Monarchy (7 page)

“Your Highness may see the Queen now” Sir Windsbury announced.

“How is she?” Elsie asked rushing passed him.

“She's tired but alert, for now. The doctor has ordered her to get as much rest as possible.”

“Oh, my sister went down to the kitchen…”

“I’ll have her meet you in the Queen’s chamber” he said with a bow.

The King was holding the Queen’s hand against his lips when she entered.

“Elsie” the Queen smiled weakly. She looked grey and her eyes were sunken with dark rings around them.

“Oh, mother”
 
Elsie sat down on the bed and held the Queen’s other hand.

“It seems as though death would have to keep waiting in the hallway a bit longer” the Queen joked and started to cough.

“You must rest. I only came to see how you were” Elsie kissed her mother on the forehead.

“Wh-where’s Gwen?” she asked softly.

“Waiting in the hallway.” Gwen was leaning against the door with a steaming mug in her hand. “What did the clever people say?” she asked the King and took a sip of her coffee.

“Your mother has a bit of a stomach infection.”

“Don’t sugar coat it, Father” Gwen said, still standing in the door way.

The king looked at Elsie hesitantly. “Alright. The doctors have reason to believe that the cancer has spread to her lungs and stomach.”

“How long did they give her?” Gwen asked. The King paused and Elsie guessed that Gwen must’ve gotten more information from Sir Windsbury than she did and needed to hear the bad news for herself.

“Not more than two months” The King whispered.

Gwen turned around and swore at the ceiling.

“Excuse me” Elsie said furiously “Can we stop talking about mother as though she wasn’t here?”

The Queen was looking out the window at her beloved rose garden below which was a rich palette of blush colors now.

“Are you alright, Mother?” Elsie asked.

The Queen just kept staring out the window, grinning sheepishly.

“Mother?” Gwen asked.

“Huh” the Queen looked up at them still smiling. “Did you see? Stern’s finally out of his wheelchair.”

“What?” the three of them asked together.

“Yes, he came to smell the roses” the Queen said with a sigh and kept staring out the window.

“She’s confused.
 
How much drugs did they give her?” Gwen managed an amused laugh.

“Quite a lot” the King sniggered and lovingly touched the Queen’s cheek.

Voices came from the hallway behind them and moments later Sir Windsbury and Dame Margaret burst into the room.

“Forgive me, Sir, Ma’am. I told her that this was hardly a good time…”Sir Windsbury explained.

“I have sad news” the dame interrupted. “The Earl of Struce has passed away.”

Elsie felt furious at Dame Margaret for the tasteless manner she announced the death of a dear friend of the family’s.

“I can’t believe she did that” She screamed from her bed to Gwen next door.

“Yeah, well she has as much tact as a butterbean, so it comes as no surprise” Gwen shouted back. Her lights were still on and she was scribbling on a piece of paper.

“I just can’t believe he’s gone.”

“Mmm, me neither” Gwen replied.

Elsie leaned off her bed at peeked through the bathroom at Gwen. “What are you doing?”

“Nothing” Gwen said.

Elsie got out of bed and walked over to Gwen. “It doesn’t look like nothing to me.”

“Okay, it’s just a little something” Gwen mumbled.

“Let me see.” Elsie made a grab for one of the papers that lay on the bed.

“Damn it, Elsie. How old are you?”

“Your planning….a ball?” Elsie said looking at the rough diagram on the paper.

“It’s not just any ball…” Gwen sighed.

Chapter 11

“…it’s a living funeral” Gwen said carefully to her audience and a sense of shock followed.

“Sorry, a WHAT?” the King yelled appalled.

Gwen took a deep breath. “I attended one in France.
 
A friend of one of my acquaintances was dying of Aids. He was a brilliant art student and very popular. Even though the word ‘funeral’ might stand out for you, it really was a celebration of this person’s life. His friends invited all the people he had ever encountered.
  
Friends, family, teachers and class-mates.
 
Even if they haven’t spoken in years. They got together and had one last party where everyone had the opportunity to spent time with him and tell him what he meant to them.”

“Isn’t it a little…blunt?” the King asked.

“Don’t be naïve, Father.
 
Mother knows she is dying and she’s scared. One of her fears is what would happen to the memory of her once she’s gone. What kind of an impression she left on this world?”

The King leaned back in his chair, thinking.

“This is preposterous” Dame Margaret laughed.
 
“What boggles my mind is the kind of company you kept on your travels? First eco-terrorists and now drug addicts who find joy in death?”

“Aids isn’t a disgrace.” Gwen sneered. “He contracted it through a blood transfusion after a motor cycle accident.
 
It’s quite common, Google it.”

“It’s ludicrous and a sick attempt to humiliate the Queen” the dame was gathering her notes ready to move on from their discussion.

“I like it” the King said.

“You can’t be serious, Your Majesty?” Dame Margaret uttered in shock.

“The Queen has been looking for an excuse to get all her friends and family together one last time since she found out she was terminal.
 
The problem is that people don’t want to intrude so they just stay away.
 
This might be a bit controversial but it’s perfect” the King leaned back once again and mouth ‘well done” to Gwen.

“Thank you” she replied silently.

“I strongly advise against this. The Queen is not well enough to fornicate and social” the dame shouted.

“Oh, it won’t be a huge social thing. It will be a small intimate ball. Fifty of the Queen’s closest family and friends will be invited. You will see on the presentation I’ve handed to you as per protocol that I’ve outlined a schedule and I’ve also included a budget.
 
It being a small affair, the old ball room we’ve never used before should be sufficient. Dinner will be a buffet consisting of five of the Queen’s favorite dishes and if we get this all planned for within the next two weeks we could use the last of the Queen’s roses as decoration.”

“Let’s put it to a vote. All in favor of this, this living funeral…drop your hand Sir Windsbury, you don’t have a say in this?” she shouted at the knight that jokingly raised his hand enthusiastically.

“But I do and I say yes” the Queen entered the office slowly.

“Your Majesty. What are you doing out of bed?” Dame Margaret said.

“I’m not dead yet, my lady.”

“Well, if you insist on voting let me first inform you on what we are voting for…”

“I’ve been informed. It’s about the living funeral, isn’t it? I think it will be good fun” the Queen sat down in the corner chair. “The princesses came to see me this morning already and I must say, I am impressed with their effort.”

Dame Margaret looked like she wanted to explode. She jumbled her papers in a disorganized pile and shoved it into her file. “Forgive me, Your Majesties but I will not have part in this. Let it be noted that this event will take place in spite my advice and should something go wrong it will be on Princess Guinevere’s head. Good day.” She stormed from the office, her heels sounding like a type writer on the marble floors.

Gwen turned to the King curiously. “I thought you valued her opinion? Why did you go against her?”

“I said I valued her opinion I didn’t say that I agree with it always but she’s issued you a challenge and I hope you understand the consequences involved. You will be the hostess of this ball and it’s therefore your full responsibility. Pull this off and you would have almost won back most of the confidence I’ve lost in you before” the King said seriously.

Gwen pondered a sarcastic remark but decided against it. “Thank you, Father” she said and left the office.

Elsie was having tea with the Duchess of Nat and her daughter Stephanie in the garden when Gwen joined them.
 

“And?” she asked Gwen.

“We have a green light” Gwen said with a sigh of relief.

“Dame Margaret?”

“The old prune fled from the office condemning us to hell” she laughed. “I’m sorry. Good afternoon, Duchess and you must be Stephanie” she greeted the guests.

“How do you do?”
 
The duchess and her daughter could’ve been carved from the same stone.
 
Both had straight, thin blonde hair and tiny blue eyes. They were dressed in outdated lace dresses and even wore matching lace gloves.

Gwen placed a boot on the table and took a packet of cigarettes from it. “I hope you don’t mind. I’ve had a nerve wrecking morning and need to calm myself a bit” she lit a cigarette and offered the packet to their guests.

“Heavens no.” the duchess waved away the cigarettes.

“I’m only being polite” Gwen said and stuffed the packet back into her boot.

“Are you planning something?” the duchess asked, her neck stretched to avoid Gwen’s smoke clouds.

“Yes, a ball in honor of the Queen’s life” Elsie announced.

“Oh. Will you be hosting it, Princess?” the Duchess spoke to Elsie.

“No, in fact, my sister will be hosting, won’t you Guinevere?” Elsie said proudly.

Gwen smiled at her.

“Is there a special theme?” the duchess had taken out her fan now to wave the smoke away.

“Everything the Queen adores” Gwen shot the cigarette bud off into the bushes.

“That such a tragedy should hit your family now” the duchess shook her head.

“We try not to look at it as being a tragedy” Elsie said to the Duchess.

“That's very wise.
 
I see that it has indeed brought your family much closer than before.
 
It must eat you up though that you missed six years with your mother and that there isn’t enough time now to catch up” Elsie instantly feared for the Duchess’s life. Her suspicion of Gwen’s ninja training hadn’t disappeared completely yet.

“Oh, but I brought her a t-shirt from everyplace I visited. That way it would feel as though she was there with me all the way” Gwen said snotty. Elsie could see her clenching her fists under the table.

“Really?” the duchess said, pretending to be mildly interested.

“No, I didn’t” Gwen folded her arms over chest.

“Gwen, don’t…”Elsie urged through her teeth.

 
“I left the palace without my parent’s blessing and went out to see the world.
 
I lived in poverty, dined with pirates and saw good people die terrible deaths and I did all that while you had your boobs inflated yet another size.”

Elsie banged her head on the table wishing the world could just swallow her whole.

 
“I might have been gone for the better half of a decade but I came back a much stronger princess than any of you could ever be.
 
And by the way, Stephanie, powdering your nose in three different shades, doesn’t hide your botched up nose job.”