3-72

72.

Meg and I discussed getting away, but this time we weren’t talking about a day at Wimbledon or a

weekend with Elton.

We were talking about escape.

A friend knew someone who had a house we could borrow on Vancouver Island. Quiet, green

—seemingly remote. Only reachable by ferry or plane, the friend said.

November 2019.

We arrived with Archie, Guy, Pula, and our nanny, under cover of darkness, on a stormy night,

and spent the next few days trying to unwind. It wasn’t hard. From morning to night we didn’t

have to give a thought to being ambushed². The house was right on the edge of a sparkling green

forest, with big gardens where Archie and the dogs could play, and it was nearly surrounded by

the clean, cold sea. I could take a bracing³ swim in the morning. Best of all, no one knew we were

there. We hiked, we kayaked, we played—in peace.

After a few days we needed supplies. We ventured out timidly, drove down the road into the

nearest village, walked along the pavement like people in a horror movie. Where will the attack

come from? Which direction?

But it didn’t happen. People didn’t freak. They didn’t stare. They didn’t reach for their

iPhones. Everyone knew, or sensed, that we were going through something. They gave us space,

while also managing to make us feel welcome, with a kind smile, a wave. They made us feel like

part of a community. They made us feel normal.

For six weeks.

Then the Daily Mail printed our address.

Within hours the boats arrived. An invasion by sea. Each boat bristled⁴ with telephoto lenses,

arrayed like guns along the decks, and every lens was aimed at our windows. At our boy.

So much for playing in the gardens.

We grabbed Archie, pulled him into the house.

They shot through the kitchen windows during his feeds.

We pulled down the blinds.

The next time we drove into town, there were forty paps along the route. Forty. We counted.

Some gave chase. At our favorite little general store, a plaintive⁵ sign now hung in the window: No

Media.

We hurried back to the house, pulled the blinds even tighter, returned to a kind of permanent

twilight⁶.

Meg said she’d officially come full circle. Back in Canada, afraid to raise the blinds.

But blinds weren’t enough. Security cameras along the back fence of the property soon picked

up a skeletal man pacing, peering, looking for a way in. And taking photos over the fence. He

wore a filthy⁷ puffer vest, dirty trousers bunched around his raggedy shoes, and he looked as if

nothing was beneath him. Nothing. His name was Steve Dennett. He was a freelance pap who’d

spied on us before, in the employ of Splash!

He was a pest. But maybe the next guy would be more than a pest.

Can’t stay here, we said.

And, yet…?

Brief as it was, that taste of freedom had got us thinking. What if life could be like that…all

the time? What if we could spend at least part of each year somewhere far away, still doing work

for the Queen, but beyond the reach of the press?

Free. Free from the British press, free from the drama, free from the lies. But also free from the

supposed “public interest” that was used to justify⁸ the frenzied⁹ coverage¹⁰ of us.

The question was…where?

We talked about New Zealand. We talked about South Africa. Half the year in Cape¹ Town

maybe? That could work. Away from the drama, but closer to my conservation work—and to

eighteen other Commonwealth¹¹ countries.

I’d run the idea by Granny once before. She’d even signed off on it. And I’d run it by Pa, at

Clarence House, the Wasp¹² present. He told me to put it in writing, which I’d done immediately.

Within a few days it was in all the papers and caused a huge stink¹³. So now, at the end of

December 2019, when I was chatting with Pa on the phone, saying we were more serious than

ever about spending part of the year away from Britain, I wasn’t having it when he said that I must

write it down.

Yeah, um, did that once before, Pa. And our plan immediately got leaked and scuppered.

I can’t help you if you don’t put it in writing, darling boy. These things have to go through

government.

For the love of…

So. In the first days of January 2020, I sent him a watermarked letter broadly outlining the

idea, with bullet points, and many details. Throughout the exchanges that followed, all marked

Private and Confidential¹⁴, I hammered the essential theme: we were prepared to make any sacrifice

necessary to find some peace and safety, including relinquishing¹⁵ our Sussex titles.

I rang to get his thoughts.

He wouldn’t come to the phone.

I soon received a long email from him saying we’d have to sit down and discuss the whole

thing in person. He’d like us to come back as soon as possible.

You’re in luck, Pa! We’re coming back to Britain in the next few days—to see Granny. So…

when can we meet?

Not before the end of January.

What? That’s more than a month away.

I’m in Scotland. I can’t get there before then.

I really hope and trust that we will be able to have further conversations without this getting

into the public domain¹⁶ and it becoming a circus, I wrote.

He responded with what felt like an ominous¹⁷ threat: You’ll be disobeying orders from the

monarch¹⁸ and myself if you persist in this course of action before we have a chance to sit down.

1 cape   

n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风

参考例句：

• I long for a trip to the Cape of Good Hope.我渴望到好望角去旅行。
• She was wearing a cape over her dress.她在外套上披着一件披肩。

2 ambushed   

v.埋伏( ambush的过去式和过去分词 )；埋伏着

参考例句：

• The general ambushed his troops in the dense woods. 将军把部队埋伏在浓密的树林里。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The military vehicles were ambushed. 军车遭到伏击。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 bracing   

adj.令人振奋的

参考例句：

• The country is bracing itself for the threatened enemy invasion. 这个国家正准备奋起抵抗敌人的入侵威胁。
• The atmosphere in the new government was bracing. 新政府的气氛是令人振奋的。

4 bristled   

adj. 直立的，多刺毛的 动词bristle的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• They bristled at his denigrating description of their activities. 听到他在污蔑他们的活动，他们都怒发冲冠。
• All of us bristled at the lawyer's speech insulting our forefathers. 听到那个律师在讲演中污蔑我们的祖先，大家都气得怒发冲冠。

5 plaintive   

adj.可怜的，伤心的

参考例句：

• Her voice was small and plaintive.她的声音微弱而哀伤。
• Somewhere in the audience an old woman's voice began plaintive wail.观众席里，一位老太太伤心地哭起来。

6 twilight   

n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期

参考例句：

• Twilight merged into darkness.夕阳的光辉融于黑暗中。
• Twilight was sweet with the smell of lilac and freshly turned earth.薄暮充满紫丁香和新翻耕的泥土的香味。

7 filthy   

adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的

参考例句：

• The whole river has been fouled up with filthy waste from factories.整条河都被工厂的污秽废物污染了。
• You really should throw out that filthy old sofa and get a new one.你真的应该扔掉那张肮脏的旧沙发，然后再去买张新的。

8 justify   

vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护

参考例句：

• He tried to justify his absence with lame excuses.他想用站不住脚的借口为自己的缺席辩解。
• Can you justify your rude behavior to me?你能向我证明你的粗野行为是有道理的吗？

9 frenzied   

a.激怒的；疯狂的

参考例句：

• Will this push him too far and lead to a frenzied attack? 这会不会逼他太甚，导致他进行疯狂的进攻？
• Two teenagers carried out a frenzied attack on a local shopkeeper. 两名十几岁的少年对当地的一个店主进行了疯狂的袭击。

10 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

11 commonwealth   

n.共和国，联邦，共同体

参考例句：

• He is the chairman of the commonwealth of artists.他是艺术家协会的主席。
• Most of the members of the Commonwealth are nonwhite.英联邦的许多成员国不是白人国家。

12 wasp   

n.黄蜂，蚂蜂

参考例句：

• A wasp stung me on the arm.黄蜂蜇了我的手臂。
• Through the glass we can see the wasp.透过玻璃我们可以看到黄蜂。

13 stink   

vi.发出恶臭；糟透，招人厌恶；n.恶臭

参考例句：

• The stink of the rotten fish turned my stomach.腐烂的鱼臭味使我恶心。
• The room has awful stink.那个房间散发着难闻的臭气。

14 confidential   

adj.秘（机）密的，表示信任的，担任机密工作的

参考例句：

• He refused to allow his secretary to handle confidential letters.他不让秘书处理机密文件。
• We have a confidential exchange of views.我们推心置腹地交换意见。

15 relinquishing   

交出，让给( relinquish的现在分词 )； 放弃

参考例句：

• The international relinquishing of sovereignty would have to spring from the people. 在国际间放弃主权一举要由人民提出要求。
• We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. 我们很明白，没有人会为了废除权力而夺取权力。 来自英汉文学

16 domain   

n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围

参考例句：

• This information should be in the public domain.这一消息应该为公众所知。
• This question comes into the domain of philosophy.这一问题属于哲学范畴。

17 ominous   

adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的

参考例句：

• Those black clouds look ominous for our picnic.那些乌云对我们的野餐来说是个不祥之兆。
• There was an ominous silence at the other end of the phone.电话那头出现了不祥的沉默。

18 monarch   

n.帝王，君主，最高统治者

参考例句：

• The monarch's role is purely ceremonial.君主纯粹是个礼仪职位。
• I think myself happier now than the greatest monarch upon earth.我觉得这个时候比世界上什么帝王都快乐。