Anna was delivered to Nathalie's house by Raine and Hegge, from where she would be taken to the Commissioner. Seton had not wanted to come. He had not wanted to say goodbye to Anna in public, not wanting to get her into any trouble by having rumours started.

Anna did not speak much on the way. She was too nervous.

The Commissioner was not surprised to see them, since he had been phoned by Seton who had prepared him for the event. He drove the silent Anna through the gates of the Palace, where he stunned the guards with his passenger and then he delivered her to the highest-ranking Palace official who appeared after her entrance.

"Thank you," said Anna when he left.

However, Nathalie and Anna did not notice that they were observed by a member of Unit 14, who reported the strange occurrence of the Queen being taken to police headquarters to T.

"Summon the Prime Minister," Anna ordered as she walked into her office, ignoring everyone of the staff who expressed their gladness at seeing her back home. Of course they would express their joy, but did they mean it. It all meant so little. Had they even missed her? Had they been happy with the brief respite from work they had had or had it caused them more work? She did not recall what happened to her since she had come in. It had been a bit overwhelming and only be exercising very much self-control had she been able to restrain herself from running off screaming or crying.

Her office looked the same as it had done before she had left, as if she had never been away. The documents she had to sign were still on her desk -- nothing could happen without her signature anyway. If they thought she would dive into that pile straight away, they were wrong. It held even less appeal for her than ever.

She actually did not know what she had come here for. Her main motivation had been to get away from all the insincere professions of "I'm glad to see you" that only made her feel embarrassed. Perhaps some of them genuinely meant it and she should not be so unfair to them, but to hear the same words over and over again and still act as if it was the first time had never been her strongest point.

All her relatives were probably out at the moment, since she had not seen any one of them yet, and she was not the kind to check their apartments to say she was home. This left her completely alone with only members of the staff running around her, people she was not at all intimate with. There was always a barrier between them. When she was a child, she had often been chided for being too friendly to the staff. Consequently, there was nobody she could confide in and this homecoming was like a cold shower. She desperately wished that there would be someone who would welcome her back because they had missed her, and not because they felt it was their duty. When Anna felt such feelings of loneliness she always sought refuge in virtual reality. She had some good friends who emailed her without knowing who she was. She was just Anna.

Sometime when she was replying to one of them, her grandmother hurried in. Undoubtedly she had been warned by some lackey or secretary. "Anna, childie!" she embraced her. "You're back."

"Yes, Grandma." Anna had trouble keeping her eyes dry.

"Let me look at you. What did they do to you? You look well enough."

"Nothing," Anna sniffed.

"How did you get back? Did they let you go?"

"Yes…" That was all Anna could say.

"How did you get here?"

"The Commissioner brought me here."

"Tell me what happened, childie."

"Gran, can you keep a secret?"

"Yes, childie. You know that."

"I was used."

"Used?" her grandmother repeated with a concerned expression. "You do not mean physically?"

"Physically? Oh, uhh no. Not like that. They thought I would not notice or protest if I was kidnapped," Anna said bitterly. "For their own purpose. And they lied to everyone."

"Anna, I don't follow you." Her grandmother took her to the couch and sat her down.

"Some people ordered to have me abducted in order to rescue me."

"That sounds very odd. Are you sure? How do you know?"

"It has to be so. It's the only explanation."

"But who would do that? Have you become paranoid?"

"No, Gran," Anna said patiently. She understood that it was difficult to accept. "But don't worry. I'm back now."

"Has the Information Service been notified yet?"

"Probably," Anna looked morose. "They probably want me to go out and parade."

"Won't you like to show that you're alright?" Her grandmother knew the answer to this already. Anna would not like it.

"No, what do the people care?"

"Anna! Many people were very worried about you."

"Sure."

"Really, childie. It's only polite to make an appearance."

"But I don't want to talk to anyone."

"The Information Service will do that for you. They will know what you should do."

Anna did not doubt that she would be besieged by public relations people, press officers, government officials and the like very soon and they would all have their own theory about what she should do. She did not want to talk to them and have them force some decision on her like it usually happened. They would concoct some plausible tale from the facts they would receive from her, but often they would just invent something plausible, based on what they thought would be the effects of the statement. She could not have them spread some fantasy story in this case, however. No matter how much she disliked it, she would have to take control.

Rather impatiently she suffered the PR circus and their ideas and she had almost perverse pleasure in shattering a glass to get their attention when some of them already threatened to walk off without waiting for her approval. Some of the people were so used to always getting their way that they assumed that this was just another occasion on which they spouted their ideas for the sake of formality and then get to work. They looked very amazed and shocked when the glass shattered and even more so when Anna said "no. You will not give out any statements to anyone until you receive orders from me."

"But Your Majesty --" somebody dared to protest.

Don't give in! Don't bend! Stick to my point! Anna straightened her back and gave the man an icy stare. "Until you receive orders from me. Unless you would like to be dismissed. Is that clear?" She waited until some people nodded reluctantly. "Very good." She knew some kind of photo session would be good, but she had no idea how to organise this. If she asked one of them, they would take it out of her hands and turn it into some media show and she did not want that, so she told them she wanted Nathalie and a photographer. "I want them in here at three," she haphazardly named a time. She supposed that half an hour would be enough time to get them here, since they were all based in the same city. "That is two people, no more. I don't care which one of you orders them."

"Your Majesty, you cannot speak to the press yourself."

"Excuse me, does this concern your person or mine? You cannot tell me what I can and cannot do."

When they were gone she exhaled and felt that she had been very tense throughout. Her heart was beating very rapidly and she needed a while to calm down. The glass splinters were still on the floor, something she became aware of when she paced her office after she had taken off her shoes. "Ouch," she cried and a small red stain coloured her tights. She rang for someone to vacuum-clean the floor.

Nathalie and a photographer were shown in at a few minutes past three. "Thank you," Anna said formally to the person who had shown them in. "That will be all."

"Sorry, traffic," Nathalie apologised. She noticed that Anna acted differently -- more sure of herself when she shook their hands.

"That's all right," Anna apologised. "Three o'clock just popped out and then I wasn't sure if you could make it, but it was too late to take back."

Not so different after all. "It was enough."

"Ahh…" Anna frowned. "I thought people should know that I came back, but I didn't want a proliferation of wild stories or mysterious statements from the Government Information Service, so I thought I'd keep it in my own hands."

"What do you want?" Nathalie asked. "I think some people already know. There was quite a crowd outside the gates."

"It's amazing how quickly news spreads," Anna agreed. "You can do a story with photographs, even though I hate to have picture taken, and you know roughly what you can write, don't you? I'm not leaving the Palace. I'm really sorry for people who'd like to see me, but I just can't. If it can happen once, it can happen twice. I don't feel safe outside."

"You can get out on the balcony," Nathalie suggested.

"I suppose I must," Anna said in resignation.

Nathalie had the photographer take a few pictures and when Marie-Celeste arrived, the sisters did not mind to repeat their hug another time for a picture. "The public likes emotions," she said with approval. The Queen displaying some sort of emotion was an oddity and it would go down well with the readers. They did not like machines.

Grandma had kept the other members of the family at a distance, but when the journalists had gone, they all came to greet Anna. Pictures of this would undoubtedly score even higher, Marie-Celeste thought, but this was much more private.

The Prime Minister had arrived too and Anna did not mind at all to keep him waiting. "I'm back," she said in an icy tone when she joined him.

"So I see," he said, studying her carefully. Women who had been crying -- her eyes were slightly red -- were weak and therefore posed no threats.

"I summoned you here at one-thirty -- why did you not come straight away?" she demanded.

"I was busy."

Anna raised her eyebrows. "Ahh. And that was more important, I gather? The fact that I was abducted -- that a head of state was abducted -- is not important to you, it seems," she said coolly. She did not know she had it in her to speak so coolly. "For someone who is supposed to defend the interests of the people you are remarkably indifferent about the fact that the symbol of the nation --" Anna did not see herself as such, really, "-- was attacked. What is indefinitely worse is that a representative of the people had a hand in this deception. The way I see it, Prime Minister, you failed as a representative of the people. You deceived them and betrayed the trust they placed in you when they elected your party, by using the power thus acquired so selfishly. You do not deserve to remain in place. I shall take the appropriate measures to remedy it."

He was silent for a brief moment. "Your Majesty --"

"Don't be so hypocritical as to feign respect for me!" Anna spat out. "You have proved all too well that you do not have any respect for either my position or my person."

"Madam, you are mistaken."

"I am not."

"I was not in any way responsible for your abduction."

"A Prime Minister is always responsible for the actions of his government's employees and he is also responsible for the safety of the head of state, and he should not jeopardise her. In my opinion, you have not done all you could do and you are to blame, either way. Therefore I must dismiss you --"

"You cannot do that."

"I cannot? Says who? I am constitutionally empowered to do that." Marie-Celeste had said so and Anna hoped it was true.

"I could accuse you of neglecting your duties." He did not know yet how, but he would think of something.

"In which way?"

"You know how."

"Your threat does not convince me. You cannot accuse me of something I did not do. It is not I who have been neglecting my duties, it is you. It would be too good of me to allow you the choice between going and being sent, so I won't." She would sack him before he could resign.

"You cannot dismiss me without destabilising the country."

Anna's eyes flashed contemptuously. "You should have thought of that before you carried out your despicable scheme."

"You are determined, then?" the Prime Minister asked.

"Quite," Anna answered coldly.

"I ask that you grant me some time to think about it."

Thinking time was dangerous when it was impossible to see what he would come up with next. He would try to wriggle out of it for certain, she knew. "No."

"But you can't get anything done on a Sunday, anyway," he pointed out. "You have got to wait until tomorrow."

Anna folded her hands. Conversations that had been tucked away somewhere deep down in her memory drifted back to the surface. You're just saying that to make it more palatable when you know as well as I do that I can't do anything, she had always replied to her professors when they had tried to stress some aspect of her future function. But maybe she had been wrong. "You have to be stopped. Who knows what else you're plotting, pretending to be a representative of the people you are deceiving."

"In this day and age, people have more faith in the people's representative than in God's representative on earth, the monarch," the PM mocked.

He looked too confident of himself and it strengthened Anna's determination even more. "The people will prefer honesty over deceit."

"You couldn't care less about the people, Madam, and they know it. Neglecting your duties has not made you very popular. I am the better media player."

Anna narrowed her eyes. But you're an ugly man and I'm a pretty woman. I think. They say. It might be true. "You forget, sir, that many people only judge with their eyes and that I am by far the better looking of the two of us. Besides, if I give them what they want, they'll give me what I want." That was the reverse of how she usually acted -- only becoming less reserved when people were friendly and open to her. She figured it would also work the other way. Why should it not? "But, Mr. Keller," she purposely avoided his title, "I had hoped we could conclude this discreetly without having to resort to a vulgar media war, but since you did not want to resign, I shall have to dismiss you."

"Of course I shall not resign. I was elected by the people. I shall not budge for one person. I don't pay attention to minority votes."

"I don't vote. I veto," Anna said calmly.

Hendrik?

"Yes?" Hendrik answered, still tapping the keys of his computer.

Can you see who's calling?

"No, but I recognise your voice. Why are you out of my data system, John? You should be in it. Where have you gone? Did someone remove your data?" Every caller was neatly identified and a information screen popped up with all the known details of the caller, unless he was being called from a public phone. He was still working on filtering the public phone calls from his phone. But now he only received the phone company's information -- last name, initials and home address -- and not the coloured box that indicated that the caller was a colleague and whatever other information they had on him.

Peter did that. Can you do me a favour?

"Depends."

Don't be a pain.

"Alright. Spout." Hendrik left his computer alone for a while.

"If I wanted to listen to that boring crap, yeah. I could tamper with the line. He wouldn't notice anyway."

"What for?"

"Sounds…intriguing. What have you done?"

"Heh, no. Okay, I'll get his calls." Hendrik had been used a few times himself and one time he had had to spend a whole weekend working on the phone lines when he had wanted to do something fun.

Thalen not long afterwards called the PM. "One of my men saw that the Queen was released."

Where?

"She was dropped off at the journalist's house. You know - the one who knew too much? Then the journalist took her to the police headquarters. I suppose the police took her back to the Palace."

"Does she have any?"

Anna had felt she had to take some exercise after her talk to the Prime Minister and so she had gone swimming in the Palace's private pool. Because she was angry, she started out at an aggressive pace, but it slackened when she grew a little tired. The rhythmic gurgling and splashing of the water which accompanied her more steady strokes calmed her nerves, as she endlessly repeated the conversation and tried to analyse whether she had said the right things.

After a few thousand metres she climbed out and headed for the whirlpool, which had been installed at her cousin's instigation and surprisingly it was empty. He usually came for a daily soak around this time. Anna slid in and enjoyed the warm water and the bubbles. This naturally led to more pleasant thoughts than the PM -- to thoughts of far more pleasant things -- one far more pleasant person, in fact, and the pleasantness of that morning. Only several hours ago. It seemed so long ago already.

"Anna! Who are you dreaming of?" a man's voice shouted in her ear and splashed water over her face.

Anna spluttered and blinked the water from her eyes as she shot up. "Ugh! Oh hello."

Her cousin Charles-Louis grinned as if he enjoyed himself enormously, which was probably true. He often enjoyed himself enormously. "May we join you? This is my friend David." He jumped in without waiting for her answer.

She looked at his friend. He looked about her age, while Charles-Louis, who was the son of her father's cousin, was a little older than she was. David looked very nice, even if he seemed a little afraid of her, perhaps of her reaction. He should not be. She had known about Charles-Louis' friends for ages. She shook his hand and smiled.

Louis grinned still. "Ahh! Anna darling, were you dreaming of sitting in front of the fire in your country house with a gorgeous man, your six children and your two golden retrievers again?"

Anna looked a little guilty. Except from the fire, the six children and the two golden retrievers, he was pretty much on target and maybe the fire, the six children and the two golden retrievers were quite a good idea, actually. "Maybe."

"Anna is my cousin the Queen," Louis said to David. "In case you had not recognised her with wet hair. I suspect her of having some very odd fantasies. By the way, Anna. When did you get your hair cut? You left with far longer hair. Did one of the kidnappers cut it for you?"

"Yes."

"Gosh! What else did he do? Manicures? Pedicures? Massages?"

"The whole lot."

"So…" Louis said slowly. "You were just kidding us! You weren't kidnapped. Someone gave you a make-over at a beauty farm for Christmas."

"Yes!" Anna smiled. "Should I get a refund? Nobody else noticed."

"But why did he cut your hair?"

"Because I asked him to."

"So you were not gagged? Not bound and gagged on a chair? Some of us worried about that, although your mother said that they would not dare."

"No, I wasn't gagged. Can I tell you a little secret? Apart from the beginning it was not really frightening," said Anna. "I was only afraid to go back, because at least I was safe where I was. I don't dare go out now either. Don't ask me any more about it. I can't tell you yet."

"Would you dare to go somewhere with us, though?"

"Maybe. Where?"

"Ahh! That's a surprise but keep Friday free."

"Alright. I might feel more safe on Friday." She looked at her waterproof watch and saw that she would have to hurry if she wanted to make herself presentable for dinner. "I've got to get dressed now."

Charles-Louis stared after her when she walked away. "Strange," he commented to his friend. "I wouldn't allow a kidnapper to touch my hair and it's not as if there was any pressing need to have her hair cut. It looked just fine on Monday."

The Commissioner wondered if Anna was really safe. If it had been possible to bribe her bodyguards once, then perhaps it was possible another time. He did not know who had approached them, but somebody must have approached them in person, because their superior claimed not to know anything. Since the whole security service was a special police division and the Commissioner was rather high up in the police hierarchy, he did not think it likely that the man in question would have lied, but he had alerted the man to the possibility of bribery and he had informed him about the real fate of the two bodyguards.

His family was used to him being called away in the middle of everything and they had not been surprised when he had left earlier that day. When he returned they were watching the news. "I suppose you've already heard the news," his wife remarked when he did not display any surprise over seeing Anna on her balcony.

"Yes. I drove her there."

"What?" cried his daughters. "How?"

"In a car."

"Yeah, but how?"

"I can't tell you that. It's a police secret."

They looked disappointed. "So you talked to her? Is she brilliant or is she stupid?"

"Why do you ask?"

"One of my lecturers apparently taught her, like, one course, and it's one of his hobbies to tell us she was brilliant -- but we just think he says that because he's so proud of being able to say that's she's been in his class -- and then I have this other professor who's been teaching her several courses about politics and he always mocks that Queen Anna loved his courses so much that she took every exam at least six times and then still wouldn't say anything at the sixth exam, so he'd get the King telling him to give Anna a pass."

"I wonder if anybody ever thought of sending the girl to a psychologist." But he wondered about this piece of information. If she had been so uninterested in politics and so disastrous at oral exams, would she be able to stand up against an experienced politician?

Seton had wanted to call Anna, but he had been worried that she would not like to be called. By the time it finally occurred to him that he would not know unless he called, he faced the problem of not knowing whether she had gone to bed yet. Judging by the time she had gone to bed in the past few days, she would already be asleep.

Anna had an uneventful evening with her relatives. She was glad that at a certain point they seemed to have forgotten that she had been away and they no longer paid any special attention to her. They seemed to accept the fact that she did not want to say more than that someone threw her over his shoulder and into the back of a van, that she had been treated well and that they had let her go. It was not lying. She could not lie. It was not telling everything.

When she went to bed, she made up many excuses for why John had not called her. Men did not call right away. He had seen her only this morning. He could not have anything to say. She did, but she did not want to call him lest she come across as a puppy following him around.

In the morning, she met with her advisors and without going into too much detail, she told them she wanted to dismiss the Prime Minister. They tried to dissuade her from it, as it would undoubtedly raise questions, but Anna was adamant. She would risk the commotion that would follow. Fortunately, Marie-Celeste backed her up and together they convinced the advisors.

Anna had decided before the meeting that she would carry out all the engagements that had already been planned, to give a semblance of normality, although she would not take on new ones for a while. Her engagements were usually planned long in advance, but there was not a lot on the agenda for this week between Christmas and New Year, and it would not be too much to handle.

She was a bit apprehensive about leaving the Palace and the day before she had said she would never leave it again, but today she realised that she would have to leave it eventually, so perhaps it was best to do the scary thing right away.

Her private secretary -- whom she did not yet trust again completely, thinking of the fake brunch -- had rang the children's hospital where Anna was supposed to open a new wing, asking whether all the festivities were still taking place. They were and the hospital was overjoyed that she would come. They had not been counting on it. The private secretary pressed the hospital not to ask Anna about her experiences, which they promised they would not.

In the car, Anna checked her phone and saw that she had a message. There was a lady-in-waiting accompanying her, as well as the chauffeur and a bodyguard, but none of them would be able to read the messages on her phone. Seton had sent her a lengthy SMS during the night and she kept sending him replies until the car arrived at the hospital. However, it had brought a smile to her face that she was not even aware of and she looked genuinely pleased to be there, but she would have been pleased to be anywhere. She even forgot to be afraid of another kidnapping.

She was greeted with speeches in the reception hall, to which she paid good attention. There would be a tour following and she could refer back to information she had received during the speeches if she needed to say anything. After coffee and cake she was taken around the wards. Here and there the party paused as the doctors explained things.

One impertinent boy with a broken leg shocked all the doctors by yelling right through an explanation of how much the ward had cost. "Will you sign my leg?"

"Well," said Anna. "With what?"

"With this marker!"

She walked towards the boy, who was about seven years old, and wrote Anna in very small letters.

He was dismayed. "No, bigger! And if you only write Anna I can never brag about it. I'll tell you what to write," and dictated her a lengthy message. "To the wonderful Jeffrey, with many greetings and kisses from Queen Anna."

"Umm…alright," Anna smiled, ignoring the looks from the doctors. She took care to write it a lot bigger this time, nearly filling the whole cast.

"Yes!" he said triumphantly, looking at the result.

When Anna got home, she inquired how matters stood with her advisors. They were busy researching and preparing the necessary documents. Because she did not doubt that the news had already leaked out, she summoned the Vice Prime Minister and the leader of the biggest party of the opposition, after which she replied to another SMS message.

The Vice Prime Minister was a sharp woman of fifty-two, the Minister of Home Affairs, and the opposition leader was a few years older. They were surprised to be called to a meeting with Anna and Marie-Celeste, and with no other people present -- not even a secretary or an assistant.

Anna soon discovered that neither knew anything about what had really happened. The opposition leader would never have been told, but since the Minister belonged to the same party as the Prime Minister, it was not unlikely that he had told her things. "I'm dismissing the PM," she said.

"That's a drastic step," the opposition leader remarked.

"I have to do it."

"It would not serve any interests to make public what the reasons for that are," Marie-Celeste emphasised. "It should remain between us."

The Minister nodded. "But of course."

"Were you not pleased with the way he handled the kidnapping?" the opposition leader asked.

Anna shook her head. "Didn't anything strike you as odd about the way he handled it?"

"Well, I thought he was pretty confident that he could resolve it, when it did not seem easy at all."

"To him it was easy," said Marie-Celeste. "He had a hand in it."

"The PM?" the Minister exclaimed. Both looked amazed.

Anna poured herself another glass of water and nodded. "Yes, I'm afraid so. He ordered it himself, just so he could play the hero."

"But that's ridiculous!" the Minister said incredulously.

"I know and that's why I think he doesn't belong where he is. He should go. Only I'm not sure how to resolve this without it leaking out to the public. I have my reasons for obscuring the truth. Personal reasons. And the supposed kidnappers, who of course are not kidnappers at all, I mean, they were set up, and…ugh…you talk," Anna nudged Marie-Celeste. Of course she could never reveal what had happened between her John. If that ever leaked out, Hollywood would undoubtedly turn the story into some horribly bad film. Anything was turned into a film these days. Come to think of it, all that had to leak out to get either the tabloids or Hollywood started, was the fact that she had spent a few days in a house with four men. As if she had not spent time with only men before. Anna could name a few occasions on which she had been the only woman among more than ten men. Some of those had been cousins, others bodyguards, and others chauffeurs and the cook.

"Apparently a security team was told it was an exercise," Marie-Celeste continued calmly, as if she did not wonder very much about Anna's personal reasons. "And now everybody thinks they are kidnappers. Do you understand? And they are not, otherwise they would never have allowed me to speak with them a few days ago."

"You spoke with them a few days ago?" the opposition leader asked. "When Her Majesty was still kidnapped?"

"Yes. A journalist and I went over and talked to them about the situation. They were very…concerned about Anna's safety."

"And I know this will be a difficult thing to swallow," Anna cut in. "But I chose to stay with them because I did not know what awaited me in the outside world. I'm in a mess," she whispered.

"So, tell me if I'm correct," the Minister said slowly. "You were kidnapped by people who thought it was an exercise, and then somehow you all discovered this miscommunication and you all hid out?"

Anna nodded. "Yes," she said softly.

"And what about the people you were with? Who were they?"

"They work for a man called Thalen." That was all Anna was going to say about them. There was no need to identify them by name.

The Minister frowned. "He comes under me."

"I thought so. That's why I asked you to come. He's just as wrong as the PM, for setting up his own men. Can't you dismiss him?"

"Before I start dismissing people, I must know a little more," said the Minister, implying that Anna might be a paranoid lunatic, whom she would not believe immediately. "Do you have any evidence?"

"I don't, but they might…wouldn't the fact that I was free to go be evidence enough?"

"They might just have given up because it proved to be too difficult."

"But Celeste was there and she can tell you…"

Marie-Celeste nodded. "There was no coercion. Anna was free to do as she pleased. I believe they were speaking the truth, even though they refused to show me any credentials."

"Probably because you wouldn't be able to tell a fake from a real one. He did show his card to the Commissioner two nights ago."

"So behind the scenes you met with your sister, the Commissioner, a journalist…anyone else?" the opposition leader asked curiously.

Anna frowned. Yes, all the Setons. But she could not say that. "No, isn't that enough? I don't know what to do. Maybe I shouldn't have told you."

"Yes, you should," said her sister. "You wouldn't have wanted them to support the PM, would you?"

"I'm not cut out for this sort of work," Anna sighed in despair. "I wish it was all over."

On Tuesday, Anna read the reports of her visit to the hospital in the papers. They were favourable without exception. The day before, the media had been rather guarded about her sudden return, because it was not accompanied by a clear and satisfying explanation. Nathalie had written a good piece, Anna thought, which said enough without going into details and the pictures -- although she disliked seeing her own pictures -- were good too, but the other newspapers were merely speculating about what had happened.

The news that she wanted to dismiss the Prime Minister had also leaked out, which had been inevitable. Fortunately, most papers seemed to be taking up the position that she was displeased with the way he had handled the kidnapping. The fact that not all of them found this a legitimate reason did not really bother Anna. Again today there was some criticism on her for taking such a drastic step, although some people also applauded her for it.

The international world seemed to sigh in relief that she had returned, because it took away the need to intervene. She had spent a considerable time answering calls from colleagues and government leaders who all felt that they had to express their opinion on her return, and still today the phone kept ringing off the hook. It drove her private secretary quite crazy.

"Yes, I'm very glad to be back," Anna replied to someone over the phone, while she was typing a reply to a joke someone sent her by email. "Yes, I agree. No, I don't think there's any need to do that. That's quite under control, thank you. I appreciate your concern. No, I don't think it was them. Yes, I'm dismissing the Prime Minister and no, I'm not destabilising the country. On the contrary. I don't know if there will be any uproar, but to be very politically incorrect, we are in northern Europe and such things don't happen here. You needn't worry. Yes. Yes, thank you. Bye." She sighed as she hung up. It might be easier to put some standard message on her voice mail, since everybody required the same answer.

The rest of the day was spent in much the same way, with a few meetings in between. Her advisors were getting along nicely with the dismissal procedure and she needed not worry about that. She had ordered them to inform her about any arising difficulties, but so far there had been none. All the claims on her time barely left her any time to exercise and she was shifting in her chair almost nervously. She was so used to exercising that she was left with an excess of energy whenever she did not. When there finally was a lull in the stream of phone calls, she ran off and made herself unreachable. It had to be done now, as there was a dinner she had to attend at night. It was her policy not to accept more than two dinners or lunches a week. The food she had to eat on such occasion was not always to her liking and often she had to resort to pre-dinner or post-dinner snacks.

Seton, Raine, Gris and Hegge had split up and they had left her summerhouse. She did not know where they were now -- he had not mentioned that in his messages, but only that they had left the house in good order and with the dishes and the laundry all done. As if she cared that the dishes were done, she had replied, but he had answered only one word to that: vermin. She did not quite understand what he meant by that and had asked him where the vermin would come from if it was not there now and if he locked all the doors and windows, but he did not think it warranted more than gaaaahhh for an answer. Thoroughly puzzled, Anna went for a swim and a bubble session with Charles-Louis.

"Where are you going tomorrow?" he asked. "Have you got time to do lunch?"

"Umm…I think not. I'm scheduled to go to that tennis thing. Oh, tennis!" she exclaimed suddenly. It had been rather stupid of her not to make the connection.

"What, oh, tennis?" he asked.

"I just thought of something," she said with barely concealed excitement.

"Something exciting, apparently."

She could not tell him that she knew a tennis player when she was not supposed to know him. She had to wait until the proper occasion for reintroduction had presented itself. "Umm…well, I happen to like sportsmen, but I suppose they will all be younger than I am," she sighed in resignation, thinking that she had saved herself pretty well there. John had not messaged her about it at all, so it was not likely and he said that he had not been playing well the past few years, so he might not have any business there.

Nevertheless, she was rather anxious when she went to the tennis stadium the next day. His name had not been among yesterday's results in that morning's newspaper, which had been a little disappointing, especially since her eye had caught Seton somewhere, but it had been P. Seton. Perhaps they had not finished all of the first round matches yesterday. It was unlikely that they had. If not, then perhaps he would play today. Did the addition of an initial not signify that there were two players of the same name? Or perhaps Patrick -- if it was him -- would play again today and John would come to watch him. That was also a possibility.

She had sent him an SMS last night: Playing tennis tomorrow? and she had only received the rather mysterious I'm always playing tennis in return, which was enormously frustrating. Especially since he was much more elaborate in his replies to her 'business' messages about how things stood with the dismissal procedure. Anna had spent several hours analysing the short sentence, but she had not reached a definite conclusion about its meaning. She had replied Tell me re: tennis! and several short messages that he probably had not been able to follow because they came right in between the serious messages, but he had only asked her if she needed lessons, so she had given up.

She tried another message from the car. Getting seriously frustrated!!!!!!!!!! He had to be aware that he was evading her questions.

A few traffic lights later, a little bleep announced an incoming message. I miss you too, darling.

"Oh, get stuffed," Anna replied huffily, drawing some curious looks from the other occupants of the car. She cursed the fact that she was never alone. It had prevented her from calling him directly and that was why they had taken to messaging, but she had no more time to send him an answer now, because they had arrived at the stadium.

The man who ran the whole tournament turned out to be very nice, which was a good thing, because Anna knew she would be forced to spend most of the day with him.

Seton had not been teasing her on purpose. He had merely been rather puzzled by some of her messages. Sometimes he could really not make any sense of her extremely concise style of writing, especially when he could not link the message to any previous one, such as argh! Argh what? He had no idea and neither did he know why she was mentioning tennis in the middle of a serious discourse about the PM. It was incongruous to say the least. Yes, he was playing tennis today, but he had not wanted to say so, because he did not want her to come and see him get wiped off the court.

He spoke to the tournament director as soon as he arrived, because he knew him well. "The Queen is coming today," the man said proudly. It was quite an honour, so he had reason to be proud.

"Oh no," said Seton in shock. She can't be coming! But after his initial shock had worn off, he realised that he would see her and that made him rather happy. "Oh terrific, I mean." He would figure out a way to talk to her.

"Oh no," said Anna in the same shocked tone when she looked over today's matches. She nearly dropped the paper.

"I beg your pardon?" asked the tournament director. "Is something the matter?"

She had to make up some excuse now or be rude. Anna usually went for the excuse. "Well…" she tried to point her finger at a certain name on the schedule, but it trembled so much that it indicated three or four names rather than only one. "This person has even more first names than I do." She wanted to know if it was him or his brother.

The tournament director could not really see whom she was pointing at, but he guessed it was J. T. H. F. R. Seton, since he was the only one with more than two initials in front of his name. "Oh, John, yes. Yes, he's got quite a few names." He wondered why she should be shocked at that. Perhaps she thought she should have the most initials of everyone?

He was here. He was playing. She would get to see him play. After digesting this news for a while -- she was sure the man beside her could hear her heart beat quite clearly -- she wondered if they could be reintroduced somehow. This would be the perfect opportunity to get acquainted in public.

The Prime Minister had obviously also come to hear that Anna wanted to dismiss him. News travelled fast and bad news even faster. He knew she had the power to do it, because she was more or less a last resort check on the government, but he did not know whether she would have the nerve to carry it out. He would do his best to prevent it; that much was certain. And if he could not prevent it, she would go down with him.

Seton knelt beside the VIP box and beckoned the tournament director. "The roof in 3 is leaking." He had offered to play errand boy as soon as he had heard of the problem. If this was not befitting his station, or rather odd for someone who ought to be concentrating, he did not care. It was a chance to come near to Anna, simple enough.

"Pff," the man sighed in annoyance. "Why does that have to happen now? I can't leave here," he said in a low voice and nodded in the direction of the woman sitting beside him.

She witnessed the exchange with interest, although she could not hear what was being said and she had always been taught that it was bad manners to stare. But whatever she had been taught in the past was not so important that it could not be changed. Anyway, she thought, she had also always been encouraged to appreciate beauty, so it was alright to do an intensive study of his features. Beauty was what appealed to you, Anna reasoned, and he certainly appealed to her. Perhaps he had come to call her away -- that would be the best thing.

"I think you should go and see to that leaking roof," Seton said to the tournament director, seeing his chance and determined to seize it. He raised his voice a little and looked at Anna. "There are players playing on that court after all."

"But the Queen --"

Would not mind at all, Anna said to herself.

"Shall I sit with her for a while until I'm playing?" he suggested.

"Don't you have to prepare yourself?"

"It's not that important," Seton shrugged indifferently. He was going to lose anyway.

The tournament director invited him into the VIP box and introduced him to Anna, after which he excused himself. There was an polite smile around her lips when she looked at Seton. "Smooth," she commented. "But aren't you supposed to be playing the next match?" she gestured at the court. It was difficult to observe the proper distance and civility between them.

He shrugged and pulled down the trousers of his tracksuit to reveal his tennis shorts and to indicate that he was all ready to go.

"There are cameras aimed at us, John," Anna warned him with a poker face. "Why use words when you can shock the world, indeed? I saw at least three disconcerting flashes from the press box during this interesting strip show."

He rolled his eyes and sat down. "You hadn't seen my tennis shorts yet. What if you disapproved of my tennis shorts?"

"I'm sure you wouldn't have gone and changed them for me anyway." She looked at the court and followed the ball. "Are you satisfied with them yourself?" she asked in a conversational tone and with a very innocent face. "I didn't really see all that much, you know. I can't be certain. Out," she said, referring to the game.

"Do you want a banana?" he asked eventually. It had taken all of his effort to keep a straight face. This whole situation was ridiculous. They were sitting here in public, pretending to talk about serious subjects such as tennis and they had to keep their facial expressions under control as well.

"A banana?"

"It's not polite to eat alone and I'm about to eat a banana."

"Yes, please." Anna accepted, feeling a little hungry.

"I said the ball was out," Anna said with satisfaction when the ball was called out by the line judge after examining the exact spot on the line.

"Two monkeys in a cage, eating a banana," he sang and she choked. He looked at her in concern, to see if she was laughing or if she had genuinely choked. "Are you alright?"

"You described exactly what we are," she said with difficulty. "Two monkeys on display." They must be looking pretty stupid each with their banana, because there had again been some flashes from the other side. Maybe she was paying too much attention to flashes. Maybe she should just ignore them like she ignored stares, but stares did not leave a visible and printable trace.

"I'll be more on display out there," he gestured and swung his banana as if it were a tennis racket, causing it to break off and fly out of the VIP box.

Anna smiled when he looked rather taken aback at the stump that remained in his hand. "Never," she said gravely. "Never play tennis with a banana." She shook her head pityingly. "Here, eat mine. You'll need it. Aren't you supposed to go down yet? They're nearing the end of the fourth set and if this is the end -- are you going to run down at match point?"

"No, I have a whole set," he said carelessly. Who cared about preparation or concentration if he could sit with Anna? An Anna who seemed on her guard, but who smiled and who seemed happy to see him. "Look how Michel is playing. He's not going to win this set. He's sparing himself for the fifth set, so I'm expecting a long one. Do you see how he's letting all the difficult balls go?"

"Not really." She studied him carefully. He sounded careless, but somehow she wondered if it was an act to hide his nervousness.

Seton shifted a little forward in his chair and pointed out to her every time Michel missed a ball. "He could have got that one if he had tried. Even I could have got that ball and I am older and I don't want to tire my body out unnecessarily. It's old so it needs to be treated with caution."

"Old? You're not old," Anna protested. Yes, he's nervous alright. He's never talked about himself like that before.

"But I'm wrecked. I even wear a knee brace."

Anna recognised a lack of faith -- she was all too familiar with it, but that did not mean it did not sting her in someone she cared for. "That's no excuse for not trying."

"You don't know how sore I am after a match. I can barely move. I hope it will be a painless, three-set death for me, but now that you are here, I really have to play well."

"My presence should not make a difference."

"But it does."

Anna's eyes had been fixed on the ball. "My opinion of you won't change with the outcome of a tennis match. I didn't even know you played and I still liked you, so why are you worried?" It did not really convince him, she saw.

"And what will you do if I win?"

"Applaud?" she suggested humorously.

"Wow," he said in a dry tone. "That will really get me going."

Anna looked at him. His tracksuit brought out the green in his eyes and they looked at her a little uncertainly. She had to remember that there were millions of viewers out there and around her who might be witnessing this scene, not allowed to know that she cared for him, and she pulled herself together, outwardly. Inwardly she was still going down the wrong track. "If you win, I'll give your poor and sore body a massage." It would not be a sacrifice. Not at all.

He looked back at her and then at the court. "Whew," he let out his breath and then bent down to retie his shoelaces under the cover of the front wall of the VIP box. "You know how to motivate a man, dearest, but I hope nobody read your lips." Before he sat up straight, he glanced at her mischievously. "Would you have made that offer in the presence of anyone else?"

"No!" Anna looked appalled, but she was glad he was not shocked by the suggestion. It had been rather bold of her. "And you are aware of the consequences, I hope. Your poor and sore body must give me a massage if you lose," she said conversationally. That was even bolder.

Seton leant his elbows on his knees, pretending to be engrossed in the game. "What? Even after five sets? I won't be capable of anything then." Well, not much.

Anna waved her hand in a compromising way. "Alright. After three sets -- won or lost -- the honour is yours and after five sets the honour is mine. Deal?"

Michel just made 1-1 and Seton got up. It would not be long now. "Deal," he said with a smile.

"This is not a good structural motivation," Anna said quickly. "And you'll only fall for this trick once, but it will have to do. Good luck."

He did not think he agreed with her. It was too attractive a trick to fall for only once. "Thank you -- oh, hello," he said to the tournament director. "Everything alright with the roof?"

"Yes, it's being looked at. Good luck, John. Did he entertain you well, Madam?"

"Oh yes," Anna answered.

"I'm glad. I know him very well and I knew he would not bore you. He trains here often and of course he plays here every year and he reached the final once."

"The final!" Anna said, impressed. There were some big names on the schedule.

"Yes, I believe that was in 1986."

1986, the year when he had worn his hair in spikes. She watched how Michel, who had been sparing himself in the fourth set, still seemed to be losing the fifth. He was down 4-2, but he had just served and it was likely that the German would make it 5-2. She knew it would happen. Anna hoped John would not be so stupid as to try it just to get a massage and she wondered if she should have told him that she had no clue about massages, so that there really was not anything to look forward to. She had had a few when she was still doing competitions, but that was ages ago.

During the short break, she saw all the Setons take their place. She smiled at them and saw that they looked rather surprised to see her there and they whispered among themselves. The next players came onto the court for their warming up. Thankfully for Anna, they did not have to pause in front of her box to make a curtsey, as on Wimbledon. She watched eagerly, to see how he would play and she saw that he indeed wore a knee brace, but it did not prevent him from moving around without apparent problems.

The tournament director chatted on and on about John's opponent and Anna finally looked at the other player. He looked to be one of those talented but high-spirited youngsters, wearing a cap with long hair sticking out from under it, moving across the court with arrogance.

"…seeded fifth," said the tournament director. "That will be a hard nut for him to crack. Although John of course ranked much higher than what he ranks now before he made that free fall."

How high? Anna wondered. There were many young girls calling out Fabio and taking his picture. "I take it Fabio is very popular." She did not see why. He was gesturing and snapping at the ball boys and he could not be a very nice person.

"Yes, he is a handsome guy."

Anna was a little offended, because she did not think Fabio was handsome at all. "I wonder why there are no girls cheering for his opponent."

"Because he is too old for them, I think."

Anna was rather glad about that. On second thought she would not have liked all the competition, apart from the fact that it would have given her an unpleasant feeling if he had young girls admiring him.

When Seton asked for some balls, he briefly looked at Anna. He had not even started yet and already the poor girl looked seriously anxious. But he felt good. He had to enjoy the game in order to play well, having long lost blind ambition, and he felt disposed to enjoy himself. The little episode with Anna, the banana and the massage -- it was better not to think of that now -- had relieved the tension. He apologised to the ball boy who had to run after the balls he had dropped. "I'm sorry. I was distracted by a beautiful woman." The ball boy looked rather amazed.

It was a close match. He lost the first set due to an unfortunate error, but he won the second because his opponent made some mistakes too. He felt his opponent was not unbeatable today and if he wanted to impress Anna, he should do it now, even if she had claimed that she would not be impressed by victory or defeat. He doubted that. She would like it if he won.

Fabio was not showing anything of his brilliant play and he was constantly complaining to the referee because "the old guy was stalling on purpose" whenever his opponent did not return to his side of the court quick enough in Fabio's opinion.

The referee saw nothing wrong, however. True enough, Seton was a little preoccupied -- he had a strange tendency to smile whenever it was not called for, such as right before serving, which meant that there had to be some inner process going on -- but he was not doing it on purpose. Rizzi was just being his annoying self again. If he could not win hands down, he would start blaming it on others.

Winning the second set made Seton realise he would be in for at least four sets, but Anna had not said what would happen with four sets. He decided to risk it and waited until Anna looked his way during another one of Rizzi's tirades before tapping his knee four times with a questioning expression on his face. Would she understand? He tapped his knee three times and unobtrusively pointed at himself, and then five times while he pointed at Anna. He repeated the four taps. Anna first hid her face in her hands and then made a vague gesture that he interpreted as meaning both of them. He laughed and won the third set.

When he lost the fourth, nobody understood why he looked so pleased and why he smiled so triumphantly, except Anna. She hid her face again until she was certain that she could look up without smiling. It would not do to watch him lose with a smile on her face, although she did not think he would lose. He could not do that to her nerves. She had never seen such a nerve-wrecking match and she had never been so unable to show her feelings.

Contrary to his opponent, who was increasingly irritated at being forced to play an exhausting five-setter in the first round by a veteran and who lost his temper at every mistake, John was remarkably cheerful. He smiled at every point and every fault alike. Anna hoped he would know that another few of those smiles would drive both her and Fabio crazy, albeit for different reasons.

He won. Anna did not think she had ever been happier for anyone else and after 2-6 7-6 7-6 3-6 16-14 he deserved a massage, and a good one. After this marathon, Anna left the box, a little cramped from sitting on a chair for so long. She was glad to be able to walk around a little. Since they were one of the first ones to arrive in the VIP lounge, there were not many people to claim her attention when the tournament director was needed with regard to the leaking roof.

She sat down and was approached by some people she did not know at all, who talked to her about the match for a while, and thankfully not about the kidnapping. She was afraid they would, however, and kept a standard reply ready just in case. The players were also allowed into the VIP lounge, seemingly, because the winner of the match before Seton's, the German, was having a drink there with his family. Perhaps John would come in here as well. She hoped he would understand that the message she had sent to his phone would mean that she would like him to come, but perhaps he had not checked his phone yet. That was very possible. Perhaps he was taking a shower or something.

Anna stared at the sight that she was greeted with next: Patrick wheeled a wheelchair with John in it into the room and he pushed it directly towards her. "What happened?" she exclaimed.

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