When Anna woke up, she noticed that the curtains still had not been opened, while they were usually opened by a maid. A breakfast cart had been wheeled in, though, but she saw that it was nearer to lunch. Breakfast carts were mainly used for those members of her family who woke up too hungry to survive the incredibly long time they needed to make themselves presentable. Anna had never noticed any great difference between the way she looked before she was dressed and after she was dressed, so she never made use of the breakfast service. Perhaps they thought she would be keeping to her bed all day now.

She got up and after doing a few things, she concluded that her head certainly felt better. There were still some shifting pains at sudden movements, but she no longer felt nauseous or dizzy, not even when she jumped up and down a few times to try it out. Still, it was not bad to be lazy once and she took her breakfast into the sitting room, putting her feet up on the couch.

Marie-Celeste was not in, but although she did not have a paid job, she was in so many committees that it kept her very busy. Anna knew why. While the intention had been for Marie-Celeste's function on the committees to be decorative and symbolic, she herself had never had a passive role in mind when she had accepted. Anna had been on committees too, but she had given them up. In at least one case she knew that the rest of the committee had been glad that she left. She had been treasurer, because apparently the members had thought she would not know the meaning of money and that she would allow money to be spent on luxurious things. However, she had been a strict and economical treasurer who always asked whether it was really necessary and nobody had ever dared or managed to contradict her. After all, it was a charity committee and to spend all the money on themselves was not their main objective, Anna reasoned. "Yes?" she called to a knock on the door.

"Would you like some coffee, Madam?" asked the housekeeper. For any task that involved some more elaborate communication, she preferred to bypass her staff herself, if she did not have anything urgent to do.

"Yes, please."

"I think your private secretary would like to know if you'll be coming down today," the housekeeper said as she poured the coffee. "She came to ask me about half an hour ago."

Anna pulled a face. "Do you think I should?" If she went down, they would assume that they could shower her with work. "I don't really want to do anything today." It was more a mental aversion than a physical constraint. "Is everybody in?"

"Yes, Madam. Everybody will be in until five."

"Why?" Anna wondered. "It's December 31. What with New Year's Eve and other things going on I wonder that they did not all stay home."

"Some people have already used up all their free days."

"I don't understand."

"We have a certain number of days of leave," the housekeeper explained. "We can take less, but we can't take more."

"Not even in a situation such as this?"

"No, Madam. Because we won't get paid."

"But half of them can't have anything to do, because half of them are only involved in handling or preparing documents that I sign, and I haven't signed much these two weeks."

"They are civil servants. I suppose they are used to it."

Anna found it all very strange and looked at her watch. It was half past ten. If she showered and dressed first, it meant that all the staff would have to spend another hour emailing themselves or playing solitaire or drinking coffee; assuming that they did the same as she did when she was bored. "Oh! Well, I won't have it." She got up and took her coffee cup, thinking it would be a waste if it turned cold.

The housekeeper looked alarmed. "You're going to tell them to find work, Madam?"

"Heh no." Anna pulled the cord of her dressing gown a little tighter so she looked more dressed and brushed her hair so that it looked a little more decent. Because it was long, it nearly always looked decent, even if she had just got out of bed, but it was better to make sure. "Can this place run without staff?"

"I don't think so."

"That's because they're all keeping each other busy. I'm sure that most of the administrative personnel are very useless today." She went downstairs with her coffee cup in her hand and encountered a group of people talking animatedly in front of the coffee vending machine. She paused a short distance from their group and waited for them to notice her. When they did, they fell silent immediately and looked as if they had been caught doing something forbidden.

"Good morning," Anna said politely. She was glad she had a cup to hold, because she would not have known what to do with her hands otherwise.

"Good morning, Madam," the group mumbled fearfully.

"Are you busy?" she inquired.

"We were just taking a break," one clarified uncomfortably.

"So you do have work to do?"

"Yes, Madam," several people nodded vigorously.

"Oh," Anna frowned. "I was going to say that you could all go home if you didn't have anything to do, but if you do have work, then maybe you wouldn't want to." She could not have said anything more shocking, apparently, because they were all gaping at her. Anna pulled another face and went to her office, leaving them behind to discuss her words. Her private secretary was emailing, just as she had expected. "You can go home, Eva. We're not going to do anything today."

"But your advisors are in there," Eva nodded to Anna's office.

"What for?"

"There was an interesting new development, they said."

Anna went into her office and they got up when she entered, looking a little strangely at her dressing gown. "Yes?" Anna asked.

"Madam, we have to talk to you about the interview with the unnamed man who claims to have been part of the group who kidnapped you."

"Interview? Which interview?"

"In the newspaper. Here." One of them held it out to her and she read it.

It was the truth -- exactly what had happened. She wondered who of the three had given the interview. It could not have been John. He would have told her.

"It would mean the Prime Minister was wrong," said her political advisor.

"Of course he was," Anna said crabbily. "Did you ever believe him?" She leant against her desk.

"It clears you from his accusation. Is it true?"

"Yes."

"It is very much in your favour. Do you realise what the Prime Minister could say? He could say that if you were shrewd enough to organise your abduction, you would also be shrewd enough to organise this article."

"Are you working for him or for me?" Anna snapped. She did not like the idea of the PM saying that. It would sound so convincing to stupid people.

"Madam, we are working for you, but he has already said that."

"And what do I do now?" Her headache returned and she sat down at her desk with her head in her hands.

"I think we should wait to see what the public thinks of it," her PR officer said cautiously. "They were very favourable about you so far, especially about Monday and Tuesday. They like to see you have a heart."

"Pff," Anna sighed. She was sure that the public would not like to see too much of heart, or they would call her a tramp. "And do you believe the article?"

"Considering that my contact at Home Affairs told me that the head of Conf Op resigned unexpectedly this morning, I think the unnamed man was telling the truth and I think that he was working for Conf Op, even if he didn't specify."

"Confop?" Anna asked.

"Confidential Operations."

"Thalen," said Anna. It was a guess.

"How do you know that, Madam?"

"Because they told me they received their orders from Thalen, or T."

"The kidnappers?"

"Rescuers," Anna corrected.

"They actually told you about Thalen?" the political advisor looked at her in surprise.

"Of course. They had to let me know they weren't out to harm me. I believed them."

"Wasn't that too trusting of you?"

"Maybe it was, but they looked very trustworthy and real kidnappers wouldn't have allowed me to choose whether I'd go with them or not," Anna shrugged.

"But that means you stayed away and deceived everyone who thought you were kidnapped. That is what people could say."

Anna did not think she had deceived anyone willingly. "I returned as soon as we thought it would be safe for me and for them."

"Why for them?"

Anna looked at the man. "Because I could not live with myself if I had been the cause of their deaths. Do you understand? I had to know that nothing would happen to them. We were sort of each other's protection."

"Can you say that at the parliamentary inquiry?"

"I suppose I'll have to," she sighed.

After getting dressed and taking another paracetamol, she went to see if Charles-Louis was in. "Louis, do I need a millennium dress for that party?"

"Are you going?" he asked in surprise. "I thought you'd have to stay in bed."

"I promised…"

"Anna, I don't care if you promised. If you feel bad, don't go."

"I'll be alright." She waved off his concern. "At the moment. I don't know how I'll feel when I get back from that parliamentary inquiry. I'm sorry I don't have time to get a new dress."

"That's okay, sweetie. Is your man coming?"

"I don't think I ever told you he was my man," Anna said suspiciously. "Who snitched?"

Louis laughed. "It was quite obvious that he was your man."

"He's playing tennis and I can't even watch it," she said morosely. "What if he loses?"

"Sweetie, then he'll be all yours. Had you thought about that yet? I suppose all he does is play tennis? Or does he have a job?"

"Not anymore, so I suppose that playing tennis is all he does at the moment."

"Great! As soon as he gets beaten you can order him to move in with you. Tell him we've got tennis courts here as well."

Seton and Seton were beaten by Andersson and Frederiksson faster than they had expected and an hour and a half after the beginning of the match John was taking a shower already. He had a little time before his singles match, but he refused all requests for interviews, preferring to eat something in peace. After talking to his parents, who did not come unless it was on home ground such as now, and his brothers, he bought two sandwiches at the restaurant and took it to a high, round table with only two barstools left. He hoped he would be left alone and checked his phone for messages. There was one and he put on his glasses to see it better.

"She did it herself," the Prime Minister maintained. He was a bit unnerved by Anna's return. No matter what happened to her, she seemed to be able to overcome it. Yesterday she had fainted and she had been taken to hospital, yet there she was as if nothing had happened.

"Why would she have done it?" asked the head of the inquiry committee.

"Because she wanted to become more popular!"

"Tell me why I should want to become more popular when I dislike attention," Anna retorted. "I don't like attention. I never have and I never will!" She would never have spoken up if the inquiry had not taken place behind closed doors and with only a few people present.

"Exactly. Nobody would suspect you."

"Sooner or later you're going to talk yourself into a fix," Anna warned him. "I don't care which lies you keep coming up with."

"The article…" the inquirer continued, shifting through the papers before him.

"She did that herself too."

"Miss Russier was so kind as to hand over the tape she made of the interview," said the inquirer. "She was clearly talking to a man."

"Who had been bribed by Her Majesty over there," the PM nodded.

Anna raised her hand. "I'm sorry for being disrespectful, but would it be possible to run a check on his mental health?"

The inquirer did not betray any amusement or irritation at this interruption, but some of the other members of the committee smirked. "However, Mr. Keller, we have spoken to the Commissioner who has confirmed this story. He confirms that he met the Queen and one of the men at a restaurant and they told him much the same story. He also said that he was being informed about the kidnapping in a very limited manner, by you and Mr. Thalen. Would you say the Commissioner was bribed too?"

"Yes."

"He'd say the whole world was bribed," Anna addressed the inquirer. "Is there any point in actually continuing this inquiry? He's going to keep saying the same thing over and over again."

"We found Mr. Thalen willing to give evidence," said the inquirer and he nodded at a man who stood up. Perhaps a different tactic would get them out of the bribery fix. He agreed with Anna that the PM seemed to have a one-track mind on this issue.

Anna looked at him in disgust. "I don't want to hear to him acquit himself from everything. How could you agree to sacrifice one unit for another?"

"Nobody was going to be sacrificed," Thalen said imploringly. "It was all going to be resolved satisfactorily."

"For you! Not for me! Didn't anybody who was involved in that scheme ever stop to think of me?" Anna cried. "He is obviously insane, but you cannot all have been insane! Didn't it ever occur to anyone that I wouldn't like being treated as an object? It's despicable that you went along with it!" Her head started to throb and she fished another aspirin out of her shoulder bag. "You have absolutely no sense of integrity and I'm glad you resigned."

"Mr. Thalen," said the inquirer. "Could you tell us exactly what happened?"

"There was a secret committee consisting of the Prime Minister and some of his advisors. They had come up with this idea and they needed me to carry it out --"

"How innocent," Anna remarked sarcastically.

"It was indeed an exercise and it would not have got out of control like this if Seton had not disobeyed his orders."

"Who is Seton?" the inquirer asked. This was a new name to him.

"Was it really necessary to name him?" Anna asked angrily. He was really going to thank Thalen for that. "And why do you shift the blame to him?"

"He is the person who is controlling her and telling her what to do so that he'll go free."

"What?" Anna cried. "He is not!"

"Do you deny that you've remained in contact with him?" Thalen asked. "There are pictures in every paper that prove that you were in contact with him. He's been instructing you all the time. In my opinion, I think that it's very dangerous to have the Queen under the influence of a man like that."

"Excuse me, do you think I have no brain of my own?"

"Wait, wait," said the inquirer, who could not follow and who saw on the faces of the other members of his committee that they could not follow things either. "Again, who is Seton and which pictures are we talking about?"

"He is -- or was, I should say, because he resigned -- the leader of the Unit that abducted her and I mean truly abducted her, because they took her with them."

"They didn't take me," Anna said. "I went with them."

"He disobeyed his orders --"

"His orders were insane!"

"He disobeyed his orders and the whole ensuing drama is his fault. He's now trying to save his skin by operating through her."

"He is not operating through me!"

The PM listened closely. He was rather huffed about not knowing anything about this Seton. The committee also listened closely. The inquirer did not precisely understand what was going on and he hoped to learn more from their argument.

"He is, Your Majesty. He wrapped you around his little finger, didn't he? He's telling you to dismiss the Prime Minister and all that. Meanwhile, he plays tennis as if he's not involved in any way."

Anna looked at the ceiling and shook her head.

"Madam, is this true?" the inquirer asked. He did not see where tennis came into things. He never read the sports pages.

"Oh, him!" said an enlightened mind on his committee who did read the sports pages. "Do you mean he was involved? How exactly?"

"Nora?" asked the inquirer.

"Didn't you see the pictures in Wednesday's papers?" Nora asked. "Of her and a tennis player?"

"He is pulling her strings," Thalen clarified once again.

"He is not!" Anna protested.

The inquirer leafed through his pile of papers once again until he came to a photocopied article. He had had his secretary photocopy all relevant publications on Anna that had appeared in the past few days. "This one, Nora?"

"Yes."

"And this man is supposed have kidnapped you?" he studied the picture. "Isn't this a bit far-fetched? Isn't it a rather strange combination of jobs?"

Anna agreed with him and she could not really explain why Seton had combined the two.

Thalen could. "I believe he was injured when he applied, so he needed some money. We like to hire athletes, because of their physical shape and their ability to concentrate and accept discipline, except that Seton does not always follow orders. He likes to think that he knows it better on his own."

"So he was working for you?" asked the inquirer, who began to see things a little clearer. "And coincidentally he happens to play tennis and to meet his former hostage at a tennis court?"

"That was not a coincidence, I'm sure," said Thalen. "I'm fairly certain that he instructed her to come so he could order her what to do next and besotted as she was --"

"Oh, please!" Anna looked disgusted. "I think," she said to the committee, "that we shouldn't continue this inquiry until he can be here to tell you that he's not instructing me. I don't know if he'd want to, but --"

"Of course he wouldn't," said Thalen.

Anna shot him a venomous look and sent John an SMS. "I sent him a message," she announced. "I don't know what he will reply."

Anna had suggested that the committee suspend the meeting for a while and that they continue at the Palace, without the PM or Thalen. She had no inclination to sit around this impersonal hall for a few hours, while they waited for John to come or not. She might as well go home and lie down for a bit.

"Will he come, Madam?" the head of the inquiry committee asked. He too was glad that they would not continually be interrupted by Thalen or Keller.

"I don't know." Anna had not sent him a very clear message, not wanting to disrupt his concentration. "I asked him if he could be there at three. That should give him enough time. If he doesn't want to come, then you can always talk to my sister. She knows I'm telling the truth."

She had gone home, accompanied by her advisors, who never lunched at the Palace, but who were now forced to do so. Anna ate a little and then retired, promising to be in her office by a quarter to three.

John had received her message and frowned. He could not begin to guess what sort of meeting she wanted him to attend. He had pushed it out of his mind until after the match, when he realised he would have to hurry if he wanted to get his shopping done first. And he had to get his shopping done first, because he needed to get through the weekend.

It was a quarter past three when he pulled up his car outside the back gates. It had taken him some time to locate the quiet street that they gave on. He had never been there, but when he was there, he noticed that it was no wonder. The huge houses in the street had mostly been converted to embassies, but not of countries that attracted a lot of attention. At any rate, dark, expensive cars would be common in this street. "Let's see if this works," he mumbled as he pressed a button on the remote control and the gates slid open. He noticed they closed automatically behind him.

He parked his car and looked at the entrance that he had not had to take the previous time. It was likely that he did have to take it now. Anna would not hold a meeting in her private quarters. There would be somebody inside to direct him towards her, he assumed, and pushed open the door.

Inside it was deadly quiet and there was absolutely nobody to be seen. He turned a few corners and then stopped. There was an endless hallway to his right and one to his left, but at the end of the left one he could see renovation works. She would not be there. He went right in the hopes of encountering somebody. The place was deserted and at the end of the hallway he phoned Anna. "Where are you?"

He glanced aside. "I'm right under the portrait of King Frederick the Third."

"It's in a very long hallway."

"Yes."

"OK." John walked towards the fountain, but saw no turning to the right, only a door. He groaned. Apparently he was in the wrong hallway. Why had Anna not said that there were more hallways with little fountains? But then he looked inside the room and he saw her sitting there with a group of people. What sort of people? Uneasily he crossed the threshold and nodded. "Good afternoon."

"Good afternoon," they greeted him in chorus, studying him extensively.

What was Anna subjecting him to? He looked at her warily and she rose. "I…asked you to come, because during the inquiry, Mr. Thalen said that you were -- that I'm under your control, so I was wondering if you could tell the committee that I'm not."

He raised his eyebrows and addressed himself to the group. "If she had been under my control, don't you think I would have ordered her to give me an escort from the front door to here? I got lost. Where are all the staff?"

"I sent many of them home," Anna answered. She clasped her hands behind her back and tried not to show her impatience. She wanted to talk to him alone, but she had to wait. Perhaps he had lost. He did not look very happy, or was it mainly because he was not happy to be questioned?

"Anna? Do I have to?"

"I'm sorry. I'm sure they won't publicise your involvement. I'll tell them to let you remain anonymous." She sent the committee a pleading glance.

"May I go home now too or are the committee still not convinced?" John asked politely.

"If you don't mind, Mr. Seton, we should like to ask you a few questions now that you are here," said the inquirer. "Just to make absolutely certain that any accusations directed against you or Her Majesty are unfounded. And we shall mind Her Majesty's wishes with regard to your anonymity."

"They are actually my wishes, not hers, but I suppose you'd interpret that as controlling her? Oh well." John sat down. He did not like it, but he supposed he had to suffer it.

"The orders you received from Mr. Thalen -- what were they?"

"Get the Queen, throw her in a van, drive to a certain house in the country, lock her up, phone in and wait for the other Unit to take over," he said promptly.

"And you did all that?" It was agreed that the head of the committee would ask all the questions, unless something was unclear to the other members, but they did take notes and took in Seton's appearance and the subtle change that had come over Anna.

"Yes. Except that when I phoned in to say we were in place, I received orders to stay in place because the other Unit was not coming."

"And then what happened?"

"I was wondering what was going on and I went to apologise, because I thought she was counting on being returned home at a certain hour, but then when I got to her room, she thought she had really been kidnapped, because that was being said on TV. I think they hadn't expected me to go and see her and find out that something was wrong. When I had seen the news myself, I was very worried. The whole world thought the Queen had been kidnapped and we had her there. Obviously Thalen hadn't interfered when the news broke -- he hadn't said it was a mistake -- so I didn't trust him and he knew we were there. If he hadn't interfered, what would withhold him from saying that he knew where the Queen was and frame us? I didn't trust it at all, so I decided we were getting out of there."

"With Her Majesty? You'd still have her," said the inquirer. So far, it did not seem to him that Seton had disobeyed his orders in a serious way. He had merely done the logical thing.

"No! I wanted to leave her behind, but one of the men said we couldn't, because she was the Queen. And she didn't want to be left behind because she didn't know what was going to happen to then, which was true. We didn't know either. For all we knew someone was really out to harm her and we wouldn't harm her if we took her."

"How did you know they would not harm you, Madam?" the inquirer asked.

Anna looked alarmed at having to say something about John. "I didn't. I couldn't be sure, but I thought they wouldn't do anything to me if they were even willing to leave me behind. And they looked very trustworthy."

"Trustworthy?" the inquirer asked. "Appearances can be deceptive." Seton did look trustworthy, but he wondered if that was all that had enticed Anna into going with him. After all, Thalen had called her besotted. She did not look besotted. She had met him with composure. A besotted person would have acted differently.

"They can be, but they were not," Anna said sharply. "I didn't have much of a choice either, did I? It was either the unknown evil or the appearance of trustworthiness."

"Alright, another question I had pertains to the incident on the A4. Why did you drive off?" the inquirer asked Seton. Since Hegge had not been present, he had not said much about it in the interview.

"Because Anna changed gears."

"I beg your pardon? Were you driving, Madam?"

"No. I put my hand over his and did it for him," Anna said quietly.

"Why did you do that?"

"I didn't want him to get caught, because he hadn't done anything wrong and the policeman recognised me and he would surely have thought I was being held hostage."

"It was excellent teamwork," John commented.

Anna frowned. "No. It wasn't teamwork. You make me sound like an asset when I was only a burden. You drove and all I did was scream because you were driving so fast."

"You're too modest. And you didn't scream." John collected himself when he realised that their voices were revealing too much and that this was none of the committee's business. "Did you have any more questions?"

Anna looked at her hands playing with her pen. She realised the danger of showing the familiarity that existed between them. If she said nothing and kept looking very serious whenever he said something, they would not notice, she thought. However, she did not know that she looked just a little more at ease and a little more happy whenever he did not speak.

The committee asked John a few more questions that were not important enough for Anna to worry about and she sank away in a contemplation of her headache. It was getting worse again, but she was reluctant to take another aspirin. Also, she wondered if John was leaving after this. Maybe he would like to stay. He and Patrick had promised to go to that play with her, Marie-Celeste, Charles-Louis and a few more people, after all. She bit her lip. Would he still know? Would it be wise to go to something as public as that, either together or separately? Or with her headaches, even? She rubbed her temples and sighed.

The committee finished their questions and looked at Anna expectantly, but saw that she was not quite with them. The head of the committee looked at Seton, who was watching Anna's frowns and sighs with a worried expression. He was sure that only the fact that they were not alone was holding Seton back from asking Anna what was the matter and she certainly looked strained. Maybe he should ask her. "Madam, are you unwell?"

Anna frowned and blinked at him. "A little," she admitted softly.

He saw Seton opened his mouth and closed it. Whatever he had wanted to say, he was not going to say it in their presence. One of Anna's advisors gave him a discreet sign to end the inquiry and he obeyed. "Mr. Seton, I must thank you for your time. I think it's best to conclude here, considering that Her Majesty is not feeling well. But do you always go to meetings without thinking when you are summoned? You didn't seem to know what to expect and from your statements I gathered you were a careful thinker."

John smiled wryly. "It's a matter of trusting another careful thinker."

Anna looked flustered and mumbled something inaudible. She started to play with her pen again. "Will you be needing me again?" she asked the committee.

"I doubt it. We still have to discuss today's outcome among ourselves, but you've been very clear," the chairman said. At first he had thought Seton had liked Anna because of her looks, but maybe there was more to her than that if he had indeed been referring to her as a careful thinker. He seemed to place a lot of trust in that other careful thinker. Why Anna liked Seton was not as clear. He supposed Seton was good-looking -- he did not really know how to judge the looks of another man and he would ask Nora about that -- but he also seemed a little rebellious and not quite the sort of ideal spouse to a queen. He studied the couple. They probably wanted to be left alone. "We'll keep you briefed. I think we shall all like to go home now after this long day, what with the long evening ahead of us."

"I'm sure you do," Anna said politely. She wished they would all go. "I wish you a very good evening." She shook their hands.

"Madam --" one of the advisors began.

"Monday?" she begged. To her relief, he assented and she watched them all prepare to leave.

"We'll guarantee your anonymity," said the head of the committee to John. "But don't you want some recognition?"

"You must be joking," John said in disgust. "I don't like that. I had two reporters in for coffee this morning just because Anna watched me play tennis. Can you imagine what would happen if my role in this leaked out?" Besides, receiving a ribbon or a knighthood would be nepotism of sorts.

"They came in for coffee?" Anna asked in alarm. "How did they get in?"

He laughed. "I let them in. What did you think?"

"I thought they might have walked in."

"Ordinary people have locks on their doors. Not all of us live in a palace that anybody can walk into. Do you realise I might have carried Frederick the Third off without anybody noticing?" He had been rather amazed at hearing that she had sent so many people home.

"Oh," she said, feeling stupid. "But who'd want Frederick the Third?"

The rest of the room did not understand anything of what was being said. They wondered whom Frederick the Third was, not knowing that it was a painting. It was almost too interesting to leave, but still they had to, having families and parties to go to.

John looked at Anna for a long while when they were finally alone. She tried to gauge if he was angry with her and he wondered if she still had a headache. She looked tired.

"How did you play?" she asked eventually.

"Three sets," he said and bit his lip, trying not to smile. After all, he did not know if Anna's arrangement was still on and if this meant that he would have to give her a massage now. He would not mind it. "Two times."

Anna hoped that he was really not angry and that he had not merely temporarily forgotten about it. "Was I so bad the other day?" If he smiled because he had played only three sets and not five, then maybe her massage had been really bad. "Did you win?"

"You were wonderful. And we lost the doubles, but I did win on my own." He gently pulled her closer and kissed her when she smiled at him.

"I'm sorry. I forgot my --" a woman said as she entered the room. "-- scarf. Oh." Anna was holding her scarf and she had to wait until Anna had finished being kissed before she could get it back. She was very embarrassed.

Anna was even more embarrassed. She had found the scarf and she had been wondering what to do with it. "I'm sorry," she cringed as she handed it back. "And now you know."

"And that's exactly why I want to remain anonymous," John said quickly. "Otherwise you'd get all sorts of people saying that I took advantage of Anna or that Anna took advantage of me, when it wasn't like that at all."

The woman smiled. "You'll find that we are a reasonable committee. They all like Her Majesty and they wouldn't want to upset her."

"Anna. But they don't even know me," Anna said in confusion.

"They know enough of you. May I wish you a very pleasant evening?"

They thanked her and wished her the same. Anna pressed her hands to her hot cheeks when the woman was gone. "Oh, oh, oh!"

John took her hands off her cheeks and held them. "You look tired."

"You too."

"Yes."

"I have to go to that premiere, but I'm skipping the party. I won't last till midnight," Anna said apologetically. "I don't care if we're on the brink of 2000."

"You need a quiet weekend."

"Yes."

"And a quiet night."

"Yes." If that was at all possible with all the fuss people made about the change from 1999 to 2000. It seemed almost compulsory to party.

"Somewhere people will allow you fall asleep at ten."

"Yes."

"Me too. And Anna?" he asked hesitantly. "It would be nice if you were the first person I talked to in 2000. Could you call me tomorrow if you don't last till midnight?" He actually wanted her to be the first person he saw, but he did not think that was a reasonable wish. She could not come home with him and he could not very well invite himself over to the Palace either, not to mention to absolute impossibility of going off together unnoticed without any bodyguards.

Anna glowed happily at the whole idea of him wanting her to be the first person to talk to, although she too would rather have more. "I will," she promised, but she was secretly studying ways to accomplish a little more. "Are you and Patrick still coming to that premiere with the rest of us?"

They had gone to Charles-Louis for the tickets, because John did not want what Anna called a limousine arrival. He would go in separately, like the friends of Louis' and David who would also be coming, but Anna would have to make a grander entrance with Celeste.

"You do have evening dress?" Anna asked worriedly. She had never even seen John in a suit and he was wearing jeans now, so perhaps he would not even have anything appropriate to wear.

"No." He did not even know precisely what evening dress implied, so it was likely that he did not own anything that qualified for it.

"No?" she exclaimed in an alarmed voice. "You don't?"

"I never needed it."

"Louis, what do we do?" she asked anxiously. "It's evening dress."

"Shop?" Louis suggested. He was terribly amused. Poor Anna! If she had not had enough trouble already, she now had a lover who did not have a dinner jacket and she acted as if this was an unsolvable problem.

"Shop?"

"Yes. In a shop." He grinned. "Heh. I'll go with you. Anna doesn't know anything about dinner jackets anyway."

"Maybe Patrick and I should just stay home." John doubted that he had the money to buy two outfits. "I don't know if I have enough --"

"Nonsense," said Louis. "It's always useful to own a dinner jacket. Anna will pay me back."

Anna dined with the family, or those who were home, and then went back to her rooms to choose a suitable dress to wear. Her mother joined her there, having already chosen what to wear to her particular party long ago. Eliane wondered if it was wise of Anna to go out and they talked for a while.

Anna saw a lot of flashes when she stepped out of the car and it only ended when she reached the door, because there were no cameras allowed in there. The foyer was very crowded already and she was glad that Celeste had pulled her arm through hers to guide her. Anna was sure she would have remained standing just inside the entrance forever, wondering where to go. Crowds always made her slightly uncomfortable and the people were all chattering at the same time.

John was listening to two obnoxious young starlets in his vicinity, who were holding a name-dropping contest to get him interested in the very interesting people they were. They did not achieve their goal, since he knew hardly any of the names mentioned. Most of the people around him were either beautiful, rich, famous or interesting; or thought they were so. It made him shudder. He saw Charles-Louis was kissing acquaintances here and there. Louis was a hilarious chap, he had discovered, very uncomplicated, and when Louis had found out that there was another Seton brother, he had immediately invited him as well, not making a problem of advancing money for three suits either. "You're crazy," John had told him.

"Me? Noooo. Anna's got a lot of money, you know, and she likes to spend it on useful charities. You can't get more useful than this. And as for your other brother's ticket, we'll get Anna's. Do you think she'll get in without a ticket?"

"Won't there be as many seats as there are tickets? If you start sneaking in more people than there are seats, they won't be able to sit…"

"Good one! We'll just have to squeeze in then! Or we'll tell Celeste and Rosita to share a seat. They're skinny enough. Don't worry about it. It will all work out."

John saw Anna enter, almost being dragged along by Marie-Celeste. He had to keep himself from saying _wow_ or something of the sort. She looked very beautiful in her dress.

Once Anna had located him, she found it very hard to keep her eyes off him. It was as if the rest of the crowd was one nameless, noisy blur that paled in comparison. She considered whether she would insist that he wears evening dress every day to humour her, but then she remembered that he looked good in everything, even in a towel. She smiled mischievously when she realised that nobody else could ever know what she was thinking now and that they would never expect her to think it.

It was a pity he could not sit next to her -- that would be a little too conspicuous, they had decided -- but they had exchanged a few secret glances that would be enough to tide them over. Instead, he sat almost behind her, next to Patrick, who sat next to Marie-Celeste, due to chance or to somebody's clever organising. They had to squeeze eleven people in two rows of five seats and they were glad there were no arm rests, but this meant that Marie-Celeste was very close to Patrick indeed. They had not yet spoken to each other, except for a polite greeting and a muttered curse upon being forced to take neighbouring seats.

Apparently Marie-Celeste like to comment on everything, loud enough for her neighbour to overhear. "Will that woman never shut up?" Patrick whispered to John.

"Which woman?" he asked innocently.

"My neighbour."

"What does she say?"

"What doesn't she say? I can't follow the play."

"Tell her," his brother advised him.

A minute later Patrick turned back to him. "She said she'd explain it to me if it was too difficult for me to follow, the patronising little --"

John nudged him. "Shut up."

"Are you going to leave them alone?" the man who had been doing the questioning had asked when he reached the entrance hall at the back, the entrance for minor visitors. The front one was only used on very important official occasions.

The political advisor nodded. "She wanted us to leave, Mr. Visser."

"But I thought you advised her on what to do."

"I advise her on matters of politics," the other man replied.

"This could very well become political," was Visser's opinion. "He's crazy about her."

The advisors looked at each other. "We noticed as much," said the PR advisor. It suddenly occurred to him that there had been a change in Anna's behaviour in public after she had met Seton. "But he does my job a lot better than I do," he said wryly. "All the times I've been urging her to smile in public…but I'm not interfering, even if I should. There's not much I can do anyway. She's going to quit, I think."

"She is?"

"She hasn't said so yet, but she's been bringing Marie-Celeste to every meeting except this one so far and that was not to hold her hand. Why would she do that if Marie-Celeste wasn't going to take over?" the PR advisor asked.

"Interesting. She wouldn't need the government's approval then, would she? Only those who might possibly succeed to the throne have to ask permission to marry. Is that why she is being so lax?" said Visser.

"Lax? Seton would probably survive an investigation into his background. He wouldn't have got into Conf Op otherwise," said another MP.

"Wouldn't that be something against him, rather?"

"Well, considering that we could assume that he knows how to protect her if all else fails, I'm not certain."

The woman's heels clicked on the marble floor as she hurried to catch up with them, her scarf in her hand.

"Oh, weren't you with us, Nora?" asked Visser.

"I forgot my scarf." She still looked a little red.

"You didn't interrupt anything, dare I hope?"

"Yes," Nora nodded.

"We were just talking about that. So is it mutual?"

"Yes. That's why he wants to stay anonymous, so people can't say he took advantage of her and vice versa," said Nora.

"Keep him anonymous," the PR advisor advised. He had seen it was mutual. He had known Anna longer than they had. "They're playing the media quite nicely as it is." He knew that in his professional capacity he ought to warn the Royals off having such affairs, but he could not help seeing that it was doing Anna good. It was a gamble, but he supposed that the public would prefer to see her happy.

"What do you mean?" asked Visser.

"They had everybody, including us, think they met at a tennis match. Now that we know the truth, I have to say that they did that very cleverly. I think they know what they're doing. They consciously continued their acquaintance. They are moving pretty fast, but if we are to believe Mr. Seton, they are both careful thinkers, which means that they probably thought it through. He at least will have thought twice before getting involved with a queen."

"He's certainly no gold digger," said Visser.

But he did feel like that a little. John was not entirely happy with the fact that Charles-Louis or Anna had bought him his suit. He could not talk to Anna about it right away during the intermission, because she and the other ladies had almost run out of the theatre to be first in the queue for the ladies' room, leaving the men in their party a little bewildered.

"Let's not give them anything to drink," Charles-Louis suggested. "Or they're going to have to go again after the performance."

"If they drink anything during the intermission, I insist that they sit at the sides so they won't have to climb over us," said Patrick, who had had Marie-Celeste and Rosita clamber over him. The incident had made a deep impression on him, apparently, and he was bringing it up so the others would know about it too. "Why don't we put all of them in the first row?"

"You didn't like sitting next to Celeste?" Louis asked innocently. "Do you mean Cel put that dress on for nothing?"

Patrick gaped at him stupidly. He was still gaping stupidly when Louis and another member of the party had left the theatre to get a drink and James was pushing him on. "What did he mean?"

"Who?"

"Charles-Louis?"

"I didn't hear," said James.

"Ananas, ma petite!" Charles-Louis called out when he saw Anna come out of the ladies' room.

"Oui, Louis kiwi?" she answered with a smile, walking towards him, ignoring the curious stares that he had caused by calling he pineapple. When they were little, he had called her Ananas to tease her, but she no longer got upset about it.

"Le beau-frère de ta soeur…" he said meaningfully. "He went back in."

"What for?" Anna tried to work out this complicated family relationship. Her sister's brother-in-law. It was an interesting way of saying that he thought Marie-Celeste should be matched with Patrick.

"A couple of truies tried to pick him up."

"Truies?"

"Là-bas," he nodded at two indeed piggish looking girls. "Et il préfère toi, non? Anyway, do you know whom I mean? The brother of the one who sat next to your sister."

"Do you marry people off because they sit next to each other?" she asked curiously.

"Hey, I've been shopping with your --" he lowered his voice, "-- bloke. He told me his brother kind of fancies your sister."

"No!"

"Yes!"

Anna smiled and returned to the theatre as well, preferring the quiet to the noisy and smoky foyer. John rolled his eyes at her when she came back. She looked around herself and saw that there were about ten other people still seated and she sat down in the row in front of him, turning sideways in her seat. "Don't you like it in the foyer?"

"Not terribly. Don't you have to socialise?"

"I am socialising," she answered. "I don't have to do anything I don't want to. I'm sure people would talk to me if I'd walk around the foyer looking lonely, but I spoke to Louis and then came straight back here."

John leant forward a little, even if none of the ten other people were close enough to hear him. "I love your dress."

"Want to borrow it?" Anna felt a little light-headed. "I love your suit as well."

"Your suit," he corrected. Her money had bought it.

"Oh, you're not going to make a fuss about that, are you?" she begged.

"It's very expensive."

"To me it's a trifle."

He did not answer, but looked at the modestly sparkling bracelet on her arm that was around the back of her seat. He did not know how much that was worth and he did not want to know. His gaze travelled to her ringless hand and he wondered if she should be wearing an engagement ring, but he did not have a clue about which partner should procure the rings. The richest? The one who had proposed? The man? Both? Who should wear an engagement ring? Only Anna? And would he, if it was his task, be allowed to come up with a simple one?

Anna did not know what he was thinking. "Why do you look so dejected?"

"Should you be wearing an engagement ring?"

"I have no idea," Anna admitted. "Isn't that a bit old-fashioned? And isn't getting engaged only an excuse to throw a party? I don't need an engagement ring."

John brightened up. "Good." He was going to say more, but a man approached Anna.

"Your Majesty, wouldn't you like any refreshments?"

Anna turned in her seat. "No, thank you," she said politely. "I fell on my head yesterday, as you might know, and refreshments and crowds still make me nauseous." She could hardly say that she preferred a chat with her boyfriend.

"Oh, oh," said the man. "I'm sorry to hear that. Are you alright in here?"

"Perfectly alright, thank you."

"I hope you'll feel better soon," the man wished and Anna smiled her thanks. She turned back in her seat so she could look at John again.

"Refreshments make you nauseous?" John asked doubtfully.

"Well, maybe. I don't want to try it out."

He laughed and pulled up his knees to let some of the group pass. They all resumed their original seats, even Patrick and Marie-Celeste, to his great amusement. He leant forward a little, to see Marie-Celeste sit upright and cool, staring at the stage, her hands neatly folded in her lap. Suddenly Patrick squeezed her leg just above the knee, saying, "are you touchy?"

Marie-Celeste jerked her body with an involuntary squeal, causing the row before them to turn around in wonder at this uncharacteristic behaviour. They could see Patrick had something to do with it, because he was grinning.

"What did you do?" Anna asked him and he moved his hand towards Marie-Celeste's leg again to show her.

She grabbed it and pushed it away. "Don't be so extremely tedious," she said in a low and annoyed voice. She was highly embarrassed and angry with him for making her squeal. He would undoubtedly try again, if given the chance, so she should make sure he would not get it.

Patrick could not believe his eyes when her hand remained on his, with a grip like a vice, nevertheless, but he rather liked women with guts. "John, John, John!" he whispered in excitement. "Look!"

John was still laughing, but this stupidity made him laugh even harder. "It's a precautionary gesture, hardly a sign of affection."

After the play, the group conferred about what they would do next. Anna would not go to the party, but the rest would. They had not yet decided what they would do the rest of the weekend. Everyday life would not resume until Monday morning and it was now Friday evening. "When are you playing again?" Anna asked John.

"Sunday afternoon."

"What are you doing tomorrow?"

"Nothing."

She frowned. "I was wondering if we couldn't all go to my summerhouse to have some kind of New Year's breakfast."

The rest of the group looked at her and only the less sophisticated of them wondered how she could plan something like that at such short notice. "Where would you get the food?" Patrick asked. "The shops are closed until Monday."

Marie-Celeste looked at him rubbing his hand as he spoke. She was a little ashamed to see that it had clear nail marks on it and she looked down at the ground. She wondered why she could not have removed her hand after a few minutes. Would he really have tried again?

"The food?" Anna said in wonder. "Oh, I hadn't really thought about that. It's usually there…"

"You sound as clueless as Louis," laughed Rosita, who was David's sister. "He shops for clothes like a madman, but he's never been inside a supermarket."

"Oh, alright. It was a bad idea. I'm stupid. Don't mind me," Anna cringed.

"It was a good idea," said Louis. "Too bad about the food, though."

"I went shopping today, but I don't have enough," said John. "I wouldn't mind taking all I have, but it's not enough to feed more than two or three. Who else has food?"

Patrick raised his hand. He grinned. "I rather like the idea of us all bringing a bit. It makes it a little primitive, but very educational for some of you, I suppose." He did not look at the person he had in mind.

"I could steal some from my mother," said Rosita. "Have you got anything, Marnix?" she asked one of the other men.

"We can't come. The four of us are flying to Spain tomorrow."

"Oh, that's right."

It was decided that everybody would take as much as they could and then they would see how far it would take them. If it failed, they could always go and eat at the Palace where there was always enough to eat. Anna, Marie-Celeste and Charles-Louis did not know if they could take anything. They barely knew where to find the kitchens, let alone the storage rooms.

John feared that with an over-representation of Royals there would be very little food and perhaps only bottles of champagne, so with Anna's permission he called Hegge and suggested that he and the two others joined them. "Can I bring a girl?" Hegge asked.

"A girl?"

"Yes, don't worry. She knows all about you and Anna," Hegge chuckled.

That could only be Nathalie. "Nathalie? Thomas?" John said incredulously. "How did you do that? You gave her an interview. What else?"

"Oh, nothing yet. I just think she might like to come if I suggested it to her. She's as curious as anything. And don't you think there'd be too many men otherwise? Or are there more women coming?"

John counted. "Three so far -- Anna and her sister and their second cousin's boyfriend's sister. And eight men."

"Well, then it will be four and eight. We need some women to cook, don't we? I don't trust Anna and that sister in the kitchen without supervision, hehe, and I doubt they'd be impressed with anything one of us prepared."

"Hegge, I don't think Nathalie will come if you say you need her to cook. Besides, she might have something to do."

"It would be rude to refuse the Queen's invitation," Hegge chuckled.

"You're awful."

"I know, but I really think Nathalie and I have a bond. We're both vegetarians. Cherish your alliances, Seton. You might need them."

"I sometimes want to ask you very strange questions, but I never do," said Anna, sitting down next to John. Everybody else was still at the theatre. John had not wanted to stay if she was leaving, so he had gone too. They had left the theatre separately, but they had met outside his apartment. Anna was lucky that she did not have to go home to pick up a change of clothes, but John had to and he also had to get something to eat. She did not think anyone had seen her go up with him. In any case, it was dark outside and she would not be recognised very easily. What her bodyguard annex chauffeur thought of it was not her concern.

He sat in front of his refrigerator, studying its contents and transferring some of them to a cardboard box. "Why don't you?"

"Because I don't know what your reaction will be."

"Try me." He looked at her and grinned. "Did you think I didn't have that problem?" There were a lot of things he wanted to ask, but dared not.

"It's difficult."

"I know."

"Do you ever want us --" Anna paused. "-- to get carried away?"

John looked up and took in her flushed face. He thought he understood what she meant. "Carried away? Me?" He studied the date on the milk and drank it straight from the carton.

Anna looked helpless. "You can't get carried away?"

"I don't know if I can," he admitted, throwing the empty carton in the sink. "I've never tried. I rarely lose my head."

"Then I suppose I should rest assured? People might frown upon a pregnant and unmarried queen," Anna said quietly.

To him that was a rather radical change of the subject. "Pregnant? Oh I thought it was something serious..." He shrugged and put a piece of chocolate in her mouth. It cleaned his fridge up nicely and the wrapping flew in the direction of the sink as well.

Anna bit the chocolate and thought it over while he repacked his box in a more efficient manner to fit the eggs in. "Pregnant is not serious?" she asked indistinctly.

He had cleared out practically the whole refrigerator now and he closed the door. "Not for me -- if I know for certain that you won't get pregnant or that you won't mind, then I don't see any problems. I'm very easy." He got to his feet, pushed the box aside and pulled Anna up. "Now Anna, you look as if you think I'm too calm. I'm not. It all overwhelms me and I'm hoping that it will be less overwhelming if I'm really reasonable about it."

"Pregnant is not serious…" Anna said incredulously.

"It's not the first thing that would enter my mind," he buried his face in her hair. "I can't get pregnant, see?"

"No, but you can get me pregnant!"

"But you don't have to get pregnant," he said reasonably. "Have you never heard of contraceptives?"

"I have! But tell me, when have I ever needed to worry about contraceptives?" Anna said defensively.

"And when was the last time I had to provide them?" he retorted. He was getting confused and tried to retrace the steps in their conversation to figure out how they had ended up here, of all irrelevant subjects. Alright. It's not irrelevant, he conceded after a short moment. In theory, he liked to know exactly where he stood, but in practise he found that this was a bit more difficult to accomplish than he had thought.

"I don't want to know that," Anna said. "It will make me jealous."

"Don't be. It's not worth the trouble." Anna eclipsed them all, he thought and then smiled inwardly at his phrasing. All. There had not been as many as that word implied, but too many for Anna at any rate, he guessed.

"Oh. Well, what had you been thinking about it then?" she asked.

"Me? Nothing. I haven't thought about it." John lifted the box with food off the ground and placed it on the table. He opened his cupboards. There might be something useful there too. Anything to get away from this subject.

Anna watched him take out a few packages to put them in the box. "Of course you have. You're a man."

He handed her more chocolate and wondered how he came to have so much chocolate. "Here, you're a woman." And yes, she was right.

"Don't wriggle away from it. You're a man, so you thought about it, period. But what did you think?" She was not going to eat more chocolate, she decided, and put the chocolate in the box.

"Alright, I have," John conceded. He carried the box to the door. "Will you turn off the lights?" he called over his shoulder.

Anna crossed her arms and leant against the table. "No."

He turned and stared at her. She was going to refuse to come along before she had her answer, he could tell. He put down the box and walked back.

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