Chapter 4: Worry
Charlotte sat back down at her desk. She had escorted Joe to the door, making sure that no one saw anything suspicious. Joe had jumped into a cab, and headed off to the airport. Now all she needed to deal with was the Queen.
Clarrise was utterly unaware of Charlotte's disappearance and reentry. She was pretending to be writing her speech for the upcoming, but she couldn't concentrate. Instead she was staring at a picture of Mia and Joe on her desk. Actually it wasn't really a picture of Joseph, more a picture of Mia, with Joe lurking in the background.
Clarrise couldn't help smiling. She loved this picture of Joseph. He hadn't been looking at the camera, he was just staring out into the distance, with the usual stern face and sunglasses.
The phone rang, again, jolting Clarrise from her day dream. She looked back down at the empty page. She had better get started, she had an awful lot of convincing to do.
The Queen stood in front of the parliament, gazing out into the familiarly stern faces. Long ago she had decided that these men never smiled, not even when they laughed.
She shifted her gaze. She hadn't seen Joe since this morning. Strange, since after all he was her bodyguard. But there were a couple of security guards standing near by, there was no reason to feel alarmed. Joe was probably off saving the world, as he always did. Hopefully he would come up with some way to get Mia here, safe and sound.
Clarrise flicked through her notes again. She knew them by heart, but was always a bit nervous when addressing parliament. Their stares seemed to go right through you. Piercing your soul. There was one man in particular who scared her Monsieur Dejonlé. He never blinked, his steeling gray eyes boring into you, like a cold harsh spotlight. Clarrise sighed, she knew she was just working herself up with these thoughts. She would be fine. She always was.
Charlotte was keeping a sharp eye on the Queen. She didn't want the Queen to worry herself about Joe. She was already worried enough about Mia. Charlotte could tell she was nervous about addressing parliament, she was twisting a ring on her finger. It was her wedding ring. Charlotte wasn't exactly sure why she still wore it.
Charlotte had been close to the Queen for more than half a decade. Before that she had worked in the palace for another five years. She had never been there when the King was alive, but she knew the Queen hadn't married the heir to the Genovian throne for love. And Charlotte was fairly sure that she had never grown to romantically love Rupert either.
Charlotte was exceptionally perceptive, she figured that is why she excelled as her job, it had taken her about three weeks at the palace to figure out that the Queen harbored feeling for her head of security. She had sorted through all the gossip that suggested anything from Joe having four ex-wives and 18 children, to the Queen having given birth to Joe's bastard children. She had come to the conclusion that the Queen and Joe were secretly in love with each other. And there were no secret love children involved.
The years had just made this more obvious to her. The little glances of concern on Joe's part, and the Queens relieved anxiety when her body guard was near, had just cemented this theory. The theory that ran through the place like wildfire with the maids. But Charlotte would never tell anyone. She was loyal till the end.
After all the formalities of Parliament, the Queen stood and began her address. Charlotte settled down. The Queen would prevail, she could convince any one of anything. The power of parliament really did rest in her hands. As did the fate of the young Genovian Princess.
Clarrise lay on her side, staring out the dark window. Her speech had gone well, if you could call it that. The men had been as responsive as ever, which meant pretty much not at all. But Clarrise was still nervous.
What was she to say to Mia? She was amused by the whole incident. She knew the pressure of the media. But what kind of a Grandmother can condone such language and behavior. She knew what she should say. She should tell Mia how disappointed she was. But how could she do that. Mia was already upset enough. They're brief conversation this evening, after the address, had shown Clarrise exactly how shaken up her granddaughter was. And Clarrise didn't want to worsen the matter.
All the sudden this mornings episode burst into her mind. In the rush, Mia's tears, and the address, Clarrise had practically forgotten about Joe's entrance. She felt sick to her stomach. How could she have forgotten. Her best friend in the world, her only friend in the world, had walked in on her, and practically seen her naked. Well practically naked from the waist up.
Clarrise could feel herself blushing, even though there was no one else in the room. What a humiliating situation. Joseph was sleeping across the hall in his quarters, thinking she got some sort of strange pleasure working in the buff.
Suddenly impulse took over. She needed to see him. Now. To explain herself. Clarrise climbed out of bed, and reached for her dressing gown. It wasn't there. She groped around in the dark for a minute before realizing that she had left it in the office. No sense in trekking over there. This little visit would only take a minute.
She crept out the door, and around the corner to his door. No one was around, all the lights in the hall had been dimmed. She knocked, no one answered. Slowly cautiously she opened the door. Clarrise had never been in this room. It was small, but very neat. No one in here, but there was a door. She assumed it went to his bedroom. She opened it and stepped inside. No one.
Utter despair washed over Clarrise. She knew it was only because it was late, the day had been stressful and she was tired. But she felt like she couldn't go on. The tears started streaming down her face. She tried to stop the but to no avail. She sat down on the edge of his bed. She wouldn't wait. She just needed to calm down. She leaned back, her head resting on his pillow. Gazing up at the ceiling, she realized this must be what Joseph looked at, every night before he fell asleep. It was a calming thought.
Her eyelids began to close. She would get up in a second. In a second she would head back to her room. As the clock struck midnight, the Queen of Genovia slept, breathing softly on her head of security's bed.
