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99
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176
It also looked magical.
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The more we stared, the brighter<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">it got—was that possible?
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And the glow was seemingly internal.
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The jewels<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">did their part, but the crown seemed to possess some inner energy source,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">something beyond the sum of its parts, its jeweled band, its go...
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And of course its ermine<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">base.
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You couldn’t help but feel that a ghost, encountered late at night inside<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">the Tower, might have a similar glow.
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I moved my eyes slowly,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">261<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="...
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:me/Afghansalarlibrary<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">appreciatively, from the bottom to the top.
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184
The crown was a wonder, a<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">transcendent and evocative piece of art, not unlike the poppies, but all I<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">could think in that moment was how tragic that ...
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185
The Invictus Games<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">were born.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">It had been decided that the International Warrior Games was a tongue<s...
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A clever Royal Marine had then come up with this far<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">better alternative.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">As soon as he suggested it w...
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187
After the William<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">Ernest Henley poem!<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">Every Brit knew that poem.
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Many had the first line by heart.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">Out of the night that covers me...<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="p2"><s...
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Near Albert Bridge.
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Beaten,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">shaken.
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We took him to the nearest police station, where he signed a<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">statement.
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Then we drove him home.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">Along the way he kept thanking me for coming to his rescue.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <...
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What friends are for.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">63.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="p3...
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I’d never wanted<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">a desk.
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I couldn’t bear sitting at a desk.
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My father loved his desk, seemed<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">pinned to it, enamored of it, surrounded by his books and mailbags.
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That<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">was never me.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">I was also given a new task.
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Refine my knowledge of the Apache.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">Perhaps on the way to becoming an instructor.
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That was a job I thought<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">might be fun.
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Teaching others to fly.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">But it wasn’t.
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It just didn’t feel like my calling.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">Once again I broached the idea of going back to the war.
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Once again the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">answer was a hard no.
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Even if the Army was inclined to send me,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">Afghanistan was winding down.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">Libya was heating up, though.
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How about that?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">No, the Army said—in every way they knew how, officially and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">unofficially, they denie...
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I was no longer staying with Pa and Camilla: I’d been<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">assigned my own place, a flat on KP’s “lower ground floor,” in other words,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">halfway undergroun...
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:me/Afghansalarlibrary<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">Sometimes the question was rendered moot by Mr. R, who lived directly<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></sp...
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He liked to park his massive gray Discovery hard against the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">windows, blotting out all light entirely.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1...
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Sides were taken.
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Team<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">Cambridge versus Team Sussex.
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Rivalry, jealousy, competing agendas—it<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">all poisoned the atmosphere.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">It didn’t help that everyone was...
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There were<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">so many demands from the press, such a constant stream of errors that<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">needed clearing up, and we didn’t have nearly enough people or reso...
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Nerves<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">were shattering, people were sniping.
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In such a climate there was no such<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">thing as constructive criticism.
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All feedback was seen as an affront, an<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">insult.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">More than once a staff member slumped across their de...
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Meg.
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He told me<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">so several times, and he got cross when I told him he was out of line.
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He<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">was just repeating the press narrative, spouting fake stories he’d read or<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">been told.
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The great irony, I told him, was that the real villains were the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">people he’d imported into the office, people from government, who didn’t<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">seem imper...
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They had a<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">knack for backstabbing, a talent for intrigue, and they were constantly<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">setting our two groups of staff against each other.<span class="A...
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On the contrary, I watched her<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">redouble her efforts to reach out, to spread kindness.
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She sent out<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">handwritten thank-you notes, checked on staff who were ill, sent baskets<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">of food or flowers or goodies to anyone struggling, depressed,...
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She brought<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">pizza and biscuits, hosted tea parties and ice-cream socials.
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She shared all<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">the freebies she received, clothes and perfumes and makeup, with all the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">women in the office.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </s...
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I was devastated.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">He smiled wider.
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225
Now look at you.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">37.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="p3"><sp...
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226
TURNING TWENTY-FIVE in a few days, and it felt like more than just<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">another birthday.
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227
Mates told me twenty-five was the Watershed Age, the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">moment when many young men and women come to a fork in their personal<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">road.
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At twenty-five you take a concrete step forward...or else begin to slide<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">backwards.
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I was ready to move forward.
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I felt, in many ways, that I’d been<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">bag-flying for years.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="p2"><span class="...
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Granny, to name one.
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At twenty-five she’d become<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">the sixty-first monarch in the history of England.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">So I decided to mark t...
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I had seemed older, harder, after my first<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">combat tour.
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But now, they said, I seemed more...grounded.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">Odd, I thought.
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Through flight training...I’ve become more grounded?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">No one gave me more praise or love than Teej and Mike.
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Late one night,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">however, Mike sat me down for a somber heart-to-heart.
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At their kitchen<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">table he spoke at length about my relationship with Africa.
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The time’s come,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">he said, for that relationship to change.
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Until then the relationship had been<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">all take, take, take—a fairly typical dynamic for Brits in Africa.
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But now I<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">needed to give back.
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For years I’d heard him and Teej and others lamenting<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">the crises facing this place.
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Climate change.
99
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Poaching.
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Drought.
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Fires.
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I was<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">the only person they knew who “abeyance” during this transitional year—<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">and that we’d offered to re1mburse the Sovereign Grant for refurbishme...
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247
Delicious reunion with Meg, Archie and the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">dogs.
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248
And yet, for a few days, I didn’t feel fully back.
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249
Part of me was still<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">in Britain.
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250
Still at Sandringham.
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251
I spent hours glued to my phone, and the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">internet, monitoring the fallout.
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The ire directed at us by the papers and the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">trolls was alarming.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">“Make no mistake, it’s an insult,” ...
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253
No mercy.
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254
The language of war?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">Clearly this was more than simple anger.
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255
These men and women saw<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">me as an existential threat.
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256
If our leaving posed a threat to the monarchy,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">414<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></s...
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257
We’d discussed it with no one, she said, not even Pa. She<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">announced these falsehoods with such unfaltering certainty that even I was<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">tempted to beli...
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258
Harry blindsided the Queen!
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259
That was the narrative<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">that took hold.
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I could feel it oozing into history books, and I could<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">imagine boys and girls at Ludgrove, decades hence, having that hogwash<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">rammed down their thro...
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261
What makes them<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> made me laugh.
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262
Privacy?
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What’s that?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">At the end of each day I’d sit in my cell, bulling my boots, spitting on<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">them, rubbing t...
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264
No matter what institution I landed in, it seemed, a tragically bad<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">haircut was the first order of business.
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Then I’d text Chels.
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266
(I was allowed to<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">keep my mobile, for security reasons.)
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267
I might tell her how things were<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">going, tell her I missed her.
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Then I’d loan my phone to any other cadets who<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">might want to text their girlfriends or boyfriends.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">Th...
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I was no longer remotely afraid of the dark.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">58.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></spa...
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I was no longer Prince Harry.
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I was Second<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">Lieutenant Wales of the Blues and Royals, second oldest regiment of the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">British Army, part of the Household Cavalry, bodyguards to the ...
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She smiled for all to see as I marched past.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p3"><span class="s1"></span><br></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">And Willy saluted.
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He was at Sandhurst too now.
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A fellow cadet.
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(He’d<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">started after me, because he’d gone to university first.)