After putting it off for two weeks, Clarisse and Joseph had finally decided to set a date for their honeymoon. Unfortunately for them, Clarisse's mother decided she wanted to visit the day before they were supposed to leave…

"Clarisse do you really think it's a good idea for me to meet your mother?"

"How typical! All you men are the same," she put on a mocking tone, "oh I can't meet your mother today, I have to play golf! Oh, I can't meet your mother tomorrow, I'm going fishing! All the same…"

She flicked through some brochures she had acquired earlier in the week and waited for him to reply.

"I just don't think she's going to like me! I met her once, or should I say had an encounter with her once where I bowed and she turned up her nose! She doesn't like me, Clarisse."

She slammed the brochures down on the table and shot him an evil glare, "At least she's making the effort to come all the way from France just to meet you."

"But I've heard she has a very set attitude towards lower class people, what if she has an ulterior motive for coming here? What if she's just coming here to push us apart and get you back into the upper class where you belong?"

"Then we'll deal with it," she said calmly, "nothing she can possibly say will tear us apart, am I right?"

"I sure hope so, because if you're not then on your own head be it!"

0000000

Later that day as Clarisse and Joseph lay contently on the couch watching the opera on TV, they heard a knock at the door, "That's her," Clarisse whispered, slowly removing herself from her husband's chest.

"Shall I open the door?" He asked.

"Do."

Joseph let out a groan and stretched out his arms before jumping up and walking over to the door. Suddenly he stopped and turned to his wife with a shocked expression on his face, "Oh god what do I call her? I can't call her mom!"

"Just address her formally, you remember my maiden name don't you? Now open the door."

He straightened up his jacket and tie, which Clarisse absolutely insisted he wear, then turned the knob of the door. To his surprise, a very flamboyantly dressed woman burst through with her arms wide open, heading in the direction of her daughter, "Clarisse, darling, I'm so glad to see you."

"Hello mother, you're looking well."

"I wish I could say the same for you," she said as she eyed Clarisse's growing tummy, "but I'm afraid you're not looking one hundred percent."

"I'm pregnant."

"I know, it was all over the news and the papers…" she voiced sadly, "how did they put it again? Ex-Queen Bumps Too Soon? Vulgar…which reminds me, where is this new husband of yours?"

Clarisse put her hands on her hips and stared at her in disgust, "The love of my life is standing right behind you. Mother, this is my husband, Joseph."

Swivelling around, she shrieked at the tall figure standing behind her and gasped, "This? This is your husband? I thought he was a butler."

"Mother, I told you we don't have butlers. Joseph and I are fending for ourselves," she said proudly.

"You marry this…man and he can't even afford a butler?"

"It's not that we can't afford it, it's that we want our privacy."

Clarisse's mother put a hand on her head and sighed, "I need a scotch on the rocks."

Finally Joseph decided to fake a smile and speak up, "May I take your coat?"

"Oh, is that something you commonly say to your employers?"

She threw her coat into his arms while he gave her an angry look, realising she did only come to spite him, "I'll get your drink, madam."

He slowly brushed past her and walked into the kitchen, slamming his fists down on the bench when he got there. Already he didn't like this woman, she made it quite clear that she felt the same way by ignoring him and treating him like the help. After pouring himself a drink and drinking it down fast he poured one for her in the same glass and walked back out, "Your drink, madam."

She turned around and eyed the glass suspiciously, "Excuse me, Mr…um…uh…"

"Joseph!"

"Like it matters…did I ask for my drink to be covered with saliva, or is that just something extra you decided to add?"

Clarisse stared at him half-shocked while he looked at the glass.

"Remove yourself from my sight and get me a clean glass!"

"Mother! Manners."

"My apologies. Please remove yourself from my sight and get me a clean glass."

He didn't wait for her to say the last words before he stormed out of the room again.

"He's very rude, isn't he?"

"Really, mother! This has gone too far! He tried to make you feel welcome, but you just treat him as if he's just another worker! I love this man and I won't have you staying in my house unless you behave yourself and accept him as the man I want to be with."

"Ha! You think I'm staying here? You've got to be joking! Rupert invited me to stay up at the palace."

"Oh? Don't you mean you dropped a thousand hints until he invited you himself?"

"If you want to put it that way. I've been staying there for the past week."

"And you only decided to visit now?"

"Well I wasn't going to come at all, I really only came to Genovia to see my legitimate grandchildren," she told her, emphasising the word 'legitimate', " but when the gossip up there became interesting, I decided to pay you a visit."

"Gossip?"

"Oh don't worry, darling, nothing out of the ordinary."

"If you say so."

Joseph came back into the room at that point and smiled, while handing her a clean, but empty glass, "Does madam approve?"

"Oh you're a clever one, aren't you? I'll soon wipe that smile off your face," she mumbled in a threatening tone before turning away.

Joseph once again walked out of the room, this time though, he walked into the bathroom to wash away the aggravation that had been placed atop his shoulders.

0000000

"Mother, you could have at least tried to get along with him, you made him feel unwanted in his own home."

"I don't like him, Clarisse, he's no good for you. You should have stayed with Rupert."

"Oh for the last time I don't love Rupert!"

"Love has nothing to do with it," she argued, taking her daughter's hands, "Listen to me…Rupert can support you, he can give you a better life. A life full of shining jewels, an endless wardrobe, a decent sized place to live. He's raising your children for heavens sake!"

"Don't lay the guilt trip on me, mother, there's nothing you can say to make me go back to him. You have to understand that as long as I love Joseph, and I do so very much, I will not think about any other man. Is that too hard for you to understand?"

"Yes it is! I pulled a lot of strings to make sure you ended up with a king and you go and blow it!"

"I never asked you to arrange my marriage for me. Was it your intention to make sure I was miserable for the rest of my life?"

"I just want to be able to sleep at night knowing my daughter isn't sleeping on the street or in a gutter somewhere."

"What makes you think I'm going to end up on the street?"

"Take a look at what you married, he's a peasant, a peasant with no decent income. Rupert on the other hand…"

"Ohhhh! Stop it! Just because your marriage isn't working out, it doesn't mean you have to meddle with mine. I am happily married and I have never been happy before, so can't you just accept Joseph for who he is?"

"I just want what's best for you, darling and I can assure you, he isn't."

"You don't even know him!"

"But I do know that he's poor, not the sort of man you were raised to be with. He doesn't have anything to give to you, not even a penny. Rupert…"

"Stop this! Joseph's already given me more than Rupert ever could."

"Name one thing."

"I'll name two things - undying love, a reason to get up in the morning."

"Clarisse you have to learn that there's more to life than love. The most important thing in the world is money."

"Maybe for you it is, but not for me."

"If that's the way you feel then so be it. Ruin your life! Break your poor mother's heart! Make me feel like a failure."

"That's not my intention. All I ask is for you to get along with the man I have chosen to spend the rest of my life with."

"Alright, you win, I shall talk to him. He and I will spend some time together tomorrow while you're at your doctor's appointment and I will try my best to respect his feelings. If all goes well I shall return to France and you will have my blessing."

"Thankyou, I'm glad to see you've changed your tune."

000000

Joseph wasn't quite sure he wanted to spend time with his mother-in-law, she obviously didn't approve of him and she didn't want him as part of her family. He wondered whether she was planning to kill him during their time together, he hoped that's not what she was planning. What would Clarisse do without him? And the baby? No time to think about that, he had to get ready.

"Clarisse, is this a suitable tie to wear?"

"No, mother despises red, she says it's the colour of the devil."

"Well then I'm surprised she doesn't wear it all the time."

"Very funny, dear," she said, giving him a half-playful, half-serious slap on the chest, "Try this blue tie, she likes blue."

Placing a kiss to his forehead, she left the room and went to fetch a pot of tea. Joseph stared at himself in the mirror, the tie wasn't right, blue wasn't a colour he cared very much for wearing, black on the other hand was. He selected one from the closet and tied it around his neck – this would be quite suitable.

He walked out to the kitchen where his wife was waiting patiently for him to finish dressing, "What do you think?"

She spat out her tea, "You can't wear a black tie! Mother will think you're being disrespectful to the dead!"

"How would that make me disrespectful to the dead?"

"I don't know, it's just her way of thinking. Wear the blue tie, please."

"I hate blue."

"Don't argue with me, young man."

Finally giving into her, he agreed to wear the blue tie, much to his displeasure.

When the clock struck ten, Joseph helped Clarisse into the car and drove her to the doctor's surgery. After kissing her on the cheek he went off to fetch her mother from the palace, however he drove very slowly.

When he reached the palace he was surprised to find the woman standing out the front looking at her watch. Joseph opened the car door for her and she hopped in after making a snide comment about his tardiness.

"Are you always this slow in your job? I'm amazed you haven't been fired."

"I'm a chef, Mrs. Howard, not a butler."

"An honest mistake."

"I'm sure."

Joseph started the car and drove out the gates and along the main road.

"So you cook the meals instead, isn't that like a butler?"

"For the last time, I am not a butler, I never was and I don't think I ever will be."

"You'd better not be! My Clarisse needs to be taken care of, she needs to have a husband with a job that brings in more than $10,000 a year."

"Is money all you care about?"

"I care for the well-being of my oldest daughter, money ensures that."

"It doesn't, a loving husband ensures that. We'll be happy as long as we have each other."

"And how long do you think that will be? Soon? I want to know when to send out the party invitations."

"Could you please at least try to be civil? You're going to end up losing your daughter if you keep acting this way."

"Not if all goes to plan and you lose her first."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means I know something that just by telling you could easily break up your marriage."

Joseph paused for a moment and tried to concentrate on the road – what could she possibly know that could break up their marriage? Only one way to find out.

"What do you know?"

"So where are you taking me?"

"We're going to pick up Clarisse and then we're going to eat lunch at a restaurant in town. Now what do you know?"

"The scenery is lovely, isn't it?"

He slammed the breaks on, causing her to unintentionally jerk forward, "Tell me, what do you know?"

"Well as you know I've been staying up at the palace lately and a lot of gossip gets spread around. One particular piece of gossip has been brought up quite frequently."

"Which is?"

"Think back to a few weeks ago when Clarisse was last at the palace visiting my grandchildren."

"I'm thinking."

"Apparently she was seen leaving Rupert's suite wearing nothing but a robe – his robe."

Joseph stayed silent and waited for her to finish, wondering if what she was saying was the truth or not.

"Don't you get it? She slept with him."

"How do I know you're not lying in some attempt to get me away from her?"

"Don't take my word for it, ask the gardener who found her nightgown outside Rupert's window."

0000

Three days in the making! I decided to finish this chapter tonight (this morning now).

Yes, finally I am continuing this story. Terribly sorry for the wait. I tried to write it a couple of weeks ago, but it wasn't working out and I came up with a more interesting storyline. I had a hard time getting back into this story because I was so used the character of my Psycho-Clarisse in Joseph's Journal that I couldn't remember what this one was like. Anyway, R & R.