With a sigh, Annabelle picked up her daughter, and strapped her back into the impractical pram. Calling for Felix, she turned to head back inside. This wasn’t the life she’d ever imagined for herself or her children.
Chapter 2
Prynesse Financial Times
King Leo’s 3rd year begins with quickly emptying royal coffers for expensive infrastructure projects the country desperately needs but can’t afford - What would his father have to say about this?
Leo was tired. He’d been up since 5, when his trainer Lars had practically pushed him out of bed and he’d been on the go ever since. Normally he liked the breakneck pace, reveled in the powerful decisions under his control, and enjoyed all the different challenges he faced in a day. But not today. Today he wished he could just be Leo.
Last night he’d gone to bed late, falling asleep in his office. He hadn’t meant to. He waited for Annabelle to put the kids to bed, thinking they might actually be able to spend some time together, but it had turned into a fight. What was the point of a nanny if she wasn’t there half the time?
“I want to raise them the way I was. The way their cousins are raised,” Annabelle had said for the hundredth time.
He’d said something angry, and stormed off to his office. What she wanted was impossible. Felix would be king one day. Sophia was a Princess of Prynesse. Their childhood would be nothing like hers had been in one of the poorest areas of the country.
Leo looked at the map on the wall in his office, finding Grinsberg province at the very northernmost part of it. Her family didn’t live there anymore, of course, but that hadn’t stopped it from being the most welcoming province during the official tour after their wedding. Had that only been three years ago? It felt like three hundred. His years at the Prynessian National Bank seemed like a lifetime ago.
He regretted the decision now to work in the private sector before returning to royal duties. It had been a tantalizing taste of an almost normal life. He’d let himself hope it could become his real life. Then there had been those few glorious months when he had pictured his life differently. A quiet life with Annabelle, working in a bank, maybe in Paris or London, far from the Prynessian court, where he could just be another businessman with his family.
But he was a Prince of Prynesse–now the king. His life, and his family’s life would never be normal.
If Annabelle could just understand that, she’d be so much happier. He wanted her to be happy. He could tell she wasn’t. He was supposed to be the most powerful man in the country and yet he couldn’t manage to make the one person he cared most about happy.
He sighed and crossed to the window. He could see them, out in the garden. Felix was running ahead of his mother, pointing something out to her.
Leo made the split second decision to head out to surprise her. He’d apologize for last night. Just as he turned to go, the assistant to the foreign secretary ran in.
“Your Majesty,” he said with a quick bow. “Your father has received a call...”
He launched into a detailed account of what the former king wanted his son to do. Leo sat down at his desk with a sigh and hid his clenched fists beneath the table.
Maybe he’d be able to see his family tomorrow.
Chapter 3
After the gardens, Annabelle wanted to do something fun and decided to make cookies. It was something her mother had always done with her and Johanna when they were little. However, she had not anticipated just how large the royal kitchens were.
The chefs bowed their heads and excused themselves as soon as she walked in, but she called one back, Sophia balanced on her hip. Felix wandered ahead, seeking out the head chef, who rewarded him with a cookie. She frowned. Her son was obviously more comfortable than she was in the kitchens.
How often had she been down here over the past three years? Probably less than she could count on one hand. The sous chef she’d called over looked at her expectantly.
“Could you please take out some things to make cookies?”
“You’d like some cookies made?”
She bit her lip.
“No, I’d like to make them with the children.”
He glanced at the head chef, who nodded her head. The young man (though he was probably only a year or two younger than Annabelle) set about taking out bowls and materials, Felix trailing behind him as he did so, fascinated and asking questions nonstop.
“Shush Felix, let him work,” she said, her stomach churning at the boldness of her small son.
The sous chef smiled.
“He likes it down here. He helps me all the time with Nanny Beatrice, don’t you, your highness?”
Felix nodded.
Annabelle inhaled sharply. It had taken her months to get used to her own title. Hearing the staff call her son that was still very strange.
Once the sous chef finished laying everything out, he and the head chef bowed their way out of the kitchen. Annabelle took a deep breath. She could do this. It was just cookies with her kids. Like any other normal family.
She looked around the gleaming gourmet kitchen large enough to make dinner for 500 and shook her head. This was the furthest thing from a normal family on the planet.
Chapter 4
Leo had gone from tired to pissed off in roughly three point five seconds. He clenched and unclenched his hands underneath his desk as he listened to the foreign secretary describe the plan his father had laid out for him.
Laid out hour by hour as if Leo was incapable of making the decisions for himself. Three years he’d been on the throne, and his father still refused to step aside properly. The near abdication had shaken things up more than Leo liked to admit. He still felt a twinge of guilt at how quick he’d been to give up this life. The people and his siblings had forgiven him, but his father certainly wasn’t ready to do the same quite yet.
“Thank you for the information,” Leo said, with a polite but dismissive smile. “Could you please send in Georg when you leave?”
Leo’s private secretary entered to see his king pacing the floor, his expression stormy.
“Who the hell does he think he is?” Leo demanded, knowing it was rude to take out his frustration on someone else. Georg cleared his throat and frowned. He was loyal to Leo and didn’t like to see him upset.
“The Konigslaast’s role has always been one of primarily foreign diplomacy.”
“Yes, not planning my schedule for me.”
“I believe he was trying to be helpful in arranging matters through more unofficial channels.”
Leo closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Screaming at Georg wasn’t going to make this go away.
“He still doesn’t think I’m ready yet, does he?”
Georg remained silent but continued to frown.
The tradition of the king stepping down after 30 years had been started by Leo’s great-great-grandfather, in a response to the 19th century fear of dictators and worries of dementia. The old King (Konigslaast in Prynessian) was still a highly respected member of the nobility and could, at the request of his son, the new King, fulfill duties as required for the crown, while the new king took his time transitioning into his role. This transition period had only lasted a year for Leo’s predecessors.
Leo had been king for three. It was time his father started acting like it.
“Well, we’re not doing it the way he wants to. I’ll go, but I’m bringing Annabelle.”
Georg raised an eyebrow. Leo took his seat behind his desk, feeling more confident now that he had a plan.
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