The Kindness of Kings

by Chelsea Ballinger

  “But Louie,” Will interrupted. “There are sixty-one counties in Serenity, with numerous cities in each one. Work like that, we would have to dip into the royal treasury.”

  “That’s why we will get donations from the Republic treasury. You’re right, the royal treasury is in too much debt, which is why the poverty rate has increased in the past ten years. My father may not say it, but economically we are a dying country. It’s time to use money for the important things. Sacrifice the extravagant. The little things count. The human beings labeled ‘the little people’ count. So, let us begin.”

  Louie had been preparing all night what he would say. He didn’t have a word written down in his brain until he walked in that boardroom. It was as if the speeches just came naturally to him. It just made sense; he could feel it, but he didn’t want to praise it. Not like Mina, who felt as if she had seen a miracle in Louie’s change. She was amazed by the Louie who stood before the board of the Serenity Foundation and talked of the things she had longed for Sedgwick to say one day.

  “Ms. Farren will be in charge of each department’s development. You will report to her and she will report to me. Also, we need to start displaying advertisements around the city, to let people know that we’re making changes.” Louie turned to Mina to signal her to voice her opinion. But Mina was in a trance as she gazed at the dashing Prince in his gray suit pants and blue denim button up that was open at the top to reveal his bare chest. Louie wasn’t one for suits and that bothered most, but not Mina. She loved the casual style he displayed, but every once in a while at an event, she realized he could really do a suit justice.

  “Mina?” Louie snapped Mina out of her daze and she sat up in the conference chair and cleared her throat, trying to hide the blush rising in her cheeks.

  “Um, yes… so...” Mina got up nervously. “I will be separating the funds we already have in an equal amount, with the exception of the construction fund. Those fees will have to be more, but if the Republic donates more, we will have enough for everything else we need.”

  “So, how will we get the Republic interested?” asked a board member.

  “We have to display something to them, to get them to fully fund this project right? So, I was thinking we throw a party, a ball of some sort, and we invite just the Republic and their families,” Mina answered.

  “We supply them with the best cuisine, liquor, cigars, women,” Louie said and smirked.

  “Wait, what?” Mina looked at him confused.

  “Not prostitutes, although that would work,” he shrugged.

  “Louie.” she spoke in a strict tone.

  “Okay, but it just so happens that the perfect date for the ball is the same weekend as the Harp runway show.”

  “Harp? As in Jonathan Harp, the fashion designer?” Mina eyes popped at the mention of her favorite designer.

  Louie smiled. “Yes and he has already agreed to attend the ball and bring his Golden Harp Angels with him.”

  The men on the board smiled to themselves at the thought of the famous and most beautiful models of the world attending the ball.

  “Sounds excellent,” a board member said, and the others agreed, applauding Louie and Mina as they stood before them in the boardroom. Louie clapped himself and nodded at Mina, praising her as the leader of this operation that could reinvent the royal family as people who cared for all Serenians.

  “Meeting adjourned, ladies and gentlemen,” Louie dismissed the board. As the board members cleared out of the room, Tom Powers, one of the oldest board members, approached Louie and Mina. “You two make a good team,” He told them, smiling.

  “Thank you, Tom,” Louie said. “It’s all Mina, though.”

  “Louie, you’ve shocked us all, a good shock at that. The Queen would be proud, Your Highness.”

  Thinking of how much he missed his mother, Louie smiled faintly, overwhelmed by his kind words. “Thank you.”

  “Oh, before, I go, Louie, you need to read over this contract with RGEN for their roles as our sole supplier for the electricity in the centers. If you are planning to expand, this will come in handy.” He handed Louie the contract that was six pages long. “I can wait, if you want?”

  Louie stared at it, and Mina watched as his eyes became lifeless and strained as he looked at it. He cleared his throat and looked at Tom. “Um, I will give this to you tomorrow, okay?”

  “Yes.” Tom left the boardroom and Mina watched a nervous Louie who was scratching the back of his neck. She finally realized how oblivious she was to Louie’s problems that were forgotten by most.

  “Louie.” Louie turned to face her. He flashed a smile, placed the contract on the table, and walked over to the tall window that stared over the downtown capitol.

  “What’s up?” Louie asked, staring at the view, not wanting her to see the anxiety on his face. He didn’t want her to know the truth. Not her.

  “You know,” Mina slowly stepped closer to him while he continued avoiding her. “Since we created this… amazing friendship… I’ve started to notice things about you, things that I misjudged. Every time Sedgwick and I debated the misfortunes of Serenity, you would be brought in the middle of it and he would show you articles, I always thought you were just skimming over them, rather than really reading. I thought you just didn’t care about what was going on. Like that time in high school, when I wrote that essay about free will; everyone read it and praised me for it… except for the King, of course, no shocker there. When Christina passed it to you in the quad to read, you threw it in the trash. I was so pissed that the things you did affected me, but later that week when I was in the castle to see Sedgwick, I stumbled upon you and Bartleby. He was reading my essay to you. Then after that he read the articles on what was going on in Serenity to you. Then he read Sports Magazine to you. I dismissed it because you had pissed me off to the point where I didn’t even want to think of the possibility of the person you tried so hard to display to everyone… was a lie. I dismissed it when you and Sedgwick went to read stories to the sick children at the hospital, but you opted to sneak them out and take them to the zoo. I didn’t know… that Prince Louie, the pain in my ass,” she giggled to herself, “I didn’t know that this whole time, he still couldn’t read.”

  Louie clenched his jaws in anger, and as much he didn’t want to admit, sadness too.

  “You stopped going to classes when your mom died, didn’t you?”

  Louie finally turned around, still standing proud, not letting Mina see a sign of vulnerability, but she did see the strain within him that masked it all.

  “I didn’t stop. My father stopped funding the lessons.” He laughed harshly. “But he didn’t stop funding Sedgwick’s piano and violin lessons… or riding lessons, or math tutoring. Or anything that had something to do with my brother, his pride and joy,” Louie spoke coldly. “It’s amazing how I didn’t turn out to hate Sedgwick as well.”

  “It’s because you’re not capable of hate, Louie. I don’t care what you say.”

  Louie walked to the table and picked up the contract. “Mina, it’s not a big deal. I’ve gotten by just fine with Bartleby and Jezebel reading for me.”

  “No, Louie. It’s not fine.” She snatched the contract out of his hand. “You are going to get back to your lessons, you hear me? You can pay for them yourself. Don’t use your father as a current excuse for something that can be done now.”

  “Mina, I’m twenty-one years old. A grown man, learning to read?”

  “So what?! You talk about change and doing something? Well do this. Do it for you.”

  “I’m okay with not being smart, okay?”

  “Don’t you dare! There is a difference between not being smart and having a learning disability. I swear to you, by not doing this it’s like spitting in the face of other kids who have dyslexia and can’t afford decent tutoring. But you can, Louie. You can supply it all and that’s also what we are adding to this project, professional tutoring for children, especially the ones wi
th learning disabilities.”

  “What?!”

  “You heard me.”

  “Who are you?! The Queen of Serenity?” he yelled.

  “Who are you?! The King?!” she yelled back.

  They stood their ground against each other for a moment, falling into laughter when they realized how petty their argument was. Mina, finally calming down from her laugh, sighed and gazed at her friend.

  “That’s why you sympathize with them, Louie,” she told him. “You are all the forgotten. You were just forgotten in another way. The real you was forgotten.” Mina unintentionally and naturally placed her hand on Louie’s chest, feeling the strong exterior that covered his strong yet soft interior. Louie gazed at her hand on his chest, feeling his breath stop with Mina’s hand on the heart he had guarded all these years. He looked into her eyes as she continued. “You look after me, I look after you, right? That’s how it’s been with us for months. We look after each other.” She smiled at him and he smiled back, placing his hand over hers on his chest and squeezed gently.

  “Yes,” he agreed. “Always.” As the two friends looked into each other’s eyes, a spark ignited between them; a feeling of joy for each other, telling them that this moment, this connection, this attraction… was right. The realization of that feeling made Mina’s smile turn into hunger and she felt faint with the overwhelming feeling she was developing for Louie.

  “Your Highness,” Mina quickly dropped her hand from Louie’s chest when Wesley walked in. She pushed her hair back and wiped the sudden sweat running down her cheek. She was flushed with heat, heat she had never felt with Sedgwick. She couldn’t believe it. She chose to ignore it.

  “Yes?” Louie asked him.

  “The limo is here.”

  Louie nodded and glanced at Mina. “Shall we get going?”

  “Yes,” Mina said, quickly walking out of the board room with Louie following, scared of his heart that was beating faster than normal.

  Look after each other they did, and Louie himself had to get used to being looked after in return. But as Louie stepped up, Sedgwick was getting knocked down by his father’s manipulation. Serenity’s debt was growing daily.

  “Hello,” Caius answered when Bryan pressed the speaker button on his desk phone.

  “Hello, Father,” Sedgwick said. Unbeknownst to both, they were each standing in their offices, staring out their windows with their hands behind their backs, only Sedgwick’s face was filled with fear while Caius’ displayed confidence and a malicious grin.

  “How are you doing, Sedgwick?”

  “I’m fine. We need to talk.”

  “Go ahead.”

  “Serenity is heading for an economic downfall. Our resources are being overlooked because of Magna. We could ask them for help, but statistics show that…” Sedgwick held back, scared to push the unthinkable further.

  “Sedgwick,” Caius looked at the speaker, repeating his name.

  “An alliance with Gibbeth will grant us access to their resources and trade line. That would do us until… a war is declared.”

  Caius smiled to himself. “You are making a good decision, Sedgwick. It is a sacrifice that is crucial for the future. When our army is banded together with Gibbeth’s, Magna might not even go along with a war. Surrender is possible.”

  “But if they don’t?”

  “Then war will be declared.”

  “When will we sign with Gibbeth?”

  “Soon. First you must meet with the King of Gibbeth.”

  “By myself?”

  “Yes, I trust you will do just fine.”

  “Father.”

  “Yes?”

  “We might need to bring back the draft. No one will willingly join a war with Gibbeth.”

  “You’re right. You are absolutely right.” Sedgwick closed his eyes with the relief of finally coming to the hardest decision he ever had to make. He only hoped that Magna would surrender.

  Chapter 11

  Sunflower

  As the weeks passed, Louie and Mina’s connection evolved. It was as if an aura surrounded them when they were together. They felt it every time they were near each other, and it tortured them both. Mina felt it at its worst when she went to the castle to see Louie one day. She had approached his room, but there was no sign of the Prince. She opted to leave until she heard a splash of water coming from inside Louie’s bathroom. She saw the cracked double wide chestnut doors. Steam and smoke had seeped through them as Mina slowly walked up to them.

  When she reached the door, she peeked through the crack and saw Louie in his large tub on the pearl-colored marble floor. I should leave him be, she thought. But she didn’t. She stayed and lingered at the back of Louie’s head that was resting on the rim of the tub attached to the floor.

  Louie, tired from the stress of their Community Center Project, needed a bath to clear his head. He really longed for something soft and female to erase his stress, but lately it was hard for him to do that. Even though, he and Mina were just friends, he felt loyal and committed to her more than ever before.

  He had enough of his bath and sunk his head and body down into the bathwater, savoring the feeling of water, gently surrounding him. Mina, who was still watching, started to back away, but froze in fear and heat as Louie rose from the water and slowly stood in the bathtub. Never in her life did she want to be a tub full of water, but as the naked Prince stood in front of her, she shamelessly longed for something incapable of being. She gazed from top to bottom, from the muscular calves, to the sculpted thighs, and the muscular and firmed backside that made Mina bite her bottom lip, wishing it was the backside that was between her teeth. His back made her imagine him as a lost angel whose wings had just been cut off, exposing beauty that was hypnotizing. To add to the perfect form, water dripped from every inch of his body, looking golden across his skin, causing more than the tub to drip pure wetness.

  Mina’s chest rose as he stretched and stepped out of the tub, giving her a small preview of what was known as the source for all women obsessed with Louie. Women who had the opportunity to experience him on a more intimate level, a level Mina was prohibited from. That was a barrier she would not dare to cross. This is Louie, we are talking about here, she argued. But in that moment, Mina’s view of Louie transcended from friend to unfathomable piece of forbidden fruit, fruit so delectable to the eye that she couldn’t help but wonder if the gossip amongst the young maids, the girls from school, and wives of rich men was true.

  As Louie grabbed his towel, drying himself off, Mina backed away in fear of getting caught of intruding on his private moment. Louie himself felt a presence and turned around and walked back into his room, but Mina was already gone.

  +

  Weeks had passed and everything was going well with the construction of the center. Louie and Mina spent most of their time there, looking over the process and bonding with the few children there. Louie would play soccer with Jamie and his friends, sometimes with his shirt off. Mina would sneak a few quick glances, thinking about the time she had seen him in the bathroom that day. She couldn’t get that time out of her head. And while she started to notice things about Louie, the world started to notice relations changing between Serenity and Magna.

  Anchorwoman: A large decline in the number of Magnan immigrants granted access into Serenity is bringing many theories and rumors amongst the royal court.

  Witness: I filled out all the right papers and they still didn’t let me or my children in.

  Anchorwoman: The Republic have said that they have talked to His Majesty, the King, who says it is just a temporary setback due to overpopulation and a high percentage of unemployment that has been a big thorn in Serenity’s economy. Strikes have been formed by protesters who continue to question King Caius’ involvement in the lower and middle class.

  Witness: He doesn’t care about us, none of them do. I worked for the mail service for twenty-eight years and they dump me with nothing but a pat on the back. My health ins
urance was cut off and my pension is being held for evaluation. That’s bull, what evaluation?! Those son of a *BLEEP* fired me!”

  Anchorwoman: And while there are cons being brought to light there are also pros. Prince Louie is linked to a Serenity community outreach development. Prince Louie’s council reports that His Highness is redeveloping centers that his mother, our late Queen, was most famous for when she reigned. They also say Louie is planning expansion for the foundation throughout the country. Meanwhile his brother is also showing his part. Crown Prince Sedgwick visited the Children’s Hospital in York City today. Our future King has been running the Serenity national treasury headquarters in Loren City, and even though Serenity is seen by some as having a high risk for downfall, he assures us there is a plan to put us back on track.

  Louie turned off the television in the limo. “Well, at least they’re saying something good about me for once.”

  “Not true. They do say good things. They talk about how hot you are. Remember when you were voted sexiest guy twenty-five and under in WV Magazine last year?”

  Mina grinned at him while he laughed. “Don’t remind me of that photo shoot.”

  “I thought you liked being worshipped by women.”

  “It has its moments, but you get claustrophobic at some point.”

  “Sure, you do.” Mina stared out the window while Louie stared at her.