"Oh my god, Neddy, what happened to you poor dear face?"

Chiara heard Ellie's voice all the way from her room, through two closed doors.

She couldn't hear Ned's words, though she could hear the tone of them, the reassuring cadence, the "it was nothing" quality of them.

"Ask Chiara, she'll tell you," she heard as she entered the lounge, tying the end of her braid with a hair tie. He turned to her as she walked to where they were just starting breakfast. "Right, Chiara? Tell her how stupid I was, how I was so pissed and just walked right into a great, whacking pillar whilst laughing and talking."

Chiara laughed and nodded. "Yeah, you were pretty pissed, weren't you, Ned?" She had to admit, his eye looked terrible in the bright morning light. It was three different shades of blue, with even a bit of purple at the very center, right next to the socket.

"Poor Ned," she said, hugging him to her as she stood next to where he was seated. It was quite a large, stupid pillar, wasn't it?"

They were laughing together when Drew walked into the lounge. He saw them embracing and stopped for a moment, his hand on the doorknob, before closing the door behind him and crossing the room to sit next to his brother.

Noah took a big bite of sausage and looked over at Drew. "What about you, brother? You didn't walk into any pillars or anything? You must've done your share of drinking last night, yeah?"

Drew looked over at him. "Nah, you know I get pretty wound up on show nights. I kept it pretty mellow last night."

Noah nodded and took a swallow of tea. "Oh."

"So, Chiara, where would you like to go today?" Ellie asked while she spread marmalade on her toast.

Chiara shrugged helplessly. "I've never been here before when it was just for shopping, I have no idea."

"Well, I guess the first place we have to go is Harrod's, then," Ellie declared. "Everyone has to see Harrod's when it's all dressed up for Christmastime, right?" She looked around at the boys.

"Sounds great," Drew agreed. "But you know it's going to be a zoo, right? I mean, even if Ned and I don't go, it's going to be crowded because of the holiday. Throw us into the mix and it's going to be utter madness."

Ellie nodded. "I was thinking about that, and you know, it's possible that the opposite might be true."

"How's that?"

"Well, maybe you can get lost in the crowds?" Ellie looked back and forth between Ned and Drew. "Maybe there will be so many people that no one will notice that two of them are really famous, what do you think?"

"I think that sounds like a nice idea, but it's not very likely to work," Ned said with a grin. "What the hell, I like to live on the edge, let's have have a lash at heading to the most popular store in London the week before Christmas. Why not?"

So after breakfast they all got in the car and headed to Harrod's, a store Chiara had heard of, of course, but never dreamed she'd be shopping in, especially with two of the richest men in England, along with the mother and brother of one of them.

Ellie was right. The place was a madhouse, and everyone was so busy dashing to and fro, looking for that last, special item, that no one really paid anyone else any attention. The boys were also dressed down a bit and wearing hats to cover their trademark hair, which helped a bit. The truth was that Ellie was probably the most recognizable of all of them, as she was pretty famous herself and had quite a following on social media.

As a precaution, however, they split up, with Noah and Ned heading in one direction and Drew, Ellie and Chiara heading in another. They agreed to meet for tea in a couple of hours.

The first thing Chiara saw were the beautiful shoes. She'd never seen anything like them. They didn't look real to her, they were so finely made and came in such beautiful colors. She didn't even say anything, merely pausing to look at them.

"Would you like to try some on?" Ellie asked.

Chiara looked up at her in surprise. "Good heavens, no!" She shook her head vigorously. "I wouldn't even have any place to wear such beautiful shoes as these. Not to mention these shoes are about one year's clothing allowance."

Ellie shook her head. "I told you, this trip is on me," she chastised.

Chiara looked at her with huge eyes. "Ellie, absolutely not!" She was scandalized. "I would never let you spend this kind of money on me!"

Drew had been standing by, watching and listening to the exchange. He was feeling a little uncomfortable, because he wanted to join in and encourage Chiara to try on the shoes, but he knew she didn't want to hear input from him. However, his mother was supposed to believe that the two of them were thick as thieves, with no problems between them, so he wasn't sure what he should do.

"Aww, go on, then," he finally said. "No harm in just trying, is there?"

And the sales person, who recognized wealthy customers when he saw them, echoed the sentiment. "Absolutely no harm in trying, I must agree. About a size six, are you, miss?"

Chiara nodded, and the sales person hustled to the back and returned almost immediately with the correct size.

"These shoes are just stunning, aren't they?" he said reverently, lifting them out of the box. He gestured for Chiara to sit down and removed her tennis shoe and sock so she could try it on.

The sales person, whose name was Hugo, slipped the stocking sock on first, then inserted first her toes, then her heel, into the beautiful shoe, much like the prince must have done to Cinderella.

It was a Chanel cap toe pump in lavender and cream, and in the moment that Hugo slid it onto Chiara's foot, the latent shoe loving woman in her awakened and came to life.

"Oh, wow," she breathed, turning her foot this way and that, admiring it from every angle. She was wearing skinny jeans with a purple sweater, which happened to suit the shoes perfectly. Hugo knew a good thing when he saw it, and quickly got the other shoe on her.

"Come on, then, have a little walk around, miss, see how they feel," he suggested.

Without thinking, Chiara reached for Drew's hand to help her up, and she walked around the Chanel shoe enclave, looking at herself in all the different mirrors of the room.

And as Chiara admired herself, Drew admired Chiara. As he'd noticed on the first day he met her, Chiara had lovely legs, tapering to delicate, shapely ankles, and the shoes showcased them beautifully as she moved around the room. His eyes went to her face, taking in her delighted expression as she looked at her feet in the gorgeous footwear.

Ellie, too was watching Chiara, and watching her son watching her, a small smile hovering about her lips.

"We'll take them," she told a knowing Hugo.

Chiara stopped walking so abruptly she nearly fell over onto a display of very expensive shoes.

"No, absolutely not!" she said, so loudly that other customers turned to look at them. "Ellie, they're over five hundred pounds!" she hissed, trying to keep her voice low.

"I know!" Ellie hissed back, her smile growing.

Chiara quickly walked back, slipping the shoes off, slowly, regretfully, and putting them back in the box. "We can't," she told Hugo, who merely stood where he was, waiting.

Drew nudged Chiara's shoulder. "Stop being such a plonker," he told her.

"Andrew Edward Pennington!" Ellie was scandalized. "You will never, ever, refer to a young woman by that nomenclature again, is that clear?"

"But mum, she's being ridiculous," Drew told her. "Just buy the shoes," he added, taking the box from Chiara and thrusting them at his mother. "I'll deal with her."

His mother went to pay, leaving Drew and Chiara standing together.

Chiara turned on Drew, but he spoke before she could.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry I called you a plonker," he said, raising his hands. "It's just that you're being ridiculous, you know? She has the money, and she wants to spend it on you, so please let her, okay? She loves to buy things for people, and she loves to buy girly rubbish, and she never gets to, that's all." He gave Chiara a look. "Even all my cousins are boys, you know? So today is as much for her as you." He reached for Chiara's hands, though he wisely reconsidered and dropped his hands to his sides at the last minute. "Please? Just enjoy today, and let her spend her money, yeah?"

Chiara looked back at him, her face expressionless. "Okay. Your mum is wonderful, and I'm being ungracious as hell. Thank you."

"Why are you thanking me?"

"I know she was a school teacher before you got all rich and famous. I know this is all your money. So thank you.

"And thank you, very much indeed," she added as Ellie returned with the shoes in a bag. She leaned forward and kissed the older woman on the cheek. "I've never owned anything so gorgeous in my life. I don't even know when I'll ever wear them, to tell you the truth."

"Oh no! You mustn't think that way," Ellie told her. "You mustn't start saving things for 'best' or whatever, but you must rather enjoy the things that give you pleasure as often as you can. I'm not saying wear them for grubbing about in the garden, but, you know, wear them to the cinema, or to the market, just whenever the fancy strikes, all right?"

Chiara smiled. "All right," she agreed, nodding.

"Brilliant." She handed Chiara the bag. "Here you go. Happy Christmas, dear."

"Oh, thanks, so much, Ellie," Chiara said with another sincere hug.

Drew just looked on and smiled.

It was already time to meet the others for tea, so they went to the tea room, where they met Ned and Noah, who were weighed down with all sorts of mysterious packages and bags.

"Wow, you guys have been busy," Chiara remarked. "What did you buy?"

"None of your beeswax," Noah admonished, slapping at his brother's hand when he reached inside a bag to see what was in it.

As they were digging into their wonderful tea and sandwiches, they became stationary targets, as it were, and the other patrons of the tearoom began to recognize the two boys and Ellie.

"Great, we've been spotted," Ned said, waving with his eyebrows raised as someone took their picture.

"Oy, would you mind not taking snaps, please?" Drew asked. "We're with family today, just running errands and trying to have some personal time, yeah?"

"Sorry!" they called, contrite. The group he'd addressed did put their phones down, but two other groups kept recording and snapping selfies with their table in the background.

"I have to use the toilet," Chiara said. "Is that okay, or should I not, while they're watching us?"

"Oh of course," Ned said with a laugh. "We'd have exploded if we'd let rude fans stop us from having a wee." He rose and pulled Chiara's chair back, and remained standing as she took her purse and excused herself.

While she was in there, she heard the door open, and then she heard voices.

"Excuse us, but are you still in here?"

Were they talking to her? Was she supposed to answer?

She remained in the stall, her hand on the flush, motionless.

"Hello? Are you the girl who was with Ned and Drew? We saw you come in here, and we know you haven't left? We just want to talk to you for a tick, please?"

Oh god. What was she supposed to do?