Be My Princess

After the last stroke of pencil was given, Francis rushed by Kat's side to evaluate her work.

"Whoa! This is really me… My! You really have a great talent." He exclaimed as he held the sketchbook closer to admire the drawing.

"Wajikit." The young woman modestly replied.

"I wish I also had artistic talent like you guys."

"Us guys?"

"Angel and you. He can play the piano and even compose music. You play the violin and you draw very well. I can't help but be envious of your talents."

Kat chuckled. "I'm sure you too have talents of your own; there must be at least one thing you're really good at."

"Off the top of my head, I can only say sports. Back in the US, I used to play football, basketball, soccer, wrestling and tennis." The prince said after a moment of reflection.

"Wow! That's impressive." Kat exclaimed in genuine admiration.

"The most difficult part for me was actually choosing which team to join permanently." Francis continued.

"See? You also have talent."

"Yes, but I don't think it can equate to what you guys have."

"I don't think there's even a need for comparison. The differences God created in each one of us are what brings equilibrium to this world. If everyone had to be the same thing, wouldn't life be rather boring?"

Francis nodded pensively. "Wise… Can I keep it?" He said, pointing to the drawing.

"Sure! Let me detach it for you."

As Kat took back the sketchbook and carefully started to detach the paper where the drawing was, Francis received a phone call. From the prince's tone and the type of replies he gave, she could understand that it was an urgent kingdom matter.

Francis took the paper from her hands and smiled apologetically.

"You have to go," Kat said for him.

Francis nodded then looked again at the drawing. "I will very much cherish this… I will see you later, my fair maiden." He added as he kissed her hand.

They had set themselves on a side of the garden close to the East Wing, so Kat decided to walk back to the West Wing by passing through the garden. The sun was almost at the end of its setting course, so darkness was starting to cover the land. When she passed in front of the Central Palace, she caught sight of Queen Sophie sitting at the veranda adjoining the private sitting room and immediately took a path that would bring her closer so she could be able to greet her.

When she was about to signal her presence, Kat noticed that the queen had a strange expression on her face. From the distance, and with the surroundings getting darker, she had a hard time distinguishing what that expression was; and while she was still trying to figure it out, she perceived a sound of footsteps. Someone seemed to be approaching on the veranda because the queen turned around at the sound. When the person got into Kat's line of sight, she quickly moved behind a nearby topiary.

"Your Majesty seems melancholic," Josephine observed after she mockingly curtseyed.

"What do you want?" Sophie replied dryly, unwilling to humour her fake courtesy game.

"I just thought you might want to know that the king seems to feel very much better already after three weeks away from the palace… At least, that's what I saw."

Sophie sustained the royal consort's gaze without faltering. "Well, I hope your visit won't cause his health to deteriorate again." She calmly retorted.

A flash of disappointment passed through Lady Josephine's eyes, but she kept smiling. "I now see why Taatuku and Maaku chose you for their son. You are perfect in their eyes. Too bad your husband does not see the same way… You know, I can still see the same flame in his eyes when he looks at me."

Sophie smiled. "The very fact that you came all the way here just to tell me this shows me that you are not as sure of the king's heart as you pretend to be. Don't think that you can bring me down with such silly mind games; because there is one thing I know for sure…" The queen stood up and took a few steps closer to her sister-in-law. "The king, my husband, will never go back to you again. So, if you do not have anything more to say, your queen would like for you to take your leave."

Josephine's upper lip twitched in a rictus. She balled her hands into fists and stiffly curtseyed before walking away. Sophie slowly sat back down and let out a heavy sigh. From behind the topiary, Kat could see the reflections of light on the tears rolling down the queen's cheeks.

The sight of the woman who always appeared as strong and unshakeable breaking down in silence finally made Kat understand the expression she could not decipher earlier. Though it seemed like a mix of emotions, it could still be brought down to a single word: loneliness.

...

When Francis got back to the east Wing later that evening, he found his mother nursing a glass of wine with a sombre expression. One maid, who seemed rather shaken, was busy cleaning pieces of broken glass and porcelain while another, just as distraught, was placing new dining sets and glasses in the wooden glass-door standing cabinet placed next to the dining table.

Francis shook his head, sat on the arm of the chair his mother was sitting in and passed his arm around her shoulders. "What happened that upset you so much that you had to clean the entire dish cabinet, Maaku?"

Francis had stopped worrying about the loss of dishes a long time ago. His mother always vented her anger on any breakable stuff she could find. And, in almost every cases, dining sets and glasses were what she could access easily…

His mother waited until after the maids had left the room before answering his question. "Queen Sophie happened." She said in a tone that vibrated with anger. "I really can't stand her looking down on me just because she is the queen."

Francis noticed his mother's grip tightening on the glass and her chest going up and down as she breathed heavily.

"Did the queen insult you?"

Josephine looked up at her son. There was no way for her to explain the situation to him without revealing her affair with the king in the process.

"Don't bother with it. All this will come to an end as soon as you sit on the throne…" Josephine looked at her glass of wine, and an evil smirk traced on her lips. "Yes… that day, I will have the last laugh." Then she looked back up at her son. "How are things going with the maiden?"

"Good. Really good. Look what she did for me today." Francis replied as he handed her a big piece of rolled paper.

Josephine scrolled it down and discovered a drawing of her son sitting on a bench in a relaxed posture – hands spread along the back of the bench and legs crossed, and eyes set on the horizon in his most charming expression. The precision of the pencil strokes in capturing the model's traits was really acclaim worthy.

"Impressive." She commented.

"It is, isn't it? I really did not expect her to capture me with so much accuracy. She is really talented. I'm understanding more and more why our family wants to keep her here so much. I mean, she is delicate; well mannered; diligent; quite mature for her age; artistic… it's as if she were naturally made out of a royal mould! I…"

Francis paused when he realised that his mother was looking at him with an intrigued expression, and raised his eyebrows.

"What is it?"

"Have you fallen for that maiden?" Josephine replied with a slight frown and squinted eyes.

"What? No way!"

"Well, you should tell that to your eyes then. Because they are as sparkly as those of a love-stricken teenager."

"Maybe it's just the excitement that comes from my appreciation of her talents; because I can assure you that I am not in love with Kat." The prince argued.

Josephine did not seem convinced.

"To me, she is more like a prized possession that will add to my royal stature; nothing more than that." He added to make his case all the more.

The royal consort still had reservations but chose to trust her son. "I hope so. Because I can tell you for sure that falling in love can seriously impair your judgement and jeopardise our plans."

⁂

Kat woke up earlier than usual the following morning and immediately called for Jane.

"Were you able to find what I requested last night?" She asked as soon as the maid had entered the bedroom.

"Yes, Changadim Kat." The maid responded as she handed Kat the shopping bag she was holding.

Kat examined the contents of the bag and smiled. "Perfect!"

She motioned towards the bathroom than stopped after a few steps and turned back to the maid. "Can you also have an unsealed car prepared for me, please?"

That time around, Jane was reluctant to obey without question. It was intriguing already that the maiden had asked her to help her get a casual outfit in one size bigger than hers as soon as she had returned to the West Wing the evening before; even more intriguing that she had insisted to get it very early in the following morning. Jane had even had to contact a friend of hers who was a clothing shop owner in order to get clothes delivered to the palace before sunrise. But now Kat was asking for an unsealed car, the maid was fearing what the maiden was planning, and felt the need to ensure that Kat was not about to do something that could have bad consequences before complying with her request.

"Is Changadim Kat perhaps planning to escape from the palace?" The maid risked with an expression of genuine concern in her eyes.

"In a way, yes," Kat replied. "But only metaphorically." She added with amusement when she saw the maid's expression taking a turn for the frightened. "I just want to take someone on a surprise fun day out… incognito."

Not completely reassured, the maid still nodded in compliance before leaving the room. Kat quickly showered then donned a pair of jeans, a T-shirt, sandals, and a large-brim sun hat on her undone hair. She left the room and confirmed with Jane as for the location of the unsealed before heading towards the Central Palace.

A fully awake – but still dressed in her nightwear – Queen Sophie opened the door after the first knock, and blinked in surprise when she saw the young maiden standing in the doorframe.

"Changadim Kat? What brings you here so early in the morning? Is there a problem?" The queen asked in puzzlement.

Kat peeked at the maids who were observing the scene from the lower floor then stepped inside the bedroom and closed the door behind her.

With a bright smile, she presented her shopping bag to the queen who seemed very much taken aback by her strange behaviour. "I am here to take Your Majesty on a mother-daughter fun day out!" The young woman announced.

Queen Sophie's stood speechless for a moment while processing what she had just heard.

"A what?"

"Mother-daughter fun day out," Kat repeated. "I always have one with my mother at least once a month and I really miss it. And since Mwad is the one that I consider the most like my mother here at the palace, I thought that we could have an outing… incognito."

Queen Sophie could not stop her lips from curling up. "In your face Josephine!" She thought.

The queen knew that she could not secretly leave the palace for an escapade in town, but she still reached for the shopping bag. When she examined the contents, she looked back at Kat with both questioning and reluctant eyes.

"Today, you get to be a commoner named Hannah, out for a fun day with her daughter Lily," Kat explained.

Queen Sophie slightly shook her head. The idea was truly tempting, but she was the queen of Ruund.

"I can't…" She started.

"There's no way Mwad can say no…" Kat intervened with a pleading voice before the queen could finish her sentence. "I've checked with Nswann-Mulap Chang, and I know that you have nothing scheduled for today. The princes have all the kingdom matters all covered, so you have nothing to worry about. Plus, this technically doesn't break any of the palace rules. I'm just going out with Your Majesty the same I did with the princes."

Queen Sophie gradually found herself short of arguments to refute the good case Kat was making.

"Come on! I feel like you could really enjoy a day out of the palace. A day without title or etiquette. A day where you get to be you… well, sort of. What does Mwad say?" The young woman insisted when she noticed that her interlocutor was starting to waver.

Sophie looked at the contents of the bag once again. One day away from all the pressure of palace life… away from the restrictions of royalty… Just one day!

"I say… let's have ourselves a fun day out, my dear daughter!"

...

When the two women finally exited the bedroom, one of the maids dropped her duster, flabbergasted by what she was seeing. Queen Sophie had an outfit similar to that of Kat and was also carrying her hair undone under a sun hat.

"Today, I will be the one interacting with the young maiden," Sophie announced to the maids when they reached the bottom of the staircase.

Though they had myriads of questions jostling in their minds, the maids simply curtseyed. At the entrance of the king's apartment, the royal guards could not hide their stupefaction at the queen's unusual dress-up either. Queen Sophie decided then to lead Kat along a less frequented corridor that directly led to the inner courtyard so as to avoid creating havoc in the palace because of her outfit. From the inner courtyard, the two women accessed the South Wing then exited it by its backdoor next to which the unsealed car had been parked.

"Can I have your phone, please?" Kat asked the queen as soon as they had entered the car.

"What do you need my phone for?" Sophie asked in return as she handed her the phone after unlocking it.

"Just taking a last precaution," Kat replied as she turned off the queen's phone's network connection then proceeded to do the same with her own phone.

"Hey! I might get an important phone call." The queen protested.

"Which is why I am disconnecting the network." The young woman explained with determination. "Remember: from the moment we exit the Royal estate, we are Hannah and Lily; mother and daughter on a fun day out. And two common women cannot have Queen Sophie and Changadim Kat's phones with them, right? I believe that we can trust in the Crown Prince Angel and Prince Francis' abilities to handle kingdom matters, and we can only pray that nothing grave will happen today. So…" Kat turned on the ignition, "Ready for a fun day out?"

Following Jane's directions, Kat exited the estate via a service entrance used mostly by palace workers and headed for the centre of Musumb. Destination: Kuland Mall.

If Queen Sophie had felt uneasy at the moment they had passed the service entrance gate of the Royal Estate, all her apprehensions were gradually swept away once she started to dip into what Kat had in mind for her first experience of a common woman's day of fun. On the menu was shopping, beauty salon, ice cream, selfies, fast food lunch, movies.

The queen soon proved to be able to immerse herself in the role she had been given very quickly when they got to the beauty salon. When the masseuse who was tending to her looked at her with insistence and pointed out that her face seemed familiar, Queen Sophie was unperturbed.

With a smile, she simply replied: "Let me guess; I look like Queen Sophie."

The masseuse's face lit up. "Yes, that's right…"

"Well, I get that a lot. But, although it is very flattering, I am getting really annoyed that people always make me the centre of attention everywhere I go because of that. So please my dear, refrain from calling over all your colleagues just so they can see how much I resemble our beloved queen."

"Of course, Ma'am."

As the young woman resumed her task, Sophie threw a triumphant glance at Kat who was lying on a neighbouring table, and the young maiden gave her a smile of admiration in return.