Author's note: some years ago I was in Denmark visiting a charming kro (inn). I pictured the finale of this story to take place there, but things run a little differently and the only Danish connection in this story is prince-consort Ernst's birth nationality. Nearly three years after publishing the first chapter, I present Field day's conclusion. It takes place immediately after the previous chapter. Thank you for reading, reviewing, following or favouring.
Chapter 13 – At the end of the day
´Beatrix informed me about these stairs this morning. Did Ernst tell you about them?´ Clarisse asked after Joseph sat down next to her.
´Yes. He took me to see his model landscape,´ Joe said. He too looked at the wall ahead.
´He's proud of it. And rightly so.´
´Yes. Absolutely.´
´It's going to be exposed in the palace on Dam Square.´
Yesterday Joe had doubted whether Clarisse and he had a future together and here he was, wishing he could sit with her forever even if that meant exchanging small talk. Small talk was innocent. Small talk wouldn't set lives upside down.
´The prince didn't mention that,´ Joe said. ´It will attract many visitors.´
´I admired his miniature Clarisse and Joseph,´ Clarisse said, ´Dancing. I could do that with you for eternity.´
Joe felt Clarisse's eyes on him. He stared at the landing, bracing himself for the "but" that would follow.
´Have you seen them?´ Clarisse asked.
Joe nodded.
´I felt that my duty to Genovia didn't allow me to think about myself. About us. I acknowledged that you don't want to live a secret private life forever and I was prepared to let you go. But what am I without you?´
Joe exhaled.
´Please don't leave me Joseph.´
´And be miserable in Spain, all alone?´ Joe said in a thick voice. ´This is where I want to be. Close to my beloved.´
Her right hand found his left hand. With his free hand he wiped away a tear from her cheek.
´You asked me one day how close I wanted you. I will not dump you Joseph. I won't do that to you. Or to myself.´
Joe pulled his Queen against him. ´We are a couple,´ he stated but at the same time it was a question.
´Yes, we are. We'll stay together.´
Clarisse's words made Joe want to float, fly, sing, dance, defeat a dragon. What he did, with a rapidly beating heart, a smile on his face and moist eyes was hold on to his beloved for dear life. Clarisse clung to him. After a while Joe was sure from the way she shifted in his arms that she was going to speak. She remained silent though and Joe offered: ´We are an unusual couple though.´
Clarisse backed away a little and cupped his face. Joe drowned in her loving eyes.
´We are,´ she said. ´Or perhaps I am a strange woman. I don't want to lose you Joseph. Should Genovia disapprove of us, I will leave with you but…´
Joe caught her wrists and felt her heartbeat. ´But in case we can continue like this, you'd rather stay,´ he said.
Clarisse averted her eyes from Joseph's face.
´No need to feel bad about that mi amor.´
Joe kissed her left wrist, then her right wrist and lowered their hands.
´I learned that I am a man for the shadows. You are a lady to hold the stage. If we can have the best of both worlds, I could wish for nothing more.´
Despite her obvious relief Clarisse said: ´Don't say things you will regret Joseph.´
´What I regret is that I was lost in self-pity. What I regret is that I didn't talk to you. Let's make each other a promise: whatever our future brings, we will talk.´
´Yes we will,´ Clarisse said. She cupped Joseph's cheek. ´Not too long ago you objected to being kept hidden. Are you sure- ´
Joe interrupted her but not to remind her that she too had changed her mind recently. ´In an ideal world I would be a prince. A prince or a king who could openly court the queen of Genovia and take her with him to his castle. But perfect pictures don't exist. In this world you are bound to your country and I am a servant who loves you. Tell me Clarisse, am I in your diaries?´
Clarisse had started blinking during the first part of his speech, but the last line left her puzzled.
´Yes you are. Of course you are.´
´As part of us?´
´Oh I see,´ Clarisse said with a mischievous smile. ´The first historian who'll read my diaries will have to change his ideas about the Ice Queen.´
Clarisse felt her body respond to her lover's expression but she continued her point: ´Joseph, becoming known as my mate far into the next century is hardly-´
´Shh. Your friends know. And my brothers are discrete...´
´Once Philippe's throne is secure you could tell them…´ Clarisse suggested.
Joe ended the negotiation: ´That sounds good.´ He caressed Clarisse's face. His ministrations made her close her eyes. She looked lovely. Like an angel. A sensual angel. Joe smiled and moistened his lips.
´Ti amo,´ he whispered. Clarisse's eyes flashed open. What he read there made Joe ask: ´Is there more we need to talk about my love?´
´If Genovia finds out and doesn't approve of us, we'll leave and find a home but I will not cook and clean.´
Joe would have laughed at her remark if it wasn't for the look on her face and her nearly painful hold on his hand. ´You are my Queen,´ he slowly said. ´No matter what happens you will always be my Queen. You're not a housewife.´
Clarisse relaxed and Joe asked: ´Did you really think I would want you to be one?´
Clarisse shrugged. ´I reasoned that you might not like having servants around,´ she said, ´and you once told me that your brothers don't lift a finger in the household.´
Joe held back a smile. ´I'm not my brothers.´
´No,´ Clarisse said as she gently dragged Joseph's face toward her, ´You're mine.´
Joe hungrily returned her kisses until he realised, far too late, that there might be cameras around.
He looked at the top of the stairs.
´No eyes, no ears,´ Clarisse said, ´The lady of the house told me so herself.´
Joe briefly closed his eyes as he recalled his thoughts about Queen Beatrix. ´I misjudged her. By putting me in the basement I thought she wanted to humiliate me.´
´Oh Joseph,´ Clarisse said with a sigh. She caressed the back of his neck but her hand stilled when a thought came up: ´Did you believe I agreed with that idea?´
´I wasn't sure,´ Joe confessed. ´I feared you might.´
Clarisse kissed his forehead. ´Dance with me.´
The landing was hardly a ballroom but Clarisse and Joseph were more than content to shuffle. It didn't take long before they stopped pretending to dance. Joe let his radiant Queen corner him against a wall. Feeling weak-kneed by her touches he caught her hands. This time Clarisse asked whether they had something to discuss. Grateful that she understood him he said: ´If Genovia finds out and rejoices, or at least doesn't object to us, and we live at the castle as a couple and you still have a function in Genovia do you expect me to do princely things?´
´Such as accompanying me?´
´I would love to do that.´
´But otherwise you would prefer not to be a public figure?´
´Yes.´
´If that is what you want, that is how it will be.´
´Are you sure?´
´The job I can handle alone. It's in my life as Clarisse that I need us.´
Joe, relieved, moved and exquisitely happy, turned them around and started kissing Clarisse's neck. When his lips moved to her cleavage, she said with a sigh: ´Joseph?´
Unwilling to let go of her but not wanting to ignore her question he whispered against her skin: ´Is there more we need to talk about Corazon?´
´Yes.´
Frustrated yet gentlemanlike Joe straightened up.
´Your room or my room?´ Clarisse asked. Her eyes twinkled.
Joe's heartbeat increased. ´I was told that your room offers a wonderful view.´
´True,´ Clarisse replied, ´If you care for small purple flowers on black lace.´
OoOoOoO
Host in studio in Pyrus: Welcome back to Good morning Genovia! We'll go live to the Netherlands where Queen Clarisse is spending the last hours of her state visit. Present on location is Margot Gris. Margot, what will Her Majesty be doing today?
Margot Gris: Good morning Genovia! The Queen's day takes off at an early start in the harbour of Rotterdam. You can see her limousine approaching behind me. From the harbour she will go to a high school where she will be joined by Crown Princess Louise and then she'll return to The Hague to visit the Peace Palace. That will be the conclusion of the visit. She will remain here for a few more days to spend private time with her friend, the Queen of the Netherlands.
Host: She has a busy program. Does she show signs of fatigue?
Gris: Not at all! I'm thirty years younger than she is and I'm not ashamed to say that I'm tired, but – oh, there she is!
Host: She looks amazing!
Gris: Absolutely, as if she's on a holiday!
Host: Really incredibly charming. Her pencil skirt dress is very becoming. And those men, all harbour barons and such I presume, are just beaming at her. How nice.
Gris: Yes wonderful! Of course she's visiting her dearest friend's country. I guess that accounts for her good looks as well.
Host: We read and heard a lot about her and Queen Beatrix. You've seen them together. What can you tell us about their friendship?
Gris: Queen Beatrix accompanied our Queen on several occasions in the past two days and you can just feel their connection. They go back a long way. A Dutch magazine suggested they might even become related one day for Princess Emma, Queen Beatrix's younger daughter, might marry Prince Philippe.
Host: Oh, those gossips! Would you say that part of the reason why our Queen looks so radiant is that she is no longer plagued by gossip herself?
Gris: I imagine so. Yesterday at the ballet performance I talked to a lady from the Queen's staff who hinted that the past weeks were rather stressful for Her Majesty. The lady admired the fact that the Queen did not change her behaviour toward her head of security: she is still kind to him, just as she is to all her servants, the lady said.
Host: Speaking of whom, I don't think I saw him just now.
Gris: Several members of the Queen's staff attend knowledge sharing sessions with their Dutch counterparts today and tomorrow as well. Some of the guards are among them.
Host: Everyone is making the most of this visit! Margot, I wish you and our radiant Queen good luck these remaining hours of the state visit.
OoOoOoO
Shrewd. Joe's second favourite Queen was shrewd. Joe spent the morning in a hotel in Noordwijk observing Genovian and Dutch guards working on a team assignment. At around noon he left them for his lunch appointment with the Dutch head of security at Huis ten Bosch palace. They discussed work related topics and Joe handed him a sealed envelope with a security file to study. He received one in return. The Dutchman didn't know that Mr Romero had had access to the The Hague file for over a week and had done his homework on stationary with a Huis ten Bosch letterhead. It hadn't made sense to Joe when he had received the stack of paper from The Hague but it did now. Tomorrow afternoon he would continue his meeting with the Dutchman, who would think that like himself his colleague had spent the past day working on the file. Shrewd.
An alibi was something Joe needed because he would secretly spent the rest of the day in the private wing of Huis ten Bosch. He was restless with anticipation.
Looking at his shirts he at last opted for an Armani. He then studied his tie collection. Should he wear one? The prince didn't wear a tie at home but Joe wasn't at home. Then again: visiting his partner's friends – his partner's friends! – shouldn't be a formal occasion. He'd play it safe: in the hotel he'd bought a black silk tie with orange dots on it. Wearing it would be seen as a nice gesture to the members of the House of Orange.
Picking up his selections he walked to the bathroom where he indulged himself with a look in the mirror. Several of the imprints Clarisse's nails had left on his shoulders and back still showed. Joe wore a grin on his face until some fifteen minutes later on there was a knock on his door.
On opening it he found Prince Ernst standing there.
´Are you ready to play with my trains?´ the Prince said with a twinkle in his eye.
Joe nodded and cleared his throat. ´Will your granddaughters be there as well?´
´No. Their cautious grandmother arranged for a program of their own. They just left and they will even spend the night elsewhere. We might therefore have a joined breakfast tomorrow morning. Optional of course.´
The Prince didn't wait for a reply: he turned around and asked his guest to follow him. Joe was quite sure he heard a smile in the man's voice.
OoOoOoO
Joe was moved to see Clarisse waiting for him in the upstairs corridor.
´Here he is my dear,´ Prince Ernst said to her. Clarisse reached out and hand in hand she and her mate followed the Prince to the family sitting room.
Queen Beatrix was standing near the entrance studying a painting.
´There you are,´ she said.
´Your Majesty,´ Joe replied.
´You are not here as a head of security now are you? And I'd like to think that I'm not here as a head of state. I suggest we call each other by our names.´
´Hear hear,´ Ernst said.
Joe grabbed Clarisse's hand tighter. She reassuringly caressed his thumb.
´So Joseph, meet my very dear friends Beatrix and Ernst,´ Clarisse said as she let go of her lover's hand.
Beatrix, smiling from ear to ear, put her hands on Joseph's upper arms and fondly looked at him. ´Welcome to the family Joseph,´ she said.
When Joe had pictured being Clarisse's out-in-the-open-partner, he had not thought of this. Here he stood, simple Joe Romero and this majestic woman opened her arms for him and treated him like an equal. He knew that if he would look at her beautiful smile and her kind eyes any longer, he would start blinking suspiciously. He awkwardly hugged the Qu-. Beatrix he corrected himself. I should use her name at least once today. Beatrix.
´Thank you,´ he softly said.
Ernst firmly shook his hand. ´I'm very happy that you are here,´ he said staring straight into Joe's eyes.
´So am I s-.´ Joe held his tongue.
´Just in time Joseph. You see; I don't have difficulties using your name.´
Joe hadn't heard footsteps approach but suddenly someone nearby said: ´Really papa, you can't claim him for yourself.´
Ernst released Joseph's hand.
´Louise, Emma, meet Joseph,´ Clarisse said. Something in her voice made Joe glance at her. She looked proud. Proud of him. With a smile Joe greeted the daughters of his beloved's friends. The young women looked at him with an affection that was not justified by their newly made acquaintance. Joe concluded that at least one of their parents had sung his praises.
Ernst gestured toward the sitting area and Clarisse took Joseph's hand and walked him to the only couch. Joe felt happy and confident but it took a while before he contributed to the conversations going on.
Hours passed by and Joe enjoyed every minute. Drinks and food, serious discussions and laughter: everything was just as it should be and he knew that he never wanted to forget this day. What he relished first and foremost was holding Clarisse's hand, putting an arm around her shoulders and letting the love he felt for her show in his eyes for all to see.
And all rejoiced.