Chapter 5
After first meeting my Queen I wondered whether she knew about her husband's infidelity. It wasn't something I could ask her and nor did I feel free to bring up the subject with Rupert.
One night, while enjoying the local beverages (the King and I spent a long weekend in Scotland to play golf) we talked about my uncle.
´Dead for five years already... He would have loved it had you tied the knot you know,´ Rupert said. When he was drunk he started emphasizing words. I didn't have to reply, for he continued: ´He was happy when I got married.´
He whirled his drink before adding: ´He liked my bride.´
´Of course he liked her,´ I contributed.
Rupert laughed, hitting his thigh with his free hand, ´You like her because she has a brain...´
I nodded.
'...the old fox liked her because he thought she was a puppet on a string.´
He roared with laughter, spilling some whisky. ´Your uncle had old fashioned ideas about women...´
´Each time he suggested I should get married,´ I revealed, ´he assured me that having a wife and children didn't mean I'd have to give up casual affairs.´
Rupert raised his glass. ´Exactly!´
´Well, as you can see,´ I replied, showing my hands (one of them wrapped around my glass), ´he still couldn't tempt me.´
´You'll marry Andre. Just like me you need an heir. And for an heir you need a wife. My parents chose mine, you are a free man.´
´I'd say Their Majesties chose well.´
´Absolutely! Clarisse is a loving mother and a perfect Queen. I'm very fond of her. She's beautiful, elegant... passionate. Every time I return home I wonder why I seek pleasure elsewhere. She's like an angel. Why hurt her?´
'She knows?´
He sighed and held out his glass.
´Fill me up.´
Naturally I obliged.
´One evening I was in this hotel and I'd called her, and this woman I was with got out of the bathroom asking who I'd called. I said I'd ordered champagne. And before I knew it she'd pressed the last dialled number button to order bloody strawberries. It was a direct international line...´
He shook his head. 'She appears to be so collected... When I got home I experienced how furious she can be.´
´I can't imagine her to be angry,´ I lied with the slurred speech of beginning drunkenness.
Rupert, who was three whiskies ahead of me, brought his glass to his nose before finding his lips. ´Nor could I Andre, nor could I.´
After another sip he said with an aggrieved expression: ´We've got a marriage of convenience, why would she ...´
´Right,´ I said, raising my glass, ´you live as brother and sister now so...´
He grinned.
´But she knows!´ I said, really stunned.
'She likes me, she's attracted to me and Lord knows I'm attracted to her.´
I pointed an unsteady finger at him: ´But if you're attracted to her, why -´
I made a gesture away from me.
'They just come to me you know. They see a King, they want to sleep with him. And I'm a man!´
He shrugged as if it was out of his control.
I wasn't surprised by Rupert's piteous excuse. He wasn't the first bastard to use it nor would he be the last. But why Clarisse allowed him in her bed, was – despite Rupert's explanation - a mystery to me.
I couldn't imagine Clarisse to get so drunk as to convide about her relationship with her husband, but luck was on my side: on the day of our return from Scotland a paper published a picture of the house where Rupert and I had spent our weekend. The photo also showed a dark haired bosomy woman. The lines accompanying the picture read that Lord Sadique had a girlfriend.
A few days later on I had dinner at the Castle. Clarisse was charming and kind when talking to me, but she acted icily polite toward her husband. After dinner Rupert escaped to the stables to see how a filly was doing. Clarisse and I sat down near a fireplace.
´I'm sorry you got involved in a gossip Andre,´ Clarisse said.
Thinking I didn't understand her, she added: 'The picture of your girlfriend... Rupert actually entered the subject himself, saying that he was left to play golf while you had a romantic encounter. It was the other way round wasn't it?´
After I'd seen the picture I'd realised that when one of his bodyguards had whispered something in his ear, it hadn't been The Prime Minister needs to speak to you Your Majesty, but Your guest has arrived sir. At my friend's urging I had finished the round we'd only just started. Eighteen holes.
I replied her question by looking away.
´I thought so,´ she sadly said.
She rearranged some flowers on the coffee table in front of us.
´Had I known about his plan...´ I started.
´I'd never thought he'd use others to... I am sorry Andre.´
´Please don't be. I am sorry that he hurt your feelings.´
Since meeting Clarisse, I compared every woman with her. Some were captivating beauties, but to me none of them could hold a candle to the Queen of Genovia. They all lacked something: grace, poise, an angelic voice, wit, a brain. Many of the pretty faces I met throughout the years did have something Clarisse would never have: the capability to be unfaithful.
After my Queen had become a widow she didn't treat me differently than before. At first I told myself that she just needed time. After all: when I would unexpectedly drop by for a visit, she would never, no matter how much reading and signing she had to do, refuse to see me. On the contrary, she'd greet me with a warm smile and a happy exclamation and she would take me into her gardens, or to her other favourite place: her library. My presence made her relax and laugh and I had reason to believe that she found me physically attractive.
I figured that we simply needed to spend time together, in private, away from the gossips at the Castle, away from the restraint Clarisse exercised on herself. The yacht I had commissioned would give us privacy in plenty. The members of her senior staff that were closest to her, her aid and Joe, would certainly agree with me that Her Majesty needed a holiday. The three of us (possibly with the added voices of her sons) would persuade her to accept my invitation for a small cruise.
At first I believed that I would be able to overcome the objections Joe would raise on learning that he wasn't invited: my crew would consist of former navy seals, men trained to fight and protect. However, as I thought things over, it seemed very unlikely that the Head of Security would agree to such a scheme. Even the fact that I could claim lack of space (Triple V is a large yacht but she doesn't accommodate a lot of people) as another reason why the Queen's guards couldn't board the ship, would be waved away by Joe Romero: he would have his men sleep in a tender and camp in the engine room himself, just to be able to personally protect his Queen.
He would tell her it was too dangerous for her to go on a holiday alone, I would inform her about the marines and it would end in her deciding that her guards were to stay at the Castle, while Joe would accompany us. With me only being her very close friend, she wouldn't feel the need to create total privacy. I on the other hand didn't want Joe's shadow to fall on us, just when I would be getting Clarisse in a romantic mood.
It was a challenge that left me puzzling for months.
OoOoOoO
On the day after her arrival aboard Triple V Clarisse had not said a lot and the next day she was even less talkative. At dinner she ate like a sparrow. She was mourning the loss of a country.
I longed to see the lost look in her eyes replaced by a sparkle.
´Clarisse?´
She blinked and looked at me. Her mind may have been far-away, it had not been sleeping.
´When did you decide that I needed to be rescued?´ she initiated.
Her voice sounded hoarse. She took a sip of her water.
'Several days before the court's decision I feared that it might not end well,´ I slowly replied, ´I started making preparations then.´
´You didn't consult Joseph?´
´He was helping you in another way. Involving him would mean that he'd have less time to find evidence of your innocence.´
She nodded and swallowed hard. 'The guards who took me to and from the cell... Were they involved in the operation?´
´No they were not.´
It took a while before she continued.
'The sound of the waves against the ship is soothing, isn't it?´ she remarked.
I agreed with her and refilled her glass. She took it with her as she walked to a window.
´I've been surrounded by guards all my adult life and yet... They didn't want to protect me. It felt...´
In the silence that followed I walked next to her. She stared outside. I didn't. Still holding her glass, her free hand caught the wrist of the other hand.
´Were you present at the court-yard Andre?´
´I was. I hoped to give you a look to reassure you but it was so crowded...´
´Crowds are creatures. I learned to sense their mood.´
She trailed a nail over the rim of her glass.
Shaking her head she continued: 'That crowd was hostile. I knew it the moment I heard it.´
´I wish I could say you were wrong my Queen,´ I replied.
She placed a hand on her throat as if she felt sick.
´Clarisse, are you all right?´
She inhaled deeply. I walked her to a sofa and took her glass from her so she could sit down.
´How did you rescue me?´ she asked, mesmerizingly smoothing her skirt so the fabric wouldn't crumble.
´I found a map of the House of Justice among my uncle's possessions. It proved that there were underground tunnels.´
´Oh!´
´Yes, that's how you got out. ´
Clarisse knew that my uncle had been interested in Pyran architecture. I wouldn't need to remind her of that.
´After I found trustworthy men to free you, all that had to be done was making sure that you would be brought to a room giving access to the tunnel.´
´It can't have been as easy as you make it seem Andre. Was the Archbishop involved? Where did the tunnel lead to?´
'The Archbishop didn't know what would happen. My men took you into the tunnel and placed you in a case. You were brought to the harbour of Antiem by car for the tunnel wasn't very long,´ I smiled.
My guess that Clarisse wouldn't be too curious about the episode when she'd been a parcel, proved right.
´Who got me out of the case? You?´
´No my dear. When you arrived here, I was still in Pyrus. I knew Leclerc would take good care of you.´
OoOoOoO
For nearly a week the days were exchangeable. Every morning when I stepped into her suite my heartbeat was accelerated. Would she be less depressed? Would she have eaten more than half a slice of toast? What would she wear?
Every morning I found her staring ahead, still as a statute.
I informed her about global news: an earthquake in Asia, an Italian minister involved in a scandal, a world record in athletics. Being a lady and a diplomat she made the appropriate replies but I sensed that she merely longed to hear about Genovia. The fact that I didn't bring the subject up must have made her conclude that she wouldn't like what I'd tell her. She didn't enter the topic.
After a cup of tea I'd take my leave, not to return until lunch. By then she would have gained energy and she'd be more talkative.
She hoped the press wouldn't pester Amelia. She was glad that Mr Motaz had decided to remain Prime Minister and she hoped he'd be able to fight the MPs who would want to bring him down. She proudly smiled when I told her Pierre had accepted the regency and, moved by her sweet expression, I printed the newspaper picture of the prince being sworn in as regent. She gently touched his face and waved away the handkerchief I offered her.
'Look, there's Charlotte,´ she commented, blinking furiously.
'The photo doesn't show Joseph,´ she discovered.
I suggested that he was probably standing aside and I made a silly joke about one of her ladies-in-waiting, a baroness who might think herself capable of capturing the prince.
It seemed to me that my friend, knowing that Genovia had not fallen into Von Troken's hands, felt better and more energetic.
In the privacy of my sound-proof suite, I made a call to Pierre. The prince told me that he was happy to talk to me. After answering his questions about my yacht I inquired whether the Prime Minister was helping him to settle down. He replied in the affirmative.
´Do you think I've made the right decision Andre?´
'To become a regent? Absolutely. Your mother would -´
´I'd rather have remained a priest. But Motaz begged me to rule.´ He sighed deeply. ´I reasoned that if it wasn't for me Amelia wouldn't have had to become a princess in the first place. It will not take long before she turns twenty-one.´
´Apart from that if you hadn't become a regent, Von Troken would have ruled and you know how your mother-´
´Yes, well, Von Troken has been remarkably supportive to me.´
I feigned surprise.
´I am glad that the Archbishop, who is a man of integrity, is no longer suspected of being a accomplice to the kidnapping,´ he declared.
´Is that how you call it?´
´How would you call it Andre? There haven't been demands for a ransom, true. Perhaps I too should call it an escape.´
I remained silent. It made him continue his trail of thought.
´I wish Philippe were here. How would he have responded? I knew my brother well, but it's hard to imagine how he...´
´He would have called it a rescue,´ I said.
He sighed.
´A rescue... You know Andre, I just can't picture that they would actually have gone through with it.´
'She would have been executed Pierre. You would have lost her.´
He started telling me about the remembrance service to honour his father that would be held that evening.
OoOoOoO
The editorials about the remembrance service said that it was understandable that the Archbishop had focused on the late King's life. The reader's letters stated that the bishop ought to have condemned the murderess to hell.
The papers re-published pictures of the King's widow and sons made during His Majesty's entombment. The princes were still allowed to look devastated but the Queen's sad eyes now proved her to be a skillful liar.
The song 'la saleté Clarisse' had been recorded and was making its way to the top of the charts.
Telling Clarisse all this would help her to realise that I was the only true friend she had left in the world. But she was depressed as it was... No, even without informing her that her subjects regarded her to be the devil in disguise, I had my elegant lady where I wanted her: near me and with an ocean to separate us from intruders.
...
...
Author's note: the Queen's depression doesn't fade away just like that. Andre tells her to give in to her feelings.