Chapter Thirty
The King and the Queen were on their way back from a charity event when suddenly a group of motorcyclist paparazzi surrounded their car.
"How far are we from the Palace?" – Helena asked her security detail in forced calmness.
The bodyguard looked out the window and replied:
"About ten minutes… if we can get rid of them."
"Then get rid of them. Speed up!" – the Queen ordered in a peremptory tone.
The man quietly nodded and he was about to transmit the command to the driver, but the King stopped him.
"No." – he said firmly. – "Slow down. Let them get what they want and they will go away eventually."
The bodyguard looked from one to the other, helplessly, not knowing who he should listen to.
"Eventually…" – Queen Helena echoed her husband's last words angrily and shook her head.
She leaned over in front of her security detail to look out the window. She didn't fail to notice the bodyguard's gaze that wandered to her breasts while she did it. Immediately, a photographer appeared on the other side and knocked on the pane. The Queen quickly pulled back.
"Eventually, they will break the window." – she remarked scornfully.
"We won't speed up. It's too dangerous." – King Simon repeated his order nervously.
Helena could hear the fear in his voice and this made her more frightened too.
"I don't know if you noticed…" – she hissed angrily – "...but I have a thing about being attacked in a car."
The King wanted to tell her something reassuring, but they suddenly heard the driver's voice over their security detail's walkie-talkie:
"They are chasing us into the tunnel. Attention, please! Level 2 Protocol!"
"Copy that." – replied the bodyguard and turned to the Royal Couple. – "Your Majesties, I have to ask you to bend down and place your hands on your head."
The Queen and the King obeyed, they leaned forward with one arm on their nape, but with the other one they grasped each other's hand.
"Ralph?" – Helena asked her bodyguard after a couple of minutes.
The man stared out of the window, looking for potential threats while he answered:
"Yes, Your Majesty?"
"Where is the other car?" – the Queen asked, referring to the car with the rest of their staff who accompanied them to the event.
"Right in front of us." – came the concise answer.
Helena hesitated a bit, then she shared her idea with the bodyguard.
"If we could get beside it after we left the tunnel and then go in separate ways, it would confuse the paparazzi. They wouldn't know which car to follow."
Ralph nodded in agreement.
"That could work." – he remarked in a firm voice. – "But one of you have to sit next to the driver."
"Why?" – King Simon asked nervously.
"For safety reasons. The front windows are bulletproof and Jack… the driver is ex-military." – the bodyguard explained. After a short pause, he added: – "There are additional weapons in the glove compartment so I suggest it should be you, Sir, who sits there."
Helena and Simon exchanged a quick look and agreed to the plan. Ralph gave out the orders to the driver and his colleagues in the other car and the King climbed into the passenger seat.
It worked. They managed to get rid the majority of the photographers and safely get back to the Palace, where other security details waited to escort them inside.
"What the hell just happened?" – the Queen shouted at her assistant, with her hands still shaking from the shock.
Rachel quickly shut the door of the study so no one could hear them. She didn't see her boss so angry for a long time.
The King grabbed his wife's hands and started to rub them gently with his thumbs.
"Please, try to calm down, my love. You know it's not worth it." – he whispered into her ears.
Helena pulled her hands out of his with such force that she almost lost her balance.
"Just get out!" – she snapped at him, then she added apologetically: – "I'm sorry, Simon. The sooner I get to the bottom of this, the sooner I can calm down."
Her husband quietly nodded. He gave her a short kiss and sat down on a chair next to her desk.
Rachel gave the Queen a printed article from the website of a well-known tabloid.
"It's a rumour about your alleged pregnancy." – she explained shortly. – "With a fake ultrasound picture."
"Damn it!" – Helena cried out in indignation.
She looked at her husband and gave him the article. Then, she turned back to her assistant.
"It's not a rumour, I am pregnant." – she said with a sigh and lowered her eyes. – "I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but I thought it was still too early."
Rachel nodded and replied objectively:
"Your Majesty's personal life is none of my business until it gets public. Now it got public so what should I do?"
King Simon ran through the article and asked the obvious question:
"Who was the source?"
His wife's assistant looked at him like she was seeing him for the first time. She wasn't used to his presence during her meetings with the Queen.
"A family member." – she answered willingly. – "At least that is what they say. Do you have any idea who it might be?"
"I know exactly who it was." – Helena said firmly at the others' surprise and headed towards the door.
Rachel's voice stopped her just before she could have left the room.
"Wait! What do I tell the press?" – she asked.
The Queen turned to her husband, then back to her assistant, hesitantly.
"Just confirm." – she finally decided. – "There is no point in denying it anymore."
Queen Helena rounded up her daughter and her dumb nieces in the closest room and locked the door so no one could escape. The three girls sat side by side on a small sofa and watched the Queen's every movement in horror.
Helena sat across from them and looked from one to the other.
"I really trusted you, Eleanor." – she finally said.
The Princess lowered her eyes and mumbled with guilt:
"I'm sorry, Mom."
"Why did you give them the ultrasound picture?" – her mother demanded, deliberately ignoring the tears in her daughter's eyes.
Eleanor shook her head and gulped.
"I didn't." – she protested. – "They stole it."
The Queen turned her attention to Princess Maribel and Penelope. She raised their bowed heads and forced them to look her in the eye.
"Do you know what people used to do with thieves?" – she asked and carefully calculated the pause before she continued. – "They cut off their hands. That's right. They chopped them off with an axe."
Maribel and Penelope screamed as if a horror film came to life in front of them.
"It wasn't me!" – Maribel cried.
Helena wickedly remained silent before she spoke again.
"I know. It was your worthless mother." – the Queen replied with disgust. – "But you were the one who told her about my pregnancy. Do you have any idea what they did to those who spilled out royal secrets?"
Princess Eleanor really enjoyed seeing the growing terror in her cousins' eyes.
"Cut out their tongues!" – she cried out in enthusiasm.
The two Princesses screamed again. Then, someone knocked on the door.
"This might be the axeman." – Eleanor remarked scornfully.
Maribel and Penelope screamed again. The Queen walked over to the door and opened it. Prince Cyrus entered the room and his daughters immediately rushed to his side.
"What is going on?" – he asked, rather annoyed.
Helena folded her arms in satisfaction.
"Just in time to punish your dumb offsprings." – she remarked with her eyes blazing in anger. – "Thanks to them and your stripper ex-wife, now the whole world knows that I'm pregnant."
"She wants to cut out our tongues. Don't let her, Daddy, please!" – Penelope cried aloud, her face buried in her father's stomach.
"You shouldn't believe everything she says." – Cyrus hissed in contempt. – "Now get out. Idiots."
Queen Helena watched the two girls running out of the room.
"That's all?" – she asked in shock.
Prince Cyrus shrugged his shoulders.
"Parenting is not my strong suit." – he remarked sarcastically.
The Queen shook her head in disbelief:
"So you just let them get away with it."
Her brother-in-law stepped closer to her and cried out in a sudden anger:
"They are little girls, you are an adult. Yet, you threatened them to cut out their tongues. I'm not sure who would deserve punishment here."
Helena was speechless for a moment, then she quickly found her voice:
"Cyrus, the protective father. That's new." – she remarked scornfully. – "Fine. Don't punish them, just keep the two little brats out of my sight."
Later that day, the King, the Queen and their children went out to the garden for a picnic. Eleanor and Robert pestered their parents for weeks about it, so Simon and Helena finally agreed to decide together on the baby's name. Everyone could suggest three boy and three girl names by writing them down anonymously on a piece of paper, which they collected in a big jar. When they were ready, they began to pull out the names one by one from the bottle.
They were already halfway through when King Simon cried out in shock:
"India?! No way! It's unnecessary for the whole world to know where she was conceived."
The Queen looked at him, a bit offended, then she turned to her children, trying to manipulate them:
"I'm not sure you know the rules, children, but you can always make alliances. For example, if you support me now, I can support you later." – she began, but her plan didn't work. – "Still nobody? Robert?"
"Tempting, but no." – Prince Robert replied with a grin. – "My sister would never forgive me if I exposed her to a lifetime of bullying."
Helena rolled her eyes and let her son pull out the next name:
"Let's see. It's a boy name: Jonathan."
"I hate it." – the Queen said immediately.
"You are just angry because we said no to 'India'." – Robert protested.
His mother gave him a triumphant smile.
"So it's yours." – she remarked, then she added: – "No, I'm not angry. I just hate this name."
Princess Eleanor took her mother's side.
"I don't like it either. What about…" – she started and picked up the next note. – "…Ken?"
"Again? That is cheating." – Prince Liam cried out angrily. – "You should have chosen three different names."
Prince Robert was keen on keeping the peace between his siblings, so he handled the situation the most democratic way.
"Let's vote again." – he suggested. He looked around, but just as earlier, no one supported Eleanor's choice. – "No one? All right. Next one: Eric."
Simon let out a surprised sigh.
"After my father…" – he mumbled and looked at his wife.
"Yes." – Helena replied in a serious tone, then she turned to her daughter and added teasingly: – "I would have written it down three times, but I'm not a cheater."
The King pulled her in his arms and kissed her.
"Thank you." – he whispered, touched. – "You got me on this. Anybody else?"
The children looked at each other and nodded in agreement. Although the twins didn't know their grandfather and Robert remembered him very little, but they heard stories of him and more importantly they knew how much both their parents loved him. They all raised their hands to vote for the name.
Eleanor read out the next name:
"Alice."
"Princess Alice… I love it. Whose choice is that?" – Helena asked in surprise and looked around. Her younger son looked back at her and shrugged his shoulders.
The Queen climbed over the blanket and hugged him tightly.
"Liam! That's a beautiful name." – she cried out happily. – "Who is with us?"
The King also liked it so he raised his hand immediately. Robert and Eleanor hesitated for a moment, but neither of them had any girl names left in the jar and Alice seemed to be an acceptable choice. They voted for it too.
"Alice and Eric. Too bad you are not expecting twins." – King Simon said cheerfully to his wife.
Helena playfully hit him on the head.
"Speak for yourself, darling." – she replied with a laugh and gave her husband a gentle kiss. – "I'm perfectly happy with one baby."
