Season 3 Young Royals (Version 1)

40. Royal Palace (1)

Jan Olof and Minou sat at the table next to the Queen in the drawing room discussing recent events.

Things were becoming very complicated for the Royal Family due to the impact on the Royal Family's image because of their association with August, in spite of doing their best to cut all ties with him. It appeared they'd done so too late to prevent serious damage. They were also suffering an image assassination in the press based on their perceived lack of support for Wilhelm at the hearing.

That was without even mentioning the pregnancy rumours concerning August and Simon's sister, and much worse, the final scandal, and most worrying one: Erik's alleged illegitimate child.

The Royal Court was fully aware of Erik's relationship with the woman making the claim that he'd fathered her child. They treated everyone who got close to a member of the Royal Family as if they were entering into a business agreement, and had therefore obliged her to sign an NDA before entering into a "romantic" relationship with the defunct Crown Prince.

"The only good thing about this new scandal is that it will finally make everyone move on from the sex video." Jan Olof tried to reassure the Queen.

The Queen sighed and closed her eyes momentarily at the phrase. She especially hated thinking that it would always be associated with her son, and her family.

Minou continued, "This girl signed a contract that obligated her to use birth control, and if for some reason it failed and resulted in a pregnancy, it obligated her to then terminate that pregnancy. So she broke the contract if she failed to do either of those things, and now she's trying to take advantage.
If this child is Crown Prince Erik's biological offspring, it would still have no claim to the throne because it was conceived out of wedlock, and she would have great difficulty suing for support because she became pregnant against the will of the other involved party, who is now deceased. She'll want to grab a piece of Erik's estate but we won't let that happen. She won't have the resources to hire the kind of lawyers that the Royal Court has."

Jan Olof took over again, "In any case she is not the type of person that the Crown should be associated with at all, so we have to keep this as quiet as possible and give the impression we're not even entertaining the claims because they're so unbelievable and disrespectful to Crown Prince Erik's memory. Besides that, it's extremely doubtful that this is Crown Prince Erik's child. I believe he would have been much more careful than that. He knew the consequences of being careless and never would have risked it. He was an exemplary Crown Prince."

The Queen gave Jan Olof a sideways glance, not appreciating the implication that perhaps Wilhelm somehow wasn't as good as Erik had been.

Wilhelm suddenly entered the drawing room and greeted Jan Olof and Minou quietly, walking slowly toward the table with his hands in his pockets. He was dressed casually in jeans and a blue sweater. He was hoping that this would help put their guests at ease.

He noticed that his mother wasn't of the same opinion or simply hadn't considered how others might feel in this situation, which seemed more likely.

"Mamma, are you ready?"

"Yes, just about, darling. Alright, Jan Olof, do what you need to for damage control and once we know more we'll decide what to do from there."

"Of course, your Majesty." He and Minou both stood as the Queen got up to follow Wilhelm out.

They'd decided to receive their guests in a smaller and less formal room, but for Wilhelm, this parlour was still not exactly what he had in mind. He was almost certain that his mother didn't know how not to do too much, and had no idea how normal people perceived her, and them. She'd never spent much time around normal people really.

He wondered if maybe she thought everyone would decorate this way if they could afford it. Wilhelm was very aware how intimidating their velvet sofas, three hundred-year-old tapestries, enormous crystal chandeliers and gilded wallpaper could be for normal people. He was worried they'd feel like they were being brought into a museum, where they couldn't sit on the furniture or touch anything for fear of breaking it.

He sat down across from his mother, very straight backed and unable to relax in the silk upholstered chair as they waited. He suddenly regretted choosing this smaller room because it was still more hidden away and hard to get to than some of the larger rooms, meaning they would have to traverse many more lavish and imposing rooms to get there. He didn't like the feeling of showing off by giving a tour through the house, well, palace.

He suddenly jumped up, feeling nervous and wanting to be the one to show them in rather than some footman, or Jan Olof, God forbid. He knew that was a sure way to make them feel unwelcome.

"I'm going to wait for them downstairs at the main entrance and show them up once they get here, ok?"

"Mmm, it's not necessary, someone can bring them up and we can receive them here."

"Uh...yeah, I don't want to do that. I'm gonna meet them down there. Be back in a few minutes."

He checked his phone again and calculated they should be pulling up within five minutes. There was still a large section of the grounds to cover once they'd turned off the road and been waved through by security at the gates. He nodded toward her and hurried through to the corridor and down the stairs.

He was overthinking what would be the least impressive part to take them through and realised there was no good choice. He didn't live in a normal person's house and it was pointless trying to pretend. The most he could do was answer the door like a normal person receiving guests.

He stood at the steps at the main entrance to get a better view of the grounds. He felt a fluttering in his stomach as he thought he caught a tiny glimpse of a red car winding its way across the grounds toward the palace. He breathed in deeply and pushed the air out again very deliberately, then repeated the breathing exercise, trying to calm the butterflies in his stomach.

He suddenly felt like an idiot standing on the steps of this Neo-Gothic palace at the edge of a lake. They'd never seen each other in such an improbable context and he still couldn't reconcile the idea of seeing his boyfriend here. It was all too strange.

Finally Simon and Linda pulled up to the Palace and parked near the base of the steps. Wilhelm knew someone would want to move the car in a moment but didn't want to have Linda give over her keys as if it were a club and this was their version of valet parking.

He almost hopped down the steps to greet them as they opened their doors. He went to the driver's side first and held the door for Linda as she grabbed her purse. She gave him a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek, pushed the car door closed, then stood off to one side craning her neck back to look up at the imposing building.

Wilhelm went quickly around the car to greet Simon. He smiled hesitantly when he saw the look of near shock on Simon's face. Then Simon smiled and said "What the fuck, Wille, seriously?"

"Mmm, yeah..." Was the only response Wilhelm could give as his facial expressions went back and forth from an embarrassed half smile to a pained cringe. "So...let's go inside?"

"Uh...ok." Simon had a bemused, wide-eyed expression and he started to give Wilhelm looks as if he wasn't quite sure he really knew this person who lived in an actual palace.

Wilhelm shrugged as if to apologize for the bizarreness of his life.

Linda was studying everything carefully and commenting to Wilhelm how beautiful the building and grounds were. Wilhelm thanked her, still feeling extremely bashful about it and told them they could follow him inside. For a moment he thought that in the end maybe a tour would have been a good idea, and a way to delay them meeting with his mother.