Young Royals Season 3 (Version 3)

Chapter 39

The previous day...

Ludvig had been alone most of the morning, and feeling frustrated that he'd spent so little time with his wife lately.

He knew that Kristina's team was trying to mitigate the fallout of August being exposed at the school a few days prior and the fact that one of the students had actually ignored the headmistress' warning and posted on social media anyway.

The Royal Court had acted fast and threatened the student's family with a lawsuit before the media got hold of the story.  It seemed to have worked but they planned to make sure of it the next day when they would go to Hillerska in person.

The hope was that the threat of a lawsuit coupled with the presence of the Royal Family at Hillerska would deter any other students from trying to out August again.

Ludvig's role was mostly being present to help promote the image of a functional Royal Family, posing for pictures with the Queen and the Crown Prince, although at the moment, and for the last several months, their actual family felt anything but functional.

Ludvig had gotten used to pretending everything was fine as a way of supporting his wife, but he'd felt conflicted about how Wilhelm had not been supported in such a difficult time in his life.  It was true that they were all mourning Erik, but in addition to that mourning, Wilhelm had had to go through the violation of the sex tape and then the betrayal of his family without Erik there to help him.

Kristina and Ludvig planned to eat lunch together in the main dining room, and he'd hoped to broach the subject of Wilhelm, and how they could support him better, hopefully by giving up on August as the backup and letting him face the consequences he'd earned.

It seemed clear to Ludvig that not only had August attacked the entire Royal Family by attacking the Crown Prince, but they couldn't trust him not to do something similar as soon as it aligned with his motives. Ludvig had tried to convince Kristina of this fact, but in the end she hadn't listened to him.  She'd listened to Jan Olof and her other advisers.

But this was of course one of the problems with being married to the Queen of Sweden: Ludvig was not the one with the power to make decisions, even where it concerned his own children, because before all else, they were symbols that belonged to their country, and their image was more important, apparently, than their own safety and mental well-being, or so the Royal Court would have them believe.  

Ludvig knew that if Kristina had decided to stand by Wilhelm against her advisers she would have been successful and Ludvig would hace supported her gladly.

It was getting late and he hadn't heard anything from her so he went down the corridor to her office to see if she was ready to take a break from meetings to have lunch with her husband.

He knocked but there was no response. He pressed his ear to the door momentarily and still heard nothing. He turned the knob and pushed it open only to find the room empty. He saw that they'd clearly paused their work in the middle of something and would be back soon.

It seemed that they'd gone to lunch without him.  He pulled out his cell phone and called Kristina, but it was Jan Olof who picked up. "Hello, Your Grace?"

"Yes... can I speak to my wife, please, Jan Olof?" He lifted an eyebrow, annoyed at having to communicate through her lackey.

"I'm afraid she's not available at the moment. Can I take a message?"

"Eh, well, we were going to eat together...but I suppose I shouldn't wait for her...again?"

"Uh...no, she says you shouldn't wait. I apologize, Your Grace."