Part 7
"Your Majesty, were you up all night?"
Clarisse jerked awake and almost fell off the chair upon which she had been sitting and dozing all night. She first looked over to see how Joseph was, and his gray face told her he was not much better. Blinking and trying to wake herself up, Clarisse looked back at Eloise who was hesitating in the doorway. "I ... I guess I was, Eloise."
"You're worried about Mr. Joseph, aren't you?"
"Yes, I am," Clarisse admitted, leaning forward and picking up Joseph's hand to smooth for a moment.
At her touch, his pain-filled eyes opened and he looked at her. He tried to smile but grimaced instead as his body seemed to spasm slightly again. Clarisse bit her lip. "Joseph, you must try to drink something," she murmured, holding a cup to his lips.
He took a few sips, then turned his face away and closed his eyes again, his breath going out on a faint moan. Eloise came and stood by the bed looking at him, then looked up at Clarisse and put her hand on the queen's. "He'll be all right," she assured the older woman. "You'll see. When I'm out of my head with fever and pain, Nanny stays up and pampers me and spoils me for a while, and then I'm better. So I'm absolutely sure, sure, sure that Mr. Joseph will be good soon, because you stayed up and pampered and spoiled HIM."
Clarisse put her arm around Eloise. "Thank you, pet," she said, kissing the girl's forehead.
"Here, you hold Skipperdee and braid his ears so he doesn't get a rash because I have to phone Room Service for breakfast, for Lord's sake!" Eloise shoved the turtle into Clarisse's hand and ran out of the room.
Again poor Skipperdee hit the carpet, this time upside down, when Clarisse shuddered and threw him away. She eyed the turtle waving its legs feebly, and wondered if turtles were like sheep and died if they were on their backs for long. Shuddering again, she reached out and, with the toe of her shoe, flipped it right side up. She didn't want to KILL the turtle, she just didn't want to have to TOUCH it! Then she headed straight for the bathroom, scrubbed her hands and, for good measure, her shoe.
"I'm going down to see how Scilla and Tom are, then going to find Sir Wilkes," Eloise hollered from the living room, and slammed the door before Clarisse could object.
Checking her watch and seeing that it was eight o'clock, Clarisse wondered how much longer she would have to wait for Charlotte to arrive. Making a wide circle around the turtle, she hurried out into the living room, then stood there helplessly. Eloise was gone. Joseph was sick. Priscilla and Tom were sick. Nanny was having a breakdown and Clarisse had had to convince Sir Wilkes to take her away. What had she, Clarisse, really accomplished in the last few days? Suddenly overwhelmed, Clarisse sank down on a chair at the table, and put her head down on her arms. She could run a country competently enough ... but now she wondered how much of that was accomplished because of Charlotte's skills. Probably if Charlotte had not come to the palace when she did, right after Rupert's death, Clarisse would have thrown Genovia into the same sort of state she had thrown this small group at the Plaza Hotel!
The continuous ring of the door buzzer dragged her to her feet, and she crossed to the door. "Come in, Eloi ..." she began wearily, then her eyes widened as Eloise, beaming, dragged another woman into view. "CHARLOTTE!"
To Charlotte's surprise, Clarisse's arms were thrown around her, and Clarisse was hugging her, and crying and thanking her for coming to her rescue. After a few minutes, Clarisse managed to pull herself together and, laughing wryly at herself, drew Charlotte into the room.
In less than four hours, things would turn around completely.
O o O o O o
Nanny stirred awake to find herself still entwined with Wilkes, who was snoring softly. She felt so much better, so much more herself ... and it wasn't just because of being in bed with Willy. It was more because of their talk in the night. She had finally accepted herself as being worthy of his love without trying to change the person she was. Willy loved her. She loved him. That was all that mattered. Now she only had to find a way to tell ELOISE that! She drifted in and out of sleep while she considered ways and means of changing the absolutely huge, huge, HUGE wedding that neither she nor Willy wanted.
"Nan?" Willy's arm tightened about her.
"Mmm?" she kissed his shoulder.
"I love you ever so much ... but I have to get up. My arm is asleep."
Nanny laughed. "I love you, too ... and I have to get up as well, for sure, sure, sure!" As they untangled themselves and Willy shook the arm upon which she had been lying, Nanny peered at the clock. "Oh my Lord, it's ten o'clock in the morning! We must move, move, move!"
They hurried to get ready to head back to the Plaza, but before leaving the room, Wilkes caught Nanny's arm. "Nanny ... about the wedding ... I ..."
"We'll come up with something, Willy. Eloise can't run our lives. She's only six, for Lord's sake! And she really does have a big, big, big heart ... and absolutely loves to fix things. I'll tell her she needs to fix, fix, fix what she has been planning, so that our wedding is what WE want."
"Nanny, I have the marriage licence ... do you think we could maybe ... get married today, if possible? I must admit, I have a rather pressing ... need ..." and he held her close so she felt his 'need' acutely, "to not wait much longer before we are married ..."
She kissed him, still chuckling. "You've managed for over sixty years without me ... but yes, let's consider moving our wedding date up ... while Clarisse and Joe are still here. If they're still speaking to us after having Eloise for the last two days. I'd rawther linger here a bit longer, but I think we had better get back to the Plaza now, now, now!"
O o O o O o
Shortly before noon, Joseph was up for a short time, albeit looking a little wan and definitely shaky. Eloise reported that Priscilla was feeling a lot better, and Tom was coming around, too. Charlotte had had a chance for a private talk with Clarisse while Eloise was eating her breakfast, and had learned most of the particulars. After Eloise's breakfast, Charlotte had asked the child to take her someplace where they could talk and make plans in secret. Eloise's eyes had lit up at the discovery of a kindred spirit.
Eloise, upon their return to the suite to find Clarisse trying to restrain Joseph from getting up and dressed because he was feeling well enough to resume his duties as Clarisse's bodyguard since Tom was not in attendance, had announced that she and Charlotte had a secret. "And I absolutely LOVE secrets!" she had confided to the former queen while Charlotte was remonstrating with Joseph and bullying him into staying in bed for a bit longer. "Nanny really doesn't want a big wedding, you know."
"Oh?"
"She's doing it, I expect, because she absolutely loves, loves, loves me, and knows that I want it. And maybe because Sir Wilkes wants it, too. If he does. Maybe, Charlotte says, because it's EXPECTED."
Clarisse had wished she had had some of Charlotte's skill in psychology with children. "Expected? Who would expect a big wedding?"
"EVERYBODY! You KNOW Sir Wilkes is a knight, for Lord's sake!"
"I see. So ... are you going to tell me the secret?" Clarisse had asked.
"I'm going to fix Nanny's problem. That's probably why she's not feeling so good, good, good, you know. I love to fix things. Nanny says some things can't be fixed, but I always keep trying. But I shouldn't tell anyone else until I can talk to Nanny and Sir Wilkes first. It's a secret, you know."
"Ah," Clarisse had nodded.
"Charlotte's going to be my friend forever and write lots and lots of letters to ME, Eloise!" Eloise had added triumphantly.
Accordingly, by the time Nanny and Wilkes made their re-appearance, Charlotte and Eloise were fast friends. Charlotte had convinced Clarisse to lie down with Joseph and try to get a bit of sleep, as that way he would be sure she was fine, and Charlotte and Eloise had spent more time alone. Upon their arrival at Eloise's suite, the little girl flew into Nanny's arms and hugged her tightly, promising to be good forever and ever and ever if Nanny never went away again. Nanny's eyes met Wilkes' over the child's head, and she bit her lip. Then Nanny saw Charlotte smiling diffidently off to the side, and shock and delight flowed through her.
"CHARLOTTE!" Nanny cried, struggling to free herself from Eloise so she could hug her new-found friend.
"Eloise, remember?" Charlotte said quietly, and instantly Eloise dropped her arms so Nanny and Charlotte could embrace.
Eloise skipped over to Wilkes and hugged him too, much to his surprise. "Thank you for bringing Nanny back, Sir Wilkes! I bet you missed her just like me, Eloise!" He blushed, a fact which Clarisse noted with amusement when she arrived in the room just in time to hear Eloise's words. He returned the child's hug somewhat awkwardly, then, staring at Joseph who had struggled up, dressed, and now was standing in the doorway of the bedroom being supported by Clarisse, Wilkes asked, "What happened?"
Nanny's eyes widened as she turned around to see Joseph and Clarisse. She looked back at Charlotte who whispered, "Food poisoning. I came in answer to the queen's plea ..."
"Joe?" Nanny asked.
Eloise darted over to Nanny and patted her on her botto. When Nanny looked down, Eloise said, "Mr. Joseph was sick, sick, sick! So was Tom. And Scilla. But they're a little better. Her Majesty and me, Eloise, looked after Mr. Joseph ALL day and ALL night! Then my friend Charlotte came to help her Majesty, because she didn't know what else to do. I was the one to help her Majesty find my friend Charlotte's phone number, because nobody else would help her, for Lord's sake! Just me, Eloise. And Charlotte and me talked about a secret and now I want to tell you ..."
"Maybe after lunch, Eloise?" Charlotte suggested in a low voice.
Nanny's eyes widened even further when Eloise gave Charlotte a huge smile and nodded. Had Charlotte BEWITCHED Eloise, for Lord's sake? Joseph by now was over sitting on the couch, and Clarisse was at his side. "Oh, my Lord," Nanny muttered, "I should never, never, never have left!"
"Don't say that, Nanny!" Clarisse scolded her. "YOU were about to become sick yourself! I must say, you look much better now ... obviously your time away was needed and seems to have done you the world of good!"
"I had a good, good, good doctor," Nanny grinned impishly, suddenly looking very girlish.
Joseph choked on his laugh and began to cough, Clarisse raised her eyebrows but a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth, Wilkes blushed painfully once again, and Eloise cried, "You went back to the HOSPITAL? I should, should, should have visited you!"
Then Nanny said seriously, "I enjoyed the time away VERY much indeed, and I want to thank you, Clarisse, for forcing it on us ... me. We ... er, I did a lot of thinking ... and made some decisions ..."
Just then, a knock came at the door. "That's Bill!" shouted Eloise, and she ran over to let him in.
He grinned at Nanny as he wheeled the lunch cart in. "Haven't seen you around lately, but I guess you've been resting while your sister could look after Eloise. You're looking a lot better! Feeling better, too, I hope."
"Much, much, much," and Nanny smiled at Clarisse.
After Bill had gone, Charlotte looked at Nanny, then at Clarisse. "Sisters?"
They all laughed. "It was just easier to let everyone think that." Nanny explained. "We tried, tried, TRIED to tell them the truth, but no one believed us."
"At any rate, we're sisters of the heart!" Clarisse said, taking Nanny's hand.
"True, true, true," Nanny agreed.
"Well," Charlotte said, after a moment to process the information, "I do think that Sister Clarisse should go down for a nap again after lunch."
"Actually," Clarisse said, "I'm really not hungry. I ... well, I'm more tired than hungry. Since Nanny is back, I think I WILL nap! I'll just go down to our own room and sleep."
"I will join you." Joseph said promptly. At the grins that went around, he added in a gruff voice, "to SLEEP!" and scowled fiercely.
"Wake us later, please," Clarisse said, gathering their things they had brought up over the course of the last twenty-four hours, then taking Joseph's arm.
"For sure, sure, sure!" nodded Eloise. "Bye, your Majesty! Bye, Mr. Joseph!"
"And?" prompted Nanny, falling right back into her role as nanny.
"And thank you very much, from me, Eloise!" Eloise finished hastily.
O o O o O o
After they finished their meal, Eloise looked at Charlotte. "Can I talk now?" she asked. "About the wedding and the secret and ..."
"Speaking of the wedding, pet ..." Nanny began.
"Me first!" Eloise said. Taking a big breath, she said quickly, "I absolutely love weddings, but this is your wedding, Nanny, and not mine, although I get to be a part of it, and I love you and Sir Wilkes is nice and he's the one you wanted since you saw him, and I knew that, and now you can both be happy, happy, happy, but maybe the wedding I want isn't the wedding you want so I want to tell you that you can have the wedding you want ..."
"Wh ... stop, stop, stop!" Nanny held up her hand. Eloise stopped. "Are you saying, Eloise, that ... that we don't have to have the big, big, big wedding you have planned if we don't want it?"
"Oh my Lord, Nanny, it's YOUR wedding, isn't it?" Eloise cried, as if she couldn't understand why Nanny was so startled. "Can't you have what you want for your wedding? If it's what Sir Wilkes wants too?"
Wilkes put his hand on Nanny's and squeezed it gently. Nanny sat with her mouth open for a moment, staring first at Eloise, then at Charlotte who pretended incomprehension, then finally back at Wilkes. She snapped her mouth closed and nodded. "For sure, sure, sure, love. For sure, sure, sure."
"And I can still choose the dress, can't I?" Eloise asked anxiously.
A peculiar expression crossed Nanny's face and Charlotte caught on right away. "Eloise ..." she said gently to the child.
Eloise looked puzzled, then grinned. "I MEANT my OWN dress, for Lord's sake!"
"Yes, pet," Nanny laughed in relief. "You may choose your own dress!"
"If you're going to do more wedding planning," Sir Wilkes said hesitantly, "maybe I will just ..." and he began to rise from the table. Nanny caught his hand at the same time as Charlotte caught his other. He sighed. "Er, maybe not." and sank back down.
"We need your input too, Sir Wilkes," Charlotte said, getting out a pad and pen. Eloise ran for her own pad and pen, then sat primly beside Charlotte, copying her every action. "What do you want?" Charlotte continued.
"To marry Nanny as soon as possible. I don't want us to be apart a moment longer than necessary. Perhaps, tomorrow?" and he looked imploringly at Nanny, caressing her hand with his fingers.
Eloise stared at him. "Oh, my Lord! I could NEVER be ready!"
"Eloise ..." came Charlotte's gentle admonishment.
"Well," Sir Wilkes mused, then he winked at Nanny, "I WOULD have preferred tonight, but with how Joseph and Clarisse are feeling ... I could perhaps wait until tomorrow ..."
Nanny just blushed.
O o O o O o
"To Nanny and Wilkes!" "Happiness always!"
Nanny, wearing the blue ballgown that had been given to her in Genovia, smiled at the crowd around her, then kissed her husband's lips. Willy's arm about her waist tightened, and he deepened the kiss unexpectedly, making their audience clap and whistle. When they broke apart, Nanny laughed at the sight of Eloise's face screwed up as she stood beside Charlotte.
"Nanny? Sir Wilkes? Your dinner is ready to be served in the Rose Room whenever you wish," Mr. Salamone said, his ingratiating smile almost hiding the worry ever-present in his facial expression. "And once again, may I say how very, very delighted we are that you two were married here at the Plaza, allowing us all to share in your joy?"
"Thank you, Mr. Salamone," Wilkes said, and Nanny nodded her thanks as well.
"And it is so nice that you decided to marry while your sister and her husband were here to celebrate with you," Mr. Salamone continued.
"Oh, for Lord's sake!" Eloise exclaimed. "This is her Majesty, Queen Clarisse of Genovia! She is NOT Nanny's sister!" There was a shocked silence for a moment. Then Eloise turned to Clarisse and said, "See? I TOLD you you should have brought your crown and worn it! THEN they might have believed me! Mr. Joseph, can't YOU make them believe?"
"I'm afraid not, Eloise," Joseph said. "Sometimes even face to face, people don't believe what they see. That's why we have to put more trust in what is in our heart."
Eloise thought about that for a moment. "That's kind of like what Nanny said at Christmas about presents. It's not the fancy presents in ribbons that are the best ones, but the ones that come from the heart ... the ones you can't see, but you really mean."
"That's right, pet, the ones you give with love. Love always making the present and the wrappings the absolutely best, best, best gift ever! And when you DO see things face to face and believe," Nanny said, bending down to speak to Eloise on her level, "THAT is the best of all."
Wilkes drew her back up and kissed her again, lightly. "I love you," he whispered. "YOU, Nanny!"
"I know. I believe it now, for sure, sure, sure," she whispered back, smoothing his face.
"Oh my Lord!" Eloise rolled her eyes. "Can we go eat, eat, eat, please?"
Everyone laughed. Before they left the small chapel, Clarisse hugged Nanny. "You're wonderful," she said to her friend. "Wilkes is a lucky man."
"What if people ever hear that I asked him to marry me?"
"What of it? Tell them you were following the Queen of Genovia's precedence ... I asked Joseph, too, you know."
They laughed, then Charlotte came up for a hug. Nanny said, "And you, Charlotte, are you going to ask Shades to marry you?"
Blushing, Charlotte stared at the two older women. "ASK SHADES?"
"Just to keep the tradition ..." Clarisse chuckled. They started walking with the others. "However, Charlotte will be a little busy this fall. She's going into Parliament, you know, Nanny."
Nanny stopped mid step, and swivelled to see Charlotte's wry expression. Then Nanny laughed. "My prediction came true!"
As they passed through the lobby on their way to the Rose Room, Eloise broke away from the small group at the sight of someone coming through the main entrance rotating doors. "It's Maman!"
Clarisse and Joseph watched with interest as Nanny dragged Wilkes by the hand up to her employer. So this was Eloise's mother! Clarisse privately wondered what the woman would do now that Nanny would no longer be able to look after Eloise on a full-time basis. She would never be able to find anyone ELSE who would take on that task as ably and for as long as Nanny had, THAT was certain!
When Eloise's mother heard the events of the last few days, she apologized to and then congratulated Nanny and Sir Wilkes, and curtseyed deeply to Clarisse – an action which made all the staff members of the Plaza Hotel re-think their disbelief of Eloise's claims about Clarisse's identity. Then the most startling news of all was revealed when Eloise's mother announced that she was moving permanently to Paris and taking Eloise, and they were leaving the very next day. She apologized for the lack of notice, but was obviously so excited about her new opportunities that she didn't dwell on the apologies for long. She had known that Nanny would be marrying and staying in New York City, so she had already arranged for a nanny in Paris.
Eloise went back and forth from being wildly excited to heartbroken at leaving Nanny and her life at the Plaza. Nanny, too, had mixed feelings. It was rawther hard to see the little girl she had raised as her own leave, but she had her Willy and he filled her with so much happiness that she had difficulty mourning the loss of her life as she had known it for the last six and a half years. For Mr. Salamone, most of the rest of the staff at the Plaza and especially for Prunella Stickler, the main emotion was sheer, undiluted relief.
At one point in the evening, Joseph returned to his seat beside Clarisse, relieving Tom and Priscilla of guard duty, and said he had just met an old friend in the lobby. "I tried to get Robert to come in and meet you, but he was in a rush to meet his daughter and her male friend. Robert's wife isn't too well at the moment and is in a long-term nursing facility, which I was very sorry to hear, but I gave him the news that I was now married and we agreed that someday we'd meet ... somewhere. I gave him our phone number." Clarisse looked at him steadily for a few minutes, saying nothing, and Joseph asked, "What?"
"Do you realize that you have never given ME our phone number? Do you know what I went through trying to get in touch with Charlotte? If it hadn't been for Eloise, I never would have managed it!" Clarisse tried to look tragic.
Joseph roared with laughter, then kissed her and said in her ear, "And if it hadn't been for Eloise, there would have been no NEED for you to know our phone number!"
Clarisse leaned back against her husband, looking over at a supremely blissful Wilkes murmuring to Nanny who looked almost overwhelmed by her happiness as she stroked his arm and linked her fingers in his. Catching sight of Charlotte speaking to Eloise, Clarisse turned her face up to Joseph's and, touching his cheek lovingly, said, "We have to work on getting Charlotte married next ... she is so wonderful with children."
"No matter how wonderful she is with children, I would never wish an Eloise on her," Joseph returned. Then he grinned, "But personally, I think I should have a talk with Shades ..."
THE END