Chapter 3: Control

It took about half an hour for the news to reach Genovia. The phones were ringing off the hook. One reporter wanted to know if Clarrise would confirm that statement. She rolled her eyes and said she had no comment. How can you confirm or deny anything, when the heir to your throne blatantly swears at a reporter?

Charlotte was working across the room, trying to find out exactly what happened. How had the reporters known she was there? How had Mia gotten outside without a body guard? So far all she had come up with was dead ends. None of the stories aligned. She stared at one particularly ominous head ing:

Genovian Princess attacks Reporter

Where did they get attack out of swearing? The things reporters did these days...

Clarrise sighed what had started out a stressful day, was ending even more stressfully. She hadn't seen Joe at all. She felt she owed him some sort of an explanation. She didn't want this stupid little incident to end their already tense friendship.

But she couldn't think about that know. Mia needed help out of her little predicament. Who knew what she was hearing at the embassy. Knowing Mia she would be an absolute mess right now, she would go and hide in her room, refusing to speak to anyone.

It had taken Mia a long time to get use to any sort of press. She had been a bit awkward as a young teen. That phase had passed, but who knew what this would do to her. She was a quiet, private girl, it took one a long time to get to know her. It had taken Clarrise a good portion of the last 3 years to bond with Mia, and she hoped nothing would change that.

Not that Clarrise was exactly the extroverted type, who was easy to get to know. She had never had the need to really make bosom friends. Ever since she had been a little girl her acquaintances, friendships and even her marriage had been set up for her. All for diplomatic and political reasons. Sure she could be charismatic and charming, but she never particularly out going. She had learned to be more approachable, but frankly she wasn't really the kind of woman you hugged. She was more of a peck on the cheek kind of grandmother. Between the two of them, getting to know each other had been a long and often painful process.

Clarrise had seen Mia once, as a baby, but after that her contact had been limited to the few pictures that Phillipe, her son and Mia's father, showed her. After he had died she had lost all contact with the Thermopolis', until that fateful meeting at the Genovian consultant in San Francisco. And Mia had run out on her there. Not a particularly heart warming greeting. But Clarrise didn't blame her. She could remember the day her father had told her she was destined to be the queen of her country.

It had been a cool September morning, about a month before Clarrise's sixteenth birthday. She could remember wondering why her father wasn't at work. He was always at work.

That particular fall morning, he had called her down to his office. He had looked excited, but something in his stance worried her. His shoulders weren't hunched over a book, as they usually were. And he wasn't wearing his glasses. Clarrise almost didn't recognize him without his glasses.

He had bid her to sit down on the sofa. And then pacing back and forth, almost skipping, he had told her the news. Her father and the king had arranged a marriage for the eldest Prince and her. She had stared at him in disbelief. She had met the Prince only once. At a state function. Their fathers had shook hands, and the two of them were introduced.

He father held a high position of parliament, and had been knighted many years ago. Now she was to be Queen?

Until this point she really hadn't given Prince Rupert a second though. And now she was engaged to him? He seemed nice enough but she didn't even know him. Clarrise had always considered herself a hopeless romantic, and now she was to mary a man that she knew nothing about.

Clarrise was startled from her day dream by the phone. She answered it, another nosy reporter. Didn't they have any better stories? There was a war going on for heavens sake. She answered there questions in the same constant polite, cold tone and hung up. When would this madness end? Why couldn't Mia have said anything but F.

Clarisse chuckled to herself. When this was all over and done with, it might actually be comical. In a few hours, one word had become practically a national crisis. But it wasn't all over and done with.

In a few hours Clarrise had to appear before parliament to explain her heirs actions. And when Mia finally got here, she would have to do the same. It wasn't going to be easy. After all the members of parliament already had some doubts about whether an eighteen year old girl, who had never lived in the country for more than 3 or 4 months at a time, was really fit to rule. And now this. They would use this against her, claiming it showed the girls immaturity. And then there would be the usual talks of whether Genovia should really remain a constitutional monarchy.

Clarrise groaned, the talks always bored her, not to mention confusing her. In her mind there really was no reason for the switch. It wasn't as if she actually held very much power, only influence. And the people loved their queen, she knew that. Why would someone want to take that away from her?

Charlotte hung up the phone after a grueling conversation with a paper that kept insisting it was their reporter Mia had allegedly attacked. And of course they wanted some sort of compensation. Full reporting rights on the coronation at first, and then money. Charlotte had gotten them to settle for a discussion, once all the facts had been sorted out.

She glanced over at the queen to see how she was handling all of this. Well it appeared. She was smiling to herself over something.

Joe walked in through the door besides the Queen's desk, and motioned for Charlotte to meet him outside. She looked over at the Queen again, but Clarrise was otherwise occupied. Charlotte slipped away from her desk and out the door.

Joe was waiting for her, pacing up and down the hallway.

"Charlotte, I think it is of utmost importance that we get Mia out of this, shall we say, difficult situation immediately." Charlotte nodded, she had figured that was what Joe would say. "But I don't think we should tell Her Majesty."

"But..." Charlotte began to protest, but Joe hushed her.

"Her nerves have been frazzled enough, we don't need her worrying about Mia's arrival." Joe was watching the back of the Queen's head with a certain tenderness. Charlotte had seen that look before, it hadn't taken her long after walking in on the dancing in San Francisco. to figure the whole little affair out.

"What ever you want Joe, you're the head of security..."

"Then I will need your help, to keep her," he gestured towards Clarrise, "in the dark."