Titled? ~ 5

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Chapter Five

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Although it was probably one of the safest places in town and she had done the same thing yesterday, crossing the Palace courtyard in the darkness still gave her the creeps. There were only a few decorative lights and what she first mistook for a crouching figure was in fact a potted plant. More lights came on as she approached Frederick’s door, yet she still fumbled with her key to get inside as quickly as possible. She decided it was the fact that she did not know who were looking. She had never had this in the dark in her own street, but here there were eyes everywhere.

He was in bed when she came in, but he was still awake.

“I looked at the scan,” he said. “It actually looked like something.”

“Yes, moved a fair bit. Not that I feel that yet.” It had been unsettling to see it move, but she really did not notice it was there. She could not feel it move at all.

“Is it real to you now?”

“I suppose.” Seeing it had made a difference. She did not know how that had worked. She wondered how it worked for him. He had only the scan and not the moving images, and frankly, the thing on the scan merely looked like a blob with a head. “Though not completely. And you?”

He pulled her into the bed. “I thought it might be real. Is it all right? And there’s only one?”

“Please! It would kill me if there were two.” There were three things she had been fearing right before the scan. One was reacting in front of a stranger, regardless of the outcome. She had thought she might appear too cool and in retrospect she thought that maybe she had.

However, she might also have appeared too cool if there had no longer been a beating heart, yet not at all cool if there had been twins. She feared she might have had reactions completely opposite to everyone else’s.

Then again, she might not. She had no idea.

“Could they see what it was?” asked Frederick. “I googled and it’s not usually possible, apparently.”

“It kept its ankles crossed, but even without that it would have been a little too early to tell. Would you want to know?”

“I have no preference, but it might be practical to know in advance. Unless you’d like to be surprised?”

“No, I think I’ll need to know. Now I can’t imagine anything definitive. Next year, what will we do and with whom?” She had tried to think ahead, but she had drawn a blank. It might be easier if she could imagine a boy or a girl.

Frederick pulled her on top of himself. “I took the liberty of filling out the parts of the form you left empty. I suppose you took it home because you needed to fill it in.”

“Thanks.”

“There are no illnesses in my family that we know of.”

“Except the mental.”

“Mental? Us?”

“But do you want to come to one of the appointments? The next one is only next month. I have to get a blood test next week, but that isn’t very exciting. You can come if you want, but I’m afraid it will be boring – I’m not afraid of giving blood. If everything is fine they don’t have to see me all that often. Which is good; it can’t leak out that way.”

He chuckled. “Leak out.”

“What?” Anna Margaret did not know why that was funny.

“I was imaging the baby leaking out.”

“I wish it would, but I’m afraid it will hurt a lot more. Do you want to come to the next regular appointment?” She noticed he had not given her an answer.

“Is that the done thing?”

“Who cares if it is or isn’t?” She had not seen any men there today, but that did not mean they never accompanied their partners. “If you want to.”

“Wouldn’t you be noticed much sooner if you took me? I think more people would recognise you than they would recognise me, but still.”

“Maybe. But maybe I could arrange something when there’s no one else there. The next scan, which might be interesting, will be in two months. There’s plenty of time. By that time I might be showing,” she realised. “Although I hope not, because I’d grow like mad in only two months. But if I do people might already know.”

“I don’t want to get you into trouble.”

“You already did,” she teased. “But you are interested, right?”

“Of course. But I thought I might be superfluous at an appointment. I’m probably more useful doing something else than watching someone check your blood pressure.”

She was surprised. “How do you know they do that?”

“Google.”

So he was interested. “Anyway, your sister…”

“My sister’s methods are different from mine.”

“Did she talk to you?”

“This morning. She came to ask whether you were going to get yourself examined.”

“What did you say?”

“I told her what you told me. She seemed to think I should have dragged you off to the nearest hospital. But why? If you have no complaints why do they have to look at you?”

She had been just as ignorant until that morning, so she could not really blame him. And she did not know if she did not still feel that way.

---

“I have to take the guy you call the Pitbull to the rowing lake,” Frederick announced on Saturday morning after they had been running. He had done a few more rounds than Anna Margaret and she had been waiting for him on a bench. While she did not mind exercising, she did not want to overdo it.

She could have gone inside already, but she had preferred to wait. The advantage of running inside the gates was that she could see him pass a lot. “Oh, I forgot he came by yesterday. So he contacted you then?”

“Yes, my office. I decided to call him back to save you from his idiocy.”

“Thanks darling, that’s much appreciated. He does have a knack for asking me about things I know nothing about and then pretending it’s my responsibility somehow.” She felt a little guilty for sending him to Frederick, although he did not seem annoyed.

“Come with us and you’ll know all.”

“I told him you had all the permits. I hope you do?” He did not strike her as someone who would have abused his position, but someone might have done him a favour and in such a case he would not know it was illegal.

“Of course. That’s why it took years.”

She was glad she had estimated correctly that it had taken years. “It’s in the Royal Domains?”

“No, of course not. It has always been a useless swamp, no ruler ever wanted to add it to his lands. It’s just outside, but what do eco nuts know?”

“Right. I suppose the grass snake doesn’t know where the royal land ends either.”

“So the land is my property. I bought it.”

“And you’re digging.”

“Not personally.”

“I didn’t think you were. It would take too long.” So he had bought the land, which might not have cost much, but employing people there would. She could not begin to imagine how much, but he supposedly had plenty.

“Exactly. Will you come?”

“Yes.” She felt guilty for not having displayed more interest before. The least she could do was go with him. “Maybe I should have asked something sooner.”

“I thought you’d wait until it was done. Because it’s more interesting when it’s done.”

“Oh.” The similarity struck her. “Like you and the pregnancy.”

Frederick smiled. “Now that you mention it. Except that you may still not be interested in a rowing lake once it’s done, whereas a baby is mine as well. But I could have told you more. Only I was afraid you might think it a bit odd.”

“Why odd?”

“Unusual. It’s not what people usually spend their time on.”

---

The Royal Domains, in which Anna Margaret had never had much interest, turned out to be stretches of unremarkable forest. Some parts seemed well-maintained, but other parts were full of fallen trees. Frederick said there was a particular philosophy behind that, however. Anna Margaret thought that if he had some knowledge of these things, he was likely to have been told if the grass snake was in grave danger.

They reached the digging site via a private road. “The other road,” he said, “is being used by the construction workers. We’ll park right on the edge of the land.”

When she got out Anna Margaret could indeed see a sign next to the road they had just came over. Private Property, and then some small letters underneath. “Is it forbidden to drive there?”

“No, it says special laws apply.”

“Which means?”

“Which means you can be fined or evicted for hardly any reason at all.”

“Are you going to put up such signs here as well?”

“Maybe. Don’t know if it’s necessary. I could close it off completely if I wanted.” They walked a short distance across grassland with heaps of sand. “There.”

Anna Margaret could see a canal that stretched on for hundreds of metres. At the far end she could make out a few machines. She could not even see if they were in the water or not. “That’s pretty big. I had no idea.” She had been imagining a small, roundish lake, but now that she was here, she did not know why. She had seen rowing on television once or twice.

To the left and right of the canal she could only see piles of sand, grass and low hills, and on one side a few cabins for the construction workers. There seemed to be plenty of grass left for the grass snake.

“So where is this Pitbull?” asked Frederick, looking around.

“Up there.”

A man descended from one of the piles of sand and came towards them. “Impressive, Your Highness. Why exactly did you want it?”

“I don’t care for Ferraris?” Frederick said with a shrug.

The Pitbull frowned. “How does that follow?”

“Nobody would care if I bought twenty of those. They would think that’s what we do. Spend our money on useless cars. But if we spend our money on something that might actually have some use, they are surprised.”

“I admit I’m surprised, but not for that reason. And it’s not why I was interested. The Wildlife Foundation is concerned about a snake.”

“So I heard. It’s a pretty common snake.”

“This lake is affecting its habitat.”

“What do they want?” asked Frederick. He did not look too impressed.

“They’re convinced you didn’t go through the appropriate channels.”

“I have half a metre of paperwork.”

“I’m guessing you consulted everyone except this hobby club?” asked Anna Margaret with raised eyebrows. “And they’re now pissed off? Oh, crap. I was going to stay out of this. That’s why I didn’t ask you anything about it. I’ll just…sit on that hill, all right?”

She sat down on a bit of grass. She let the two men walk away as Frederick explained the technicalities of how to get and keep water in the lake. She had best not interfere with more comments and she knew she might not be able to stop herself. The view was nice. She was a little higher here and she could look out over the water. When it was all done it would be nice in the summer.

Frederick might not have to go all the way to Germany to go rowing then. That would be a plus, especially if there was a baby to look after. She did not suppose he would give up rowing altogether and she would certainly not ask it of him. They would find a way to fit it all in. Isabelle came to mind. Even she had offered to babysit. Anna Margaret wondered if she had indeed meant she would do that personally or if she had a lady-in-waiting or retired nanny for the purpose.

“So, Pit. What’s your game?” she asked when the Pitbull came over to where she was sitting and Frederick went back to the car. He had not said he was leaving, so she assumed he was going to fetch something. Probably some of that paperwork.

“Game? Just doing my job on behalf of concerned citizens. What are you doing here, Prime Minister? Just doing your job as well?”

“No, just here to look. Are you going to insist on seeing every frigging permit?” She did not doubt he could be annoying like that. It made her a little vehement.

“I’ll just have a look at his paperwork, but from the sound of it he researched this well. He seems a well-informed bloke.”

“Yes, why not?” she asked. Was it so strange that he could be a well-informed bloke?

“With peculiar hobbies.”

“Safe, though.” Except for the grass snake, she thought with a guffaw. Although even that was up for debate. She did not know anything about the snake, but if it could swim it would have plenty of room.

“He certainly likes talking about it better than he likes talking about women.”

“Of course.”

Frederick returned with a few binders. He handed them to the Pitbull and sat down beside Anna Margaret. The Pitbull sat on his other side and began to leaf through the papers.

“Impressive,” the Pitbull said after a few minutes. “Is this colour-coded, Your Highness?”

“Yes.”

“You’ve been working on this for a while.”

“Yes.”

“Did you employ your contacts?” The Pitbull gestured at Anna Margaret.

“I was not acquainted with that particular contact at the time,” Frederick replied stoically.

“Just checking. They will ask.”

“Do they even exist?” Anna Margaret wondered. “They seem too stupid to exist, with all this uproar about a common snake. Do they also protest against the fate of the earthworm whenever someone builds something?” Frederick placed his hand on her leg, but she did not know if he meant anything significant. It did not feel as if he wanted her to shut up.

“I’ll advise them against any uproar,” said the Pitbull. “They won’t come out looking good.”

“Now that’s sensible,” Anna Margaret said approvingly. “Where on earth did they get this idea anyway?”

“I don’t know. The snake wasn’t an issue for me,” he said. “It was the possible abuse of your position.”

“I didn’t get any favours, only opposition because of who I was,” Frederick said drily.

“Why was this project kept a secret?”

“It wasn’t a secret as such, but my father was against it.”

“Your father,” Anna Margaret began. Whenever the man was mentioned, she felt angry because he never seemed to have supported his son. “No, I’d better not.”

“Do tell.”

“He was a brilliantly supportive parent, I should think.”