He turned and led her into the garrison where one of the security team members held the door to the black SUV waiting for them. Frederick entered first so Elise wouldn't have to move to the far side in her gown.
During the ride to the venue, she asked him questions about the attractions they passed on the drive. He answered the best he could, but the member of the security team in the front passenger seat filled in a few details Frederick wasn't aware of.
When they reached the portico in front of the venue, Frederick realized his error. He would exit first, and Elise would have to move to the other side of the SUV - the very thing Frederick had tried to avoid back at the garrison.
The reporters were lined up so they wouldn't be able to see into the SUV while Elise moved across it to the door. Frederick held out his hand for Elise to take it. He could tell the moment they realized who he was escorting.
Elise held a clutch in her other hand. She smiled at the cameras and those beyond them, but they didn't stop to talk to them. That would happen another time.
They were the last ones to arrive. When they were announced, those in the ballroom began to cheer.
"I don't like being a bigger story than the charity," Elise told him quietly as they stepped into the room.
"I know, but we'll do our best to use the spotlight to redirect it where it belongs." Surely they could manage to do that.
He held Elise's chair for her and took his seat between her and the event organizer. As soon as he was seated, the staff began serving the meal.
For the remainder of the meal, Frederick split his conversational time between Elise, the organizer and those seated on either side of his seatmates. He didn't talk to those twonearly as much as he did Elise and the organizer, but more than he normally did. He kept one ear on Elise and her conversations. As expected, she was friendly and personable. He wouldn't have expected anything less.
After dinner, Frederick gave a speech about the importance of organ donation and thanked those present for their hard work raising both funds and awareness. After him, several recipients of organs spoke on the second chance they'd been given. One had received a heart. Two more each received a kidney from live donors. A friend of one had been a donor for the other while a relative of the other gave a kidney to the first one. He'd never heard of such an arrangement but it seemed to help increase the number of those able to receive new organs. The last speaker had been a recipient of a heart as a child after discovering the same genetic anomaly that his father had. His father had been on vacation in Southern Santiero when his heart had given out. He'd received a heart from a car accident victim. Because of that donation, his father had met the woman he would eventually marry and have children with.
The domino effect.
Frederick needed to make sure he was more involved with this sort of thing. It was important.
But so were all of the organizations he gave his patronage.
What made one more important than another? That question had to have plagued royals the world over for decades, since they took on a philanthropic role instead of a dictatorial one.
He and Elise would need to discuss what their goals as a couple were. Would she want to support the arts? That would make sense, but would she limit it to the acting world? Or would she expand to the performing arts as a whole? Instrumental music and choral music could easily be a part of that. Would other parts of the art world be part of it as well?
Unfortunately, they only had two days before she needed to leave to finish shootingBecoming Mrs. Scrooge. He'd meet her parents the next afternoon. They'd hoped he'd be able to before they went public with Elise's identity, but it hadn't worked out that way.
Elise had told her parents about the relationship when they arrived a few days earlier. Their trip had been delayed when her mum contracted a nasty stomach virus. His back-to-back meetings had prevented him from being present.
As the event came to a close, Frederick offered Elise his elbow and escorted her through the room, talking briefly with those they encountered as they made their way to the exit.
They walked to their waiting SUV and waved toward the cameras and the gathered crowd, but didn't say anything. Their conversations with those inside would make their way into the public knowledge base, but for now that's all they would get.
The public reveal meant Elise would need to stay at the palace. Frederick couldn't convince himself he felt badly about that.
He looked forward to seeing her more often. Before long, she'd live there permanently.
He couldn't wait.
The meetingwith her parents had gone well, like Elise knew it would. The reaction from the public had been a bit more mixed. She suspected it wouldn't improve until she lived in Southern Santiero and took on the role of queen consort full time. That wouldn't be until after the wedding.
A second public appearance in three days wouldn't hurt though.
At least this one was more casual and wouldn't require a gown. For the organ donation event, she'd worn a gown by the same woman who had designed her wedding dress. For this event, jeans and a nice shirt would suffice.
She also needed to wear heels, something she preferred to avoid at all costs whenever possible.
The stilettos were her least favorite of the heels she had to wear from time to time, but Elise suspected she'd have to wear them much more often in the future.
Once again, she expected to meet Frederick near the garrison, but at the last minute the woman acting as her dresser for the time being, told her to go a different direction.
As she walked down the main staircase - the same one she'd walked up on her first visit - Elise found George waiting at the bottom.
