Monarchy

by Erasmus, Nicola

  “Gwen, this is crazy” Elsie said with a yawn.

  “No, Princess. This is living!” Gwen shouted from the bathroom.

  Chapter 8

  Elsie felt uncomfortable in the jeans she hadn’t worn for years. Gwen borrowed her a somewhat revealing top she tried her best to hide with her coat. The guard at the gate was the first person they encountered. Elsie felt her heart beat faster as the guard looked up at them walking across the court yard but he tactically looked the other way when they left the palace grounds.

  “Where are we going, Gwen?” Elsie whispered as they walked through the deserted park.

  “I told you, out.”

  “This isn’t right. We’re going to be in a whole lot of trouble if this gets out” Elsie said looking around uncomfortably. “Where exactly are we going?”

  “There’s this little backstreet club on the other side of the park. They play old music, really nostalgic” Gwen finally said.

  “Old music?”

  “Not like Elvis and the Beatles. The nineties and early two thousands mostly. You know, almost old music.”

  “And you know about this how?”

  Gwen laughed. “This isn’t the first time I snuck out, Elsie.”

  They reached the street beyond the park and Gwen led them in the direction of a dark alley. Elsie could hear a muffled beat even before she saw the faded sign above a side entrance. ‘Cobain’ it read.

  The club was much larger than Elsie expected. Smoke hung in the air and people screamed at each other over the sound of a song she hadn’t heard in ages.

  “GWEN?” a girl with a green wig screamed at them suddenly.

  “In the flesh” Gwen answered as the girl threw her arms around her in a hug.

  “And Princess Elsie?” Elsie recognized the girl now as being the eldest daughter of their neighbor, the Baron of Sign.

  “Can I get you something to drink?” she asked them.

  “Whiskey thanks” Gwen answered surveying the crowd.

  “Just water for me, thanks” Elsie squeaked.

  Gwen saw somebody else in the crowd and set off in their direction.

  “Gwen?” Elsie yelled and followed her like a lost child.

  “Hi” Gwen yelled to a handsome young man leaning over a rail with a beer in hand.

  “Hi” he yelled back with a smile and turned to face them. Elsie gasped in shock and the man almost dropped his beer.

  “Your…Your highness” Sir Windsbury stuttered at the sight of Elsie. She barely recognized him with his jeans and messy hair. “It’s…it’s my night off and…”

  “Oh, we won’t say anything if you don’t, John.” Gwen patted him playfully on the shoulder.

  “Do they know that you’re out?” he whispered to Gwen.

  “Of course not. Come, Elsie, they’re playing our song.”

  Elsie knew the song and the serene piano sounds brought back fond memories of her and Gwen jumping on the bed as children. “I shouldn’t.” she declined.

  “Come.” Gwen dragged her to the middle of the crowded dance floor. Elsie looked around frantically for a moment but nobody was looking at them. There were no bows or bending knees. To the rest of the club they were just two young girls out to have a good time. Gwen started to sway to the beat of the song. “Dance, Elsie.”

  Elsie felt embarrassed. Apart from a few waltzes at balls she hadn’t danced in public before. She made small movements with her feet still looking around expecting to be recognized at any second.

  Gwen threw her hands above her head and turned around. She was doing the moves they choreographed themselves years ago. Elsie relaxed and closed her eyes. They were in Gwen’s room, dancing to a mix tape she got from a friend at school.

  Gwen sung with the chorus waving her arms around. They were still invisible to the crowd around them and Elsie joined in leaving the troubles of being royal behind for the first time in her life.

  It was already early morning when they snuck back into the palace quite noisily. The guard once again looked the other way when they returned. This time with a smile.

  “They don’t say anything?” Elsie asked Gwen.

  “Not as far as I know. Used to sneak out regularly when I was your age and a bit older. Mother caught me once but said nothing about it.”

  “So, you just decided to walk out the front door one night and coincidently found a small nightclub hidden in a backstreet alley?” Elsie asked doubtfully.

  “Not exactly” Gwen answered. “John snuck me out the backdoor the first time when I was sixteen.”

  “Sir Windsbury?” Elsie had another perception of the knight that quietly stood by their side day after day. He was the youngest man ever to receive the honor in their kingdom. When he was nineteen he saved an important diplomat’s toddler from drowning in one of the garden ponds. He was just a waiter at the function but he impressed the King so much with his chivalry that he was appointed as the King’s assistant chamber gent immediately. He was knighted a few months later and given the option to leave the palace as a nobleman but he just accepted the title and chose to remain by the King’s side.

  “He wasn’t a ‘sir’ yet back then. Just John” Gwen said his name with a sort of tenderness.

  “Wait” Elsie said as they headed for the stairs. Gwen turned around curiously and shook her head when Elsie gestured in the direction of the throne room.

  “You know we’re not supposed to” she said with a gleeful smile.

  “We’re in a lot of trouble as it is already. Come on, we haven’t done this since forever” Elsie was trying to hold on to the feeling she had experienced the whole night. The two of them, on a royal adventure just like when they were small.

  “Oh, alright but if we get caught it was all your idea” Gwen laughed.

  “Yesss” Elsie whispered and pushed open the throne room door. It was a long room with a high ceiling adorned with hanging tapestries. At the far end two thrones stood on a stage, flanked by marble busts of their grandmother and grandfather. They stood marveled at the magnificent room they’ve seen so many times before yet couldn’t grow tired of. Gwen approached the rose hanging that hid a secret entrance off to the side of the room. “Are you coming?” she whispered, careful not for their voices to carry in the cavernous hall.

  Elsie nodded excited and followed her into the so-called treasure room. The crown jewels were displayed here in glass boxes and on velvet cushions. Elsie and Gwen’s golden tiara’s they received for their thirteenth birthday each, stood side by side next to a large dressing table with a very poufy pedestal. Gwen picked up hers and flayed herself down in front of the mirror.

  “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” Gw
en 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.