Young Royals: After season 1

Chapter sixty eight: Simon

Learning how to be a prince was exhausting. Boring as hell too. At least I could keep Wilhelm company. Being close to him made it bearable. It was for his sake I had taken the prince title. So that I could be with him. We needed each other. He needed me. I needed him. I was procrastinating for my nest meeting by walking down the empty corridors. I still had some time until I had to go there. I went by Susanne's office. She was out, as she was not by her desk. I heard a voice from the office across the hall. It was Richard's office. I knew it was not nice to eavesdrop, but I wanted to make sure he was not planning something behind Wilhelm's back. I did not trust him. When I came closer I realised that he was not just talking, but sobbing too. I stopped a few metres away, to not be caught.

"Kristina, why did you leave me like this? Well you already left me years ago. Didn't you? For that Ludwig because he was nobility and I was not. And now your son is making threats to fire me. I just wish you could come back. Even if you were with someone else you were at least here," he sobbed. I had not imagined that he could cry. He seemed like one of those guys who would keep a stoneface whatever happened. There was of course a storm of emotions on the inside. There always were. It just did not always show to the outside world. His words confused me. He was hired by the royals to work for them, but he spoke as if he had a relationship with Wilhelm's mother. Wilhelm's mother, the queen, who had been married to Ludwig. Wilhelm's father. I wondered if he knew. I wondered if Wille knew. Wille, my love. Maybe his mother had deeper secrets that he did not know about. She had a life before she had him and Erik. And Richard seemed to have been a bigger part in her life than we had thought. I sneaked away without making a sound, so that Richard would not know I had overheard his private talk to himself. I walked down to the meeting room, where I was meeting Minou who would teach me about the royal economy. The hour went by slowly, but it did at least pass. Then I went to find Wille. We had to talk. And I wanted to take him home and make dinner. I was already hungry. Both for food and for my beautiful husband. He was sitting in his office, writing something on his computer. When he noticed me walking in he smiled.

"Hi baby," he said. I walked up behind him and put my arms around him. Took in his scent. His perfume smelled fantastic.

"Hello my love," I replied and kissed his cheek. He leaned back against my body. "Having fun?" Wilhelm giggled.

"I am having fun when you are here. Come and sit in my lap, darling," he said. "I want to have a lot of fun with you." His voice was flirty.

"So you say, huh?" I teased. "Fun in what way?"

"I want to kiss you, you fool," he said. I sat down in his lap. Held my arms around him. Looked him deep into his brown beautiful eyes. He was smiling. My beautiful Wille. He was always the most beautiful when he was smiling. His smile was contagious. Sweet. Like honey. I let my fingers travel over his cheek. His fingers were slowly caressing mine.

"How did I end up with the prettiest guy in the world?" Wilhelm asked.

"I should ask you the same," I said. My heart raced in my chest as I breathed him in. He was like oxygen to me. So necessary that a life without him would be like forever slowly choking. I could not imagine a life where it was not us. He was my heart's desire. Just as much as it craved oxygen to keep beating, it craved his touch too. His lips had a sweet taste. One that I would crave forever more.

*********

That night we were making dinner in the kitchen together. He was chopping vegetables while I made the sauce for the pasta. I could not get Richard's voice out of my head. His confession that he had been in love with Wilhelm's mother. Queen Kristina. I did not know if Wille knew. And I did not want to open any healed wounds of his past if I did not have to. But I felt it was not right if I did not tell him. It was his mother. I would have wanted to know if it had been my mother.

"Babe?" I began.

"Yes, Simon?" he replied.

"I overheard something from Richard's office today," I said. Wilhelm stopped and looked at me.

"What did you hear?" he asked. "Was he making something about Erik's room behind my back?" I shook my head. Thankfully not.

"He was sobbing about your mother, Wille. And he spoke to her as if they had been lovers once upon a time. Did you know about this?" I said. I saw in his eyes he did not.

"No I did not," he said. "But she once told me about a young unrequited love once." I looked at him with big eyes.

"It must have been Richard then. It also explains why he is so keen on restoring Erik's room, doesn't it?" I replied. He nodded.

"Also why he disliked Erik so much," he said. "Erik was probably the ultimate proof that it would never be them anymore."

"Do you think they saw each other in that way when your parents were married?" I asked. I saw it in his eyes before he could even say it. He believed they did.

"And she had the guts to lie to me, to try to keep me away from you. She said she had sacrificed an unrequited love for the crown. That young love was not as serious as it seems at the moment. But she was probably in love with him all along. I always wondered what he was doing at the palace all these years," he said.

"Are you upset?" I asked.

"Yes and no," he replied. "I am upset that she lied to manipulate me. But I am not upset that she was in love with him. She was in love with him before she married my father. And Richard is not nobility, so they could not be together. Not publically at least. You can't decide what your emotions will be. If I could not be with you openly, I would still try to be with you in private." I remembered that day when we were sixteen. He had just denied us in front of the entire country. I was upset and hurt. I was so wildly in love with him, but I chose to protect my heart and had told him I did not want to be his secret. How I had cried that day. I knew I loved him, but I knew that also meant I gave him the power to potentially hurt me worse than anyone else in the entire world. And I could not give away all that power. Not then. Now I was not afraid of getting hurt by him. I knew keeping away from him, when he was the only one in the world who could make me feel like he did, would hurt me even more forever.

"I love you, you know that right?" I said. I took him in my arms. He had just been told that his mother had probably had an affair with someone else when she had been married to his father. For years. Maybe decades. Probably decades. But he just forgave her. Saw the situation with her eyes. With compassion. But being upset with her now was to fight a ghost. She was not there. She would never be. What she had done, was done. What she did not do, would never be done.

"I love you too, Simon," he said and pressed his lips to mine.