Chapter 5 – A little more of C

Vilais didn't like the way his boss looked at him. Romero had the same glance in his eyes as he'd had last Thursday, in the dojo.

´Come here!´ the Head of Security barked.

The three guards hasted toward him.

´The Queen is staying here.´

The men nodded.

´We are staying there.´

He pointed in the direction of the stables.

´The idea being that Her Majesty has some privacy. You will not come near the house, IS THAT UNDERSTOOD?´

´Ay sir!´ the guards replied in unison.

´Back to the stables! I will assure Her Majesty that this will not happen again.´

The men obeyed. Vilais, a brave if perhaps stupid man, picked up the basketball on his way.

OoOoOoO

´I thought he was gonna draw his gun, Jesus!´ Vilais said, when he was sure the boss couldn't hear them any more.

´Isn't it weird?´ Dilson said, ´Why would he agree to have the Dutch stay at the house instead of us? They're in charge you know. The tallest guy, Jan, told me so.´

Capras thought about it and finally came up with a explanation. ´It prevents conflicts between the security staffs.´

´Yeah,´ Vilais agreed, ´and we can sort of relax, while the Dutch have to work. Fine with me.´

Dilson wasn't convinced. ´I think it's weird. I mean, they could protect their Queen and we could protect ours. If there's an attack, they will defend their Queen first won't they? And we will be hundreds of metres away, and it's not as if we can rush to the mansion, with all those trees standing in the way. She brought us with her, and we can't even properly come near her? I mean: the way he looked at us just now? ´

´She didn't want us to come along at first.´

´What do you mean?´

Vilais bounced the ball against a tree, to recollect what he had heard. ´Rebecca, the dress maid, heard Miss Charlotte ask the boss if he had convinced her. The Queen that is. And he had. Convinced H.M. And it meant that the boss didn't have the weekend off. So...must mean that he did have a weekend off at first, this weekend, because he wouldn't come with her. Last Monday it was known that she would go, and it wasn't until Tuesday that the boss told us we were to come along.´

Capras, always trying to see more sides of a story, had his brain work at full speed. ´This is a safe place so having a lot of guards here is not needed. And the stables may be good enough for the horses, it must have been years since people had to sleep there. The Queen probably felt uncomfortable having us here.´

Dilson didn't object. The Queen took good care of her servants but Romero wouldn't hesitate to have his men sleep in the open, with temperatures only polar bears could bear, if that was the way to protect Her Majesty. Safety comes first. So why didn't he want them to come near the house? It wasn't as if all Dutch guards were near or in the mansion all the time. No, he really didn't get it.

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If only she's still inside, Joe hoped. He might imagine the Queen of the Netherlands to be understanding, but would she still be if he joined her in the garden to talk to her friend? Royals guarded their privacy. Joe entered the house. How long does it take to replace a water-bottle? He hurried to the kitchen and when he opened the door, the kitchen seemed empty.

´I hoped you would come.´

He looked behind the door. She was standing next to a small table, choosing strawberries from a big bowl and placing them in a smaller one. All strawberries looked fine, there was no reason why she shouldn't just have grabbed a handful to fill the small bowl.

He closed the door.

Five strawberries later:

´Joseph, we were interrupted.´

´I told them to stay away from the hou-.´

Her sigh made him stop talking. Her eyes made him move toward her.

She cupped his cheek again. ´This was about where we had left,´ she initiated.

He didn't hesitate. ´Almost,´ he replied, catching her hand in his and pressing his lips to her palm.

She stepped closer. He felt her other hand on his shoulder. She felt his other hand on her waist. They stared into each others eyes. He felt her fingers trail up his neck. She heard him inhale. They heard singing.

´Piet Hein! Piet Hein! Piet Hein zijn naam is klein! Zijn daden benne groot...´

The singing stopped, and Joe hoped that the earth had opened itself to swallow the General. He and Clarisse both stepped back, pasting on their professional masks. Clarisse continued to select strawberries, feeling every inch a woman.

They heard sneezing and then the singing continued. ´Zijn daden benne groot zijn daden benne groot -´ The door opened. ´Hij heeft gewonnen de zilver-´

The General saw the Genovian Head of Security standing in front of the refrigerator, taking out a water-bottle filled with lemonade.

´Mr Romero. I didn't know you were here.´

Joe made a small gesture with his head. The General followed his gaze.

´Your Majesty! I am sorry. I believed Her Majesty and you yourself were in the garden.´

The Queen nodded. ´Could you bring the lemonade outside Joseph?´

´Off course ma'am.´

The General held the door for the Genovian Queen and her Head of Security.

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To her great joy, Beatrix saw how Clarisse reached out her hand, seemingly to help Joseph place the heavy water-bottle on the table, but in fact only serving to touch him. Joseph gallantly removed some fluff from the pillow on his Queen's chair, and happened to touch her shoulder when she seated herself.

´Thank you Joseph,´ Clarisse whispered.

Joseph inclined his head and walked away.

´I wasn't asleep,´ Beatrix whispered.

´B!´

Beatrix raised her eyebrows. Clarisse gave her a brilliant smile in return. Beatrix removed her sunglasses and on seeing the happy look in her friend's eyes Clarisse bit her lip and took up her book.

´I see you brought the strawberries,´ Beatrix remarked.

The friends had talked about many things that weekend, including intimate subjects, but Beatrix imagined that Clarisse needed time to adjust to her new 'relationship' with Joseph, so she bit her tongue and let her friend glow in her chair.

´What is Petehain?´ Clarisse wanted to know after two glasses of lemonade.

´What?´

Clarisse looked up from her book. ´The General was singing about Petehain.´

´Petehain? Oh! Piet Hein was an admiral. He stole a silver-fleet from the Spanish and naturally he became a hero.´

´Ah,´ Clarisse commented. ´B, would you agree to have the kitchen in the servants' part of the house renovated?´

´Absolutely.´

´I do hope we will be able to buy this place.´

´So do I. I think we have a good chance with the offer our estate agent made. It has been on the market for four years now and the owner is in a divorce. Apart from that, the fence needs to be replaced and the stables need to be rebuilt. I mean, you really wouldn't want Joseph to sleep there again would you?´

Beatrix looked innocently. Clarisse smiled and threw a strawberry at her friend's head.

OoOoOoO

That evening Beatrix waved Clarisse goodbye. She herself had a conference to attend in Burgos and would stay another night. She sighed when she sat down at a desk to sign documents. It was ever so silent now. She was glad that she had suggested her friend to buy the place together. The money was nothing. Clarisse needed a place like this even more than she did though. As lady of the manor, she, Beatrix, could tell Clarisse that she was always welcome to come, even alone, but she knew Clarisse wouldn't feel comfortable doing so. As an owner though, she would, at those rare occasions when her schedule allowed it, feel free to spend time here, especially now that she and Joseph had taken another step in their relationship.

Beatrix picked up a sketch she'd made of her friend and smiled fondly. She couldn't imagine what could go wrong for C and J now.