Chapter Thirty-Two
Anna Margaret had been hoisted into her blue dress. There had been a particular dress code for them, so they would not draw more attention to themselves than people of higher birth. Her hair and make-up had been done. She had had a sandwich too, so she was all set to go.
There would be other people already at the cathedral; some would be sitting there for a long time. Not everyone could arrive at once and the lowest-ranked guests would be there the longest. The thing she disliked most about these occasions was that nobody ever thought people might need to use the toilet. In any case, the man on the committee who was in charge of this part had looked at her extremely strangely when she had inquired about it.
“We can’t have people walking around all the time,” he had said. “And there are security issues.”
“How? They’ve already been vetted, the building has been vetted. How? My neighbour is attending and she’s pregnant. She will need to go. She told me. I want the hosts and hostesses to take her to a toilet should she ask, before or after the ceremony. Before and after, there are people walking around
all the time. That isn’t an argument.”
“I’m not sure that can be arranged.”
“I’m telling you to arrange it. She will be there at least an hour and a half before the ceremony starts and then some time after it has finished. And she won’t be the only one who can’t refrain for four hours or more.”
She had nevertheless not drunk much herself. Walking around when the cameras were already broadcasting was not such a good idea. She was not arriving early enough herself to go in search of toilets, but perhaps Lea would thank her.
Frederick accompanied his mother and aunt in. They preceded the new queen and prince and their children. People craned their necks and whispered, but they might have done that regardless of Frederick’s casual hairstyle. With the signature he had immediately abandoned some formality. Anna Margaret wondered if Princess Agnes had let him get away with it, but apart from walking down the aisle twice, he had nothing to do except sit pretty – and this way he was very pretty.
She did wonder about his giving up his disguise of sorts, but it was clear he felt more comfortable looking like this, regardless of whether he would be recognised more often from now on.
After the ceremony Anna Margaret was transported to the location of the reception, straight into the queue for the lavatories. There was some polite chatter in the queue. Dresses were commented on, positively, as well as the ceremony itself and the suitability of the new queen. Her own dress received some compliments as well.
At the reception there was an opportunity to congratulate Isabelle, but she had already done so and let others have their chance. There were plenty of other people she knew.
At a quarter to six, Anna Margaret met Patrick and Lea in their stairwell. They would walk to Charles Street and see what needed to be done there. She was still panting from having hurried home from the reception and changing into casual clothes. “I didn’t get any other information than that little note. You probably got the same one.”
“What’s the green entrance?”
“I haven’t got a clue. Maybe the door is green? I did have to go in through a green door the other day.”
“I noticed he disappeared from the reception just before we did. Maybe he left to inflate the pools.”
Anna Margaret snorted. “Did you bring your swimming trunks?” And she too had seen Frederick at the reception, but not after the beginning. Before she had been able to make her way towards him to ask some questions about the mysterious party, he had disappeared. Because she could not possibly have pushed people aside to get to him, she had not been able to get close.
Patrick looked embarrassed. “Yes, but I don’t plan to get into any pools unless I’m the only one not going.”
“Children were welcome,” said Lea. “Maybe the pools are for them?”
Arriving at Charles Street, two people were inconspicuously hanging around in the large doorway of a bank. Anna Margaret joined them. “Oh, hello? Are you here for some specific purpose?” They could not be, because she knew them and they had to be here for the same thing.
“No, we’re waiting for you,” said Emma. She had her boyfriend and a toddler in a pushchair with her. “That’s what the invitation said.”
“I know, I know, but I have no idea what I’m supposed to do. Let’s just wait until six o’clock and see who else might show up.”
“Why did we get invited, do you know? I met him only once. And on the day of the abdication?” Clearly Emma thought Frederick should have better things to do than to invite people he had met only once. Yet she had come.
“I don’t know. I wasn’t told much either, except that Isabelle wouldn’t invite me because I was going to be invited by Frederick. When were you invited?”
“Uh, I don’t know exactly. A week ago? But there weren’t any particulars. Just the date. We got the rest later.”
Anna Margaret looked down the street curiously. “Hey, is that Danielle?”
“Yes,” Patrick confirmed. “Is he inviting everyone he met once? You could be waiting for a really large group in that case.”
“I think it might be people he’s met recently,” she said with a frown, “because I’ve all met them as well.” At least she was asked to let only those in whom she knew. There might be others. He could have other acquaintances.
“Hi, A. M.,” said Danielle. “I thought that might be you, especially in combination with the name of our host. What is this about?”
“Amazing how many people come here when they don’t know what they’re coming for.”
“Are these all people who
know?” Patrick wondered.
“Yes,” Anna Margaret answered. “Oh. Is that it? He only invited people who
know? What for?” Because he wanted some more people there and only those qualified? But she did not know how large he liked his parties to be. He could be letting others in through another gate and he might want to tell those about her later. She did not like not being in control here.
“What do I
know?” Emma asked.
“About me…and…” She gestured across the street at the fence. If she could not even say it here, she would not be able to enjoy having it said to a crowd of strangers.
“Oh, yeah, I sort of guessed that it might be a possibility after he stowed you away somewhere at that barbecue and he didn’t want to tell the old ladies where. I mean, he could have said ‘taxi’, or ‘with the butler’ or something, but he didn’t.”
“So what did you think?” She had never really heard what had gone on after she had left the barbecue, except that her mother had feared she was pregnant.
“You were too familiar with him by the barbecue. All the rest just supported that. But where did he take you?”
“His bedroom, so I could lie down. He had planned to take me downstairs later, but I never woke up.”
Emma giggled. “I bet he was really sorry.”
“ I don’t know how he had planned to take me downstairs again, because I had vomited over my clothes and he had put them in the washing machine. I woke up at eleven in the morning and by then he had gone to work. And I should have been at work for hours with no one knowing where I was. But it turned out he had even reported me sick.”
“Hi there,” said George who had approached them somewhat stealthily. He had come with Joël. “What are we doing here?”
Patrick answered him. “We are waiting for Anna Margaret to let us in through the green entrance, but she doesn’t know how many people we’re waiting for.”
“I wasn’t told. Sorry!” she said in a plaintive voice. “I don’t want to leave anyone behind. Shall we wait another few minutes?”
“Anyone threatening to be late would understand they wouldn’t get in without you and they would phone you, wouldn’t they?”
“Not everyone has my phone number.”
“They really liked your dress,” said Joël. “I was watching television to see what they’d say, but they said something about it all right.”
“And they wrote something about our shopping trip all right too.” André had shown it to her, but it had been written by someone who did not know about George.
He snorted. “I saw.”
She waited another minute, but no one else appeared. “Okay, let’s go. Would anyone be watching?” She crossed the street and opened the gate with her card. Then she let them all in and checked if the gate clicked shut behind them. “Right, the green door.” She led the way and let them all in, resisting the temptation to look down the street to see who had watched them.
“It doesn’t look very royal in here,” someone observed.
“We’re not there yet. These are offices.” She paused to look at her phone. “I have a 3D floorplan on my phone and that will tell me where to go.”
“You have a 3D floorplan of the Palace?”
“It’s not that easy to get in and out otherwise,” she said, opening the floorplan. “Okay, straight ahead that way.”
She did not quite manage to recreate the route she had taken with Max the other day, but in the end she came to the tennis court. Instead of going inside to the command centre, she turned right and circled a hedge. “Wow. This floorplan really works!”
“Duh,” said Frederick. “I spent weeks on it!” He grinned at her and gave her a half hug, because he could not ignore the other people she had brought. “Welcome, all! I’m glad you were willing to come and for some of you, to choose this dinner over the formal one.”
This dinner was clearly not going to be formal. He was wearing shorts and they could all see two large inflatable pools. There were also some teenagers playing football a bit further away. Anna Margaret wondered who they were. They could be the children of the security men already seated, although she had not pegged them as old enough to have teenage children. Or, another thought occurred to her, they might be his nephews and nieces. There did not appear to be crowds of people she did not already know.
“Let me show you around,” said Frederick. He led them to the French doors. “Here’s the kitchen, the toilet’s in the hall and there are extra refrigerators with drinks there as well. They’ve even provided extra towels. And that was it, so you can now get something to eat or do whatever you like. Oh, and thank you for not having talked.”
The others slowly trickled back outside and he seized the opportunity to kiss Anna Margaret. “I’m very glad you came.”
“It was good of your sister to allow you to hold this parallel party.” But from the way he was holding her, she wondered if Isabelle had been fearing that he would do
this too at her very formal dinner. A parallel party might have been the wisest decision, preventing any under-the-table displays of affection.
“I could have held it a day later, of course, but I couldn’t wait to simply not go to this pompous dinner.”
“You just wanted to skip it for the sake of skipping it.” She had suspected as much, actually.
“I may go next time. Who knows?” he winked.
“But at least you got this sticker for rebelliousness.”
He gazed at her admiringly. “I’m going to throw you into a pool.”
“You may do that later, when I’m in my swimwear. You should talk to your guests and tell some why they are actually here.”
She went outside and looked around. There were tables, chairs and picnic blankets. Emma was installing her toddler on a blanket. Some of the bodyguards were talking to women, presumably their partners, and two children in swimwear were getting into one of the pools.
It was a small step to come out to people who already knew or suspected anyway, but a much bigger one actually let the public know by some accidental or even contrived way, especially when she had no idea where they were going. Would Prince Frederick end his changes here? Or would he do something about the titles and position he still retained?
He could continue to represent the family at events. If he received an allowance for it he would actually have to do quite a few. It would all come down to whether he disliked such occasions or not. And perhaps whether the prime minister was allowed to be romantically involved with a prince. Princes should theoretically not pose a problem, she thought, even if they did not marry. They had no power and it was 2015.
End of the king