Young Royals Season 3 (Version 3)

51. The Royal Court

Farima looked cautiously at Minou across the table before she began. Jan Olof would normally be the one to lay out the state of things to the Queen in a crisis, but he was still at the police station in Bjärstad waiting for the Crown Prince and Simon to finish reporting August.

Kristina had come down in a rush and was still wearing her flowing silk robe when she entered the dining room and sat at the head of the table to be debriefed about what the Royal Family's strategy would be in regards to the morning'd events.

Farima took a deep breath and began.

"Your Majesty, we believe that it's best to say nothing for the moment, to the press or the police...we'll wait until we know exactly what the Crown Prince has said in his police report before reacting, but we have several courses of action in mind, depending..."

Kristina lifted one eyebrow as she listened. "They're going to investigate August and realise that we knew and didn't report him."

Farima glanced at Minou nearly losing her nerve when faced with the Queen's stern response. Minou stepped in then and took over.

"Well...Your Majesty, it is very likely that there will be an investigation, which will include interviews with the Royal Family. Ehm, so we need the Royal Family to be seen as fully cooperating with the police. There's no reason to speak to the press yet. In fact, it's better to avoid it until it's absolutely necessary."

Kristina nodded silently, still looking skeptical. "And what do we say to the police?"

"Well, if the Crown Prince has taken our investigative team's report to the police, and there's no way to deny the Royal Family knew about August, there's still the chance that the Crown Prince could be persuaded to say that it was at his request that August wasn't reported sooner..."

Kristina frowned and waited.

"...ehm, because he was afraid, because he didn't want to be outed...like he said in his speech. He's never blamed his family publicly, which is an advantage."

Kristina pursed her lips. "And what if he can't be persuaded...or he's already told the police we've tried to stop him from reporting August?"

Farima decided to take over again. "Your Majesty...we don't believe he really wants to hurt his family if he doesn't have to..."

She glanced over at Minou then continued cautiously.

"...we...also strongly suspect he'll be more strategic than that. He would likely want to hold that piece of information back to use later...to negotiate."

The Queen furrowed her brow. "Negotiate?"

"What I mean is...there's no reason to allow him to go back to Hillerska, or to allow him to see Simon until he's eighteen if he doesn't cooperate. He's already disobeyed you, and he can't threaten to go to the police anymore...but he still has leverage if he hasn't offered that information to them yet."

"And if he already has? Or isn't that bothered about being kept from Simon for now?"

"He would have difficulty proving it, so there's not a huge risk for the Royal Family either way, or, at least...it could be easily denied, and, um, if all else fails, we could consider releasing a statement to discredit the Crown Prince's claim..." She looked at Minou whose eyes had gotten wide. "However, I think you'll find he's very concerned about being kept from Simon."

"Discredit how?" Kristina looked from one to the other, still skeptical.

Minou took her turn to explain. "Just um, by saying that he's a troubled youth and that he hasn't had an easy time with everything that's gone on...because of...circumstances...so he's imagining that his family are the enemies...when they're just trying to protect him." She bit her lower lip, not a fan of the suggestion that she had to stand behind as if it were her own now. The plan was basically to portray Wilhelm as mentally ill if he weren't willing to cooperate once the Royal Court had exhausted their few other options.