"Oh just give it up" Prince Pierre snapped at his younger brother, annoyed that Phillippe kept interrupting his reading with crumpling up papers.
"I won´t" the younger boy glared back at Pierre, then looked back down on his paper.
"If you would help me it´d be much easier."
"But I don´t want to help you, I think it´s useless, anyway."
"Why?"
Pierre shut his book and put it aside, then he slid down from the window sill and sat on the floor next to his younger brother.
"What do you want to do with it, I mean how is it supposed to be seen by anyone other than maybe Mamam?"
Phillippe seemed to think about that for a moment, then he shrugged.
"I´ll just give it to one of the reporters on Sunday and then they´ll put it up in the paper."
Pierre snorted.
"Yes, of course- you are such a baby, Phillippe."
"I am not, you´ll see."
Pierre remembered their instructions not to fight and put his arm around his brother´s shoulders.
"Ok, so what have you written so far?"
"You know, just what is important- she must be nice to us, not nasty like the last were, she must hug us and tell us she loves us and she must sing and read bedtime stories- everything Mamam never does" he added, his big brown eyes finding his brother´s blue one´s.
"There is none like that."
Pierre told his brother but Phillippe stubbornly nodded.
"Oh yes, there is!"
"Have you given it to anyone?"
Phillippe shook his head.
"No, Papa found it and took it away."
"Did he yell at you?"
"No- he just laughed" the young boy mumbled, his cheeks turning red.
"That´s ok, don´t think about it anymore" Pierre comforted his brother, taking a wrapped piece of chocolate out of his pocket and, after unpacking it, broke it in two.
"Here, I got it from the cook earlier."
"Thank you, Pierre" Phillippe beamed at his older brother as he put the chocolate into his mouth.
"Now come on, we have to get dressed for bed or we´ll be in trouble."
"What is this?"
Clarisse Renaldi asked her husband who was standing in front of the fire place with a piece of paper.
"Oh, just something really silly Phillippe wrote, it´s a letter to his dream nanny."
"What?"
Clarisse took the paper from her husband and read it through quickly, then shook her head.
"Where does he get his ideas?"
"I don´t know- it´s ridiculous."
He tore the paper in two and threw the pieces into the fire, then turned around to his wife again.
"What was it you wanted to discuss?"
"It´s about the visit of the American vice president tomorrow night, do you think we should alter dessert, you know how he hates pears?"
"What are you two doing here?"
Josef halted his steps next to the two young princes who were hidden behind a wooden chest in the hallway outside the king´s office.
"We are waiting" Pierre informed him and Josef had to bite his lip to hide his amusement.
"I see- and would you care to tell me what you are waiting for?"
"Papa is interviewing nannies this afternoon."
"And why are you sitting here then?"
"We want to see them going in" Phillippe whispered, then he looked at his watch.
"It´s almost two, the first should-" he stopped talking and shrank back behind the chest when footsteps became audible.
Josef straightened up and came face to face with a young woman who was wearing an elegant dark coat and a hat topped with a daisy, a large bag in one hand and an umbrella in the other.
She had dark hair and blue eyes and Josef liked her instantly, mainly because she remarkably resembled Queen Clarisse who Josef secretly adored.
"Good afternoon, Madam" he greeted her politely and was rewarded with a beautiful smile.
"Good afternoon, Sir- my name is Mary Poppins, I´m here for the vacant position."
Her eyes glided towards the large chest and she added "You shouldn´t be lurking around on the floor, gentlemen, princes never do such things."
The boys slowly emerged from behind the chest and shyly looked up at the woman who was looking them upside down.
"Well, a little less formal than is to be expected but all in all representable, I´d dare say- so come on, we ought to inform your father that we are to be found in the nursery."
Pierre just stared at her but when he looked at his brother he caught a triumphant look from Phillippe.
"Just like Mamam" the younger prince whispered happily as they followed Mary Poppins up the corridor towards the king´s office, leaving Josef to look after him, still fighting back his laughter- Clarisse would be beside herself with anger.