"If we didn't have a chance before, we would have talked after dinner. Your father had just contacted your office and was told you'd already left for the day." Madeleine gave her daughter a look of compassion and checked her watch. "It's been less than three hours since Jake called me."
Issy stared at her hands and cleared her throat. "I'm sorry, Kins."
Catherine stood and walked to her sister's chair. Leaning over from the back, she wrapped an arm around Issy and gave her the best hug she could. Issy's hands grabbed onto Catherine's forearm and held on. They stayed like that for a long moment. Catherine whispered something in Issy's ear that made her sister smile, at least a little bit.
After letting go, the queen returned to her seat. "How do we proceed?"
"You and Jake need to have a long, very frank discussion and make some decisions. Once you've done that, we'll have a longer conversation based on those decisions." Her father stood. Her sister and Madeleine stood with him. Each one stopped and gave Catherine a hug and whispered something to her. Each of them made her smile, at least a little bit.
In just a moment, they were alone in the monarch's office. Jake waited for Catherine to start the conversation.
"Let's move to the chairs by the window." Catherine started to walk toward the sitting area across the office. She chose her chair before Jake arrived. He picked one that gave him the ability to look her in the eye rather than next to her where they could both look out the window.
He waited longer for her to begin the next portion of their conversation.
"I appreciate your offer, Jacob, but you don't need to do this. We can find another way." She looked his direction, but not straight in the eye.
"It's my pleasure, Catherine. I wouldn't have offered if I didn't mean it." He leaned forward, his forearms resting on his knees with his hands clasped between them. "Please consider the offer. If you decide not to, I understand. If there's someone else who would be a better option, just let me know. Like your father said, no hard feelings."
She shook her head. "There isn't anyone. I'm just having a hard time accepting this is the the direction my life is going to take." She stared out the window for a few moments. "I'm not going to have dinner with the family this evening. If you would like to join me, you're more than welcome to, or you can join the family, but you are under no obligation to have dinner here at all."
Jake looked directly at her and smiled. "I'm not going anywhere. I’m with you for the duration."
Rather than returnto her usual quarters, Catherine decided she'd stay in a different portion of the palace. She made sure her senior aides and security team knew where she was, but one disadvantage of living in the same place as her entire family was that... she lived in the same place as her entire family.
It wasn't the first time she'd stayed elsewhere. Sometimes she needed space. It likely wouldn't surprise her parents when she didn't return to her childhood bedroom in the Monarch's Quarters.
She had clothes stashed in her office and acouple of other places. Grabbing a pair of yoga pants and an over-sized t-shirt, she changed in her office then slipped out a back way and stuck to passageways very few people ever used. Thankfully, she didn't see anyone as she made her way to a spare suite. If she wasn't mistaken, it was the one Mumeleine had used for several weeks before her marriage to Catherine's father. There was a strange sort of symmetry to it.
She laid in the bed, with the curtains open so she could see out the window. In the distance, the faint shimmer of the Northern Lights began to glow. Maybe she should plan a trip to the lake house just outside of Novilacu. Thanks to the Dark Sky Initiative her mother had spearheaded, the sky was so free of light pollution that you could see the vastness of space. Millions of pinpricks of light from billions of miles away always made her feel small and insignificant, but in a good way. It was a way of reminding herself not to let her head get too big.
Catherine might be queen. She might have authority very few others did. But that didn't mean she was more important than anyone else in the larger scheme of things.
It served to remind her to treat others as she would want to be treated.
In some ways, she had far fewer freedoms than most people could imagine.
Catherine never went anywhere alone, ever. She never had. The only places she could go without another person being there were in the palace or one of their other homes and even then not everywhere in those places. Her private quarters were usually safe, except she'd had up to eight siblings and her parents living in the same "apartment" so there was always someone around.
The last thing she wanted to do was make her parents think she was ungrateful for their help over the years, but sometimes she wondered when she'd be able to have the Monarch'sQuarters to herself and the family she'd be creating with someone, someday.
Maybe she should move out like her younger siblings had. Move to one of the other apartments. It had been several years since she went through them to see what they looked like or how they felt or which view she might like best, so that needed to be on her agenda.
Staring out the window, unable to sleep, she decided that would be the best thing for her and her family. She didn't want to kick her parents and four youngest siblings out just because she had a birthday.
And if she was going to be starting a life with Jacob, a place of their own - so to speak - could be a very good plan.
She sat straight up and swung her legs over the side of the bed. Going to the window, she looked down at the spot she'd just remembered existed.
"It's perfect," she whispered.
It would take some convincing for her security team to see the wisdom of the decision, but she'd overrule them if she had to.
Her phone buzzed, overriding her do not disturb. When she picked it up, the name didn't surprise her.
"Hi." She answered and sunk back down onto the bed. "You made it home?"
"I did," Jacob told her. "I talked to my grandparents for a little bit or I would have called sooner."
