Chapter Twenty-Two
The afternoon was fun. Anna Margaret had never seen Frederick smile so often in company. He seemed to like games, but he did not mind if he lost. He had been introduced only as Frederick and their relationship had not been specified to Danielle and her husband, but it was likely they had guessed everything anyway. They had after all not once asked what he did for a living or where he lived, or even how he knew Patrick.
After dinner Frederick allowed himself to be picked up by his security men, who had probably been outside all day in case he would go for a walk again. He had not said when he would see her again, because he did not know.
Anna Margaret spread herself out over the bed that she now had all to herself. Although usually after work she enjoyed not having anyone else in the house, she had been happy to have Frederick there. He was not completely perfect, she was pleased to note – if she thought he was, she would be too much in love to think straight and it was important to her to think straight – because he had never touched a vacuum cleaner before and he had no idea at which rate dust assembled. Cleaning something up once with a towel was clearly not equal to cleaning an entire flat. She had done it alone.
She nevertheless wondered if and when he could move in. The circle of people who knew about them was rapidly expanding and sooner or later someone would make it public. Although the majority of the population considered it a prime minister’s private business with whom she or he had a relationship, that was different for the king. If the abdication was really not planned for three months and people found out he had practically been living with her for weeks at some point, they might not appreciate it.
She tried to see how it would be a dereliction of duty. Of course if either of them actually stopped doing their jobs it would be. But what if he continued his engagements properly until the end? Then surely it would not matter where he slept or with whom? It should not matter that he sometimes stayed here, or that she sometimes stayed at the palace. Or would it be more professional to put everything off until after his resignation?
Getting her laptop from the living room, she began to look up some matters. First of all, that abdication could be arranged a lot faster. She sent off an email to the committee. Secondly, she found out that even after abdicating, Frederick would still be a member of the Royal Family. It remained to be seen whether Prince Frederick enjoyed more freedom than King Frederick. But she did not doubt that unlike her he would not have to look these things up. He would already be aware of it and perhaps he would be taking more steps later.
It was rather unthinkable that a member of the Royal Family would be allowed to live in this building.
She had been applauded for not living above her means or station, but would it work the other way around?
By accident one of the hits on google was on hot, single royals. She could not stop herself from clicking on it. Thankfully they were only a small country, so he was not at the top of the list, but there he was anyhow. Anna Margaret could not help but notice that most of the young men on the list were not hot at all, but being unmarried and titled seemed to be enough to get them onto the list. The description of Frederick was rather odd. Of course they had to make him sound incredibly attractive, but it was clear they knew nothing about him and that they had probably got him off some other list. The website was three years old, but she could not think he had changed so much.
Some research – about which she felt a little embarrassed – showed her that it was mostly their national media who wanted to make Frederick less uninteresting than he really was. They wanted to have someone to write about, so they created someone to write about. If he had been really active on the socialite front, foreign media would have picked up on it. As it was, she could find very few foreign publications that mentioned him at all and one of those few was that list of hot royals.
There were plenty of photos of him talking to women. The national press, hysterically anxious for a bride, had come up with the most fantastical stories, but by now they seemed to have given up hope. Anna Margaret noticed how he rarely smiled in pictures these days, not even at women. Even the gutter press would have nothing to go on.
She wondered what the progress was with the paternity tests. Most people had temporarily forgotten about the fatherhood claims, but it would all resurface with a vengeance once the abdication plans became known.
She looked up His Majesty’s Public Relations Office online and composed an email suggesting how they could go about it, adding that if she was not notified of the results or progress in a week, her own office would do it. They would not like that, she was sure. They would be too afraid the wrong things would be made public if someone else was in charge.
The next morning she was in her office on time. George was late and she teased him. “I’ve been here for hours!”
“Sorry, there was this delivery van…”
“People on foot can just walk around a delivery van.” She knew he came by car and she had often urged him to leave it at home.
“Pfff. Thanks for attending our party, though.”
“You’re welcome.” She hesitated. “Did people…say anything?”
“Most people appreciated your being there, in support of gay marriage and all that, even though you did not represent the government.”
“Oh, you know what I mean.”
Frederick.“Oh, your friend. Most of the other guests didn’t realise you were together. I had to tell my parents and Joël and I asked them to be discreet about it.”
“Thank you.”
“I only told Joël who he really was.”
“Of course, you shouldn’t keep secrets from your partner. But do you mean your parents only think he was my new fling?” Of course that required some discretion as well, but not as much.
“Yes.”
“Good. I’ve requested for the abdication to take place sooner than only in three months. Was that really the plan?”
“I’ll look into that,” he promised.” It seems odd anyhow, because that would be in the middle of summer recess and nobody would be here.”
“Really?” Anna Margaret had not yet calculated when three months from now would be, but he was absolutely right. She had overlooked that they were rapidly nearing the summer. “No, it definitely should be done before summer recess. It doesn’t have to be grand, it just has to be done. Can you get me Princess Isabelle’s email or phone number? She needs to be dissuaded from wanting something grand. I don’t know if that’s what she wants, but just in case.”
George said he was on it and left for this own desk. Before Anna Margaret could start on her usual work, someone else arrived.
“Hello Danielle.” She could only imagine Danielle had come to speak about the day before and she was cautious. It was too much of a coincidence that she would come so soon after seeing Frederick.
“I don’t know how to say this,” Danielle began. She seated herself on the corner of Anna Margaret’s desk and fiddled with a pen that was lying there. “You know, Lea’s pregnant…”
“Yes…?”
“It’s just so difficult.” Danielle heaved a sigh.
Anna Margaret wished to speed things up. “Why? Is Lea pregnant by your husband?”
That question merely met with a look of confusion. “Huh? No. What?”
“Why is Lea’s pregnancy difficult? For her? For you? For me?”
“For me, for me, for me,” Danielle clarified hurriedly. “You see…”
Anna Margaret did not, actually. It was too vague to see anything at all. “Er, no?”
“I’d like to get pregnant as well.”
“Oh. Er, why talk to me?”
“Because it’s not been done before. Our ministers have never got pregnant before. I looked it up last night. How would it be received? The critics were opposed to appointing women in their thirties for exactly this reason and I know it should not stop me, but I do wonder about it. It’s 2015, but the number of socially conservative elements around us is pretty large.”
“Of course I
need to say go ahead with it, in any case. Besides…” She thought for a bit. “It may all be overshadowed by socially progressive developments in the lives of other members of the cabinet."
“What do you mean?”
“We need tea,” Anna Margaret decided. “George? Can you get us some tea?” she called to the outer office.
They sat down in the easy chairs in a corner of her room. “What I meant was,” she continued. “Other things may happen that may render your pregnancy trivial to anyone but you. Although, yes, we should be prepared. First, though, what they said when we were appointed may not be what they’ll say when we – I mean, you – actually get pregnant.”
“Just checking, you’re not? Not even secretly?”
“No,” Anna Margaret said emphatically. “And no plans at present. However, I initially used the plural because do think I ought to be free to become pregnant when it suits me, given that there’s no such restriction on men either. Nobody will worry that Patrick will be able to do his job well once he’s a father.”
“Indeed,” Danielle nodded furiously. “And you know what one of my civil servants said to me last year? Danielle, thank goodness you’re not the motherly type. I bet no one ever said something of the sort to Patrick. And we’re all roughly the same age!”
George arrived with some tea. He set it down and disappeared, closing the door behind him.
“And what are those progressive developments you mentioned?” Danielle asked.
“Ah. I don’t know how to put it. I don’t know what people will think of it, but it’s never been done before either.”
That was too confusing to be pursued. “I can’t put it off. What if it takes a few years to succeed? I’d be too old and I’d have put it off for the sake of some sexist old farts. But how do you really view it? I didn’t know what your reaction would be, really. Maybe you were all for giving priority to one’s career.”
“It was always irrelevant to me, not having a boyfriend when I was appointed to these jobs. But I’ll judge case by case – if I have to judge at all. I don’t think I do.”
“You know, yesterday I first thought that guy looked familiar because Alex knew him. I thought maybe I’d seen him in a photo or something.”
“Alex knew him?”
“Yes, he whispered that he’d studied with him, or so he thought. Then after a few minutes I realised why he looked so familiar to me and why he was called Frederick. I didn’t want to look stupid. Either you ask immediately or you don’t ask at all, especially if he seems to want it that way, without proper introductions and etiquette and everything. But…” Danielle checked her tea. “I thought he liked you a lot. Did you know?”
It had not yet occurred to Anna Margaret that only one of them had betrayed his feelings. She therefore looked surprised. “Yes, but how do you know?”
“Just the way he talked to you,” Danielle shrugged. “But you knew?”
“Danielle, what do you think he was doing there?”
“I don’t know. Patrick needed two people for the game? I thought he knew both of you. Do you mean he came with you?”
“Yes.”
Danielle looked somewhat incredulous. “It crossed my mind, as a possibility, but I dismissed it. Unless you invited him to come. Like, as a sixth person?”
“Patrick knew I had company.”
“You had company.”
“Is that very strange?” Anna Margaret was faintly annoyed. It was almost as if she was not nice enough to have company.
“No, no, I suppose not. I’m simply having to readjust my thoughts from
oh my god, the king likes Anna Margaret to
oh my god, it’s probably mutual and what the heck were they doing in her flat?”
“I’m glad the door is closed, because everyone would doubt our ability to run the country.”
“But, um,” said Danielle over their second cup of tea. “What about those developments you mentioned? Are they related?”
“Yes, I meant that once that leaks out, a minister getting pregnant by her husband might be extremely responsible by sexist old fartish standards.”
“That’s a relief. But what sort of shocking thing are you going to do?”
“It’s completely unshocking by modern standards. Just going to have a boyfriend.”
“I heard he was going to resign. Is he giving it up for you?”
“No. But someone will probably think so anyway. I merely sped up the progress. And he’s not going to marry me. Would that rate below or above a pregnancy, do you think? Interest-wise?”
“Above, definitely.”
“There is a chance that people will say something about how they could have known appointing young women would lead to this. We’ll have to prepare a good comeback about old men in France.”
“It probably won’t happen simultaneously anyway,” said Danielle. “We haven’t even started trying. But why won’t he marry you?”
“Just rebelliousness. I could always try to talk him into it if I felt it added something to my life, but right now I don’t think it would. Start trying.”