"Guys?" Pierre asked for their attention after Clarisse and Joe had so abruptly left the dinner table. "I know we're all concerned about Mother, but let's let Joe handle it tonight. He knows her better than any of us, and he'll be able to see her through this."
"You don't think she's just not feeling well, that there's something going on we don't know about?" Nicholas expressed the thoughts of the group.
"Let's just say I have a feeling. Charlotte, feel like taking a walk? If you two will excuse us." Pierre took Charlotte's hand and guided her into the hallway.
"You know something, don't you?" Charlotte inquired.
"Perhaps."
You're being rather mysterious about it, whatever it is."
Well, darling, you know in my line of work confidentiality is the most important thing of all." Pierre kissed her on the cheek. "We'll see soon enough, I should think. "While we wait, how about a game of pool, it's been awhile since I've had a chance to beat you at that."
"You're on. And for the record, you've never beaten me at pool".
Arm in arm Joseph and Clarisse entered the games room, their search for their son ending exactly where they thought he would be, Shades having passed the info to Joseph. Pierre, about ready to break, looked up and saw a weary Joseph and very tense Clarisse. He straightened up and leaned his pool cue against the table, and waited.
Clarisse spoke first, addressing her Assistant. "Charlotte, would you be so kind and leave us for a bit. We have something to discuss with Pierre."
"Of course, Your Majesty".
"No. Whatever you have to say to me, you can say in front of Charlotte." Pierre spoke gently, but firmly, staring at his Mother ensuring she knew how serious he was that Charlotte stay.
Clarisse took a breath, glanced at Joseph and said, "Of course, dear. If you're sure."
"I am. Charlotte just lost her first game of pool to me, and as payment of her bet has now agreed to be my wife. So what concerns me, concerns her." Pierre put his arm around his new fiancée and kissed her forehead. "Now would you like to congratulate us?"
Joseph left Clarisse side to hug both of them, but she was the first to reach her son and pull him into a tight embrace. "I'm so happy for you, you two were made for each other."
Pierre seized the moment, sensing that he was going to have to help this conversation get underway. "I agree. Just like my parents were made for each other. I hope that I will love Charlotte just like my father loved my mother, and I hope that she will love me when I'm old just like my mother loves my father".
Charlotte chimed in, eager make it easier for everyone. "Your Majesty, Pierre and I have seen the way you have looked at his father, seen the love you shared so deeply and passionately for all these years. We want that for us, and we're so glad that you are both here to show us that true love will wait, and that it can't be denied forever."
Joseph, who had been holding on to Clarisse increasingly tighter as the young couple had spoken started shaking his head, smiling. "I only have one question, young man: how long have you known?"
Pierre's grin mirrored his father's. "Well, long enough to know that I had no right to the Renaldi throne, thank God!"
Clarisse gasped. "But how, how did you know?"
Pierre looked directly at her, dreading his answer. "Rupert told me".