The following morning, Ben and Lisa woke up feeling relieved.
"It was scary here last night," Ben laughed as he got dressed. "I'm glad we survived- I thought the ghost was gonna get us,".
Lisa laughed. "I don't think a reindeer could have done much harm, Ben,".
They left the house and headed off towards the village. Within an hour they had a new hire car.
"This one isn't nearly as nice as the other," Lisa said sadly.
"Yeah," Ben agreed as they climbed into it. "But it's still a car! Now, let's carry on the journey. I'm not gonna let them win,".
"I wonder who's ahead at the moment," Lisa said. "Doesn't Mark have an international mobile phone? We could call him and find out,".
"Yeah, he's the only one of us who's phone works abroad," Ben said, parking the car on the street next to a phone box. He got out and dialled Mark's number.
"Hey Ben!" Mark said as he answered. "Lost in the forest yet?".
Ben blushed. "No, we're well on the way, I reckon we're already over halfway there,".
"Paul wants to speak to you," Mark said as he handed the phone to Paul.
"I think we should have a bet," Paul told Ben. "The loser of the race has to do something embarrassing on TV,".
Ben grinned. "You're on! I hope you're looking forwards to 'revealing all' on prime time TV!".
Paul laughed. "More like, I hope you're looking forwards to going on telly wearing fluffy pink pants!". With that he hang up.
Paul gave the phone back to Mark. "How much further?" he asked.
Mark was looking at the road map. "Not that far! If we stop somewhere overnight we can get to the castle by tomorrow lunchtime,".
At that back of the bus, Lucy was sitting with Helen, Nic and Katy. She was reading a book to try and take her mind off Chris, but she couldn't.
"I can't believe this has happened," Lucy said to Helen. "Everything was going fine- we were engaged, starting to plan a wedding... and now he's marrying someone else. Someone he doesn't even know,".
"Princess Nicola," Katy said, handing Lucy the newspaper. On the front was a picture of the princess, looking beautiful in her wedding dress.
Lucy glared at the picture. "It should be me in that dress, preparing to marry Chris,".
Nic picked up the paper and flicked through. "They've got an article on Chris," she pointed out.
Lucy took the paper and looked. Sure enough, there was a large piece on Chris including a cute picture of him in his wedding suit, holding his crown. But it was in Norwegian so she couldn't understand what it said.
"Poor Chris," Lucy said, looking closely at the photo. There was a sadness in his eyes that showed her that he didn't want to be there.
Christian sat on a chair silently as people rushed around, preparing the wedding.
The ceremony was due to take place in two days so there was a lot to do. He'd had his clothes fitting and today was the dress rehearsal. So he was going to meet princess Nicola for the first time.
Despite the room being crowded, Chris felt really lonely. The people in the room were all strangers, apart from Mathias who he'd become friends with.
All he could think about was Lucy and the band. He hoped they would arrive soon to help him. Everytime he passed a window he would look out too see if they were there. But they weren't.
Chris slipped out of the room, he was bored of sitting and doing nothing. He walked down the velvet-carpeted staircase and came to... the grand doorway.
Chris's lips curled into a smile. "I could try and escape!" he whispered to himself.
He glanced around, nobody was about. He quickly opened the door and ran out.
His heart racing, Chris ran around the side of the castle, towards the main gates.
But before he could reach them, a team of guards came running after him and caught him.
"Not so fast!" one said as he grabbed Chris and led him back inside.
"Damn," Chris muttered, annoyed.
"It's time for your dress rehearsal," Mathias said as Chris walked back into the busy room, handing Chris his suit.
"OK," Chris agreed with a frown. He wasn't looking forwards to it.
That night, Paul, Mark and the girls stopped off in a village for the night.
"We're almost there now," Heather smiled as they booked into a hotel. "I've worked out that it's about another two hours drive,".
Mark looked out of the window. "What a lovely village, it's so pretty. Who wants to come out with me to look around?".
Debbie, Jo, Sarah, Lauren and Sam wanted to so they left with Mark.
"Want to go with them?" Paul asked Sam.
She smiled and took Paul's hand. "No... I'd rather go up and see our hotel room,".
Paul smiled back. "OK then," he said as he picked up the keys.
Mark and the girls found a little pub in the village so they went in for a drink. They ended up staying all evening.
"I'm really tired and I said I'd drive the bus tomorrow," Debbie said as she finished off her glass of wine. "I'm going back, night Mark,".
"Goodnight sweetie," Mark said as she left. Soon after, Jo, Lauren and Sam also went. That left Sarah and Mark alone.
Sarah bought Mark a double vodka and coke. "Should we make this our last?" she asked.
"No... let's stay a bit longer," Mark said. he was enjoying Sarah's company a bit too much...
Sarah was enjoying Mark's company too. "Can I kiss you?" she asked suddenly.
Mark looked at her in shock. He hadn't expected that! But he couldn't refuse...
"OK," he grinned. "But not in here, too many people are around. Let's slip outside,".
But unknown to them, the photographer was there. He'd been following the group and was after some good photos for the tabloids. He already had some great shots of Mark and Jo...
...And now he was about to get some of Mark and Sarah!
.