Freedom 19

Waking up with two other men in bed with him wasn't the worst thing that Henry had ever done in his life. In fact, it was something he had done a time or two before, in his slutty Oxford days. But he'd never woken up with the father of a boyfriend or lover in his bed, that was a new experience for him. The groans coming from the body lying on the other side of Alex were all too familiar and it was jarring to Henry how much Alex sounded like his father when he groaned from pain. He did have to feel for Oscar, cramped up into a small ball, squished in between Alex and the edge of the bed. But this was not the morning after a clandestine, illicit affair. This was one of pure comfort. Alex's mental state had been rapidly deteriorating over the last sixteen hours and Henry had been at his wit's end. It wasn't until Alex had been whimpering in his sleep for his father, that Henry had to take things into his own hands and get Oscar to come into Alex's room.

However, true to his word, Oscar had stayed by Alex's side, comforting him. Henry caught Oscar's eye over Alex's still sleeping form. "Thank you." Henry mouthed to him, not wanting to wake his sleeping beauty. He'd seen how much comfort Alex had seemed to draw from Oscar, by wanting his father and Oscar simply being there. Oscar gave him a wide grin and wink.

Henry didn't even dwell on the fact that if he ever needed his father like that, that his father could never comfort him like that. His father was gone.

Alex was slowly coming to, rubbing his sleep crusted eyes. His face contorted into a look of panic at the sight of his father's face looking back at him. Oscar smiled at his son. "It's ok, Mijo." He could only ever remember seeing that look on Alex's face once before. Ironically, it was in this very room of this same house, and it had been the morning that Alex had woken, and Henry had gone. He was lying on this same bed and Oscar had gone into to check on him and found that same look of panic etched into his son's face. "It's ok, Mijo. Henry's still here, turn over, he's behind you."

As Alex began to turn over, Henry reached out to comfort him. Guiltily, he hadn't thought about it at all yesterday. How coming back to the Lake House would feel to Alex. How it might bring up some unpleasant memories for Alex. "Hey, it's ok. I'm here." Henry whispered seeing the panic written on his face and watching as it began to etch into worry. "Hey, I'm not going anywhere, Darling. I need you to breathe." Henry guided Alex through his own breathing exercises, the one that his own therapist had prescribed to him when he had lost his father, and something overwhelmed him to the point where he struggled to function normally.

Oscar slipped off the bed and lingered over by the bureau. Alex had his back to him now, Oscar could only catch Henry's face. Even if Henry was entirely focused on Alex. His lips were murmuring something into Alex's ear, as Alex relaxed under Henry's touch. Feeling like an interloper, Oscar discreetly slipped out of the room. It was one thing to know that your son has a same sex lover and wholeheartedly accept it. That was a non-issue, for Oscar. But getting to bear witness to tender moments between Alex and Henry, in the early morning light, while they were both still in bed. Nope, he didn't belong there.

As soon as Oscar was clear of Alex's room, he closed the door behind him and saw Bea in the hallway. She was also making her way to the kitchen. It wasn't until she was helping herself to the coffee machine, for a cup of coffee that she spoke. "How's Alex doing?" Her voice was low and quiet, keeping the early morning rays of dawn peaceful and calm. She handed him the cup in surprise, once the first cup was done. "I saw Hen come and get you late last night."

Oscar smiled a thank you at the caring woman before him, before his eyes rubbed at his eyes, in frustration. "It has been a long time since I've had to keep Alex calm like that." Oscar admitted, keeping his voice low, like Bea had. "Alex has always been so full of life and so full of energy. Even as a baby, he never really liked to be rocked or held. When he did, it was rare."

"Alex does have an unrivalled amount of unbridled chaotic energy and love, then anyone else I know. In the most positive way." Bea chuckled lowly, as she poured herself a mug of coffee. "I actually like that about him. I know a lot of people see it as a flaw, but it's really not. Henry loves that about him. That's what makes him so perfect for Henry."

Shaan came into the kitchen at that point from the direction of the home gym, dressed in sweats. Pleasantries were exchanged and Shaan relayed Henry's message from last night that Alex has a scheduled appointment with Dr Garcia at 10am and that he requests only Henry be present.

It had been three days since their conversation with Martha in the garden and in that time Sara, as promised had managed to secure her not one, but two meeting with the PM. One was an official one, in her office with her staff, and his hovering by. The second one was more clandestine and took place in a carpark tower of London's downtown CBD.

At the second meeting they spoke freer, and easier. Plans were discussed and dissected. Catherine felt she had the PM's support. The PM had asked that she hold off any further plans, while he gathered a few stronger allies for their team. The whole plan was time sensitive. The State dinner at Buckingham Palace was two days away.

Catherine was getting frustrated with the lack of progress in that department but had to admit to herself that she was pleased with the progress in regard to her oldest son, Philip. After a single day of Martha being with her, Philip had come calling. Surprisingly, to everyone though, it had been his mother and not his wife, that he had called on.

She had been sitting with Martha in the drawing room, when a footman had told her that her son was here to see her. "Mother." He greeted her cooly, as he breezed into the room. "We must talk." Looking over at his wife, he nodded. "Leave us Martha."

"She will do no such thing, Philip." Catherine chastised him, harshly. "Whatever you have to say to me, you can say in front of your wife. Or did you forget that, in the grand scheme of things."

Philip huffed a surprise sigh out of mouth, but it came out strangled. That had been more of an argument than he had been expecting from his mother. That had almost been as feisty as what she had been before his father had become ill. "Very well." He snapped out lout. "I had been trying to protect Henry's virtue, but since you have been insisting Martha stays in the room so be it. I need you to help me, mother. Henry is out of control. He has taken off from the palace and James cannot for the life of him, find Henry anywhere. For Christ's sake Henry is a grown man, he cannot keep throwing a tantrum like a child. He has a duty to our family and to the monarchy. Gran and I are only trying to protect him. Why the hell must he deliberately make his own life more difficult than it has to be? We can allow him to be gay, if we absolutely must, but it is high time he began to conduct himself ..." Philip's rant continued while Martha and Catherine exchange a look. Philip was on a tirade. "Gran and I -"

"STOP!" Catherine shouted at her son. Philip looked a taken back by his mother's outburst. "Just stop right now, Philip. That is quite enough from you. I will not allow you to continue to treat Henry in such an insolent manner. He is your brother, not your emotional punching bag to verbally berate and abuse whenever you please. Also, while we are on the subject of abuse, you are not, I repeat, NOT, to ever lay a hand on Bea or Henry again. Do I make myself clear?"

"Mother, you cannot be serious?" He argued with her. "Who else is supposed to keep them in line? You? You can barely function to keep yourself alive."

"PHILIP ARTHUR CHARLES ANDREW FOX, who the hell do you think you are speaking to?" Catherine seethed at him. "I am your mother, and the future reigning monarch of our kingdom, do not disrespect me. Now, sit down and listen to me, or so help me, I will make your life extremely difficult."

"You couldn't possibly." He glared back at his mother, defiantly. Catherine took a menacing step closer to him. Martha raised herself to her feet and joined her mother in-law, falling in line beside Catherine.

"You will listen to your mother, am I understood?" Martha added, keeping her voice low. Catherine beamed at her; she was proud of Martha for standing up to her husband.

"Here is what is going to happen." Catherine began. "First off, you are going to cease and desist, with all of your underhanded scheming and plans with James. Then you are going to cease contact with James. He is a terrible influence on you, and always has been. Next, you will make amends to your wife, for your recent attitude behaviour. It has been most unbecoming and is detrimental to our family. Before making amends with your brother and sister, you will apologise sincerely and mean it to Bea and Henry. You will be having therapy, to deprogram you from my mother's twisted, closed, narrow-minded homophobic way of thinking. You will be having a long discussion with the PM, regarding your grandmother's mental state as well. The man you are is not the sweet loving, wholesome, caring boy your father and I raised. You need to find yourself again Philip, am I clear?"

"If I do not comply?" Philip sassed back. Despite how intimidated he felt by his mother in this moment, he could feel the tension in the room. Before his father's death, his mother was not a woman to mess with. She was stern but loving. To feel all of that focused solely on him, was intimidating. To see his wife, standing firmly in his mother's camp, not his, giving him the same harsh look, was jarring to his psyche.

"You will comply." Martha smiled at him sweetly. Her tone and smile may have been sweet, but Philip feared that at this point, sweetness was far from what his wife was aiming for. "If you don't, I shall speak with my cousin Cyrill from the Guardian and tell him everything. How you and James plotted to destroy your own brother's happiness. I shall leak the tape of the homophobic and xenophobic conversations that you and the Queen had regarding Henry and his boyfriend, including the part where the two of you ordered Henry to end the relationship. I should also tell you, that until you become the man I married, you will not be touching me. I will also release to Cyrill the evidence I have that you and James ordered to have Henry's boyfriend assassinated by two Royal guards."

"If I refuse?" Philip asked defiantly. His wife was not as intimidating as she thought she was. She was barely five foot and as for thinly veiled threat of abstaining from sexual relations with him, there always was such a thing as an affair. Perhaps a mistress could even father an heir, something his wife was yet to allow him to do. He wouldn't be the first royal to impregnate a mistress.

"You can refuse, if you wish." Catherine smiled at him, and Philip winced. he knew that tone of voice to well. It was the tone of voice she had used when he was younger, and she accused him of something. Something that he had denied doing, full well knowing that he had done it anyway. It was her dead to rights voice. "Or I will personally turn you over to the CIA. The president of the United States has all of this information as well, and she is rather pissed that you plotted to have her son assassinated. Did you not stop to think of the political ramifications of this? The fallout. The United States of American is our closest ally, and you plotted to have their favourite son assassinated in cold blood. Did you not think how this would hurt them? How would they see this as an act of war? This would lead to war between our two nations. Or how Henry would react? Alex Claremont-Diaz is the person he loves above all else. How could you be so stupid, Philip?"

"I know you read your brother's emails, Pip." Martha spat out harshly. "How could you not see what you were doing was incredibly wrong? The way Henry spoke about you in them, the way Henry spoke about Queen Mary. The way he spoke about what your friend did. The unnamed friend that I have no doubt is James. The way he described his feelings to Alex, about Alex. You claim to love me with every fiber of your being. Yet, you don't recognize that your brother has those very same feelings towards Alex. Now, what are you going to do?"

"I suppose both of you leave me no choice." Philip hummed, with a small, defeated sigh.

"You always have a choice, darling.' Martha told him softly. "You just need to make the right choice, for once."

"Oh, and Philip, I was not kidding about the President. She is as mad as a hatter with a wet hen. You will be answering her questions, and you will be answering them truthfully. My advice is to think very carefully about how you choose to explain yourself to President Claremont, her husband and Senator Diaz. Rest assured, if someone hired two guards to assassinate any of my children, I would be out for blood. Watch your back. If she chooses to doll out punishment, you best choose to take it. In this, she has my support. I also do not take to being made into the scape goat by you, or my mother. Really Philip? Your father would be so disappointed in you."

His mother's words, alongside his wife's words had been succinct. Implicit. But indirect. Philip didn't need help reading between the lines. He was to align himself with either his wife and his mother, or his grandmother.

The choice was clear to Philip in that moment; after all, he and James had been only following her orders. The Queen's orders. He had screwed up and followed them in blind faith.

His own grandmother had made this mess for him, now he had to dig himself out of it.