotted time. Ben and Lexi began dating after Amira and Louis’s wedding, when Lexi lost contact with her family. However, he broke up with her five weeks ago, and he has little sympathy for her plight, simply telling her to make her decision soon.

Lexi finds Amira’s room empty. Mary helps her dress for a meeting with Eleanor regarding Frederick’s will; she encourages Lexi to stay and serve as heir. Lexi wonders if the monarchy can function in a different, better way, and Mary says that it’s possible. Isla wanted to reform the monarchy and make it a “force for change” (138), and Lexi could choose to follow in her footsteps.

Jenny and Stewart are present at the meeting, where Lexi learns that Annabelle inherits all of Frederick’s possessions; he left nothing to Lexi. All of Louis’s belongings go to Amira, and Eleanor wants Amira to keep Cumberland 1. The Duchy of Exeter goes to the monarch’s eldest son and heir, but since Lexi is a woman, the £1-billion duchy will be administered by the crown estate, and the revenue will flow back into the government. Lexi is asked if she intends to accept the crown. Seeing that Lexi doesn’t know, Lexi gives her a year to decide. In the meantime, Lexi is not just heir presumptive but heir apparent, as there is no possibility of a male relative with a better claim. Eleanor leaves the meeting, and Jenny encourages Lexi to become heir, as otherwise the duchy and power will go to Richard.

Lexi finds Annabelle outside smoking. Annabelle warns Lexi that the year-long pause will give Richard time to strike and comments that the palace is a prison. Lexi congratulates her on becoming free after ruining Isla’s life, breaking up Lexi’s family, and leaking stories about Lexi and Louis. Annabelle says that Frederick never felt deserving of the crown, and though he did leak stories, he never leaked Lexi’s biggest secret. When Annabelle warns her that Mary isn’t who she claims to be, Lexi instead decides to hire Mary.

Lexi visits Cumberland 1 and apologizes to Amira for abandoning her, and Amira apologizes for what she said after the reception. Lexi tells her that she’s decided to stay for now. Louis’s dog, Chino, runs up to Lexi for petting, and Amira explains that she brought the dog in case Lexi misses Ragu. Lexi knows that Louis lied for her at the worst moment of their life, and she wonders if being the heir is how she can make it up to him.