Chapter Four

Over the next four years, Charlotte grew more and more accustomed to life in Genovia. Naturally whenever the queen went to San Francisco to visit her grand-daughter, Charlotte went with her, but she was beginning to find that Genovia had entwined itself in her heartstrings even more than had the city of her birth. She was friendly with Shades, but neither had shown any desire to deepen their friendship, as Shades was as occupied with learning Joseph's job as Charlotte was helping the queen.

The only time Charlotte wondered about her own history was one summer day when she was sitting in on one of Princess Mia's lessons with the queen. Mia had been asking about her father, and the queen had given her a few more details. Charlotte's mind had wandered at that point, wondering who her father might have been ... and who her MOTHER really was.

"Charlotte?"

Suddenly becoming aware that Princess Mia was staring at her, Charlotte flushed. "Yes, your Highness? I'm sorry, I was ..."

"It's okay. I was just wondering about your fa ..."

Queen Clarisse cleared her throat, and interrupted quickly, "Mia, a princess NEVER asks personal questions unless it is obvious that the other person really wants to talk."

The princess flushed miserably. "Sorry, Charlotte. I didn't know I wasn't supposed to ask ..."

"It's all right, your Highness. I ..." Charlotte shot a quick glance at the queen. She had forgotten that Joseph had obviously told the queen that Charlotte didn't know who her father was. "Like you, I never knew my father. Unlike you, I never heard from him, either. My mother never told me his name." She suppressed the truth that her mother had never revealed HER real name, either!

"You know, it's funny. There were a couple of other girls who didn't have fathers when I was little. I remember we used to pretend our fathers were movie stars or famous athletes or something. I never thought of mine being a prince, though." Princess Mia spoke thoughtfully.

"I wondered, too, when I was little," Charlotte nodded. "I never thought he might be a prince, either. I used to hope he would come to find us, but when I said something like that to my mother, she shook her head and said that would never happen."

"Do you think he knew about you?" the princess asked, after a moment, ignoring her grandmother's sudden movement and renewed throat-clearing at the personal question.

"I don't know," Charlotte looked down, pondering the question. "I really don't know. I think I hope he didn't, because if he DID, then it meant he didn't care enough to come." She found suddenly and rather surprisingly that she didn't want to think about him, it hurt too much. She surreptitiously eyed her watch, glad to see that the scheduled lesson time was almost up and that they all had something to do.

"Or that he couldn't." Suddenly the queen joined the conversation. "Perhaps he was unable to leave Genovia. He may have known about you and WANTED to come, but couldn't."

"Yeah, or he might even be dead," the princess added.

"MIA!" her grandmother moaned.

Charlotte chuckled, uncrossing her ankles and coming gracefully to her feet. "Never mind, your Majesty. I really don't mind. Believe me, I have thought all the same things. However, it is time for you to meet with the envoy from Spain, and I believe the princess has a riding lesson scheduled."

O o O o O o

During her third year in Genovia, Charlotte began attending the queen's audiences in the throne room, and had a slight battle with Joseph over whether or not she should continue to use the mini tape-recorder he had first provided for her in the San Franciscan consulate. Charlotte maintained that it took too long, even with the use of the palace dicta-typing machines, to convert the notes to something easily referred to later. She insisted that she didn't want any 'state-of-the-art' cameras or recorders, that a simple clipboard suited her needs best. Joseph finally gave in, sardonically telling her to make sure she never ran out of ink or paper, and to be especially careful about leaving her notes lying around for anyone to read.

Having lost that battle with Charlotte, Joseph next insisted that Charlotte be equipped with the new headset and microphone that the security team was experimenting with. The queen herself was not entirely happy with them, never knowing when anyone wearing the headset spoke was responding to her or to a disembodied voice through the earphone. Not being able to come up with a plausible excuse, and finding that at times it DID come in handing when trying to keep track of the queen's whereabouts and the placement of the security team, Charlotte rather reluctantly agreed to the headset and wore it occasionally when she was on duty.

During the throne room sessions, Charlotte was gratified to see the change in the queen and in the way the people reacted to that change. The first few times, it seemed that Queen Clarisse was very gracious, but held herself aloof from most of the problems, not letting them touch her personally. Charlotte supposed that was because it would be impossibly difficult to allow another's problems to become personal, but as time went on, she realized that the change was more in the queen herself. After careful scrutiny, Charlotte decided that the queen was unsure of her reception, and it was her refusal to allow her nervousness full sway which caused her to appear somewhat distant. The queen was, however, genuinely interested in the people, and with her more frequent audiences than King Rupert had ever held, Queen Clarisse was gradually building up public support in the country.

She also attended some of the Parliament sessions at the queen's request, so that she could make notes as she sat inconspicuously in the back benches. She grew to know each of the men who sat in Parliament by name, and recognized many of their idiosyncrasies as belonging to men of ANY culture who spent a lot of time in politics. She chuckled to herself when seeing Lord Palimore dozing a good deal of the time, then awakening and making a pronouncement that had the other Lords sitting up and taking notice of the old man. She managed to stealthily switch Lord Fricker's vodka for water many times, and was amused to see that he rarely noticed. She noted Lord Crowley's love of food and refusal to speak to or of his estranged twin brother. She discussed with the queen the advantages of moving Lord Harmony from his seat at the back of the session room and putting him directly behind Lord Mabrey, one of the more volatile and outspoken members of Parliament.

Charlotte renewed her acquaintance with the Motaz' at this point, as Mrs. Motaz invited her for dinner a few times. Charlotte found it amusing that the prime minister's wife could be as curious as a kitchen maid in the palace. Mrs. Motaz was trying to subtly find out from Charlotte what her understanding was about the relationship between Joseph and the queen, but Charlotte did not give her any satisfaction. She answered direct questions briefly, but held her tongue at statements that didn't require an answer.

Mrs. Motaz finally laughed and gave up, saying, "I swear, Charlotte, you are worse than a clam! I pry and pry and you don't have any pearls of wisdom to offer me after all my work! Why, you're worse than Sebastian! All HE says is that it's their business, and Charlotte, you KNOW women like me love to hear all the romantic details! Ah well, never mind. My cook tells me that you have been seeing Joseph yourself, so perhaps that is why you do not wish to discuss his emotions with regards to Queen Clarisse."

Charlotte smiled politely. "Perhaps."

"But not likely, right? All right, I won't pester any more."

"Thank you." Charlotte's gratitude was heart-felt. She truly enjoyed visiting with Mrs. Motaz, but she had no intentions of telling anyone what she had seen when it came to Joseph and the queen. She believed that people's private lives should remain that way. She just wished she didn't have to always be the one who SAW those private lives more often than necessary! It made her wonder whether or not she was the only one, besides Shades that one time, who had ever seen Joseph and Queen Clarisse embrace. Certainly they were very circumspect most of the time, yet it was hard to tell where the speculation was coming from had the two in question NOT been seen once or twice!

Shades himself, near the middle of the fourth year, had declared that he didn't think the queen would be able to keep saying no to Joseph for long. "I think Joseph just needs to seduce her PROPERLY," he said to Charlotte one day. "And he DEFINITELY needs to stay away from YOU!"

"Are you jealous?" Charlotte taunted him.

"Hardly. Besides, I know he's too old for you. I don't know why everyone else who keeps saying you two belong together don't realize that!"

"Oh, but he's really HOT, Shades. Women and girls of all ages fawn over him." she continued to tease.

"Come off it, Charlotte! You KNOW you're not interested in him!"

"Hmm, I don't know about that," she mused. "There's really no one ELSE here in the palace quite as interesting as Joseph, you know."

Shades almost choked on his indignation, then growled as Charlotte erupted into giggles. "Anyway, back to what I was saying, if Joseph had the queen begging from just a kiss or two, think what he could do if he REALLY decided to lay siege to her and break down the ivory tower she's hiding in."

Charlotte sobered quickly. "Talk like that will get you into a lot of trouble, Shades, my boy. Maybe you should learn something more from Joseph than security. Perhaps a bit of his suave behaviour." She turned on her heel and hurried off, not willing to talk about it any more. Charlotte still kept most of what she knew or suspected to herself, and she had never heard that any of the gossipers were completely sure as to which woman Joseph was 'secretly' romancing. Charlotte had never spoken to either Joseph or the queen about it since the episode her first summer in Genovia.

Later that very evening, Charlotte was loitering in the garden, watching for falling stars, when Joseph appeared at her side.

"Lovely night," he commented.

"Yes. I thought I'd come out to watch the stars. I heard there were to be a record number of falling ones, tonight, and realized that to see them, I'd have to either get right away from the palace, or at the very least behind this hedge."

"Looking for a star to wish on?"

"Not really. I'm happy."

"You're sure? I understand you've been fending off rumours again, Charlotte," he said gravely.

Charlotte smiled up at him. "I don't mind. It makes me feel ... I don't know ... like I'm somebody, to have people think that I have caught your eye."

Taking her hands in his, Joseph said, "Charlotte, you ARE somebody, and you have no need of anyone, ESPECIALLY me, to make you a very special person."

Unable to resist, Charlotte kissed his cheek again, and he squeezed her hands before releasing her. She slipped inside without another word.

O o O o O o

The next afternoon, after a hectic throne room session, Charlotte was about to enter the office when she heard the queen speaking coolly. "Joseph, I understand you and Charlotte were seen in the garden late last night."

Charlotte closed her eyes and prayed for strength, but Joseph's next words lifted the burden of guilt that was settling over her. "Ah," he said, "but, your Majesty, YOU know well the woman I was with ..."

Grinning to herself, Charlotte realized that once again the queen had unwittingly provided her an alibi -- and that she herself had taken the blame for the queen's possible 'indiscretion'!

"Joseph, it's not really fair to Charlotte to use her like this. I feel so guilty ..."

"Charlotte is fine with this, trust me. I spoke with her last night, just before you came out. If it bothers you this much, though, we COULD bring our friendship out of the shadows, you know. Clarisse, you NEED to take time and give some thought to your needs and YOUR wants as well. Duty to your country doesn't need to completely consume you as a person!"

"Joseph, I ..." the queen's frustration was obvious in her voice. Suddenly she said, "You know, you're probably right."

"I am?"

"You needn't act so stunned," the queen's voice was shaky now. Charlotte could imagine vividly the crooked smile which would be illuminating her face. "You are right once in a while, aren't you?"

Charlotte heard Joseph's footsteps closing the distance between the two. "I'm right about our love, too," he said forcefully.

"Perhaps," Queen Clarisse agreed. "But I still need time. I MUST wait until Mia is crowned before our relationship can be brought out of the shadows. PLEASE, Joseph!"

"It's just that's it's so hard and another year and a half is a long time ... but if you give me another kiss to tide me over, I will consider your plea ..." Joseph declared.

The queen laughed softly, then there was a short silence, and Charlotte heard the unmistakeable sounds of lovers engrossed in each other. She turned to leave, but heard Shades' call for Joseph through her headset. Joseph sighed and said huskily to the queen, "Forgive me, my dear, but Shades is requesting my presence urgently so may we continue this ... discussion ... later?"

"That thing you speak into IS turned off, isn't it?" Queen Clarisse asked, equally huskily.

Joseph chuckled. "I made sure of it, my dear. No one will discover our secret because of these security measures."

O o O o O o