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Nancy nods. “My sources tell me that there’s a team of reporters who’ve been investigating the king’s, uh, dalliances for years.”
Flora, who has overheard the conversation, interrupts. “I’m sorry, but my mother has known about my father’s infidelities. He has always had a habit of disappearing for days, sometimes weeks at a time. His dalliances are not a surprise to anyone.”
Jo and I glance at each other. I turn back to Flora. “He has?”
Flora nods solemnly and lets out a heavy sigh. “I’m just glad we’re finally talking about it in the open.”
Doug waves his hands in the air. “No. No. No, we’re not talking about any of this in the open. Your Highness, please put your phone away. We have to strategize…”
Doug continues to throw out all sorts of made-up explanations and back stories, but no one is listening.
Jo turns to me. “You know, I wondered. When that man at the Salska train station approached us. I thought he was being so silly. But the more I look at you now, the more I see it.”
My wife is talking to me and yet, why do I feel as if she’s slipping away from me?
“It’s true there’s no father listed on my birth certificate,” I say, “but that doesn’t mean anything.”
“The exact color of the Haart brothers’ beards, the cheekbones, the shoulders, the chin, the height. Just like the king. Just like your brothers.”
“Half-brothers,” I correct. “Maybe. If any of this is true.”
“Jakob, you might be a prince. Do you understand that?”
I don’t know how to respond, except to call upon memories that I’ve bottled up for my entire life.
“The king visited my mother on and off for years,” I finally admit.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Doug’s attention snap to me.
“What the fuck?” someone whispers.
“It was the 1990s, and no one was telling on the king’s personal business,” I continue. “My mother suffered massively from depression. I suppose she was in love with a man she couldn’t have. She became addicted to pain pills and made the difficult choice to send me away to live with my aunt. Jo, that aunt was your neighbor when we were children, so I suppose you could say my mother is responsible for us meeting.”
“Holy hell, Jakob.”
“My mother revealed the affair to me before she died three years ago. I’ve kept it a secret to protect myself and to protect her.”
Jo is unreadable at this point. ”I…I don’t even know what to say. Gods, I need air. Why doesn’t this room have a window!”
I grab her hand. Our world is collapsing.
“I need you by my side, Jo. I have to find the king. We have to talk to both of them before they hear this gossip from someone else.”
She pulls away from me, and it’s a knife to my heart. “I need to get out of here. I need to think.”
“We need to speak to the king,” I say to no one, because no one is paying attention to me. My wife is panicking, and everyone is staring at their phones.
I get in their faces and make my demands. But neither Doug, who still paces and types furiously on his phone, nor Uther, who hovers over Flora, will agree to me having a private meeting with the monarchs.
“They are resting before the press conference,” says Uther when I implore him.
“Rest time is over. This is important. At the very least, the queen needs to hear this news from me and not have it sprung on her in public.”
Doug shakes his head. “We’re killing that story. We’re squashing it. There’s no reason to even entertain any such ridiculous claims.”
No one is hearing me.
“The king has to tell the queen the truth before we go to this press conference, or I will tell her,” I tell him.
