"The Prince Needs a Bride" (complete)

Part 9 - Patience

"No Marm; it would be most unseemly for my creator to have fitted cameras in there. Perhaps you should take a look yourself. There would only be two others who can access your apartment when it is locked, and I have no knowledge of how this person entered and relocked it. It is your side of the royal apartments, Marm, and not that of the king's. That person out there is using your shower."

Fear rose inside the queen and she said, "I shall not go out of here. It can't be my husband and no other knows how to access my quarters," she said. Albert would have knocked.

"Two others know, but I cannot release to you their details."

"I'm not going out there to confront a stranger! You wouldn't expect me to do that, would you?"

"I can only confirm that this person is no stranger to you, Marm. I have read the compact phone they carry."

Shaking her head and falling silent, the queen told herself that she was not that brave or equipped with any kind of protection against this person if he or she was hostile.

"Please put the quote screen back up, Eltron, and voice the quotes for me." Under her breath, she said, "I want to gain strength from Scriptures..." Closing her eyes, she leaned back in the flexible chair and closed her eyes. Peace filled her senses like the waters of a refreshing brook.

Seven minutes later, Eltron announced, "There is a person who has registered her voice for recognition and is now pressing her palm on the screen to allow her to enter. She is coming now."

Horrified, the queen stood and turned the chair around, standing behind it as if it might be some kind of barrier or protection from the intruder. 

A young woman, bare-foot, her hair wet and hanging long down the sides of her face, dressed in a black singlet and shorts stepped slowly towards her, closer and closer. She smiled.

Gripping the back of the chair, the queen could only stare in disbelief.

Dropping on both knees just a few feet in front of the chair, she said, "I'm so pleased to see you here, Your Majesty, and it's so pleasing to me that you are safe and in good health. I apologize for the shock this must be for you..."

The queen could only keep gripping the chair tightly and stare at the owner of this voice which she recognized.

"I remember you telling me, Your Majesty, I am welcome to come to you and to Eltron anytime I wished and would never be turned away. You told me it was to be as much a refuge for me as it was for you..."

Shock impacted every part of the queen, it was like the trauma of a physical wound, of her body, mind and emotions. "How can it be?" she managed, adding, "Are you truly her, the one you look like, but older? If this is possible, she would be older; but, first, stay right where you are and tell me somethings that only you and I know to prove you're not a look-a-like of whom we have had many." Very slowly, the queen spun the chair back around, sat on it, pushed with her feet to spin back to view the still kneeling obtruder.

Lowering herself to sit on her heels, she said, "You have a look-alike, Queen Charlotte. She is your Cousin, Clara. Perhaps more people know of her than just the royals...

"You and I bonded, Your Highness, as did Albert and I. The last time I was with you, you permitted me to call you 'Mama' whenever I was alone with you. You empathized with me that my mother had gone to heaven when I was ten years old. You were at her funeral and this was the first time I met you. Also Albert was there, and Papa Desmond, Lady Clara too."

The queen stared at her, blinking, feeling as though her voice had been stolen.

"Albert and I were like close siblings; he at the age of almost sixteen and I just ten, we rode, we climbed trees and we played chess. We were never alone but it was discussed by you and others, my Papa, that we were so compatible, there might be a future for us together. It was decided that if we still enjoyed each other's company and Albert was agreeable, we would be betrothed when I was sixteen.