Monarchy (6 page)

“I hate these tiaras”
 
She said as the placed it upon her head.

“Be glad we weren’t living in Great-grandmother Sarah’s time.” Elsie had a huge head dress on that looked like a pair of bull’s horns covered with silk. “This thing weigh’s a ton.”

Gwen laughed and reached for a pair of pearl earrings that lay on the table. “I’m going to need two more pairs of these” she laughed as she placed them on her ears.

She removed the tiara and searched through the other pieces of jewelry strewn around. Elsie snuck up behind her and placed something heavy on her head.

“It fits” she yelled clapping her hands.

Gwen didn’t see herself in the mirror.
 
It seemed as though she was glowing, the earrings glittering stylishly in her ears and on her head, the Queen’s crown. There was an awed silence between them as they stared at her reflection.

Elsie placed her hands on her sister’s shoulders and knelt down next to her. “Long live the Queen” she whispered as a joke but deep inside, something in Gwen broke loose from its bindings.

Chapter 9

Elsie woke with a bit of difficulty the next morning.
 
She felt a bit hung over even though she didn’t drink.
 
Gwen’s bed was already made where she sat on top of it reading a newspaper.

“Morning” Elsie yelled through the bathroom.

“Hi” Gwen said looking up. “Feeling alright?”

“Urgh” Elsie replied with a lazy stretch. “I’m starving.”

“Get dressed then we walk down together. My nose tells my we’re having French toast and pomegranate syrup.”

Gwen was right about breakfast. Golden slices of egg dipped toast stood in a tower next to a large jar of dark pink syrup.
 

“Good morning” they greeted the King and Queen sheepishly when they entered. The King mumbled a reply from behind his paper and the Queen looked up with surprise.

“Why, good morning to you too” she greeted.

Gwen wasted no time piling the toast on her plate.

“Coffee, Your highness?”
Sir Windsbury was back on his post looking amazingly refreshed with no trace visible of the previous night’s comfort.
 
He was once again stiff and formal in his suit as he offered Elsie some coffee. There was a loud bang from somewhere that made Gwen jump while the rest of the family and staff remained unfazed.

“I see that the Duchess of Nat made this morning’s gossip column.” Gwen tried to make conversation. “Apparently she ‘donated’ quite a sum of money to an American plastic surgeon.”

“You should never believe what you read in the gossip column” the King said turning the page.

“Why? They were right about me” Gwen took a large bite of her toast.

“It’s hardly something to brag about” the King muttered.

There was a roar of screams and laughter outside.

“What’s the commotion about?” Gwen asked as another bang sounded somewhere outside the palace gate.

“It’s Tuesday” Elsie said, cutting her toast in tiny triangles with her knife.

“Tuesday?” Gwen looked at her puzzled.

“Anti-monarchists rally in the park every Tuesday and Thursday” Elsie informed her.

“An anti-monarchist rally just outside where a royal family lives? Boy, it doesn’t get more in your face than that. What do they want?”

“To abolish us” the King answered from behind the newspaper. “They feel we’re a waste of their money.”

“And what have we said in return?”

“They’ll get tired of their own ranting soon enough so we just ignore them” the King replied just as the crowd started chanting “disband disband disband” outside.

“Or by the sound of it, they might be ready one of these days to drag us all off to the guillotine” Gwen said as she got up from the table.

“Where are you going?” Elsie asked

“To check it out, what else?”

“Gwen, you can’t go out there?” the Queen urged. “We avoid the gates on rally days. The crowd will perceive you to be arrogant. Guinevere!”

Gwen was already descending the stairs making a ‘blah-blah-blah’ sign over her shoulder.

“GWEN!” the Queen got up as well, not bothering to wait for the King’s dismissal, and chased after Gwen.

“Father, shouldn’t we stop them?” Elsie panicked.

The King sighed. “MARIE! GWEN! Get back here. I didn’t excuse you from the table” he shouted still caught in the paper.

Elsie stood up as well.

“I didn’t excuse you either, Princess Elsabeth” he said not looking up.

“Whatever” Elsie said and walked out the door.

She found her mother and sister surrounded by several confused guards on the palace steps.

“They are an embarrassment. A liability. A dead movement that has overrun its course a long time ago already” the protest leader shouted over his megaphone. “This is what we think of the royal family!” he turned and threw something at a giant banner with a photograph of their family on it.

“How long has this been going on?” Gwen asked. Her face was crumpled in disapproval and her arms folded over her heaving chest.

“Three, maybe four months” the Queen replied. “It all started when your father decided to cut additional funding for the military and raise taxes for the upgrading of the Eastern slums. They feel that we are stealing their money to enhance our lifestyle and one of their demands is that we no longer receive a state allowance.”

“Sounds fair” Gwen said.

“Upholding an image is cardinal for us to be taken seriously. We are the smallest of monarchies already. It costs us a lot to even be noticed by the ancient grotesque bloodlines” the King said from behind them.

“How much exactly?” Gwen asked.

“A few million a month” he replied.

“In percentage?”

“About 5 percent of the whole nation’s yearly income” the King sounded impressed by Gwen’s sudden interest in the matter.

Gwen stood a moment, counting in her head then laughed. “Their angry about zero point four percent of their monthly income. Have these people ever checked their bank statements for their banking costs?”

The King shrugged and winced as a head of lettuce tore a hole in his head on the banner.

“Can’t the police disperse this or something?”

“Oh, they’ve tried but it’s a public walkway and as long as they remain outside those tall black gates, we can’t do or say a thing” the Queen said tiredly.

“Wanna bet?” Gwen said and step through the guards towards the gates.

“Gwen, what are you doing?” Elsie called.

“The nation needs a talking to” she said as she opened the gate and disappeared into the crowd.

A strange silence and a humming of whispers fell over the crowd as she moved towards the makeshift stage.

She climbed on the stage and the crowd stood astonished.

“Oh, look the black sheep is separated from the herd” the leader announced but he wasn’t greeted by the usual uproar. Gwen beckoned for him to hand her the megaphone which he did reluctantly.

“Good morning to you all” Gwen said politely. A tomato flew by her head missing her by millimeters.

“Thanks but I just had breakfast” she commented dryly.
 
“It seems that your outcries have fallen on deaf ears the last three months and that’s why I’m here. What is it that upsets you so much about my family?”

There was a roar from the crowd as everybody tried to have their say all at once. Gwen lifted her hands calling for silence.

“I heard from somewhere over there that we must do more for the poor. That they are starving.” Some of the crowd agreed loudly. “Then explain to me how there can be hunger if there’s enough vegetables lying on this platform to feed a family of ten?” she shouted angrily. The crowd’s rowdiness died down instantly.
  
“The military needs more funding.
 
Are we at war? You call for peace yet you protest violently outside my house? You may call it a palace, looking at it from the outside with hidden envy but inside I grew up as a child, played in its garden and got scolded at just like all of you had. It is my home. This house my forefathers built not with your hard earned money but with materials available here on this land. Its interior is decorated by gifts and artifacts obtained through conquests our forefathers took protecting this country.
 
They did it all for the safety of their offspring. They did it all for YOU!” You could hear a pin drop in the silence. Most of the palace had gathered on the steps now out of curiosity.
 

“Taxes went up for you to fund the upgrade of the Eastern slums among other things. Think for a minute what such an upgrade would do for most of your demands?
 
It will give the poor a sense of belonging, a chance to better themselves and rise above their circumstances.
 
Now, I ask of you to leave and return to your own homes.
 
Look around your neighborhood and count the things this court has done for you.
 
Then sit down and decide if you can do all those things yourself, no hired help, while providing your family with the best life possible and put a price to that. If you find that it is possible on less than 1% of what you are earning right now, I invite you personally to return on Thursday to this gate and I will hand you the throne myself.” Gwen shoved the megaphone into the shocked protest leader’s hand and stepped off the stage. The crowd parted silently for her to pass.

Elsie looked around at the King who looked like he was about to explode with pride. He smiled and went back into the palace.

The Queen was smiling proudly too but Dame Margaret who had come to see what the palace excitement was about, stood fuming. “This is the most idiotic thing I’ve ever seen a royal do. This is our end. We better pray a mathematician doesn’t arrive with that formula at our gate on Thursday” she said and rushed off.

“I didn’t know she had it in her?” the Queen whispered.

“It must be her name” Elsie said smiling.

“Or divine intervention?”
 
the Queen whispered and followed the rest back into the palace.

Chapter 10

The walkway remained clear and quiet that Thursday. Gwen sat looking out the library window to the park beyond, a smug smile on her face.

“You got lucky, you know? What if somebody actually came up with a plan and stood at the gates this morning demanding the throne?” Elsie watched her sister intently from behind a book.

“I would have proven them wrong” Gwen said calmly, starting on a second layer of nail varnish on her fingers. “They’ll call us when the doctor’s done, right?”

The Queen had developed a fever overnight and by morning she was apparently vomiting blood.
 
Dozens of doctors and specialists had come to see her already and according to rumors they caught of chamber maid’s in the passing none of their prognoses were good.

“Yes, Sir Windsbury promised me he’ll inform us personally when we could see mother” Elsie said returning to her book.

Gwen fanned her hand for her varnish to dry and finally got up, bored. “I’m going to make coffee, want some?”

“Call somebody. I’ll have some chamomile tea to calm my nerves.”

“No, I need to do something.
 
Sugar?”

“Three lumps, thanks.”

Elsie tried to hide her worry about the Queen in front of Gwen but as soon as she had left, she threw the book she wasn’t even reading aside and rested her head in her hands. She was about to doze off when there was an ‘a-hem’ from the door.