Elizabeth sat waiting for her table companion. They had agreed to meet here at eight o'clock, but she was a little early. Most of the other important people who were staying in this hotel were still in bed. The dining room was still practically deserted and why indeed should anyone already have breakfast at this hour when the buses would not come to pick them up until ten o'clock?
She had already got coffee for herself and her companion and she wondered what else he would like. After strolling past the buffet, she decided to take a little bit of everything.
The temptation to start eating was strong. But there he was, finally. He looked very fine in the morning, but she pushed that thought out of her head. "Good morning," she said with a cheerful smile.
"Morning," he answered and then looked a bit surprised upon noticing she had already got something to eat and drink for them. "Did they serve you?" he wondered, casting a doubtful glance at the buffet.
"No, I served us."
His surprise evidently increased and he sat down. "Oh."
Her dark eyes twinkled in amusement as she looked back at him. "Are you shocked to find I serve myself, Lord Setchley?"
"Moderately," he confessed. "I could have imagined you serving yourself, but you serving me is an entirely different matter."
Nothing could disturb her good humour this morning. "Because you aren't worthy of being served, My Lord?"
"No, because you're the Queen…Your Majesty." He had not been acquainted with the Queen for very long, only relatively recently having been appointed Prime Minister. This was the first official occasion they were attending together abroad.
"Queens have hands." She showed them to him. "They can actually grasp things and carry those things to a table."
He did not touch her hands, but he studied them closely. "Indeed. It would seem so. However, I have never thought there was anything wrong with a queen's hands, only with the brain that is supposed to send the message to those hands."
Elizabeth raised her eyebrows. "My brain? -- oh damn…" she muttered when a familiar figure approached their table. She did not like to be disturbed while she was chatting to her Prime Minister. They were always talking about important things.
Lord Setchley turned to see who was interrupting them. "Morning," he said curtly and sipped his coffee. He had not tried it before and therefore he did not know it was still hot. He swallowed an exclamation and grimaced.
"Good morning, Your Majesty. Good morning, My Lord." The intruder bowed. "I see nobody else is here yet. Might I join you?"
Elizabeth crumpled her napkin while her brain tried to come up with a good excuse right now. She did not want this man to join them. She had planned to discuss some really important things with her Prime Minister. When else did they get the chance to discuss anything in a relaxed manner?
"Are you authorised at level seven?" Lord Setchley inquired gravely.
The man flinched. Of course he was not. "Er…no." In all likeliness this was the first time he had ever heard of the existence of levels.
"Some serious problems at level seven have come up and we must discuss them. If you have that clearance you're welcome to join us, but otherwise we have to ask you to join us another time," the Prime Minister said pleasantly, as if he was not wishing very much that the man would always stay away.
Elizabeth kept her eyes wide open while she followed this exchange. She could not afford to smile or even look amused. When the intruder walked away she looked across the table. "I am only authorised for level six," she said. "I don't think there is a level seven."
"Really? Was I mistaken?" Lord Setchley asked in a casual tone.
She looked at him carefully. He was looking back at her too innocently and she did not trust that. "I don't think you make all that many mistakes, actually."
He inclined his head a little in acknowledgement. "I am aware of level six, but I don't know who else has the clearance for it. I thought it best to go one step up."
"Level seven is quite beyond anybody's reach," Elizabeth said.
"You're only authorised for level six, you said," he said hesitantly. Nothing would stop them from creating a seventh level.
"But if a level is only accessible to two people, do they need to be authorised? Who would authorise them?"
Lord Setchley thought they understood each other perfectly. "One of the two."
"Consider it done," she replied.
"Likewise." His eyes danced, but his tone was serious.
"What are the topics classified enough only to be allowed to be discussed at level seven?"
"Whatever you like." He glanced up from a contemplation of his plate. "It will never go beyond me. To prove to you that I am utterly serious I shall reveal my largest personal aggravation. At birth I was named Livius, a name I abhor."
That made her smile. "You already told me that!"
"It is a point that can never be stressed enough," he said in the same grave voice he had spoken in before. "How do I know you'd never call me Livius? You've never called me anything but Lord Setchley."
Elizabeth shook her head in amusement. "Is it really your largest aggravation that you prefer to be called Henry? You must be a happy man in that case."
"I am, if you could assure me you'd never use Livius."
"Use the name or use the man?" she could not resist asking.
"So you're one of those, are you, Your Majesty?" he asked slowly.
"Everyone uses me too," she said a little protestingly.
"Have we stumbled on Your Majesty's largest personal aggravation?" the Prime Minister wondered. Level seven was beginning to take effect.
"I have a name, My Lord."
Yes, he was beginning to understand her better already. "So do I, Madam."
"You are allowed to use it, My Lord."
"My own name, Madam?" Lord Setchley inquired with raised eyebrows.
"You are allowed to use my name, My Lord."
"But I am not obliged to, Madam." What would she say to that?
"I could vote for this mode of address to be accepted as a regular procedure at level seven, My Lord."
"Only at level seven, Madam?"
"Perhaps also at level six, My Lord."
"If you voted at level seven, Madam, you could never obtain a majority unless I agreed."
"But you do, My Lord," she sweetly pointed out to him.
"It is awfully arrogant of you to say I agree, Madam."
"Not at all; it is awfully perceptive of me, My Lord." Someone passed their table and gave them a strange glance when he overheard a few words. Elizabeth stared after him in satisfaction. "Nobody could accuse us of not doing our jobs properly, My Lord."
"There is such a thing as overkill, Madam. Perhaps a longer exposure to you would alert them to the fact that you are not quite as proper as you look, Madam." He had firmly got both feet on that seventh level now. Where was she?
Elizabeth opened her mouth slightly, fearing she was outdone. But no. "Really, and using Madam twice in one utterance is not overkill, My Lord?"
"I recall you using My Lord twice in your previous utterance, Madam."
"It is allowed with a longer pause in between, My Lord."
"And the length of the pause, Madam, is to be decided on by you alone, I suppose?"
"Well, I think that I, as the senior member in this venture, have more experience in the matter, My Lord," she said rather smugly.
"I shall not be petty and start an argument about the exact hour you were born, because you know as well as I do we were born on the same day, Madam, but I do want to ask you why you do not take the initiative in the matter?" He liked playing games, but so did she, apparently.
"Because it's more fun not to, My Lord. Will you come to sit next to me on the bus? It's going to be boring enough. I don't want any of the bores to sit next to me."
"It's going to be a level three atmosphere, Madam. People will expect me to stand up and bow every time you speak to me."
"What makes you think I'd speak to you?" she wondered, feeling a great desire to stick out her tongue.
"I won!" Lord Setchley said triumphantly. "You forgot to address me!" He dropped the formalities himself, since he had already won.
She had realised it too late. It was a bit confusing by being formal about abandoning formalities, especially since Lord Setchley did not seem to have even a drop of formal blood in his veins. "But I --"
"No," he said decidedly. "No excuses. You lost. You, the so-called most senior, most experienced member? Ha!"
"Most senior? Did you take any Latin in school?" she was quick to reply.
"More than you'd care to hear."
"So…"
"So you were already wrong in calling yourself senior. Did you take any Latin?"
She had lost, but she did not mind. It was nothing to be ashamed of. "Alright, I admit defeat. I'll take you on again on the bus. Henry."
In curiosity people had awaited Queen Elizabeth's arrival, but she had not attended the ball the night before the wedding. This would have been the first public occasion on which she could show off her new husband, but the ball was mainly attended by people under forty and two more mature people such as Elizabeth and Lord Setchley had probably been discouraged from going.
Because the couple had not yet been spotted together on their home soil, many reporters had followed them abroad. Security around the hotel was tight and they had not yet caught a glimpse.
Nothing had leaked out. Spokesmen said the wedding had been planned into minute details and nothing could be altered. It was unclear whether anything had already been changed upon discovering that one of their most prominent guests had suddenly got married to another prominent guest. One would expect it to have consequences for the seating arrangements. But the Royal Family was obviously afraid that Cousin Elizabeth would outshine the bride and groom if they paid too much attention to her.
About hotel rooms the palace spokesman only wished to say that arrangements had been made long ago. This seemed to imply that the Queen and Prime Minister were booked into different rooms. The hotel itself claimed that Her Majesty had not officially had her room changed, but that it did not interest them very much where guests spent the night as long as there was no damage to hotel property.
Teddy looked around herself in the breakfast room. Elizabeth had approached this room, smelled sausages and turned on her heels to vomit in one of the toilets. People at other tables could not help but discuss her absence. Henry had only been seen to eat with Teddy and her husband and to take food upstairs, as if he did not want to be seen with his wife -- if she was here at all.
Some people had asked him, to be sure, but he could not very well reveal the real reason for Elizabeth's absence. Teddy knew, however, and she listened to the snippets of French, German and English around her. It did pay to study languages. Unfortunately the different groups could not understand each other's gossip and consequently they got no further.
It was rumoured that a doctor had been sent for as well and someone had indeed seen a man with a black leather bag go up to the rooms. But Elizabeth was not ill, because one of the German men had seen her the day before after he had got back from the arranged trip.
The French table would have benefited from that news, since they were still wondering if Elizabeth was here. Their fondness for eating and drinking had kept them in the dining room and the bar for too long to notice guests who did not frequent these places.
The mixed group that communicated in English wondered if Elizabeth had perhaps been instructed by her cousin to keep a low profile. They knew the cousin well enough to consider that a serious possibility.
Whatever. Teddy shrugged and decapitated a boiled egg. She was not here to help Elizabeth. In fact, Elizabeth had specifically said Teddy would not have to do anything for her this time and that if she wanted to come along on a free trip, she could, because the last minute conclusion had been that there was going to be an empty room in this hotel. Their hosts persisted in giving Henry and Elizabeth different rooms on the lists they had sent to Henry's office.
And so Teddy and her husband were invited to make use of the spare room, since Elizabeth said it had to be obvious enough that it would not be needed. Nobody would notice them anyway, since the majority of the guests in this hotel were merely those surrounding the VIPs and not the VIPs themselves.
Elizabeth had been true to her word. She had not called for Teddy's help so far and she had sorted out her own sickness. Even Henry had felt confident enough to have breakfast alone, while Elizabeth was staying in her room. There was nothing he could do for her anyway.
After breakfast Teddy paid a visit to Elizabeth, who was reading a book. Henry himself was about to go out. He could not stand being locked up in a hotel all day, although he had some problems with leaving Elizabeth all by herself. "Where are you going to be, Teddy?" he asked. "I need someone to supervise this Raoul who's going to spend some time in this hotel room with my wife."
"Raoul?"
"Elizabeth is thinking about asking him to come over to look at her dress because it doesn't fit anymore," Henry said with obvious scepticism. It was not clear whether he had his reservations about Raoul or about whether Raoul would be able to travel here at such short notice. They were abroad, after all.
"Henry, I'm bursting out of it." She knew he did not agree. In fact, she knew perfectly well there was very little chance of her bursting out of the dress, but she simply felt she had to be reassured.
Henry took Teddy aside to whisper to her. "You shouldn't be expecting her to be rational right now. Give her what she wants and stay out of her way as much as possible if you find you can't do anything for her."
"Trouble?" Teddy inquired, although it did not look that way. Everything was under control, except perhaps Elizabeth's fears about her dress.
"Nerves and frustrations. She can't impose her will on the baby or on her cousin." As long as Henry knew what was the matter, he could not see it as trouble.
"You don't sound very concerned." That was good. Her respect for him increased.
Henry shrugged. "As long as she can laugh at herself I don't think there's any need to be concerned." He turned back to Elizabeth. "You know I'm fleeing from Raoul and not from you, don't you?" She had made him see Raoul once to make sure their outfits matched and that had been quite enough.
Yes, she knew that. "He's not going to suggest any alterations to your suit. It's perfectly safe to stay." And she knew as well as he did that it was not likely that Raoul would come if he did not happen to be in town by accident. She would phone him.
"I'd rather not take the risk." Raoul had made some suggestions about colours that were too flashy for Henry's tastes. He might make them again.
Lord Setchley had not joined the special cultural programme for foreign wedding guests, but he had set out on foot and encountered a camera crew from back home with which he had explored the city to see how some crucial issues were handled here. Because, he said, he wanted to see the situation as it really was, not the way it would be created for him during an official visit. He stuck with them, since it was more agreeable to walk around together and the camera did not bother him at all.
They had tried to get him to talk about his wife, since that was essentially what they had come to report on, but he could not be prevailed upon to reveal anything more than that fashion guru Raoul had been consulted about some last-minute adjustments to Her Majesty's dress.
Lord Setchley was good at avoiding the subject by talking about other matters at length, so that nobody could possibly squeeze in any questions about Elizabeth. It was not until they were sitting down with drinks in a safe place that he spoke about more than just crime and legislation. "I'm amazed that you stuck it out this long just to hear me say something about my wife," he said in amusement. "I'm sure this city tour was not what you'd been planning. But work always comes first. Personally I'm glad I finally got to see what my liberal colleagues are always referring to. It's always much better to see the uncensored version with your own eyes."
"Has it changed your opinion?" they asked unenthusiastically, pursuing this subject involuntarily. They would much rather discuss his marriage.
"Of course seeing something for the first time always changes your opinion of it in some way. I won't say to what extent. We'll save that for when these matters actually come under discussion."
They gave it a try anyway. "The Queen always shows a great interest in social problems. Wouldn't she have preferred to come along?"
"She has a far more important problem to solve and that is how to fit into her dress."
Finally! "What is the problem with her dress?"
Henry held up his hands in wonder. "The problem is that she's been trying it on every morning to see if it still fits. Of course at some point it shrinks. I'm sure it will look perfect tomorrow."
While he could stay relatively calm in Elizabeth's kind of environment, Henry did not fool himself into thinking everything was well in his own sphere. He could do with some reassurance himself.
He had got some serious trouble from other party members who wanted to take over his position. They had concluded he would not be staying in his job for much longer and they were already beginning to present themselves as the perfect successors.
It was making the party look disorganised, scattered and far from united. Accusing those members of selfishness would do little good, for they would simply return the criticism and ask if it was not selfish of him to want a wife he reasonably speaking could not have.
"I wish you'd kept your hands off that woman, Henry," one of the elderly members had said.
"That has nothing to do with it," Henry had told him in an amiable voice, wishing to believe his own words. "This would have happened too if I hadn't got married. It happens every time there are large egos and people with large egos happen to go into politics very often."
"True, but you're making it awfully easy for them."
"So be it," he had said with a shrug.
"They're bringing up Brazil again. What will…your wife…say about Brazil?"
"That she enjoyed it very much," he had winked.
He had been reluctant to bring the matter up, but Elizabeth was eager to take her mind off her own problems by solving one of his. She took him for a walk on Friday when he was staying in as well. The day before she had found that walking made her feel better.
Henry linked her arm through his and talked while Elizabeth listened. Before they got very far they were stopped by two policemen, who told them it was safer not to go any further because suspicious figures had been seen lurking in the bushes down the path. Henry did not care if he was photographed with Elizabeth. He had not finished talking yet. "Suspicious figures with camera?" he asked. Surely Elizabeth's bodyguards were enough protection? He had discovered they could not even go for a walk without them.
"Oh, let's turn back." Elizabeth pulled at his sleeve. She had never been chased like this, with people hiding in the bushes, and who else could they be wanting? Nobody else at the hotel had done anything.
To humour her, Henry agreed and they walked some smaller rounds around the hotel. He needed her advice and she was of no use to him if she was nervous.
Elizabeth phoned her mother as soon as they were back in their -- Henry's -- suite. Her mother was staying with the cousin and the rest of that family. Elizabeth's only reason for not staying with them had been that, even a year ago when all this had been planned, she had preferred to stay in Henry's hotel.
The Queen Mother had heard her relatives' opinions on Elizabeth's marriage and their fear that it would draw more attention than the wedding that was about to take place.
Her niece Sophia was regretfully a sort of dictator within the family and she did not even listen to her own mother -- who had voluntarily given up the throne and therefore her right to speak -- let alone her aunt, even though she had been named after her.
According to Sophia it had been an unforgivable lapse in self-control when Elizabeth had publicly given in to her feelings. Elizabeth's mother did not mention that. It would be a very bad idea at the moment. "You're not being chased, Linnie. They only want to take a picture of you. Let them. You'll be a lot less interesting after tomorrow."
"But I might not be able to make it, because I can't stand the smell of sausages…just walking through the lobby…"
"Go and ask them to take those off the menu," her mother advised.
"What if there are people who only eat that?" Elizabeth asked. "I can't do that."
"I'm sure eating something else won't hurt them for a day. Do it."
"I'll think about it. What do I do about all those people who disapprove of me?"
Her mother chuckled. "Make them jealous. Show them you couldn't have done any better. It all depends on Henry, but I know he can behave in public."
But on the day Elizabeth was there, drinking coffee in a lovely green dress. There was no sign of illness or of problems with her dress.
There was no sign of sausages either, since someone had requested a sausage-free day. Such eccentric requests were expected of queens, so her wish had been granted.
She sat nibbling on some dry toast, while her husband was tucking into a heartier breakfast. Today she could not afford to be ill. She had not gone on any of the arranged trips, but she had been walking in the woods surrounding the hotel and she had been reading books.
Anita, the woman who was in charge of logistics and making sure the high guests were happy, came to everyone's tables to tell them which car would arrive when. She had a clipboard with lists and she spent a few seconds at every table. Elizabeth's case was special, however, and Anita pulled up a chair because it would not simply suffice to give her the number of the car.
Anita had read about the marriage and she had expected some instructions about hotel rooms, but she had not received any. This had made her wonder, but the couple had not come to her and she deduced they had arranged something themselves.
Elizabeth had arrived on Wednesday evening and she had already consulted Anita about pills against nausea on Thursday morning. She had only grudgingly allowed Anita to call a doctor, but she had already looked much better by the time he had arrived. As Anita had been busy settling in new and more demanding arrivals, she had not had many opportunities to think about Elizabeth until Friday morning, when only her husband had been having breakfast. Anita happened to know that neither of them had attended the ball on Thursday night, so that would not be the cause. She had to make sure the guests were well.
They were two of her most agreeable guests, self-contained but friendly, and they really had not minded when she had hesitantly knocked on the door to Lord Setchley's room to inquire if all was well. That had led to a discussion of the sausages and Anita's firm intention to help where she could. If only all guests were as reasonable as Elizabeth.
"Madam, the cars…" Anita said with her slight accent. "The way I see it you would probably want to share a car, am I right?"
Elizabeth did not want to make any demands. "I let my cousin know I was married. I was certain she'd be able to draw her conclusions and arrange that."
Anita nodded. "I read about it. I hope everything has been to your satisfaction so far -- the room…" Elizabeth was not staying in her own room.
There was a smile. "The room is fine."
"…except the sausages."
"It's not even the fault of the sausages." It was something she had no control over.
"We've been working on this scenario for a year and it was really difficult to make alterations. I have tried to please both you and the Queen -- the other Queen -- considering that both of you have wishes that deviate slightly from the plan."
"But their wishes don't coincide, do they?" Henry asked in suspicion. He had never met Elizabeth's cousin, but he did not think he would like the woman. He had received some dubious messages from her staff.
"Umm, no. They differ on some points," Anita said diplomatically. "It was easy in the case of the hotel rooms. It would have been more difficult if we had booked you together when you had just got divorced and there were no rooms left. In that case I would have had to take some action. Right now nobody knows what you've arranged."
"I realise you don't want to take responsibility for upsetting my cousin," said Elizabeth. "But she can't blame you for anything I do. She knows you are here to do as I say, so to speak. He's not my Prime Minister, he's my husband. It's none of her business what I do with him at night." That was a very bold statement for Elizabeth and she blushed.
Anita looked back at her unhappily. "No."
"Well, then! How could anyone blame you, because we are sharing a room?"
"The problem is," Anita said gravely. "That the Queen -- my Queen -- fears you might draw too much attention to yourselves."
"I'm not here to do that," Elizabeth protested. "We have hardly appeared together even here in the hotel and we've certainly not been all over each other. People are perfectly welcome to talk to us normally." Her dark eyes looked sad. "But it's as if everyone is afraid to take up a position. People hardly speak to me, as if they don't know what to say."
"They haven't seen much of you yet," Henry said. He hoped he was not the problem.
"But still! I'm not trying to make a problem of the whole situation. I don't want to be secretive and I certainly don't want to be demonstrative," Elizabeth said to Anita. She did not want to think carefully about all of her actions, but she wanted to behave normally.
"I know. You were already in the same car and I believe the Queen had a fit when she found out, because ironically enough the main motivation to put you in the same car had been to make sure you were with a member of the opposite sex, someone you would not have problems with and at the same time someone innocent enough not to provide any gossip."
"That was a bit of a miscalculation," Henry commented dryly.
"Yes," said Anita. "Which is why the Queen didn't like it at all that this was precisely the original arrangement. But we could not change anything," she said in mock regret. "There were not enough men to accompany all the single ladies. Yours will be the last car to leave here. I don't know what will happen after that."
"This is a very difficult situation," Elizabeth sighed when Anita had moved on. "I'm going to be worried about everything I do now."
Henry caressed her hands. "No, Linnie. You're not. I'll tell you what to think."
A man passed their table and his eyes rested on them in wonder when he realised something. He had seen this picture before. Nothing had changed, really. Married or not, they had always sat like this, their hands very nearly touching and their attention completely focused on each other.
He distinctly remembered them sending him away one time because he was not authorised to hear confidential matters. Seeing them now, he wondered if they had really been discussing something important. Somehow he was tempted to doubt it.
He was curious enough to stop at their table to ask. "Level seven again?"
Two faces turned towards him in wonder. "What do you mean?"
"It's quite a while ago, but Lord Setchley once would not let me join your table because I didn't have enough security clearance to hear what you were talking about."
"Would you have wanted an intruder in my situation?" Henry asked with a laugh. "That was practically our only moment alone and we desperately needed to get acquainted."
Elizabeth stepped out of the car. She had already seen a few flags -- tourists, she supposed. But why would people wave her flag on foreign soil?
This was the first time they appeared together. They had been in the news often enough, but they had always been apart. This was somewhat of a test, since nobody had known they would arrive in the same car. People might have wondered where she was when she had not been seen with her mother in the past days. They might have thought she was not there at all. She had tried to avoid the media and she had succeeded.
There was a loud cheer from the direction of the people with the flags when they recognised her -- or perhaps they recognised Henry and they cheered for him, but she would like that as well. It did not sound angry, but pleased. She looked at where the sound had come from with a tentative smile and curtseyed to acknowledge the flags or the people -- she did not really know what.
Henry walked around the car and he frowned at her in amusement. "Er…darling, I'm here, not there," he said, as if they were not supposed to be all formal.
She looked at him and thought about how they would come across. She was wearing a coat, but it was freezing and she was pregnant. Hats were required, Elizabeth knew, but a hat did not go well with her what Henry called a mediaeval fairy tale dress. Besides, she did not like hats. She had counted on being important enough to get away with ignoring a fellow queen's rules. The end of her scarf blew into her face and she pushed it away. They wore the same colours -- green, white and grey -- in different combinations. Raoul had done his best to make them look as well-matched as possible. They had to look perfect together and they knew they did.
She smiled at Henry cheekily. "You wouldn't be satisfied with a simple curtsey."
He laughed outright and offered her his arm. "You're right about that."
"They are pleased to see us," she said with a happy smile as Henry led her up the steps. She had been more than a little anxious, even though they were on foreign ground and she had had no reason to expect any countrymen in the crowd, certainly not any with flags.
"Of course they are." He hoped she would not begin to cry.
She glanced up at him as they stepped into the church where the ceremony was to be held. So many other people were already there that it was as if they were all waiting for them. Many of them would be indeed. Not everyone had seen them together yet.
Henry gave her a smug grin in return. He knew he easily had the most stunning woman all around at his arm. For a moment he was distracted by comparing her sparkling necklace and earrings to the sparkling of her eyes.
"We're standing still," she reminded him in a soft amused tone.
"I can't look at you if I'm walking," he answered, but he moved on. "You know, my dear. We do everything in the wrong order. We get married before walking down the aisle." He could not help but feel impressed by his surroundings and especially the multitude of people already there.
"Why is everyone staring at us as if we are getting married?" Elizabeth said a little too loud.
Henry could see some embarrassed faces being averted and he snorted inwardly. He could not do that openly, because at least one of them had to stay rational and it was unlikely that it would be Elizabeth. She was still rather emotional and touchy.
There was a strict hierarchy in the seating arrangements. As they walked down the aisle, Henry was discreetly directed to where the high-ranking people of lower birth, such as politicians, were sitting.
Elizabeth had a more prominent place assigned to her at the front of the church, she discovered, even though she had let them know about her marriage personally. The officials first only assumed she was Henry's wife and so they had begun to show them their seats, but they stopped when they realised who Elizabeth was. She began to look indignant when the official informed them of the impossibility of changing the arrangements, but a look from Henry silenced her. A wedding was not the time to kick a fuss about something like this.
Sulking she took her seat, not paying attention to anyone. Her mind was dwelling on the insult to Henry. They refused to accept him as her husband, or else they would not force him to sit so far back. After a few minutes she could contain herself no longer and she stormed back to where he was sitting.
He saw her face and quickly squeezed past the other people in the row to make it to the aisle before she would start shouting down the row. "What is it?" he asked softly. He at least was aware that they were being watched. They should not also be overheard.
"I am so angry!" Elizabeth hissed. "I told them personally! And what do they mean when they thought I was your wife? I am your wife!"
"Linnie," he said soothingly. "Don't worry about it." People were supposed to sit down as quickly as possible to await the entrance of the bridal couple. They were not expected to have arguments in the aisle.
Her clenched fist made an angry movement by her side. "They're insulting you."
"Go back to your seat and calm down," he urged, but he could see that would be difficult. However, this was not the right moment to dwell on insults.
"I don't want to!" She stamped her foot unconsciously.
"We're on TV," Henry reminded her. Even if people at home could not hear what they were saying, they could still see Elizabeth was angry. They would also have seen the scene leading up to it. If they were well-informed they would certainly understand her anger.
"I don't care."
He cupped her face in both hands and kissed her. "Sit down there or sit down with me. Don't stand here."
She looked up at him doubtfully. She had only wanted to complain and she had never considered the possibility of going to sit with Henry after she had been assigned a place, but it was of course exactly what she would like. "With you? Is there an extra chair?"
"There's always room for one more on a bench," he said, taking her hand and leading her back to where he had been sitting.
The officials had already become nervous when Elizabeth had begun to walk back down the aisle, but they looked even more anxious now. Things were going wrong, but trying to stop her would draw too much attention to the incident. They could only watch it happen.
"Sorry, sorry," Elizabeth apologised when she stepped on a few toes as she was trying to follow Henry. Finally she could sit down, between Henry and the wife of the French president. Only when she met a few curious stares did she realise that everyone behind her had seen her. Those in front might have turned their heads as well when they had seen her leave her seat. It was uncommon enough to draw attention. She sat down and tried to be invisible.
There was now going to be an empty space on the first row of where the more prominent Royals were sitting. They were not there yet and Henry could see some very agitated officials confer among themselves, fearing the reaction of the mother of the bridegroom, who was the absolute authority here. He looked beside him at Elizabeth's bowed head and her nervous fingers. She was happy to be sitting here, though. He knew that when she raised her face to look back at him.
He was happy that at least one person considered him as a serious and equal partner, but he could do very little about the rest of the people. For as long as Elizabeth was not in complete control of her reactions, he would have to control both himself and her. For a long time he had been wishing that she would lose control and he should not be protesting against it.
She leant against him enough to be able to whisper. "Do you think you could hold my hand?"
Henry did not see why not. "Both, if you want." Before he had finished his sentence, he could already feel one creeping onto his leg. It nearly made him laugh. Did she think it would be less noticeable if she gave her hand so slowly? But since he rather liked the slow progress, he did not interfere and waited for her hand to slide smoothly into his.
He saw the officials quickly remove a chair from the rows at the front. The family were going to be arriving right now and everything had to be perfect when the Queen got here. There should not be an empty chair.
Elizabeth's mother certainly guessed where her daughter was when she did not see her, but she kept silent about it. There was a chance nobody would notice and surely the officials were intelligent enough to know they should not bother Queen Sophia with it now.
She turned her head unobtrusively to find Linnie in the crowd and there she was. If Sophia saw her she would have a double fit. Not only was Linnie next to Henry, but she was also not wearing a hat.
The Queen Mother hoped nobody would now think she did not get along with Elizabeth. They would have to be seen together later to prove that nothing was wrong, if only to ask Linnie what had happened.
How Queen Sophia had come to know of it was unclear, but after the ceremony she approached her aunt. "Your daughter, Aunt Sophia…"
…is twenty years younger than you, yet she's been reigning over a larger country for longer. Of course you have some issues with her, Elizabeth's mother thought with an angelic expression on her face. "Your cousin, Sophia…"
"Her behaviour was unforgivable."
"What did she do?" She was interested to know. Had Linnie created a scene? There would have been more gossip if that had been the case. The only thing she really knew about was that Linnie had shared a car with Henry. Whatever had happened in the church had not been bad enough to reach her yet.
"She publicly defied me."
Sophia probably defined defiance differently -- incorrectly, according to her aunt. "She publicly supported her husband. These things are quite different. If she had wanted to defy you she would not have come at all."
Sophia chose not to reply.
Elizabeth's mother had one further point to make. "You're making a fool of yourself." And Linnie had better not have acted stupidly.
The bridegroom, for whose sake all this fuss was being made, had not noticed a thing. His mother had taken care not to vent in his company and she had kept her grievances secret from him. It was his day and he could not care less where Cousin Elizabeth was sitting and with whom.
It was only when she congratulated him at the reception that he realised that she had not been staying with them and that she had also recently got married. He was not interested enough to ask too many questions and Elizabeth was not eager enough to tell him too much.
After queuing for the congratulations, Elizabeth saw her mother, who wished to introduce Henry to her sister. The Queen Mother put an arm around him and started talking in a language he did not understand. The fact that both old ladies giggled and that even Elizabeth smiled did not help much. He looked at them in suspicion, especially since Elizabeth spoke that language too and she was obviously saying something about what had happened earlier.
Elizabeth had to tell her aunt all about it and her mother took Henry for a stroll and a chat. "My niece is not pleased, but that's her problem, not ours. She's got to give in anyway, for politeness' sake." The reception was still being broadcast on every respectable TV channel. One of the reasons she took Henry for a walk was that they would be seen and it would become clear that she supported her daughter.
She had been right about her niece. Queen Sophia approached them with a smile. Henry wondered how genuine it was. Would there still have been a smile if there had not been any cameras? Actually, it did not matter to him. He knew how to behave and he congratulated her on her son's marriage.
"Lord Setchley, I understand you also got married," she said after having accepted his congratulations. "Is that true?"
He nearly replied something disrespectful, for if she did not know it was true she must have been living underground or hibernating. "Very true."
"Why were you married in secret?"
"Because it was an arrangement between Elizabeth and me," Henry answered. "Not between Elizabeth, me and the world. And it wasn't that secret -- people were allowed to know, but that doesn't mean I wanted them there with us. My mother and sister were there, though."
"And they did not warn you against it?"
"No, they had heard only positive reports from everyone who had met Elizabeth."
"And had Elizabeth heard any positive reports about you? Your conduct in Brazil…" Her voice trailed off meaningfully. Elizabeth must only have heard bad things.
"Madam, it was a state visit together with the Queen. I think that says more than enough," Henry said politely. If someone went somewhere with the Queen, kissed an unidentified woman there, and later married the Queen, the unidentified woman could very easily be identified, he should think.
"You should have remembered who both of you were," Queen Sophia insisted. She did not believe in alliances between one of her kind and one of them, even though the fact that Lord Setchley was Lord Setchley probably placed him closer to her own kind than to them.
Henry smiled wickedly. "Oh, I did." They had been thirty-nine and attracted, which had been more than enough. "We were even born on the same day of the same year. The first day I met her she already told me our descriptions were practically interchangeable -- except for our sex, of course."
His mother-in-law pulled him away hastily. "But after Brazil that has changed?….Henry you cannot say such things!" She shook her head and clicked her tongue. "Well done, boy, but don't overdo it."
"I wasn't aware of anything," Henry said innocently.
"I'm not so sure," she said and patted his arm. "I don't trust you at all. I'd better not say that out loud, or people will get the wrong idea again. I mean I haven't trusted you ever since you started to meet Linnie twice a week."
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
While Elizabeth and Henry were at the wedding, the children were taken out for the day by their aunt. They boys' escapades of the week before had made her a little more careful. They all had to pay more attention to them, especially now that Henry and Elizabeth were abroad for a few days and not likely always to be reachable by phone.
Her uncle Tom had already picked up Mary, who was not going to get into any scrapes, but who might feel left out if she was ignored.
Henry had told Amanda what had happened, but the headmaster told her his version too. "Are you acquainted with your sister-in-law?" he asked. The marriage had been a secret, so maybe not even Henry’s family would have known about it.
"Yes, I danced with her once and Amanda's been to her wedding," said Tom, who beat Amanda to answering. People might find the whole situation less odd if they heard that some people at least had been present at the wedding. He himself did not feel jealous about not having been there. It had been perfectly alright to hear about it afterwards.
"She was here last week to talk to me about David and John," said the headmaster. "Has she mentioned any plan to you?"
"No, what sort of plan?" Amanda asked.
"A plan to take the boys from school. Are you still one of their legal guardians?" If she was, she would have to approve of any plans concerning the children.
"Yes, I am. I don't think Henry has done anything about it yet. He's been too busy working. He was gone for a while and when he got back all hell broke loose and we had the Queen Mother's announcement. Maybe they've told Mary?" She looked at her niece. Mary was usually aware of the latest news, but Amanda had not had a chance to question her about anything yet.
Mary looked cautious. "I don't know anything." And even if she did, it was not her place to reveal it. Fortunately Tom had not asked her to gossip.
"She said this was an emotionally repressive institution," said the headmaster with a chuckle. "She might be thinking about taking the boys away, considering that she's not at all emotionally repressed herself at the moment. Did you see that wedding? Or were you in the car?"
"I think we were in the car," Amanda answered. "Why?" She knew the wedding was being televised, but she had not thought it interesting enough to stay home for.
"The moment will be repeated, no doubt. She changed seats in the church because she wanted to sit next to Henry."
"Why wasn't she sitting there in the first place?"
"That's what the commentators asked themselves as well. That wasn't the only thing. He kissed her, standing up in a full church. It was very decent, but my secretary swooned. She's still watching the reception next door."
"I want to see!" Mary piped up.
"Through that door," the headmaster gestured. They joined the secretary, who was still gaping at the screen. "Haven't they finished yet?" he asked her with rolling eyes.
“No, not yet.” Her eyes were transfixed on the screen. "I hope they'll continue broadcasting for a while longer. This is very exciting."
"My brother is hardly exciting," Amanda remarked, but as she spoke those words she wondered if they were true. She wondered if Henry realised that there was a huge audience for this sort of glamorous wedding. Elizabeth and he had deprived that audience of the real thing, but a wedding they attended as guests was a good substitute. Even after watching for a few moments she noticed that the cameras tended to seek them out more often than they did other guests at the reception.
"They look so cute together. You could see they love each other when they were sitting together and they didn't want to upset anyone at all, but they couldn't help it. Look, there she goes. I've been told that's her aunt. It's the mother of the evil witch," the secretary gushed.
"Who's the evil witch?"
"The woman in lilac, with the ugly hat. She wasn't too pleased that the Queen went to sit with the Prime Minister, but he's such a cutie. And he must be funny too, because she smiled every time he said something to her."
"Usually he's just being silly," said his sister, but she was pleased that her brother was making a good impression. It was always so easy to criticise him and he did not deserve that. "So I think she smiled because she thinks he's a cutie too." And Elizabeth definitely did.
"The Queen Mother nudged him because he said something funny to the evil witch," the secretary revealed.
"The cameras don't miss a thing, do they?" Tom muttered. "I wonder if he knows. On the other hand, that would probably encourage him. Ladies, do you want to watch this romantic broadcast or shall we take the boys out?"
"Why don't you fetch them while we watch a bit more?" Amanda suggested. She had become intrigued by the commentary. It sounded very much as if Henry had been insulted. "Did he really get insulted?" she asked the secretary.
"Not to his face, no, but he had to sit elsewhere. I suppose people there hadn't taken into account that they were married. I suppose they didn't know, because otherwise I'm sure they would have treated them as a couple."
"I'm sure, though, that the news of their marriage spread to every corner of the earth last week, as did his kissing pictures a few months ago." There must have been another reason, one that she would not have liked either had she been Elizabeth.
"Right," said the secretary doubtfully. "Whom did he kiss, though? Do you know?"
"Try Elizabeth," Amanda said dryly. "She nearly gave herself away when she kicked a small feminist fuss. Nobody actually believed she was talking about herself. Her image was too good for that. That doesn't mean she bad now, but…it's actually funny. I heard it too and I never drew the right conclusions. People believed Henry all too capable of seducing the opposite sex and Elizabeth not capable at all, when the truth was somewhere in the middle."
"I can believe that he didn't dare to cross her if she was set on seducing him," said the headmaster, who was watching in the background. "She came here set on taking the boys and I didn't dare to cross her either."
Elizabeth had walked around the reception with her aunt and then alone, but she was getting a bit sick of having to repeat the same things. "Yes, I got married. No, I'm not telling when." She knew enough people here, but they could only ask her questions about one topic. What was worse was that she was beginning to feel very tired and that there were no chairs to sit down on. She asked one of the lackeys, but he hesitantly replied that it was a standing reception.
Henry was talking to some men and she hated to disturb him with a whine, but she had to. She caught his attention and spelled a few words with her hands, thanking their foresight in coming up with a secret hand alphabet. She saw his eyes travel across the room, but even Henry could not find a chair.
He made his way over to her. "Are you alright?" he asked in a concerned voice. She was pregnant and he knew too little about pregnancies not to be worried.
"I really want to lie down, but a chair will do at the moment. Except that they don't seem to have any. I asked. I'm about to sit on the floor."
That would be undesirable, Henry realised, and draw even more attention to them. "What if I asked?" Elizabeth would not say she needed to sit if it was not absolutely necessary.
"Well, you could try."
"No, we'll just step out of the room," he decided after a few moments. That would take them away from the cameras as well. It was uncertain how the rest would react to this desertion, but they would have to wait and see. In the hall there were a few benches, but also more cameras. Henry muttered something.
"Oh Henry," Elizabeth snorted. "Was that a really bad word?"
"I'm not really pleased about those cameras."
"Ignore them." Elizabeth spotted a bench in a secluded corner and pulled him towards it. She was desperate to sit and she sighed in relief when she was finally seated. Television cameras could all go to hell.
"Did you take a sleeping pill?" Henry asked when she sagged sideways.
He had not been with her in the middle of the day for the past weeks and not even for the past days. Elizabeth had not told him she felt tired more often. "No, I just like sitting like this better." It did not take very long for her to sag completely and to lie down on the bench with her head on his leg, which was even more comfortable. "I'm dead."
"Not yet, I think." He rested one hand casually on her stomach. Very conveniently it had nowhere else to go, but he was not as indifferent about the cameras as she was. "Do you do this often?" he wondered. He had thought she would keep walking until she dropped, even if she was tired or in pain.
No, she did not do this often. In fact, she had never done it at all, but she cared very little at the moment. "It's not fair to harm another life just because other people will think it odd if I lie down," she said quietly. "It hasn't asked for it." If her body said she was tired, she should listen. It might be wrong to ignore the signs.
The first person -- and hopefully the last -- came to investigate. "Are you unwell, Your Majesty?" There should not be any incidents at this wedding.
"On the contrary. I couldn't be better." She was having a little time off with her husband. That was always good. They got so little of that. "I'm in good hands."
"Do we need to call a doctor?" the person insisted.
"There's no need to do that. I'm not ill. I just want to lie down." Pregnancies and boring church weddings were exhausting.
"But are you ill?"
"No. I just said I'm not ill," Elizabeth said patiently. "Why don't you tell her as well, Henry?" Maybe then the message would go through properly.
"She's not ill."
Tom had collected the boys -- three of his own and two nephews -- from somewhere in the school and he returned with them to see if the girls were ready. "Girls, stop watching that stupid wedding and let's go."
"But it just got interesting," said Amanda. She had missed the first interesting event and she did not want to miss the second. "They left the room together."
"It would have been more interesting if they had left the room with someone else. We want to get moving."
"Auntie Amanda," John began as they were walking to the cars. "When will Elizabeth have a baby?" He had been thinking about that all week.
"I beg your pardon?" That was the first time Amanda had heard anything about babies.
"Daddy said that married people had babies."
She snorted at Henry's failed attempt to explain such matters adequately. "They might, but they don't have to. Did Daddy say Elizabeth was going to have a baby?" she asked, suppressing her excitement, because it was probably not needed.
"No. But how long does it take after they got married?"
"Some people never have babies, even if they are married." Elizabeth might be one of them, if what she had read had been correct. Amanda knew that most of what was in the papers was not entirely true, however.
"Er," said Mary with a grin. She felt it would be safe to tell her aunt about this. "And some do, even if you think they're not going to."
Amanda gave her a sharp glance. "You're coming with me in my car, Mary." They could not fit all in one car together and she wanted to hear more about this. "And John too." Since he had brought up the topic first, he deserved to be told if there was anything to tell.
"Henry picked me up from school to go to a gynaecologist last week," Mary began.
Amanda was glad she was not driving yet. "What?" she cried. "What for?"
"Wait! Not for me! I knew people would think that!" Mary said hastily. "This was before the announcement, so nobody knew they were married yet and I didn't know where we were going. I was their excuse. He pretended to go with me, but Elizabeth was coming as well. I didn't like it that they were using me and I told her so --"
"Ha, you did?" But she was wondering why Elizabeth had needed to go.
"Yes. So she said we were all together when they came to call Miss Breckingham. That was nice of her, because Henry didn't even know if he should let on that he knew her. He was really being an idiot about it all, just because she might be pregnant."
"And was she?"
"They would never have taken the risk of going there if she wasn't," Mary deduced correctly. "Of course she was. It made her cry."
"Is Elizabeth going to have a baby?" John wanted to know.
"Yes."
"When?"
"Early July."
"When is that?"
"When she's got fat." Mary decided this was the best explanation. She could see her aunt was doing mental calculations.
"She's not that fat yet, so will that take long?"
"John! You're not easily satisfied, are you?" Amanda asked in amusement.
On television back at home, the reactions to the wedding were unanimous. They should have been allowed to sit together! The actual moment had been brief, but numerous repetitions ensured that everyone who had missed it 'live' would not be deprived and that everyone came to forget how brief the moment had actually been.
Indignation grew, as did admiration for how the couple had borne it. They had acted so correctly. No matter how distrusting of the marriage some people had been before, everyone now agreed that a married couple could not be reproached for wanting to be together. And it had become very clear that they wanted to be together.
Experts had been summoned immediately, to acquaint the audience at home with Elizabeth's probable feelings upon every step that she had taken to get to Henry. Likewise, there were more politically-minded experts who commented on Henry's behaviour. Even though those had their reservations about the kiss, they admitted that he had handled it as well as he could. When approached by a beautiful woman in distress there was only one way to act, after all. And, for the female viewers, when in distress there was only one person to turn to.
It remained to be seen whether the couple had been thinking as many complex thoughts as were ascribed to them, however.
Elizabeth and Henry were to fly back the same evening. "If you're going to lie here all afternoon," Henry remarked when they had been outside the reception area for a while, "we might as well go back to the hotel and start packing. I could at least make myself useful there."
"You are making yourself useful," Elizabeth mumbled. After the first inquiry about her health she had received three more and Henry had brushed them off politely. "But if you want to we could go back in." She sat up straight.
"Are you feeling better?"
She could sit up again, so she supposed so. "I'm still dull. It all depends on whether you've acknowledged everyone you were supposed to acknowledge."
"Have you?"
"No, but there are too many of them."
"Let's go then." Henry had already seen a few people leaving -- inconspicuous nobodies, but leaving nevertheless. "Oh, your mother…" They would be taking the same plane, so it would be handy to make arrangements. Elizabeth had said her mother could not be counted on to get to the airport in time all by herself.
"I'll have a word with her." Elizabeth stood up and returned to the large room where the reception was being held. Her eyes scanned the room and she slowly walked through the crowd. Her mother was not tall, but at least she stood out by having grey hair and she would be with a bunch of other grey-haired people.
She was not. The Queen Mother was chatting to two rather young men, who had definitely not turned thirty yet. She beamed at her daughter. "There you are, Linnie. Where were you?"
Elizabeth took her aside, with a polite smile at the two men. They seemed to enjoy her mother's company. She did not want to know why. "I was tired and there are no chairs. We went out into the hall to sit down. But we're leaving now."
"To the airport?"
"No, to the hotel to pack."
"I'll have to come with you, I suppose. You think I'd miss the flight if you didn't personally strap me on board."
Why deny it? "Yes, Mum."
"Really, Linnie. I have a watch and all that."
"But Mum, you don't care about being on time. We're taking a regular flight. It's not going to wait for you." They had not been taking enough people to justify the use of the Royal plane after the Prime Minister had imposed restrictions on its use the year before. The privilege had been abused too often by Elizabeth's relatives. And the Prime Minister could now not make exceptions for himself.
"Of course it will."
Elizabeth had known she would say that. "You're going to have a lot of people hating you if you do that."
"Nobody will hate me, Linnie." The Queen Mother smiled with absolute confidence. "I'm an old lady. And charming."
Elizabeth placed her arm around her mother and led her away. "I'll let Henry charm you into coming with us."
They were at the airport far too early. Elizabeth had revived, but she still did not feel like shopping, so she sat drinking coffee in the VIP lounge with her mother and Teddy while Henry and Teddy's husband Edward walked around to look at the shops.
There was only one room for VIPs, Elizabeth discovered when some commotion announced the arrival of another Very Important Passenger. She had counted on being alone with her own party and she listened in apprehension as a spoilt young woman approached complaining and giving orders in a loud voice -- and uncultured too. Elizabeth and her companions shared a look of horror. They were not going to share this room with such an ill-bred woman.
Fortunately her security officers did not want the woman in there either -- not because of her bad manners, but because of the possible security hazard. They were quick to inform the airport people that another location would have to be found for the woman and peace was restored to the waiting room once more.
Elizabeth breathed in relief as she heard the disagreeable voice move away from the room, whining even more than before. "Whew. Whoever thought of sending her here while I was in here anyway?" She would not have minded any nice people, she told herself. She was not being arrogant.
"To some people one VIP is very much like another," said the Queen Mother with a shrug.
"I beg to differ! Surely everyone could see that…that three women like us are vastly different from a silicone-filled puppet like that!" She could not even find any good words to explain something so obvious.
Teddy laughed at that, but she agreed. "You didn't even see her."
"The voice said enough." Elizabeth shuddered.
Henry saw his face on the covers of several magazines. They were all bringing the news of his marriage, so there would not be anything new for him to read. When Edward bought some perfume for Teddy, Henry bought some for Elizabeth. He figured she would like what Teddy would like.
As he walked in the shopping area, Henry felt very silly with his little perfume bag. He watched the dainty little carrier bag dangling off his fingers and wanted to get rid of it if he could. He took out the perfume and tried to stuff it into his coat. It would only just fit. Then he crumpled the hideous bag and attempted to make it the last thing that would fit into the waste bin.
"Stop!" Edward exclaimed. "What are you doing?"
Was it a grave offence to throw away the carrier bag? Henry stared at him in confusion. "I'm throwing this away."
"No!"
"Why on earth not?" Henry studied the bin again. Was it a recycling bin for organic waste only? Or only plastic? But no. The contents were diverse: a banana peel, plastic cups, empty wrappings.
"I know people who like it." They had trained him not to throw those bags away.
"This?" Henry held it up sceptically. "It's a bloody tax-free carrier bag." His arm moved back over the waste bin to drop it.
"Exactly. Don't throw it away. Give it to me."
Henry gave it to him, thoroughly mystified. "What's so special about it?"
"I've been told it's cute."
"Oh, this is a girl thing?" It dawned on Henry. He had been informed of the cuteness of perfectly ugly objects before too. It had not altered his outlook on them, however, although now he really ought to suspect anything of a less than ordinary size of being cute. "The people you know who like it are girls?"
"Yes, my daughter…"
"Mine is not that silly. Anyway, I doubt that she'd be satisfied with an empty carrier bag while I have just spent half my salary on perfume for Elizabeth."
"You've still got the other half of your salary to spend on your daughter," Edward said cleverly. "Why didn't you buy her any perfume?"
"She's fifteen. She doesn't need it. Besides, what about the boys if I did spend it on her? Not to mention the fact that I'm determined not to give them too many presents. Twice a year will do. They'd only start taking them for granted. And I don't have the kind of money to raise spoilt children."
"As the Prime Minister I suppose you earn a rotten salary," Edward said sympathetically.
"Teddy probably earns more. Do funny people ever call you Eddy and Teddy?"
"Only the very funny people," Edward said gravely.
"I thought as much. I know some very funny people who call me Livius."
"Sounds very Prime Minister-like, though."
"Did you hear that from Elizabeth?" Henry asked suspiciously.
"I did, actually," Edward confessed. "She said that once. I got the impression she loved using it."
"Especially in superior female mode." He recalled her facial expression on such occasion. Yes, she loved using that name to tease him.
"Yes, she can get away with almost anything."
If you did not stop her, she most certainly did. People were all too likely to do what she said, even if it was ridiculous and therefore she could not always learn what was ridiculous and what was not. "I don't let her get away with things, you know."
"Yes, I know."
"Except with the things I like her to get away with, such as marrying me." They strolled past another bookshop and Henry glanced at the newspapers and magazines again. He featured in anything, from the serious to the slanderous. "They can't get enough of me, can they? It's really bad for one's ego to see one's face on display all the time."
"Fancy a drink, Prime Minister?" a cheerful football supporter yelled. He and a few mates were drinking beer in one of the bars.
Henry wondered if he should be politician or husband, in short, whether he should accept the drink or not. As a politician he would have to mingle with the public; as a husband he would have to consider the wishes of his wife, although he did not know what they were in this respect. It was really nice of the football supporters to draw attention to his person by addressing him like that too. Any passenger in a five-mile radius would now know he was a Prime Minister. Fortunately a large group of Italians was just passing and they made so much sound talking that the radius might be two miles only.
"'Fraid the missus will kill you?" They laughed merrily, thrilled to be meeting a famous person in the flesh.
He went a little closer to them. Raising his voice in public spaces was not his style. "The missus is a nice lady. She would never kill me."
"Then have a drink!" they invited provocatively.
Because they obviously thought he would not, Henry sat down. They were only cheerful, not annoying. "Just one then."
"What have you been drinking?" Elizabeth asked when Henry returned and he kissed her. He tasted funny.
"Want to try again?" he teased.
"Not while I'm with you," Elizabeth's mother decreed. "You haven't even been apart for an hour."
"It was beer," Henry said to Elizabeth. "We had a drink with some nice football hooligans."
She stared at him in incomprehension. "Why?" How could football hooligans be nice and how could Henry have a drink with them?
"Because they invited me to join them."
Her eyes grew wider. "And you did?"
"We did."
"Beer?"
Henry frowned. "You sound like you've never had beer."
"I never have. Henry, listen." Elizabeth took him aside. "I've been thinking. Are our airports privatised? Do we have any influence over who are considered very important passengers?"
"What? Why?" He was telling her about the hooligans, he still had that perfume in his pocket and now Elizabeth wanted to discuss the privatisation of airports.
"Can we limit VIP status to Royalty and statesmen? Like the plane? It would be such a waste of money to lay out the red carpet for any silicone twit."
He had not seen or heard the silicone twit, so he did not understand the reference or the fact why she brought this up now, but he had had enough experience with Elizabeth to know she would not abandon the subject. "Alright. Tell me," he sighed.
They were transported to the departure gate by a vehicle, so they got there just in time. The curtain to the economy class was closed, but they could see the plane was full. Elizabeth did not usually fly with an airline and she was not prepared to hear a message welcoming her aboard. She ducked a little in her seat, although only her own party and some businessmen could see her.
Henry choked when the voice furthermore begged wives not to walk down the aisle to join their husbands while the Fasten Seatbelts signs were still on. He only recovered because Elizabeth patted his back comfortingly. As soon as he had regained his composure Henry took out one of the books he had bought for Elizabeth, which he had admittedly only bought because he would like to read it himself as well. He did not have very much time for reading except when he was travelling. Fortunately he was a fast reader, which was extremely useful when it came to all the documents and files he was supposed to look at.
Elizabeth was bored already. Henry had forbidden her to take any work on this trip and she had already read his books. She tried to peer out the window, but it was dark. The only other people near them were boring businessmen either typing away furiously on their laptops or engrossed in files.
Henry observed her fidgeting out of the corner of his eye and gave her the perfume. "Got you this," he said awkwardly, suddenly fearing it was the wrong kind or too cheap.
She turned it over in her hands. This was the first thing he had ever given her. A glance at him told her he was pretending to read his book, but his eyes were not moving. He wanted to know if he had done right. Of course he had. She took the bottle out of the box and smelled it. Yes, he had done right. She sprayed some perfume and the man behind them began to cough when some of it drifted up his nostrils.
"Thank you. I like it," Elizabeth whispered shyly. Because this was the first time, she did not really know how to thank him. He should not think that she did not like getting presents simply because she had so much money. They did not even have to be expensive presents. She leant towards Henry to give him a kiss. "Do you?"
Henry coughed too when the scent was overwhelming. This was not quite what he had in mind when he had bought it. "Y-Y-Yes."
Life had not become easier now that they were being praised. Elizabeth did not have faith in such extreme reactions. It would only be a matter of time until they were criticised again.
The morning after getting home she discovered that people were making a tremendous fuss over nothing. The entire country felt personally insulted because Henry had been slighted. It was a bit ridiculous. "Can you say you weren't insulted before we get a huge row?" Elizabeth wondered after they had gone to bed on Sunday night.
"We'll see," Henry said vaguely. He did not want to take a stand in the matter at all.
"Were you or weren't you?"
"You were."
"But I want people to accept you."
"You accept me. That's enough. What about people who don't accept you as my wife?" That thought would probably not have occurred to her at all.
"Oh. W-W-Would there be any?"
"Not in this room, no." Henry pulled her towards him to underline his words. "We can't go back, Linnie."
"No," she said thoughtfully. "We can't go back." She did not want to either.
"Lord Setchley has achieved the status of a saint over the weekend," one of the members of the opposition announced mockingly. "May we now finally expect some miracles from this government?" There were laughter and cheers on the opposite side.
Henry bowed. "I am surprised that in the eyes of my Honourable friend I seem to have lost the sinner status he awarded me a few months ago." Now it was his own side's turn to laugh and cheer. He waited for them to quiet down. "Because I have been kissing in public again!" He had to wait another few moments. "I at least remain consistent."
There were some more attacks, but mostly not personal.
"Anne?" said Henry when he was approached by Anne Greville after the debates.
"Can I just say that the previous time the Queen seemed such a sensible woman, but now…" she sighed. "She went to sit next to you."
"Is that bad?" Henry could not really follow that argument.
"She should show more independence from you and men in general. It would have been better if you had gone to sit with her. People will get the wrong idea, what with you being a conservative politician."
"They might think I'm conservative?" Henry guessed.
"Precisely."
"Well," he said reflectively. "It all depends on what people focus on. Is that the fact that I touched her before we were married? Or is it the fact that I touched her because we were getting married? Or the fact that I married her because I touched her? The choice for which degree of conservatism applies isn't easy if you look at those options." He paused and smiled. She did not react to the fact that he said he had touched Elizabeth. It should be news to people who took things literally, because it had not been spelled out in the press. Perhaps Anne Greville had assumed it automatically. Still, he should be thankful that she did not interrupt him about that while he was making his point. "Could it still be something else? That I touched her because I loved her and that I married her because I loved her? And furthermore that she sat next to me because she loves me. For that action you could call her a liberal, a socialist, a radical, a nonconformist, even a conservative -- but those are all rational ideologies, whereas she was only moved by her emotions."
"Yes, well. That is a common misconception about women that I should really like to correct…" she began.
"I have had many a rational debate with her," Henry soothed before he would receive a lecture. "And there have been some that I have lost. But…at a wedding in a church, a woman who got married in private, feeling offended and being separated from her husband, does not feel entirely rational. Believe me, I was there. I have had uncountable sleepless nights over her ability to be rational, both in the sense that she cornered me in arguments and in the sense that she was too rational to make a move on me, so I'm not likely to say she is generally ruled by her emotions. But, Mrs Greville," he smiled mischievously. "It'll be music to your feminist ears to hear that she eventually made the first move."
"Not…Brazil?" Anne Greville remembered that the Queen had had some very definite ideas about Brazil and the man's behaviour. The fact that she had stressed that the PM might not have been the only one to blame was in retrospect a clear indication.
"Indeed."
"But in a bikini!"
"Is a bikini too conservative for you?" Henry played her opinion that anything not feminist was conservative back to her.
"Bikinis are a way of submitting to male preferences," she said with dignity.
"What can I say? Bikinis are rather effective if your intention is to appeal to a male's preferences. Had she appeared with her clothes on I would have started a conversation."
"But how did you give her the opinion that you valued her mind?"
He grinned. "I didn't."
There was a ministers-plus-Queen meeting that they both had to attend later that day. If the ministers had been thinking Henry and Elizabeth would be sweet to each other, they were wrong. They were sufficiently acquainted with Elizabeth to know she took this aspect of her job quite seriously, although some looked surprised when she interrupted her husband when he was detailing a plan. "I have to disagree with you, My Lord."
"Oh," he replied. This was the first meeting of this group after people had been told they were married. They did not have to hide their marriage anymore. Her formal way of addressing him surprised him a little, although he realised that in a formal meeting she would still have to do that if they wished to remain credible.
"Perhaps a little less faith in mankind? Stupidity is a recurring phenomenon even among the educationally privileged."
"So you're against giving them the chance to develop because it's useless anyway?"
"I'm not saying that. I merely said you have to take into account that some people will remain stupid no matter what. I didn't say you shouldn't try, but you shouldn't be disappointed if you don't get a perfect result."
"There's very little use in drawing up a plan if you know it's not going to work, Madam." He thought she was being a little too hard on them.
"Is that why you should deceive everyone?" Elizabeth mocked. She remembered why she distrusted politicians. "And pretend the results will be good?"
Henry's feelings of being verbally invincible slowly faded. "You can't get funding for plans that clearly won't get the desired result." It was a strategy used by many more people than just politicians to embellish plans a little.
"How many other plans are like that, I wonder?" She looked around herself. "You should really educate the public if you want to keep doing that."
"Madam, I have to protest against your point of view," said one of the ministers, who feared one of his plans would come under attack next.
Elizabeth had not wanted to become a government pawn after her marriage. She was still an impartial and objective critic. It was her duty to point out any failings in these plans. Perhaps she was overdoing it a bit to prove she had not changed. "That's possible."
"There are plans you can trust."
"But some that you cannot?" she was quick to counter, but then she remembered this was not a game in which to score as many points as possible. "No matter. I have made my point." She leant back and saw Henry peering down at the table. They were seated at opposite ends of it, so as not to make it appear as if things were decided at one end only. He was too far away for her to ask what he was thinking. Perhaps he did not like her interruptions, but they were not personal attacks.
After a moment he raised his head. "May we continue, with Her Majesty's approval?"
"You were being a little hard on your husband, Madam," said the minister seated to Elizabeth's right after Henry had closed the meeting. It was funny. The previous times he would have said they agreed too much for people who were not married and now he would say they disagreed quite a lot for people who were married.
"Not really. Nothing he cannot handle." She hoped, casting a doubtful glance across the length of the table. Was she imagining things or was Henry really a little too preoccupied? She tried to make her way to him unobtrusively, but some lagging ministers were barring her way and detaining her with meaningless questions and remarks. Before she could get there, someone else did and that woman managed to lure him away because he really, really had to look at something in her office. Elizabeth was left standing there, feeling a little lost.
The Minister of Sports seized his chance to address her. "Madam, can I interest you in the chairmanship of the National Council for the Promotion of Youth Sports?"
"Who's chairman at the moment?" She did not want to take over the command of a sinking ship. Such positions were never vacant without a reason. She had ample experience with that herself.
"Nobody. The Council hasn't been instituted yet. It's a new plan."
More new plans? Nobody could say this government lacked initiative. But she did not even roll her eyes at his words. "Is it a lot of work?" She had a family now and she would be having a baby. It was not wise to take on too many extra activities.
"It's as much work as you want to make it, Madam. A meeting every other month is the minimum. Basically what you'd be doing is coming up with plans --"
Elizabeth suppressed a snicker.
"-- to stimulate children to participate in sports, or if this is too much work you could let other people come up with plans and you will only need to evaluate them."
"Oh, alright," she said carefully. It did not sound like too much work. She could delegate things once she became too pregnant. "May I ask why you chose me?"
"It's my understanding that you recently gave up the chairmanship of the Royal Operatic Society."
"I did." How did people know such things? It had been a rather hushed-up affair. "I have to warn you, though. It was due to a difference of opinion between me and the other members of the board." Perhaps she was a difficult person.
"Yes, Madam. I know a little about the particulars," the Minister of Sports said discreetly. "It would be a serious case of nepotism if I asked you on the basis of your husband's recommendations alone, but my wife happens to be the current chairman of the ROS and perhaps it would rather be a recommendation than a disqualification to have disagreements with the board."
Elizabeth knew that about the board, really. She was more interested in something else. "My husband's recommendations? He recommended me when I've contradicting him in company?" She sounded worried.
The Minister of Sports was understandably taken aback. "Well, he…he told me not to tell you, but I figured you'd find out anyway." If she found out it was one of her husband's friends who had asked her, she would be quick to see where he had got that idea -- he assumed.
"Why did he tell you that?"
"Because he felt he shouldn't recommend his wife."
Elizabeth was lost. "I can't follow it anymore. He felt he shouldn't be doing it, but he did and then he regretted it?" She agreed that people should not be putting their wives forward for interesting positions and she respected Henry for feeling that, but it was flattering that he had thought of her all the same.
"No, he recommended you a few months ago and he recently told me, because of the current situation, that I should forget about that recommendation."
"Oh, but you didn't."
"No, Madam. Because I believe he wasn't recommending you for all the wrong reasons." He had, of course, asked Henry why he saw a difference between advancing his girlfriend and advancing his wife for the position, because there was no difference. And Henry had said it had not been his girlfriend then, which was interesting because it had perhaps been two months before he had got married, whenever he had done that.
Elizabeth feared Henry would never do that again. She frowned and bit her lip, wondering if she was oversensitive. Where had Henry gone? It would not have mattered to her had she not known she had indeed been a little too hard on him during the meeting.
The Minister of Sports found her uncertain behaviour odd. It made him a bit uncomfortable. He told himself this was the wife of a friend and nothing scary like the Queen, although there was nothing more frightening than having to reassure the Queen. "Er well, would you be interested?"
"I would. I mean, it depends. Do you think he would still recommend me if you asked him today?" Or would he have changed his mind?
"Madam, have you changed in the meantime?" he wondered, beginning to wish he had never asked her.
"Yes, yes, I have," she answered. Her perspective had changed. Seeing the Prime Minister leave the room with one of his ministers was quite a difference experience from seeing her husband leave the room with another woman without so much as looking at his wife. She had to recover from such silly thoughts. "I mean, no, I haven't. I'd love to do it. Could you get in touch with me about the particulars?" She could not let Henry down. He had had enough confidence in her to recommend her -- even though he had left the room with another woman.
The man looked pleased. "I'll send you a file with an outline of the project, Madam."
"Project? It's not a plan?" she could not resist asking, after having been bombarded with plans during the meeting. 'Project' sounded rather too concrete for this government. They had plenty of plans, especially long-term ones, but very few short-term results so far -- although she was glad that Henry did not go for short-term successes as an easy way to score.
"Now that you're involved, it's a project."
"I see." It was an interesting distinction, one that she did not quite grasp. She smiled politely and thought of Henry. Maybe on his own territory she should not expect him to treat her as his wife. Maybe the Queen should just amuse herself while she waited for her ride home, however shabby this arrangement might be. Other women in her position might simply go and think the world revolved around them.
"Are you going in the direction of the car park?" asked the Minister of Sports.
"Er…I think…" She was still thinking about what to do and she stared out of the window unseeingly for a few moments. Then someone wrapped his arms around her waist from behind.
"Linnie!" said Henry.
"Oh!" Where had he come from? She could not be upset anymore, but she was simply glad he was here again. "Are you practising for when I'll take you for a ride on my motorbike?" she teased.
"Yeah, right," said Henry, who did not take it seriously. "You and a motorbike. I would love to see you in one of those tight leather contraptions, though. You don't need a bike then." He did not mind that Rory was there to hear it. It was a friend of his, anyway. He would have become better acquainted with Linnie sooner or later.
There was a mischievous smile on Elizabeth's face as she placed her hands over his. She winked at the Minister of Sports. "Henry, darling. I'm not sure I want to take you for a ride if you'll be sitting behind me getting far too excited over my outfit."
"Hee."
"Have you ever ridden a motorbike as a passenger?"
"No."
"Would you dare to?"
"Linnie?" Henry could not see her face, but he sensed he was being teased in some way.
"Would you dare to?"
"Sure."
"As my passenger?"
"Your passenger? On a motorbike?" Henry looked at Rory uncertainly and wondered why he was laughing.
"Yes."
"You ride motorbikes," he stated, not believing it.
"Just one, actually," Elizabeth said modestly. Her face split into a huge grin. She had got him there. He had been thinking she was joking.
"Linnie!" he cried, sounding very shocked.
"It's true." She laughed and turned. "What's so strange about it?"
"You're not the type."
"It's quite nice in my position. Nobody recognises me with a helmet on."
"You're not the type to fix bikes."
"Well, I don't. I have staff who like to ride it as well. Just like I have people who ride my horses. They do the maintenance in return for riding the bike once in a while. I learnt to ride one because I was advised that it might be useful in crisis situation if I could actually help myself in getting away from whatever."
"Can you also fly planes?"
That made her chuckle. "Try to keep some perspective."
"With regard to you that's impossible."
Henry had insisted on seeing the bike and because it was not a cold night, Elizabeth took him for a ride into the countryside. They were followed by another motorcycle keeping an eye on them, but they were otherwise completely alone. He held on tight as she sped over the roads.
Elizabeth parked the motorbike outside a pub. "Dinner," she announced and she wondered if Henry had survived the trip. Her thighs had been squeezed quite a bit, but he looked fairly unruffled.
"What sort of secret life do you lead, Mrs Breckingham?" Henry asked after they had taken off their helmets. "You ride motorcycles and you dine in pubs."
She shook her long hair into a better model and grinned. "Once in a while. This is near my old school and I've been coming here for thirty years. I can easily go here without being stared at."
"That's what you think," he said with his eyes on her tight leather trousers. "I've been here before," he noticed when he stepped inside.
"It's practically next to Mary's school," she nodded. "I took her here once." At night the proprietors were there themselves and she received a friendly nod from the man behind the bar as she placed their helmets in a rack.
Henry was surprised that Elizabeth sat down on a barstool on a corner of the bar instead of at a table, but apparently she had done that more often, because nobody looked surprised.
"Good evening, Madam," said the man behind the bar with respectful familiarity. "Has she taken you here on her motorcycle, My Lord?"
"Yes. It was an interesting experience," Henry confessed. When the owner was getting them drinks, he leant towards Elizabeth. "Exactly how often do you do this?" They knew her here. They did not even ask her what she wanted to eat, only what she wanted to drink, but they immediately assumed she would be having the day special.
"A few times a year." She giggled when he continued to be surprised.
"And what's the day special?" He could probably trust her to have made the right choice.
"Doesn't matter. It's good. So how do I ride?""
"Like a…"He was going to say lady, but riding like a lady was not such a compliment. "…gentleman. I won't be taking the bus back."
"You weren't a very gentlemanly passenger, though."
Henry 's expression of surprise did not change. "Why?" What had he done?
"You squeeze pretty hard with your legs. My thighs and hips are blue. Were you afraid to fall off?" she teased.
Henry would not deny that he had had his reservations in the beginning, especially when she had patted his leg while riding, something that was supposed to have been a comforting gesture. He liked her when she was teasing him, though. "But I relaxed in the end. And I didn't squeeze you too hard around the waist, did I?"
Elizabeth touched his face. "No, you didn't." This was such a nice end of the day, after having been so formal all afternoon.
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
Where Elizabeth slept in the bed depended on her mood. She would not always feel Henry move, but she did now. He moved away from her and she protested sleepily. "Don't get up yet! I don't want to get up. Stay!"
"I have to." He wondered if she knew what time it was. It was three o'clock, but she probably did not know, or else she would not have said that.
"No, you don't." She fumbled behind her to prevent him from getting up.
"Lin, do you want me to wet the bed?" Henry asked in amusement and he was even more amused when she pushed him away.
She fell half asleep when he was gone, until she felt someone slide back into bed. "I must warn you that my husband will return shortly and he doesn't look kindly on people who take what rightfully belongs to him," she said in a sleepy voice.
"Do you always talk to burglars like that?" Henry wondered, snuggling back into place.
"Yes," she said, satisfied that he was back where he should be.
She sounded a little like a small child, he thought, immediately happy when he returned, and he did not pursue the subject.
"I should never have married you," Elizabeth groaned in the morning when Henry's alarm clock went off. It was far too early, she was sure, but the alarm clock told her that this time it was probably for real.
"Indeed. I could have got up a lot later if I hadn't moved in with you," he groaned back cheerfully. "Where that's bright and happy morning person I used to know?"
"Don't know her."
"Come on," he coaxed. "Take a shower with me."
"Funny how that doesn't seem attractive at all when you're lying in a warm bed." Well, it did, but she did not really know what to expect from taking a shower with Henry. It was better not to run the risk of completely misinterpreting the situation.
"Hmph!" Henry said incredulously. He wriggled one arm under her body to be better able to drag her out. She did not protest against that, so he concluded it was allowed.
"The things you think of before you go to work, Lord Setchley." It did not sound very disapproving.
"That's my job." He pulled a little, but she would not budge. Perhaps this little pull would make her move by herself, although he knew Her Majesty had an unreasonable dislike of participating in schemes she had not thought of herself. Eventually she would have to, however, because he was not going to wait forever.
"A poll would prove that half the population would like to stay in bed."
"A pull would prove the opposite," said Henry and acted on his words. He elicited a little yelp from her as he dragged her out of bed.
"What exactly are you going to do in the shower?" Elizabeth asked after Henry allowed her to stand. He kept a firm hold of her, however, in case she was thinking of going back. But once out was out and she would not go back now.
He sensed a little hesitation there, but it had not been his intention to make her anxious or uncomfortable about anything. Quite honestly, he had not planned anything odd at all. He simply wanting to spend some time with her, because he knew she would stay in bed if he did not pull her out and she would get in the shower as soon as he came out of it and they would have very little opportunity to interact. "Er, wash my hair, I think. I want to be at my office in half an hour."
Henry did not make it to his office in half an hour. It was closer to an hour and a half later when he finally got there. "Got…er…delayed," he said to Howard. It took twice as long if two people were sharing, but Howard did not need to know that. Howard, he was sure, would not be aware of the dangers of the shower.
"I thought as much, My Lord, but I knew you would be in soon. The Queen is receiving someone at nine o'clock, isn't she? I looked that up in her official agenda when you did not appear." Before nine o'clock the Prime Minister would have been dismissed.
"What are you insinuating, Howard?" Henry felt as if he was being watched.
"Nothing, My Lord," Howard said discreetly.
"It sounds as if you're implying that I was doing things with my wife -- the more shocking the better."
Howard did not want to go as far as to say that outright. "Well…"
"That's what wives are for -- to do things with that are not necessarily shocking. They are not people one should ignore."
"I quite agree with you."
"Howard, I would advise you to get one as soon as possible, so you can stop being fascinated by mine." Henry leafed through his mail. "But you've got to start leaving this office at a decent hour, otherwise you'll never meet any women. Do you sleep here? You're always here. You must have a bed at home to take them to."
"No, I don't sleep here." Howard coloured slightly. The Prime Minister was suggesting some very strange things.
"Good."
"But…may I ask a question?"
"Certainly." Henry looked up from his mail.
"Why are you giving me advice you didn't take yourself? You did not even take her home." Let alone to his bed.
"Not like that, no. I did, however, spend half an hour preparing a ten-second voicemail to invite her to my home. And once they're in your home, Howard…" Henry said meaningfully.
"Then what?" Howard asked before he would jump to conclusions.
Henry could see what Howard was thinking of. He was not averse to some teasing. "Then there's a fifty percent chance of success. Either they will, or they won't." He was referring to marriage and he grinned at the prospect of being misunderstood.
This openness shocked Howard a little. "I cannot believe you would speak about it like that. The Queen…" Somehow it struck him as disrespectful to speak about having a fifty percent chance of sleeping with the Queen, not to mention about luring her to his home to sleep with her. He had trouble believing it.
"The Queen said yes and we immediately looked up on the internet how to go about it."
"The…the internet?" He had been under the assumption that it was something people did not need to look up.
"Yes." Henry switched on his computer, pretending to be indifferent. Howard sounded tremendously shocked and he had some difficulties not to laugh. "You can't do anything without having done some research first, can you? I'd never done it before and neither had she."
Howard blushed a nice shade of red. Who was he to question that comment? But it was rather unbelievable.
"And what if it hadn't been allowed?"
"But it's a private thing."
"I quite agree. That's why we did it in private." He wondered if he should relieve Howard's suffering. "You do realise that I was talking about popping the question, don't you?"
"Er…yes, of course."
"The other things, the ones you were probably thinking of, are all secondary to that. Of course." Actually, he was not really certain of it, he thought. Elizabeth had come to him. He had never asked her, but he did not think she had come with a preconceived notion of how long she was going to stay and in which bed she would sleep. She might have stayed even if they had not got married, because she could never have known he was going to ask her. But all that was none of Howard's business and he should stop poking his nose into it. "I love the woman, Howard. It's an explanation that covers everything." Very conveniently.
"Even your politics?"
"Some." He consulted her sometimes.
"People want answers. They want to know, or had you missed that?" Howard slipped back into his professional role, to his great relief. "You should be more communicative about certain issues."
Henry kept his eyes on his computer screen. He began to check his email, feeling slightly irritated with whoever wanted answers. About what, anyway? "They want to hear that 'meeting her twice a week' was really a euphemism for bonking her and that this influenced my functioning. I'll have to disappoint them on both fronts. Send anyone who dares to speculate on the matter to me and I'll force them to spend an entire afternoon with my mother-in-law. She'll love that."
Elizabeth would have to do without Henry all day and most of the evening. Unfortunately it was precisely this day that her distant relative George -- who was generally assumed to be her successor -- came to inquire how matters stood with regard to his position now that she was married. She would have preferred not to receive him, but it could not be avoided.
George had done some thinking, but it was not impressive. "He only married you because he doesn't like me. He'd rather be King himself."
She rolled her eyes. "Sorry, George, My husband could never be King. It's in the law." How could anyone be this stupid? Everyone knew that wives could only take their husband's titles, but not vice versa. And even if Henry could have, he would not have wanted to.
"He's in the government, so he'd probably change that. He's got problems with me, hasn't he? He's taken away all my rights already because he wants to take over."
"Only some privileges." Elizabeth did her best to stay calm. Henry had made sure that some things had been cut off and as far as she was concerned he had done his job more than properly. It had all to do with George himself and nothing with Henry. "That you had no right to anyway. And that you abused." Did she have to remind him of the plane? Of the many nights spent wrecking nightclubs? Of the many women he seemed to have?
"It's a hate campaign," was George's opinion.
"If you say so." She was beginning to be very annoyed now. Henry on a hate campaign? It was absolutely preposterous. Did he really think himself worthy of any of Henry's time?
"Think about it. Do you think he loves you? I mean, like really love you? He's only out for power. Why else would he hook up with you? I mean, he's like a really popular bloke and you're like…you."
Any last scrap of sympathy for George that had remained within Elizabeth thus far disappeared. She stared at him icily. It was not as if they had grown up together. It was not even as if George knew her. Yet he was bloody well pretending to be so familiar with her that he could tell her things like this.
"And tell me you really can't have no kids."
"I really can't have no kids," she assured him with a contemptuous smile because he did not even know precisely what he was asking. She was going to have more children than he could ever imagine.
"I hope you hadn't wanted any. Well, you're past the breeding age anyway. So, when are you going to involve me in the fun stuff? Trips abroad and fancy dinners?"
This really angered her. It was good that Henry was not here to see how she had earned her reputation of being difficult. And really, her reputation was probably all due to an exaggerated rumour spread by George. "Out!" she shouted. She had never sat down during their talk, because that would have made it look like a cosy chat between equals, and she towered over him. "It's not for you to speculate whether I am past what you call the breeding age or not! The only fun stuff you will be involved in is experiencing what it feels like to be dragged out of here and dumped in the street outside the gates! I don't want to see you here ever again! Not only have you insulted me, you have also insulted my husband!" She turned her back on him and closed her ears to what he had to say, until he went away.
Then she sat looking out of the window, still a little shaky, as always. She should keep herself under control a little better, although this had been very controlled compared to some other times that she had dismissed George.
"I was very ill-mannered," she complained to Teddy who came to see her shortly afterwards.
"So I heard." Teddy did not seem impressed. "But it's better to be ill-mannered than to consider him as family. He's an insidious snake, Linnie. Half the rumours about you come from him. I think he gets paid for it too. Of course you're lucky that he can't come up with believable stories, so most of it doesn't make it through."
"How do you know?"
Teddy waved vaguely. "Contacts." She knew people here and there who would tell her such things. "The problem has sorted itself out now. Haven't you told him?"
No, she had not told him and she never would. "I don't want to tell anyone. If it goes wrong people will keep expecting me to try again and I couldn't handle so much speculation and pressure."
"Always start from the worst case scenario. Life had a plan with you when it didn't throw Henry in your way before. Why should it mess up now?"
"Because life likes to."
"Nonsense."
"You wouldn't tell anyone, would you?"
"Not if it hasn't officially been announced. You know that, Linnie," Teddy said in a faintly accusing tone. Elizabeth was probably concerned, but she should think before she said such things.
Elizabeth gave her a contrite look. "Yes, sorry. So you think it will go alright?"
"You've already got to four months without problems."
That was true, still Elizabeth was determined to be pessimistic. "But I've been married for six weeks." That was a considerably shorter time than four months.
"Also without problems." Teddy deliberately avoided addressing the issue Elizabeth was referring to.
"Hmm! You don't know how early that man wants to get up in the morning." Actually, it was the same time as she always got up, but lately it had become very difficult.
"So banish him to another room."
"No, it's nice and safe. I don't have to be afraid of burglars and the like." Her eyes began to shine.
"Were you ever?"
"No, but…" Elizabeth giggled. "It makes a difference anyway. Do I sound too much in love?" she asked, sobering up a little. Perhaps she was too annoying if she gushed over Henry too much, but she continued when Teddy shook her head. "I took Henry for a ride on the motorcycle last night. We had dinner away and we came back late. It was so wonderful, just the two of us. Do you know what I mean?"
"Yes, I know what you mean. Where is he now? Recovering from the…er…trip?"
"He's off to some meeting and then another and another. I wish he didn't have these meetings," she confessed. "I would have liked to…well, I'm not sure, really, but I would have liked for him to be here. Can we go shopping tomorrow?"
Teddy wondered why she had to give her permission. "You and Henry?"
"No, you and me. I need bigger clothes."
"Do you?" Eventually she might need to, Teddy thought, but not yet.
"And I need baby clothes."
"Already?"
"You can't see anything yet," said Elizabeth, expressing Teddy's thoughts quite accurately. But then she went down another track. "People will think I'm buying presents."
There it was again: what other people would think of her. Taking that into consideration came automatically to Elizabeth -- too automatically, Teddy thought. She did not believe people would be shocked upon finding out Elizabeth was pregnant. Far from it.
"Which I will be, in a way. I'll be giving it to my daughter or son. I don't mind what it'll be, boy or girl."
"What does Henry want it to be?" Teddy wondered.
"He says it doesn't matter, because we'll have the other one next year." Elizabeth looked doubtful. "I don't know if that was a joke. He refused to tell me if it was. He just laughed and said I knew him. Well, I do, but I don't know what he meant. I couldn't get another word out of him on the subject. What do you think?"
Teddy saw a similarity. "He had the same evasiveness when I questioned him about Brazil and we all know what that meant." Henry had a little problem with revealing his true feelings.
"Why did you question him?"
"I wanted to know if he'd slip up. He thought he didn't."
"But he did?"
"You cannot tell Teddy maybe if she asks you if you miss the woman," Teddy said decidedly. "That is tantamount to admitting that you do."
"Maybe," Elizabeth said in a cautious tone. So Teddy thought Henry would like more children. She did not know why he could not say so. "Why couldn't he tell me?"
"Because he knows you and he knows you'll start worrying about what people might say, because you seem to do that a lot lately." Elizabeth would think that her current saintly image could only be in danger of crumbling. Teddy did not quite agree. "There is a sort of structural base for this conjunctural hype about your virtues. General opinion could fluctuate, but it fluctuates at quite a high level. You could never fall so as to lose all respect. You don't have it in you."
"I don't? Yet I rather slipped up once."
"If you stopped seeing that as slipping up….if you'd had the same sort of development as everyone else you wouldn’t see it as slipping up, but as perfectly normal."
"The minute I'm not being watched, I…"
"Then I can only say we should have relaxed our watchfulness a little sooner," Teddy smiled. "You cannot be regretting anything."
"No, I'm not regretting anything. I'm just…" Elizabeth did not know what it was. She was probably only being very silly.
Teddy did not mind helping out a little. "Being stupid."
"Alright, I'm being stupid. What do you suggest I do with the baby?"
"In what sense?
"Should I get a nanny?"
"Do you want one?"
Elizabeth had already thought about it. "No."
"Well, then don't get one until you feel you need one."
"Would I need one?"
"That depends." There would undoubtedly moments when Elizabeth's attention would be needed elsewhere and it was impossible to say at this moment who would be available to step in for her.
"Teddy, are you getting sick of my questions?" But before Teddy could answer, Elizabeth's phone began to ring. She answered it. "Hi David."
"Er…yeah. I just want you to know, you know, because I thought you didn't, that tomorrow is my birthday."
"Oh! I didn't know that! It's good that you're telling me." Eleven, she told herself.
"It's not that I mean I want more presents," David clarified. "Dad knows. He will buy me one."
"I should hope so," Elizabeth mouthed to herself. She would have to check with Henry to see if he had remembered. He had not mentioned it at all. That he had forgotten to tell her was one thing, but forgetting David's birthday would be quite another. "Did he say when he's giving it to you?"
"No." David sounded concerned.
"What do other parents do?"
"They send things."
It would be too late for that, Elizabeth realised, especially with Henry being in a meeting without any opportunity for her to ask him about it. Any present would now have to be delivered in person. She sighed at Henry's possible oversight and hoped that David was simply too concerned. There were two things she could do. She could trust in Henry and run the risk of disappointing David. Or she could get him a present and take it there herself, running the risk of getting David two presents. The latter thing seemed more desirable. "David, don't worry about it."
"I don't know. He never said anything last week."
Elizabeth thought quickly. "Could you give me your aunt's phone number?" She heard David talk to someone else in the background and she noted down the number he gave her. "Thank you. And don't worry. You will be getting something. I know you will." If only because she would buy it herself
"Trouble?" Teddy inquired when Elizabeth had put down the phone. If only Linnie spoke to herself the way she spoke to those children. Then there would not be anything to be worried about.
"It could be that Henry forgot about David's birthday."
"Is it today?" Teddy thought Elizabeth looked worried enough, but she had not congratulated him.
"No, it's tomorrow. He hasn't mentioned it to me at all and he hasn't mentioned it to David, so now David's worried that he won't be getting any presents tomorrow."
"I take that means we have to head into town right now." And probably to that school either right after shopping, or tomorrow morning at the latest.
"Just in case." She tried to phone Henry directly, but he did not answer his phone. Then she tried his office and Howard told her Henry would be in a meeting for at least another hour. "But does he know it's David's birthday tomorrow?" she asked in frustration. She could not afford to wait another hour.
"I believe there's a possibility that he might know, Your Majesty," Howard answered cautiously. "I believe that David wrote it in his diary himself."
"Could you tell me whether this means that he really did or whether this means you're not actually sure of it? Is it in the diary and has Henry seen it?"
"I cannot say whether he has seen it, Madam, but it would surprise me if he had not, supposing he has looked into it."
"Has he looked into it?"
"I believe he might have."
"I need to know for certain. I'm not helped at all by vague suppositions."
"I do not want to state anything with absolute certainty."
"Howard, I can state with absolute certainty that you're a communicative disaster." She was asking for a straight answer, not a possibility with a standard deviation of so and so much.
"Madam!" Howard protested weakly. The only one who had hinted at that before was Lord Setchley. Everyone else always believed him to be good at it. He was honestly trying to help her, but it was just a fact that he did not know anything for certain about this matter.
"I ask again. Is it in Henry's diary and has he looked into it?"
"It was written with green and orange felt-tipped pens. I don't want to be presumptuous, but it seems unlikely that someone could have missed it." Especially since the rest of the entries were made with respectable black or blue fountain pens. It had rather shocked Howard to see the travesty when he had leafed to this page.
"Unless he did not look into it. So did he or didn't he?"
"I did not see him do it, Madam. He generally leaves such things to me."
"I'd hate to sound as if your role is superfluous," Elizabeth said sharply, "but I've never found Henry to be unaware of what he was doing with whom and where. I believe he might be taking peeks into his diary when you're not looking." She felt a little more relieved after this realisation. He usually knew precisely what his appointments were, although at times he seemed to pretend that he did not.
"I have found him to be selectively aware of his appointments."
Despite her own doubts, she felt as if she had to defend him. "He sometimes pretends not to know."
"I am sure you know Lord Setchley better than I do," Howard said politely, but he sounded vaguely offended by the possibility.
"Well, thank you for your information anyway." He had not been of much help. Elizabeth groaned at Teddy after she had hung up. "Now I still don't know whether Henry has really seen it and whether he really bought something."
Teddy had recalled something in the meantime. "I think he did. Edward said Henry had said he only bought presents for the children twice a year -- their birthdays and Christmas. He couldn't have made such a remark without knowing when their birthdays actually were, especially not a week before one of them."
"He said this to Edward?"
"Yes, last week."
"And why did Edward tell you?"
She shrugged it off. "Long story."
"I'll still ask Amanda, though." She called Amanda, grateful that the phone was answered right away. "David wanted to know if Henry knew it was his birthday tomorrow. Does he have a habit of forgetting it?"
"As far as I know Henry's never forgotten it," Amanda replied.
"Then what is David worrying about?" Elizabeth did not understand it.
"He probably wants a present from you as well."
"Oh." She examined the possibility. "But he said he didn't mean I should buy one."
"Well, they've been taught not to ask for presents."
"And he guessed I didn't know it was his birthday. So, to tell me about it and give me a hint, he pretends to be asking me if Henry knows."
"More or less." Amanda sounded amused.
"He sounded genuinely concerned, though."
"He probably was. The way he sees it, it's his unalienable right to receive presents on his birthday."
"I suppose that means I should make a trip to the toy store right now, because it's probably not acceptable to have Henry buy a present coming from the two of us."
"That would not be what he's used to," Amanda said with a chuckle. "People in our family don't get away with sharing expenses or responsibility for that. It's a strictly one on one relationship. And er…don't get him something too expensive unless you want serious trouble with your husband." She told Elizabeth how much could be spent and what she could buy.
"Oh, thank you," Elizabeth said gratefully. If she had not got any advice she would not have known where to start and she would probably have ended up with something far too expensive.
Henry phoned Elizabeth when she was looking at baby cribs in town. She could easily do that while she was very obviously carrying a wrapped gift for a child. Nobody would ever notice. They would all think she was shopping for presents.
"Howard says you told him he's a disaster," Henry began.
"A communicative disaster," she corrected. "It's impossible for him to speak clearly."
"I have told him so repeatedly, but he implied that it was my fault for being inexperienced in the ways of the --"
"-- of the world?" she teased.
"Of the civil service. He actually believes me to be very experienced in the ways of the world. Ha ha. We know better. What are you doing?"
"I've just bought a gift for David and I'm now looking at a baby bed that I might buy."
"Ahh. You have my blessing. I hate shopping." He paused. "I have to tell you that you were quite right about me peeking into my diary when Howard's not looking."
"Why?" She was fascinated. Being in a shop she could not ask him if he even hated shopping for his own child, but since he did not even buy his own underwear she could not expect a change in his shopping preferences, thinking realistically.
"I can't tell you that. He's listening. I have some time off between meetings and I just wanted to reassure you that I really bought David something, that I've already sent it and that he will receive it tomorrow, but that I simply forgot to tell you."
"Why did you forget to tell me?"
"I don't know." There was a brief pause. "I forget things sometimes. I hope you didn't spend close to a million on David."
"I stayed within the price range indicated by your sister, who implied you'd be filing for a divorce if I didn't."
"My sister has no business scaring you." Henry sounded as if he might tell Amanda that same thing.
"Don't talk to her about it," Elizabeth said quickly. She did not want to be the reason for an argument. "It's really not worth the bother."
"Maybe I won't. Alright, I've got to go to my other meeting now. See you tonight?"
Did he have to ask? Where did he think she was going? She might only be asleep. "If you don't come home too late."
"I'll wake you up if I do," Henry promised her with a chuckle. "Don't worry."
Henry phoned his sister when he was walking towards where his next meeting would be held. "Did you tell Elizabeth I would divorce her if she spent too much on a present for David?" he asked.
"I don't think you have to be worried about what I say to Elizabeth. I know what I can say and she knows how to interpret it. Do you want a lecture?" By now he would know what she would say, Amanda guessed. There was no need to spell it out. They had gone through the same thing when she had had to remind him that he had to think about the children all the time and not only during the good times. He had caught on to that fairly quickly and he was intelligent enough to see the similarity.
"I think I'm too old for them."
"You? Never!" she teased.
"Well, I'm old enough to predict what you're going to say." Henry knew there was only one thing he had neglected to do and she could not be talking about anything else.
"That's good then. I won't bother in that case."
He knew she would still bother him to see if he really knew what she meant, so he gave her an answer. "Yes, I will tell her next time, Amanda. Happy now?"
"Very." She grinned.
Henry had had a rather trying time debating about the family name that would be carried by his eventual offspring, not to mention by his wife. It was far too private a thing to be discussed with so many other people who wanted a say in it.
Some people wished for Elizabeth to retain her own family name, because of its long and respectable history. "I'm quite partial to the Queen's last name," said someone.
"Then by all means have your name changed," Henry said amiably.
"I mean," the person stoically continued while others were laughing. "That she ought to keep it and perhaps you'd do best by taking it as well."
"What kind of idiotically confusing family are you trying to create?" Henry wondered. Never in a million years would he change his name, married or not.
"What do you mean, My Lord?"
"Don't you think we've got enough names going around in our family as it is? I have a title. My family name is Breckingham. My children are called Breckingham. My wife has a title and a family name she never uses. Why then should I take over this name she never uses? I don't see the point and I refuse to change my name."
"Is that up to you, My Lord?"
"You cannot change my name without my consent."
"But there is no sense of continuity if the family name is altered each generation." It might be the House of Breckingham the next generation and the House of something else in the generations after that. The whole House of would become impossible to use, for it indicated a long tradition.
"I didn't say her name had to be altered. I only said I wanted to remain a Breckingham." What Elizabeth wanted, he did not know. Perhaps they assumed her name could never change.
"And children that might spring from this union?" The question was obligatory, but nobody took it seriously. They all knew there would not be any children.
"Breckingham," Henry smiled sweetly. He knew precisely what they were thinking -- that it was a useless question. "At least for every day use."
Since nobody believed there would be any offspring, they all approved of Breckingham. It was all academic anyway.
Henry wanted to ask Elizabeth about it when he came back to the palace. It was not his home yet and he only went here for one thing and that was Elizabeth. Her idea of getting another house was not so bad after all. He had a great dislike of places that were so big that he was in danger of losing his way, especially if he was supposed to live in them. Fortunately there were people around to point him in the right direction.
He was late and Elizabeth was already half asleep when he got to her bedroom, but she raised her head from her pillow to observe who was coming into the room. "You don't even look amazed at people coming in," he noted.
"No. Open house." She dropped her head again. "All sorts of people come in here all the time."
Henry began to unbutton his shirt. "To do what?"
"I had some men in to change the light bulb."
"More than one?"
"Yes."
Henry dropped his shirt on the floor. There was nowhere else he could leave it and he was really too tired to think about it anyway.
"Henry…" She wished he would be more careful with his clothes. What would people think if they came in?
"What? Why do you have more than one man come in to change a light bulb?"
"One to change the bulb and one to hold the ladder." She had not given it any thought, but he was right. It did sound a little superfluous.
Henry found it more than simply a little superfluous. "Ridiculous."
Elizabeth threw him his pyjamas when he had dropped all his clothes onto the floor. "Nice striptease, Livius, but you'd better get those pyjamas on before they come back."
"More light bulbs?" he asked as he went into the bathroom to brush his teeth and to wonder about hidden unemployment. When he came out, his clothes were gone. Elizabeth looked as if she had not stirred, so he wondered. "Where are my clothes?"
"I hung them up."
And indeed he spotted a hanger with his clothes hanging on the outside of a closet. "Why?"
"Oh, don't be difficult. I'm tired."
So was he and he got into bed. "I will always remain a Breckingham," he told her proudly as he was finding a good position to fall asleep in.
"How does that connect to anything?" she wondered. Perhaps Breckinghams had special rituals when they got into bed at night, but they had been married over a month without her noticing a thing and it was frankly a bit late to inform her of that only now.
"They wanted me to take your name. I refused."
"I hadn't expected you to give in." Elizabeth sounded amused.
Henry delivered his coup de grace. "And our children will all be Breckinghams."
That made her roll over. Suddenly she was very close. "They will? You didn't…?" He had not told them she was pregnant, had he?
"No, I didn't," he said, guessing what she meant. "But they all seemed to think that we wouldn't, so they agreed." He chuckled.
Elizabeth lay very still as she contemplated the idea. Henry's elbow was poking in her ribs very uncomfortably, but now that she finally had him by her side, she should not be so pathetic as to complain about such minor issues. "How many children are we talking about, Henry?"
"We cannot say that yet."
"But more than one?"
"The plural always refers to more than one."
His hand began to stroke her stomach very softly and she had trouble keeping her voice steady. "Is that a deliberate action to distract me from asking the question again?"
"Oh, you cannot be distracted. I know that."
Elizabeth would disagree. "If I said yes, you'd do it. If I said no, you'd do it too. It's best not to reply anything."
"You just did, though."
"You are frustrating and you know it."
"Am I?" Henry asked innocently. "You seem more concerned about the number of little Breckinghams than about the fact that they will be little Breckinghams. Why is that? I would have thought it to be the other way around. I would have imagined the loss of your family name to be a far more important matter."
"I never even use the name. It's where I came from. It's not where I'm going," she said rather abruptly and then snuggled up against him.
Henry was properly silenced. He was going somewhere as well. Maybe he should have thought of this too. He had probably been too egocentric in wanting to hold on to his own family name, when Elizabeth was perfectly right -- it was merely where he came from, not where he was going. "So I'm not going anywhere?" he asked a little guiltily. He was making it look as if he were standing still and if she was the only one who had to move.
"Not tonight, no."
"But…"
"I know what you meant. You are going with me down the same rebellious road and I actually prefer a husband who obstinately wants to keep his own name in spite of traditions pressuring him to be my accessory who will be quiet and look handsome."
"Hmmm." Henry lay thinking. He wanted to laugh at Linnie, but he knew she was serious. She was funny, though. Her idea of rebellion was probably not compatible with the commonly accepted definition, but to her it would be the same.
"What?" Elizabeth asked when it took too long. Maybe he did not agree with her. "You'd rather be quiet and handsome?" He was always handsome, but he was not always quiet.
"I was testing that out just now, yes, but I see you don't like it."
"Well, it's dark. It's fairly hard to see if you're handsome."
"Use your hands," he said invitingly. "To see if I'm handsome."
"I see quietness is merely a prelude to mischief with you." She pretended to sigh, being too tired to take up his invitation. "But do you agree with me?"
"Yes, I agree with you." He sighed too, but it was more of a last sigh before falling asleep.
Elizabeth heard he was gone and she clicked her tongue in resignation. He lay down and fell asleep. Why did it always take her so much longer?
Elizabeth took the present for David to the boys' school in the morning. The headmaster looked surprised to see her. "Mrs Breckingham?" he asked in amusement, remembering she seemed to have preferred that last time. "What can I do for you?"
"It's David's birthday and I've brought him a present. Would you be so kind as to call him for me?"
"The housemasters take care of getting the presents to the boys." He feared this would not be to her liking. She was going to break their rules again. He just knew it.
"Then call the housemaster," she said patiently.
"He's at breakfast." Perhaps he should stop giving her opportunities to break the rules.
"So you will not?" she asked. "I'll find him on my own."
The boys had shown her around after the Christmas holidays and she remembered where the dining hall was. This time it was full off boys, murmuring quietly as they ate their breakfast. The older boys who spotted her stood up and the young ones followed suit a few moments later in some confusion over why this was necessary. Elizabeth snorted to herself. Henry had once been taught to do this.
Several teachers looked panic-stricken and paralysed, but she ignored them. Her eyes roamed over the standing boys until she saw the ones that were roughly the same height as David. It was easy to pick him out, because he was the only one who was not standing still. She walked towards him and whispered in his ear.
"But I cannot leave the table," he whispered back desperately. "It's not allowed."
"I'll take the blame," she promised him and he followed her self-consciously.
John, who had been watching Elizabeth like a hawk, felt abandoned. He would not allow them to go anywhere without him. He left his place at the table and ran after them. "I want to come too," he said, grabbing Elizabeth with a look of anxiety that belied his soft voice. He had been taught not to raise his voice in here.
Elizabeth only smiled at him and took him by the hand. She took the boys into a corner, giving the first boy who had stood up a brief nod. He was apparently the one who decided when they could sit down again too. He understood her and all the boys regained their seats again to eat on. "I've got a present for you, David." She had bought a watch for him with a lot of interesting buttons and functions.
He beamed, trying to suppress his excitement and impatience. Where did she have the present? She was not carrying anything.
Elizabeth took a small package from her pocket. "It's in here. I hope you like it." She watched him unwrap it and saw he seemed very happy with it. He immediately tried to fasten it around his wrist and she helped him.
"Can I have one too when it's my birthday?" asked John.
"Of course. Now David, take good care of it and don't leave it lying around." She doubted that he would ever take it off, though.
"Thank you, Elizabeth," David said shyly. "Can I give you a hug?"
She hugged both of them. "Be good until Saturday, alright? I'll see if I can drag Henry down here."
On Saturday Henry accompanied Elizabeth to see a house near the boys' school. It surprised him a little that so many people had to be present: two estate agents, the person in charge of Elizabeth's properties, the security advisor and of course Mary, David, John and also his three other nephews. They would not be living there, but he figured they would also like to come.
The children were very excited to be there and to be consulted. Elizabeth had been surprised to hear Henry tell them not to forget to pay attention to the house, until she saw that the sight of a completely empty house made them go crazy at once. They ran through it screaming in excitement, much to the disapproval of the estate agents, who had been expecting a highly sophisticated and well-mannered party.
It was a rather perfect place for their purposes, though. It was large and even the security advisor approved of it, although Elizabeth told him threats only existed in his mind and not in hers. "You couldn't stop me from escaping over Christmas either."
That was the first he had heard about it. "Escaping, Madam?" he asked discreetly so the others would not overhear. The Queen's precise security arrangements should be a secret.
"Oh, you were not informed that I had escaped?" Elizabeth raised her eyebrows. She had never stopped to think about the matter, but it surprised her to hear this, for some reason. "Well, it doesn't matter, really. I was in good hands."
"Was there a time that you went missing?" He wanted to hear more about it. "Why wasn't I told?"
"I wasn't missing. The Prime Minister knew where I was. I suppose that was why you didn't get told. We were getting married."
"Not yet at that time, dear," said Henry. "When they phoned you were on the floor building Lego houses. We didn't get married until the day after."
"But we would never have got married had I been rescued by bodyguards," she said sarcastically.
"I agree that I should have been a little less eager, especially since that would have doubled the number of people present at our wedding."
They toured the house, but it was becoming fairly clear that this would be an excellent choice. Elizabeth did not need more than a few words in private with Henry to decide that. "What do you think?" she whispered in his ear when they were shown a smaller room that the previous lady of the house had been using as a dressing room. "Perfect for the baby."
He agreed. There was even a door leading into the master bedroom. The boys had already discovered this and they were running through the rooms in excited circles. "Hey." He caught one by the arm. "Would you like to live here?"
"Only if we can have the attic." There were two rooms there.
"Mary?"
"Yes, they can have the attic," Mary shrugged. She had seen a nicer room anyway. "Can I paint mine blue?"
"If you do it yourself. If you start as well as finish."
"Really?" she looked pleased.
"And can we paint ours?" David asked.
"No," said Henry. "The only thing that would be painted would be John. Besides, you'd want green right now and yellow in a month." He had fallen into that trap once before.
"Elizabeth?" David decided to try elsewhere. "Would you let me paint my room?"
She looked at Henry. "No. Henry says no."
"And I don't want to be painted," John piped up at her side.
"I'll see to that," Elizabeth promised him, one arm around him. She looked at Henry. He was reassuring David, whose lip trembled from the disappointment of not being allowed to paint his room. She did not know what Henry was saying, but she loved him for being able to make David look happy again. When he glanced back at her, she felt that she could not possibly feel anything better.
Henry realised that it was useful after all to have brought so many people. The deal could be closed by the properties fellow while they could take the children off to do something fun, although running around an empty house had seemed the height of amusement already.
They could not take the car because they had too many children with them and they had to walk to the village. Since the boys were being wild, Elizabeth and Mary lagged behind and started looking at shops. "They'll wait for us," Elizabeth said confidently.
Mary was glad she was not the only girl. She only liked the wild stuff to a certain extent and they would never wait for her if she wanted to go shopping, because they claimed not to understand the point of looking without buying anything. "I'm not sure they'd wait. They'll think that they don't have to, because we're together."
"Well, I don't want to turn into a man just so they can have their ice cream sooner," Elizabeth decided. "I want to giggle at fridge magnets."
Mary giggled at Elizabeth.
"I will get this one for my darling husband." She showed one to Mary, who giggled some more. "I like this. I usually go shopping with Teddy, but I really like to feel the older woman for once."
"You're definitely the older woman now," Mary agreed seriously, trying not to giggle.
"And I don't even mind," Elizabeth shrugged with a smile.
Part 4 Continued
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