addlogcon: Thank you- read for yourself ;)
bluegirl- 783: Thanks lol- well, I love having them fight, passion and heartbreak and making up- dreamy- Well, you´re about to find out, sorry it took so long!
GraceBe: Hehe, me too- and yeap, it is- aw, yes, Rupert... Well, here we go...
LadyLuxembourg: Thank you very much- here´s the next part then :D
---
"I´m so excited" Mia cried, pulling Clarisse out of her unpleasant musings.
She looked up at her granddaughter whose eyes were sparkling with excitement.
"Granddad- I can´t wait to meet him, do you think he will like me?"
Now the girl sounded a bit anxious and the queen smiled soothingly at her granddaughter.
"Of course he will like you- we should leave as a matter of fact, we only have about an hour left."
Mia bounced out of the room with Clarisse following her at a slower pace, she wasn´t exactly looking forward to having to face her husband.
The car was already waiting for them and the fact that Josef wasn´t sitting behind the wheel but was holding the door open indicated to the queen that he was about as nervous as she felt herself.
"Hey, Joe" Mia squealed happily as she climbed into the car and Josef smiled tightly at the girl.
"Hello, Princess."
His eyes met Clarisse´s and he told her silently what she already knew.
"Me too" she whispered before briefly resting her hand against his cheek, then she sat down next to Mia and reached for the seat belt.
---
Clarisse watched as her husband descended the steps of Genovia One, her heart pounding at a sickening pace.
Mia was standing next to her, looking nervous but excited and Clarisse hoped that her temperamental granddaughter would occupy the king´s attention so that Rupert wouldn´t notice her distraction.
"Darling" her husband´s voice was warm, tender as though he really had missed her as much as he had been telling her ever since she had left Genovia.
Rupert´s arms closed around her, pulling her against his broad chest and the queen did her very best to relax, an impossible case while feeling Josef´s eyes on her.
"You are looking wonderful, Clarisse but what´s new about that" the king complemented her, then he let go of her and turned to Mia.
"Hello, Amelia."
"Uh- hi" the girl smiled shyly, then added "it´s really great to meet you, you know, I was so curious-" Clarisse stopped listening to her granddaughter´s voice, Mia was chatting away just like she had expected and to her surprise Rupert seemed rather charmed than annoyed.
He reached for Clarisse´s hand and put his other arm around Mia´s shoulders and led them towards the exit, sporadically answering one of the question that Mia kept firing at him.
Clarisse found herself next to her husband in the back seat of the limousine with Mia sitting opposite them, Rupert´s arm was around his wife´s waist again and Clarisse wondered when her husband had shown so much affection for the last time, he really must have missed her.
She couldn´t bear to look into Josef´s eyes when he helped her out of the car, then she hastily climbed the stairs to avoid listening to her husband starting a conversation with their head of security.
---
The queen looked up when her bedroom door opened and her husband entered, smiling again at the sight of her.
"Here you are."
"Yes- have you seen Sebastian yet?"
"No, there´s time later, I wanted to spend some time alone with you first."
"Well, of course, shall we go for a walk in the garden? I have made some additions, it´s really beautiful now and-"
"Clarisse."
His voice was quiet, amused and she stopped talking as he sat down next to her on the bed.
"I´ll have plenty of time to look at your hundred or so new rosebushes and your fountains and whatever else you might have come up with but right now I´d like to be alone with you."
"Oh-" She felt his arms wrap around her and then her lips met her´s softly but Clarisse could tell that her husband was hoping for something more than just a kiss.
She tried to keep the kiss as chaste as possible, hoping that he would understand that now wasn´t the best time for anything else.
Rupert broke the kiss and looked into her eyes, his voice still warm but with a slight edge to it as he stated "You obviously havn´t missed me as much as I have missed you."
"Nonsense, it´s just- it´s the middle of the day and-"
"And you have to work."
"Exactly- and you probably should get some rest before dinner and then we should talk to Sebastian and Amelia will have finished her homework by now."
She nervously straightened her blouse, she was talking too fast and too much and that most certainly wasn´t the best way to reassure her husband.
"Darling, what exactly is wrong with you? You can´t be that overworked and Amelia seems to be charming, so what´s bothering you so much?"
She cast around for an answer that would sound believable but couldn´t think of anything and instead leaned against Rupert´s shoulder, exhausted from all the lies and excuses she had had to come up with in the previous weeks.
"I don´t know, I´m just not myself right now" she whispered, feeling ashamed for seeking comfort from his familiar presence- even though she knew of course that he wasn´t at all faithful to her she was aware of the fact that he trusted her to be faithful to him and that he would be disappointed in her if he found out the truth and while it might be hypocrite on his side she had a bad conscience, even more so since Rupert´s affairs never had been more than a short fling while she actually loved Josef, much more than she could ever even have imagined loving her husband.
He didn´t ask anything else, he simply held her, gently stroking her arm.
---
"Hey, Joe, are you ok?"
The princess´s voice interrupted Josef´s musings and he looked up from the paper he had pretended to be reading.
"Hello, Princess- I´m fine, why are you asking?"
"I don´t know- something about you is different."
Josef put down his newspaper and looked up at the girl, trying to keep his poker face firmly in place.
"Is there now- and what would that be?"
Mia sat down opposite him at the kitchen table, her head in her hands while she examined him closely.
"I don´t know, I can´t put my finger onto it."
"Was there anything you wanted, apart from pestering me?"
"See, that´s what I mean, you are grumpy."
"Grumpy?"
Josef repeated, his eyebrow lifting.
"Yeap- grumpy, you know, you´re in a bad mood- worse than usual I mean."
"And you are your usual charming self I see- shouldn´t you be somewhere and learn how to behave by the way?"
Mia lifted her hands in defeat.
"All right, I´ll let you stare at your paper- it´s upside down, just in case you havn´t noticed."
"I´m aware of that" Josef replied calmly, "I prefer reading it this way."
Mia left the room, giggling and Josed rolled his eyes- teenagers.
His cell phone vibrated on the table and he glanced on the display, surprised as he recognized the number.
"Yes?"
"Can we talk?"
"Now? I thought he was with you."
"He´s talking to Sebastian right now, I excused myself- can you come to my office?"
"Of course, I´ll be up in a moment."