49. Brought Forth
Brought Forth
BETTY
Iwas deposited in the drawing room unceremoniously along with my very-confused brother.
My family waited—Mamma, Pappa, Ingrid, Keir, and Paulie—Keir and Ingrid’s very-awake toddler.
No one knew what was going on until my cousin Cici arrived with her husband Isak.
I gathered whatever happened was hers to deal with.
This was a training mission and she’d been drafted.
“Pappa will be back soon,” Cici said. “He finished up an engagement and is driving in. I was closer.”
Cici arrived that morning in time for my birthday brunch. Of course, it was now feeling very much not like a birthday.
“What the fuck is happening?” I burst out. “Why was I spirited away? Did Mary make the finals? Wait, is there a threat to Mary? What is happening?”
“Betty, just sit, please,” Cici’s voice rattled.
I had no time for this. Someone needed to tell me why I’d been pulled from the event before the finals. No one answered. I was sick of that shit!
“Has someone died?” Ingrid asked.
I stood and paced, unable to sit. It felt wrong to leave Mary.
“No,” Cici said. “It’s not like that. We were blindsided by some news.”
“Which facilitated you pulling me—”
“I made a choice based on limited options,” Cici sighed. “And… unfortunately, it’s messy.”
“How?” Pappa asked.
“Betty, there was a tape leaked.”
My mind raced. A tape of what? We’d been so careful.
It hit me. I’d consoled Mary in the hallway.
I dropped the mask for five minutes to take care of the woman I loved.
I thought we were alone. I risked it because it felt right, but what if Kaldi and her crew broke our trust? What if they outed us for clicks?
“Oh, God! Elisabeth, what did you do?” Pappa asked. “We have always said not to send nudes! Who is this boy? I am going to string him up!”
“Lars, everyone sends nudes!” Ingrid declared. “Calm down. No one will care that much.”
Everyone stared at the woman who had just outed herself.
“What? Everyone does. Don’t look at me like that, Keir,” Ingrid said in very curt Norwegian.
Paul brought a toy back to his mother from where he’d been playing in the corner. Her face softened, then brightened, and the whole room moved on.
“What are you talking about?” I asked. “I’ve never made a tape. Everyone can just stop judging me.”
“It’s really so PG,” Cici clarified. “But it’s massive because of the context.”
“I furrowed my brow. What? What tape. If that documentarian did something with that tape at Miragelite—”
“This wasn’t them,” Cici said. “I thought so, but no. This tape appeared on the Internet about an hour ago. No one knows who posted it, but they are assuming it was either a stagehand or another contestant.”
She held out her phone and played a clip of me and Mary talking.
We kiss and then I leave. My soul left my body watching it.
The room fell silent, leaving me wondering what would be said.
I braced for the inevitable admonishment that I’d broken protocol and dared kiss someone in public, while panicking about what must be hitting Mary right now.
I expected to feel violated, but I mostly worried about the impact on Mary.
“Betty, are you dating the UniVox girl?” Pappa asked, confused. “She’s… not a boy.”
The UniVox girl. I bristled. She’s so much more than that, Pappa!
“She was dating someone?” Mamma asked.
“Yes. I thought he was a boy from Gothenburg. But… she wouldn’t tell me anything.”
I didn’t brace for pearl-clutching or further invalidation. This was a time for action.
I held out my hand. “Can someone bring me my mobile phone?”
Cici’s handler shook her head.
“They took your phone while we figured this out. I instructed them to do so,” Cici said.
“Well, fuck! Come on, Cici, this is important!” I pled.
“No. No. Not until we figure this out. I am… I am sorry, but… I can’t permit it. We must wait for Pappa to get back for the final call. We’re here to come up with a solution.”
Mamma sat Cici’s mobile on the table, “Sweetie, why didn’t you tell us?”
“Are you seriously offended right now?” I asked.
“Well, you should have told us that you liked women,” Mamma said. “Did you not trust we’d be understanding? Or did you forget that I was raised by lesbians?”
Nat said, “I know it’s not the point, but Raised By Lesbians would be a great band name.”
“Nathan, do not make me smite you down,” Mamma groaned. “Not helping.”
I had to laugh. Nate was good for that much. He often had a temper and could be misguided, but he loved us all hard. Humor was the way he stopped himself from flying off the handle.
“I didn’t know what to say,” I said. “I fell in love—hard—and it didn’t matter to me that Mary was a woman. I love her for who she is. That’s all. This is why I need my phone—"
“But you never liked women before?” Pappa said, confused.
We can hash this out later after I check with Mary. My mind screamed. Suddenly, this conversation I dreaded with my parents wasn’t my number one fear. My worry was that Mary felt deserted or that she was still in danger.
“I did. I just didn’t feel comfortable saying anything about it.
I never thought I was gay enough. I suppose if I’d dated a girl in my early twenties, I would have told you but doing that—as us—isn’t easy.
It’s not that I didn’t think you’d love me.
Ingrid and Keir know. They loved me. They like Mary.
It’s that… living like a royal and being with a woman isn’t like the easiest thing.
And yeah, I’m a little worried about Uncle Olav’s reaction—”
“For what reason?”
As if on cue, the man of the hour entered. “Is this about the singer?”
I stopped, unsure what to say. Cici met my gaze before turning. “We are still assessing.”
“I saw the bloody video. Kiersten!” He turned. “They’re all in here!”
He called for my aunt. She entered, then raced to give me a hug and a kiss.
“Oh, sweetie, I’m so happy for you to finally be who you are!”
It was the most awkward, if not slightly misguided thing. I knew she meant well, but I didn’t need this right now. All I wanted was confirmation that Mary was okay.
“I… I don’t want to have a coming out party right now,” I protested.
“I love that you all love me, but Mary is out there in the world dealing with this press. She watched a bandmate nearly die on stage. The man who tortured her in her youth almost destroyed her career—again. I need to focus on that and answer your multitude of questions later.”
“Has no one secured her?” My uncle asked.
“No, do we need to?” Cici asked.
“Partners are secured,” Olav said. “In situations like these, we bring them to a safe area. It’s too risky. She’s going to be battered around if left out at sea.”
“Can we get her?” Isak asked a courtier.
“Please get Miss Jensson and bring her,” Cici commanded. “Soon. No excuses.”
“Can I get my fucking phone?” I snapped.
For a moment the room fell silent, surprised by my outburst. Gone was their jester. Thankfully, my uncle understood my concern. He didn’t want to chat about my relationship status. He wanted Mary to be safe.
Instead of calling me out on language, Uncle Olav cleared his throat. “Where is her mobile phone?”
A staffer popped forward, “I will retrieve it, Your Majesty.”
“Thank you,” Uncle Olav tightened his jaw before softening. “So, a rockstar? And our little Betty? What will that be like?”
I wanted to crawl into a hole and die. “Can we just… not? It’s bad enough having a video of a private moment where I’m talking her off a ledge out in public. And now everyone gets to sexualize it. I fucking kissed her, okay? So shoot me!”
“No one wants to do that, Bets,” Mamma said, voice gentle like when I was a child and had a meltdown.
I sniffled. “I’m sorry, but I feel violated.
I did kiss her, but it was supposed to be a moment in private—what little I get.
I kissed Mary because I love her and needed to make sure she was okay.
I don’t know who took the video, but it had to have been a contestant—likely the Swedes to get Mary back.
Let’s move on and stop judging me from breaking protocol. ”
“Judging?” Uncle Olav chuckled. “Oh, sweetheart, no one is judging you. I was practically commanded to marry your aunt after some saucy messages emerged.”
“Saucy messages?” Ingrid asked. “Oh, really?”
“We are not getting into that,” Uncle Olav said. “But I got myself in a hole and it put your aunt at risk.”
“He was not well-behaved,” Aunt Kiersten said sweetly.
“But he would never be upset with any of you for being gay. Good Lord! He got himself into a pickle almost beating up a man who shouted a slur at Georgie and Patrick. This was back when Leah was an infant. He meant well. I don’t pretend to know what it is like to be attracted to a woman, but…
I don’t think there is any way I could love you less for it, sweetheart. And I don’t see a problem with it.”
“Nor do I,” Cici said. “And… if this is serious… which I think it is—”
She looked to her father for advice.
“There are protocols that need to be implemented,” Uncle said. “It’s a dance. The last non-royal to enter the family was Rose, but she was the daughter of an aristocrat and a family friend. Things were easier with her. But with a celebrity? It will require some work.”
“So what? Now I must force her into some sort of sham engagement so we can keep her safe?”
Uncle Olav furrowed his brow.
“No ring no bring,” Pappa groaned.
No ring no bring. The adage that if one wasn’t at least engaged, they weren’t allowed to attend events as partners, they didn’t receive security, and they weren’t considered partners.
Watching Cici and my brothers navigate this was difficult, but most married people already in a similar social strata.
“We all know the dance,” I said. “And I won’t force that. No, she’s not one of us. She’d never be invited to our parties. She doesn’t know the protocol. Even if she is accepted by some miracle, the scrutiny will be intense.”
No one disputed it.
“We’ll address that,” Cici said. “I promise you.”
“And I know how that works, sweetie,” Mamma said. “We will be kind.”
“I just want to make it clear that no matter who I am in the family, if I am with someone, they are a priority. Mary needs to be safe. This is already going off the rails. The story is more salacious than anything.”
Pappa and Uncle Olav exchanged glances. I wondered if they would try to dismiss my concerns as if I were a child. But before they could speak, someone defended Mary and I in a way I didn’t see coming.
Cici strongly said, “No ring, no bring ends here.”
The room fell silent. I worried she might soften on her stance, but she didn’t.
Her words rang true. “If I have a say, it ends. It looks homophobic and I found it crushing.”
Her father recoiled, about to say something, but Cici and Aunt Kiersten glared. If it was Cici’s ship to right, he had to leave the bridge. I shot her a grateful look. There was much to work through, but Cici held to her word and stuck her neck out when I least expected it.
I slumped on the couch by Ingrid.
Paulie approached. “Hello, Auntie.”
“Hi, my love,” I said.
“Do you need a hug?”
“I would love a hug.” I helped settle him in my lap.
It shook me out of my funk.
“Some work isn’t the end of the world,” Aunt Kiersten added. “She’s going to be just like any of us.”
“So, no one is freaking out?” I asked.
“We just want you to be happy, sweetheart,” Pappa said. “If you are happy, then so are we. And if she loves you, I am sure it will be alright.”
“Can we table all of that?” I asked. “I appreciate the support. I do. However, until Mary is here and I can make sure she is okay—that we are okay—I can’t think about any of this.”