Thoughts on family - Brother Frederick

After the death of uncle Edward and aunt Katharine, and our trip to Russia, my thoughts have turned introspective on my relationship with my family members. One of the most important people in my life is my brother "Freddie" - in a world like this, are there still some happy endings to be found?
 
I remember my first TV acting role. It really did change my life, and the life of my brother Freddie. It did not seem so immediately, but ultimately led to a moment where the direction of your life could have gone very differently had it not happened.
 
I was only sixteen at the time, and I was playing "Angela" in an episode of Poirot called "Five Little Pigs". If you haven't seen this show then you must not be British - it was on for over twenty years, and David Suchet as Hercule Poirot solved every Agatha Christie mystery that came his way. Also in that episode was a girl named Sophie Winkleman - Sophie was playing the adult version of the same character even though there was only seven years between us. Because we were age differentiated versions of the same character, I didn't have even a single scene with her, but we were in makeup together every day of shooting for them to give us Angela's unique scar. I won't spoil the episode, but I could have been the murderer... or maybe not. Sophie was somewhat new to film and television as well, but had done four or five other shows already, and she could tell I had the nerves about me because she had been in my spot not that long ago. She was very nice to me, offered some advice to me, and helped me through those early days and put me at ease. I was so happy to be there and have this experience and I will always be grateful to everyone involved, especially Sophie.
 
Freddie, in contrast, really did not want to be there - he was twenty-three and in-between schools at the time, having finished at Oxford, and about to start law school, so mum put him on "babysitting duty" as he called it. He complained that he had better things to do and tried everything he could to get out of it. He really thought it was beneath him to sit around all day waiting for his kid sister to do her acting thing. Mum would have nothing of it of course, and she always got her way. I would never say it aloud, but mum truly is well deserved of that "Princess Pushy" title, even if most people are using that title to refer to Meghan Markle after Samantha's book came out.
 
Truthfully, spending all day on set is not as glamorous as people make it out to be. It's a long day filled with short bursts of work broken up by long deluges of waiting and watching. The first day or two, Freddie kept himself occupied and away from the action, but then on the third day, I noticed him hanging out watching more of the filming. Looking back, I don't know why it came as such a surprise to me; after all, the cast for most of the filming involved four stunning women, all of whom were his age or just a few years older. As much as I didn't want to admit it, Freddie has always found a way to keep himself in the company of girls and whether it was his personality, his title, or some combination of the two, they usually found him charming. I confronted Freddie about it on the way home that night and told him I could see what he was up to. He was adamant that he was simply making friends, passing the time, and they were all just having a good time. This was where I made my first mistake - I told Freddie I didn't want him to ruin things for me, and to stay away. Of course, the last thing he was going to do was listen to his sister, especially when there were pretty girls involved.
 
Filming stretched on for a number of days, this "episode" was as long as any movie and required just as much time to complete. Along the way, Freddie had made it his mission to score a date with one or more of my co-stars, and he made no secret of it. He seemed laser focused on two co-stars: Rachel Stirling, who played Angela's mother, or Julie Cox, the mistress and bad girl of the story. Judging from what I could overhear while Freddie was helping himself to craft services was just how little interest Julie had for such a "young puppy-dog of a boy", and that Rachel was dating someone seriously - a rock musician of all people. I did like Rachael, and we did bond over odd things in common like being able to speak Russian and our interest in horse-riding, but it was all very superficial. Superficial would have been perfect for Freddie at that age as he was almost exclusively into clubbing and the party scene. What went unnoticed by both of us was how pleasant Sophie was to him, and the big smile she always had when he was about. If Freddie could catch a hint, he'd have gotten that date, but apparently, he hadn't given her the consideration she was giving him.
 
We wrapped the shoot eventually and went our separate ways. Sophie said we should keep in touch, but that seemed more like something you said, but didn't follow through with. We did chat a few times, but those times became less frequent and eventually we stopped and lost track of each other with overly busy schedules. A few years went by, and I did some more shoots while balancing work and university while Freddie finished law school. A few days after St. Trinian's London premiere, I got a message delivered through my agent "Congratulations. You were spectacular. Catch up?" It was from Sophie and included her phone number. I dialed her right away, and it was as if we had never stopped talking. I ended up inviting her over for a movie night that Friday and it turns out she's a geek for movies, almost as big a geek as I am.
 
Order of the Phoenix had just come out on DVD, so it was an easy choice, and it was an amazing night of reconnecting, laughing and sharing memories and experiences. About the time we got to the part of the movie where Harry and the Order was about to battle the Death Eaters in the Department of Mysteries Freddie stormed in. Apparently, he had a row with his friends over plans for the rest of the night, and had to find his own way home... Back before Uber and Lyft, even. Horrifying. To say he was in a foul mood when he came in to tell me about his night would not do justice. He assumed I was alone as he angrily yelled out to me "Tori - bloody hell, you'll never believe where that prat Roger abandoned me tonight...". When Sophie and I popped our heads up over the sofa, I could see his face flush, and he changed all shades of red colors, looked at his feet, and stammered a muted apology. I couldn't help but laugh, and Sophie was grinning broadly, but she surprised me when she spoke up and said "It’s alright Freddie, Roger must be an absolute git." After an awkward stare from Freddie as he tried to place her face and voice and figure out if he knew her, she added an almost flirtatious "Care to join us?" Between Freddie and I, I don't know whose mouth was further agape. If this was what I expected to be the most surprising part of the night, I was totally ill-prepared for what happened next: Freddie found his manners, politely accepted the invitation, and even offered to refresh our drinks.
 
While Freddie was fetching fresh drinks, Sophie was smiling at me like the cat that swallowed the canary. It took some quick prodding, but I got her to finally confess she had a bit of a crush on him since those first days on set of Poirot but hadn't acted on it out of respect for our new friendship. The surprises just kept coming, but this one... This one was... welcome? In that briefest moment, if Sophie could manage to charm Freddie into using his manners with a simple smile and request, maybe there was something there. I reasoned she wasn't going to let Freddie walk over her. Hell, she might even be good for him, and I let her know she didn't need my approval to go after Freddie, but she had it regardless.
 
Freddie's return was where the night became a blur of conversation, laughter, smiles, and stories and the screen we watched was not the only place magic happened that night. That night I saw a side of my brother that I was neither accustomed to, nor expecting to see. As the days went by, I waited for the magic to fade, but, if anything, it grew stronger and stronger. I eventually stopped waiting for the other shoe to drop, and it was just sixteen months later that he asked her to marry him and become "Lady Frederick Windsor". He's never seemed happier than when he's with her, and now, years later, they're even stronger together as a family with two daughters: my nieces, Maude and Isabella. I've confirmed that she's not a witch thanks to my own “insight” but that first night in the theatre room, I was certain Sophie had cast a love spell on Freddie. It may not have been an actual spell, but if was, it's components were charm, a warm smile, understanding, compassion and love; the purest kind of love spell.