Untitled ~ 15

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Chapter Fifteen

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She contemplated one of the pastries. Chances were it would make her fatter and then she would have to run again. She had done practically nothing lately. But it was also likely to be extremely delicious. She transferred it onto her plate. “I…” she began and decided she had best stick to as much of the truth as would be wise. “I had flown to Italy on that Friday to hear from His Majesty whether there was any truth in those rumours.”

“On Friday. The attack happened on Saturday.”

“Yes.”

“When did you see him? Did he allow you to see him?”

“On Friday night, but he invited me for a run the next morning.” She looked at the other woman cautiously. This was the truth, but would she believe it? Did she know her brother invited women to run with him? Would she say he always did, or would she say he never did?

The princess seemed not to care about the run. “Did you stay at our villa?”

“No.” Our villa. Interesting.

“And you came back in the morning and then what…”

It was best to summarise. “We ran and then there were gunshots when we were at breakfast.”

“You were there,” the princess said almost accusingly.

“Yes, I was there.”

“I take it you and he got away.”

“Yes, together.”

“Were you taken to Rome?”

Anna Margaret pursed her lips. “Er, no. That is why it wasn’t revealed that I was there. He…er…refused to go to Rome and he told me that I either I was to go with him or he would escape on his own.”

The princess, who had been in the process of lifting up a pastry, froze. “He…what?” The pastry dropped onto the table.

“He did not want to go to Rome.”

“Why not?”

“The freedom.”

“And you?”

“It was not about me. I could have gone to Rome, but then what? He didn’t want to come.”

“Surely he had no say in the matter,” his sister said incredulously.

It was now Anna Margaret’s turn to be incredulous. “No say? A grown man? Was I to tie him up until the cars arrived?”

“Surely he would have –“

“Surely he threatened to run away. You will see why I had little choice. Or rather, why at the time I felt as though I had little choice. I was rather tired from the run and he would have been able to leave me behind without any trouble. And then what? I thought he didn’t have enough practical knowledge to get anywhere safely.” Surprisingly it was a great comfort to be able to tell someone about it. She could even take a bite of her pastry. It was always good to render oneself blameless in retrospect.

“And you did not go to Rome either?”

“No. We took a bus.”

“A bus.”

“Public transport,” Anna Margaret could not resist explaining.

“Why on earth would he want to use public transport?”

“My guess is because he’d never done it before.”

“Midlife crisis,” muttered the princess. “Did you take the bus home?”

Occasionally one could feel superior to Princess Isabelle. “Buses run on fixed routes that are usually short. They certainly aren’t long enough to cover the entire trip home, although my former colleagues and I did try to promote long-distance and cross-border bus lines, but they’re not public transport.”

The princess looked as if all travel by bus was undesirable transport, public or not. “Which means?”

Another summary was in order. “We got off the bus, rented a car and drove to France.”

The princess narrowed her eyes. “Ah, that explained why the photo looked like Genoa.” Evidently she had been shopping there as well.

“It was Genoa,” Anna Margaret affirmed.

“And it was you in the photo.” The princess took her phone out of her handbag and looked it up. “I see it now. So why did you really fly to Italy?”

“To ask him about those rumours.”

“Were you jealous?”

“Of what exactly should I be jealous? I was annoyed that people were giving me trouble for something he may or may not have done, but that he was completely indifferent and silent about anyway.”

“And he? The prime minister flies over to bother him about stupid rumours and he invites her for a run?”

Anna Margaret shrugged. “He said I could lose some weight.”

“There are a lot of people who should really lose some weight and he would never invite them at all.”

“Then I don’t know.” She had not asked him again, afraid that he would indeed bring up her weight again, even though he had since then not mentioned it.

“What did he have to say about those rumours anyway?”

“He said they weren’t true.”

“Of course they weren’t. You didn’t have to fly all the way to Italy to find that out. Common sense could have told you. Or anyone in our family. We could all have told you he doesn’t do these things. Did you want to see him personally? Privately?"

"I wanted to hear his version. I suggested paternity tests to him.” She wondered if the princess belonged to the advisers who had not thought those necessary.

“And then suddenly you became the best of friends?” the princess inquired in a sarcastic tone.

“Whatever gave you that idea?” Anna Margaret wondered as innocently as she could.

“Oh, don’t play the fool. You have some sort of rapport, or he wouldn’t have asked you to phone me.”

It was still unclear what his sister understood by a rapport. Anna Margaret was not keen on making her very much wiser if she could avoid it. “Not immediately.”

“But you did later. Aha. Of course, he didn’t return until Sunday. You spent the night somewhere. I am beginning to see why there was so little information about this trip. The things you’ve discussed and done are quite beyond the imagination.”

Anna Margaret decided she wanted another cake. She took her time choosing one, avoiding the inquisitive gaze of the princess. She had no idea whether it was wise to say nothing had happened. The kiss had. Perhaps that was enough. “You’ve just said he doesn’t do these things, so why do you assume he did them now?”

“Well, that is exactly my problem.”

Anna Margaret could only look blank. There were worse problems in the world, she would think. And what was this problem exactly?

“Are you free this evening? We’re having a barbecue tonight. It would be an excellent occasion to practise your poker face.”

“My poker face?” Anna Margaret did not know why she would need that. She certainly did not have it now.

“We start at six.”

That was definitely a similarity between Frederick and his sister. They both started at six and expected her to attend. “Will he be there?”

“Probably.”

She still did not know why she would need her poker face and why she was invited at all.

---

When she returned from the brunch, Eric was out, but he had left a time when he would be able to see her. She waited for that impatiently.

“Sorry,” he said. “I thought you’d like to be there, but the princess decides, it seems, and she had first dibs on you.”

Maybe, like her, Frederick had not wanted to appear too eager to see her and he had yielded too easily. But still, his sister seemed to have some power.

He continued. “So, it appears they were nothing but common robbers.”

“Seriously?” Had anyone even considered that angle? “That’s what they told him?” And he had believed them?

“Yes.”

“And does that fit the facts?” As she spoke, she tried to see if it fit.

“That is still being investigated. Including why shortly afterwards someone posted on Twitter that the king was dead. That’s a bit that doesn’t quite fit a robbery scenario.”

“They could have thought that such a scenario would give them a lower sentence than a terrorist plot.”

“Undoubtedly.”

“But why wait until Frederick spoke to them?”

“It’s quite possible that they had already said this, but that we were simply not told, or that it wasn’t taken seriously enough.”

“Are there any facts that support this scenario, though?”

Eric checked his notes. “Two of them were suspected of another robbery, also a large villa. There has been a number of thefts from large houses in the past year. Furthermore, their car contained that sort of equipment and very few weapons were found.”

“There’s no reason why they couldn’t do both – no reason why they couldn’t branch out.”

“No,” he agreed.

“And a lot could be wishful thinking on the king’s part.” She thought she should refer to him less personally now, although she was not sure Eric had noticed.

“Yes, that too. It’s always nicer to think it was your possessions they wanted and not your life.” He paused. “It didn’t seem to affect his decision to abdicate.”

So the news had spread. She was not surprised. Frederick might even have told him himself.

---

“How lovely to see you,” the princess greeted her when she was taken to the garden by a member of the staff.

“I came straight from my office,” Anna Margaret said. “I hope I’m not too late.” As far as she could see there was nothing on the barbecues yet and two men in catering uniforms were still getting them going.

“Oh no, not at all. Not everyone is here yet. I try to space them out a little so I can welcome them all individually.”

Of course. She did not like, however, that her parents appeared to be among those guests. Her parents and her new secret boyfriend. Great. Assuming he was really going to be here, of course, but why else would she need a poker face? She was too tired to play games, yet the princess seemed to have got some game going on.

“Yes,” said the princess, following her eyes. “You will know some people.”

A waitress circulated to provide everyone with their first drink. Anna Margaret took the first glass that was available. It proved to be red wine. She could handle that; she had come on foot and planned to leave the same way. Rather than making a selection from among the drinks on the tray, she had been scanning the other guests for familiar faces. He was not yet there, as far as she could tell. The fact that so many others were made her wonder if she had been a last-minute addition. This could not possibly have been a last-minute event, unless so many people were willing to alter their plans at the last moment because a princess invited them.

She decided that perhaps there were.

“My brother is not yet back. I sent him back inside to change, because some ladies were wondering why I had invited the tennis instructor.”

Anna Margaret looked at her in surprise, although she did not know what surprised her most: the fact that he allowed himself to be sent inside, or that he had been mistaken for a tennis instructor. Or perhaps the fact that the princess might have been humorous.

“You would allow it,” said his sister a little questioningly.

“Yes, probably.”

“Oh my god,” said the princess. “I was hoping a woman would at least put an end to that!”

“I’d pick my battles.”

Princess Isabelle excused herself to receive some new arrivals.

Anna Margaret walked on to greet Louis and his wife Fabienne, who were standing nearest to her. Her parents could wait, especially her father. She could tell Louis had gone home to change before coming here and Fabienne had probably booked an emergency appointment at the hairdresser’s.

“Very nice, this saves me some cooking,” she said to them. “I hadn’t been here in the garden before, had you?” She looked around. The garden was surrounded by a high wall, hiding it from the rest of the town. Beyond the wall might be other official buildings. No high ones, at any rate. The garden was divided into a few sections by high hedges. She supposed one also hid a tennis court.

“No, we’re here for the first time as well,” said Fabienne. “Out here for a barbecue, that is.”

She looked at the barbecues, which had now been left alone by the staff. “Do you think we’ll be allowed to do it ourselves?” Otherwise it was not really a barbecue, was it? It would then simply amount to eating barbecued food.

“I’ll let some man do it if Louis won’t. They tend to like it.”

“I don’t find it particularly riveting either, but I wondered.” She had also wondered how long it would take for her parents to come in her direction. As it turned out, not very long. She kissed them on the cheek.

“I didn’t know you were invited,” said her father. “I hope you didn’t invite yourself.”

“It’s not as if I have a long history of doing that.”

“I didn’t know you were personally acquainted with Princess Isabelle.”

“I am personally and impersonally acquainted with a lot of people. I can’t keep track of them all.” She took a sip of her red wine. Hopefully it would help her sleep tonight. She was still exhausted from her trip to South America and perhaps it would have been better simply to have gone home, but one did not turn a princess down. “But since I most often get invited by people who don’t know me personally at all, I say it’s a moot point.”

“You never said where you’d gone on holiday,” said her father.

“Didn’t I? Oh, yes. Maybe I didn’t.”