Chapter 14
The food arrived as Frederick emerged from his side of the owner’s suite. He looked around but didn’t see Elise anywhere until he noticed the slightly open door to the deck.
With a blanket pulled up to her chin and her eyes closed, her face looked peaceful.
Did he want to wake her up or let her sleep?
With the sun down and the breeze created by the movement through the water, would she be too cold? He found another blanket to cover her with then turned to go back inside.
He hadn’t ordered much for himself, so it didn’t take him long to eat. Leaving her to sleep alone on the deck didn’t feel right to Frederick. Instead, he took another blanket, flipped the outdoor lights off, and settled into the lounge chair next to hers.
It took longer than he would like, but eventually he dozed off.
A noise startled him awake some time later.
“Frederick?” Elise’s sleepy voice drifted over to him.
He sat up and looked over at her. “Right here.”
“Where am I?” She sat up, looking adorably rumpled.
“You fell asleep on the deck.” He managed to extract himself from the lounge chair. There was no way to do so elegantly, and he found himself grateful there were no paparazzi around to see him.
“I did?”
Frederick held out a hand to help her up. “You did. Let’s get you inside.”
Elise took his hand and a moment later she was leaning against him as they walked into the suite.
He stopped her next to the bed. “Here.” Thankfully, the covers had already been turned down before they arrived.
She yawned as she slid her legs under the covers and tried to pull them up over her shoulders.
When she struggled a bit, Frederick pulled the sheet up followed by the duvet. Elise rolled onto her side, eyes closed, and settled back in to sleep.
Where were her blankets? It surprised him a member of their staff hadn’t taken it upon themselves to get duplicates.
Which left Frederick with a decision to make.
They hadn’t seen each other enough in the weeks leading up to the wedding.
They had dinner together often, but the conversations had remained light overall.
Yes, they’d learned more about each other’s lives, but there had been no deeply personal discussions.
Like where they would sleep or when they would start sleeping together.
The middle of the night wasn’t the time to go wandering around the yacht. He wasn’t overly familiar with the layout and getting lost wouldn’t be a good look for many reasons.
After several moments of consideration, he decided there was really only one option.
He laid down, being sure to stay on his side of the bed, then closed his eyes and tried to drift off.
Eventually, he must have because he woke to his phone buzzing on the side table. He picked it up to find a text from his assistant.
Odd.
They weren’t supposed to have anything on the schedule for the day.
He pulled his robe on and tied it as he walked out the main doors of the suite.
“Good morning, Your Majesty.” George bowed from the waist. “I apologize for waking you, but there are a couple of things I need to discuss with you.”
Frederick accepted the cup of coffee George offered and took a sip. He motioned to the frosted doors across from the ones leading to the owner’s suite. If he remembered correctly, there was a table in there.
As George opened the door, Frederick saw he’d been correct.
“A couple of things have come up over night.”
Frederick took the offered tablet as he sipped on his coffee. The screen showed the front page of a local news website. In the center was a photo of his kiss with Elise on the balcony after the ceremony.
The headline proclaimed a new queen with a subtitle of “No Longer a Bachelor King.”
“Did they really call me that?” Frederick had never heard it, but he didn’t keep close tabs on things like that.
“Occasionally when the topic of your marriage and an heir came up.” George did something on his tablet and Frederick’s changed as well. “Overall, reactions are just as positive as we would have expected. There’s a few naysayers, but they’re the ones who wouldn’t be happy regardless.”
Frederick nodded. There were always a few.
“Queen Catherine has asked about moving your October meeting from Southern Santiero to Eastern Novigradia.”
That request made Frederick frown. He didn’t have an objection, per se, but he’d always been told that to have too many of those in person meetings in the same place led to a power imbalance.
“The queen will be unable to travel in October.” George didn’t elaborate. Perhaps he didn’t know why?
Frederick would call her soon and see if he could find out what the issue was.
“Today is a sea day. Tomorrow, you’ll be in Dolphin Cove for a visit to a children’s center and dinner with local politicians and other dignitaries.
” Another swipe changed the screen to the itinerary for the next two weeks.
“There will be a sea day every other day for the most part. The other days will be spent in different towns around the country.”
That wasn’t news to Frederick. They’d gone over the schedule several times in the previous week, so he wondered why George had brought it up.
“We have been asked to rearrange a one of the days due to the mayor’s son needing a minor surgery. To do that, we may need to rearrange several others as well.”
Frederick took another sip of his coffee as he turned that over in his mind. “Is there a way we could move it to one of the sea days? That way it won’t inconvenience any of the other towns.”
George nodded. “I think we can do that. It will mean three days in a row with visits, but you’ll also have three sea days in a row to compensate.”
“Is the location close enough to my Mum that we could stop there for a couple of days?” Another sip of his coffee brought him to the bottom of the cup.
“I believe we could make that work. I’m not certain of the Queen Mother’s schedule, but I’ll find out and see if we can make the arrangements.” George made a note on a pad of paper.
They both turned toward the open door when Elise called his name.
Frederick set his mug on table and stood. “Thank you for the updates. Will you see that breakfast is sent up?”
George stood and tipped his head toward Frederick. “Yes, sir.”
Stifling a yawn, he went back into the owner’s suite. “Elise?” He didn’t go around the wall until he heard a response. “Good morning.”
She sat with her back to the wall and legs criss-crossed in front of her. “Good morning. How did I get in here?”
Frederick sat on the opposite edge of the bed. “You fell asleep outside, but when you woke in the middle of the night, I helped you in here.”
Elise looked over at him and blinked. “You did?” Her gaze shifted to the pillow next to him. “But where did you sleep?”
When Elise saw the look on Frederick’s face, she felt like she had to be missing something.
Her brain wasn’t fully functioning. That had to be part of the problem.
Then it clicked.
The covers on the other side of the bed were rumpled.
“You slept here.” She hoped her relief came through. The last thing she’d want is for him to feel like he had to sleep on a couch somewhere or another suite.
“I hope that doesn’t make you uncomfortable. I would have gone somewhere else, but I don’t know the layout very well, and it was the middle of the night.” The tone of his voice was tinged with concern.
“It’s fine. I’m glad you chose to. If anyone should sleep elsewhere, it’s me. This is your yacht.” She struggled to contain a yawn. “Besides, it’s not like we’ve never slept in the same bed before. We did that within a couple of hours of meeting for the first time.”
“I know.”
She shifted to sit up a bit straighter. “I haven’t seen an itinerary for this trip. Are we spending most of it at sea or are we going somewhere and then we’ll spend time there - some family island resort maybe?”
“We’ll be sailing around the country for a few weeks. Essentially every other day will be at sea most of the time. I’ll ask George to make sure you get a copy of it.”
“Thank you.” Elise looked out the glass wall in front of her. Bright blue water extended as far as she could see. “It’s beautiful.”
A grin crossed his face. “It’s one of my favorite things about living in an island nation. The views and the seafood.”
“I’m not big on seafood, unfortunately.” Elise grimaced. “I’m probably going to have to learn to like it well enough to eat it regularly, won’t I?”
“That would probably be the best option,” he agreed. “You’ll be offered seafood on a regular basis. Some of the communities are rightfully proud of their local seafood dish. Refusing or only eating a little bit of it will be offensive.”
“I’ll manage.” She hoped she could. Maybe the chef could make some of the dishes for her to try so she would have an idea of what they tasted like or how to tweak it to where she could eat it without giving away her general distaste.
Before she could mention the idea to Frederick, a knock on the main door caught their attention.
“That’s our breakfast.” Frederick walked out of view then returned a moment later with a tray. “Where would you like to eat? Outside? Or in here?” He tipped his head toward the small table for two.
“In here is fine this morning.” For some reason, going outside in her pyjamas in the morning felt different than going outside in her pyjamas after dark.
The light breakfast was perfect for Elise.
Her stomach couldn’t handle much more, not as it started to set in that she really had decided to retire at a very young age from a successful and growing career in entertainment.
On top of that, she’d married a man she didn’t know well - yet - and had somehow ended up queen of the island nation.
“Is everything okay?” Frederick must have picked up on it.
“Everything is just starting to sink in. I don’t want you to think I regret any of it, I don’t, but it’s still a big change. It’s hitting me that I’m technically retired and have somehow become a queen.” She pulled a bite off of the pastry in her hand.
He took a moment before answering. “It is a big change, even more so for someone who hasn’t had years to prepare.”
“How old were you when you realized you’d be king some day?” That would keep the attention of of her, but she also wanted to know the answer.
Frederick leaned his head back and stared at the ceiling. “Probably seven or eight. It became more clear after my father became king when I was ten. The coronation really drove some of it home.”
“I can imagine. That would make an impression on anyone.” She’d need to look at the pictures or footage from it to get a better idea of what it might have been like for a young Frederick. “How old were you when you had your coronation?”
He gave a shrug. “I didn’t really have one.
The country was mourning my father. I was young, barely old enough to be king in my own right without a regent.
Mum went to her new home to mourn in private.
She’s never fully recovered from his death.
The mood of the country wasn’t one where my advisers thought a coronation would be appropriate. ”
“Interesting.” Elise took another bite of her pastry. “I would have thought it would make it more… official. I know it doesn’t matter legally, but…” She wasn’t quite sure how to put it into words.
Frederick’s brow furrowed. “I never really thought about it, but those advisers weren’t fond of my father and were part of the old guard as it were. It’s possible they manipulated the information that I had access to.”
“Is there someone you could talk to now that you’d trust?” Another thought occurred to her. “Was it ever mentioned that you should wait until you married? Could they have used that idea to prevent you from doing it years ago?”
“Maybe? I don’t remember it being part of the discussions, but it doesn’t seem like a completely new idea so someone must have said something to me sometime since my father passed.
” He thought for another moment then pulled out his phone.
“Just making a note to have George look into it later.” He put his phone away then smiled at her.
“If I write it down, it won’t take up any more of my brain power, and I can focus on something else. Like getting to know you better.”
The smile that crossed his face made her smile in return. “That sounds nice.”
When they finished eating their breakfast, they moved back out to the lounge chairs on the deck. For some reason, it didn’t bother her anymore that she was in her pyjamas. It helped that she was awake enough to know no one could see them.
For the first time, they were able to just sit and talk about anything that came to them.
They did change into comfortable clothes to sit in the sun on the top deck for their lunch. At one point, dolphins swam alongside the yacht. Elise found herself mesmerized.
Dinner was served on the deck outside their suite. They’d changed again, this time into something a bit warmer once the sun went down and the breeze cooled things off again.
Most of the outside lights had been turned off, and they sat in a double lounge chair, sharing a blanket.
“I think this has been my favorite day in a very long time.”
Elise snuggled closer as Frederick pressed a kiss to the side of her head. “Definitely.” She bit her bottom lip and wondered at one thing that might make it better.
Taking a deep breath, she sat up, just a bit, and turned to look at Frederick.
And kissed him.