Chapter 5 #2
"I don't see any." He pulled two cups out of a cabinet. "These will work."
Catherine laughed. "Unconventional, but I don't see why not."
Once they had the ice cream served up, Jacob suggested they eat in the living area. Catherine followed him and sat on the opposite end of the couch.
"How do you feel about today?" Jacob didn't look at her, giving her space to answer without him staring at her.
"I feel all right. It's not what I would have expected, but it's what needed to happen for a lot of reasons.
In a lot of ways, given everything else, it feels right.
I'm grateful you came to town when you did, otherwise Issy would have found this information anyway, and we still would have had to figure something out.
" She took a spoonful of ice cream and stared at it.
"I don't know who we would have found to be my partner in all of this.
There's literally no one I can think of who I would want to marry or who would be willing to marry me without something in it for themselves. "
"I have no doubt you would have found an acceptable solution, but I'm glad I can be part of that rather than you needing to look for someone else." Jacob finally looked at her and smiled. "It's my honor to be part of the solution, to work by your side and support you through anything that comes."
"Thank you."
"What do you want to do?" he asked. "If you're ready to go to sleep, don't think you need to wait on me." He gave her a smile. "I can keep myself occupied."
"Despite dozing off, I am not really ready to go to sleep." She looked around. "There has to be a telly in here somewhere. Want to find a show to watch? Something we can watch together?"
Jacob stood and held out a hand for her now-empty cup and spoon. "That sounds like a good idea. Do you have any ideas?"
"Not really. Maybe something we can binge that's already finished so we aren't left with a cliffhanger." She stood and began looking for a remote.
"Check the drawer in that table?" Jacob suggested as he walked toward the kitchen.
Catherine opened the drawer and found several remotes. "Well, we have options." She turned toward him and held them up. "Now if we can just figure out which one does what, we'll be in business."
"Start pushing buttons?" The amused tone of his voice made Catherine smile.
"That's better than my plan." She handed him one.
"What was your plan?" He pressed a button, and the lights dimmed. "Oops. Not that one."
She studied the remotes she had. "Wait. Maybe this." She pressed the down button and a whirring sound came from the ceiling but stopped when she released the button. She tried again, this time holding the button down as a television lowered from the ceiling.
"That's so cool!" Jacob exclaimed. "I didn't even know that was a thing you can do."
Catherine's grin widened at his wide-eyed awe."We have several of them in the apartments in the palace." She looked at the other remote in her hand and pressed the power button.
The light in the bottom center of the telly blinked out as the logo appeared on the screen.
"That's a start." They returned to their spots on the couch, but much closer than they had been before.
Almost touching, but not quite.
Jacob tried his remote again. A menu appeared with a variety of streaming apps. "Do we have access to all of these? MyBingeFlix. HEA TV. ViewTube TV."
"I think so." She shifted her position on the couch and pulled a quilt off the back of it to cover her legs with. Her arm barely brushed against his. "What do we want?"
He opened the first app. "Let's see what we've got. Sitcom? Drama? Documentary? Reality show?"
Catherine blew out a breath as she considered the options on the screen. "Sitcom. I've had enough drama lately.”
"Haven't we all?" He selected the comedy category and a number of options popped up.
“Mumeleine has watched almost every documentary ever, so if you do want to watch one at some point, she could recommend some.”
“I’m a historian, too, you know?” He grinned as he said it. "Anything look good?"
"Oh!" She sat straight up. "What about a Trilunium marathon? The movies, television shows, and even a limited run special with like six episodes."
"I'm not familiar with those."
Gaping at him, she turned toward him. "You never read them?"
Jacob went back to the previous screen and found the magnifying glass. He typed it in using the remote. "Nope."
She shifted back. "I guess that makes sense. They're romantasies, and you're clearly not the target audience."
His chuckle made her smile again. "I don't even know what a romantasy is, but I don't think I am."
"It's a romance set in a fantasy world. In this case, you've got four sisters from a world a lot like ours and four brothers from another world entirely.
They come together in a third world, Trilunium, to help rid it of the evil two-headed dragon.
" She tipped her head as she thought about it.
"It's kind of like the Chronicles of Narnia in a sense.
Those are allegories. These are a romance between one of the sisters and one of the brothers in each book with allegorical elements. "
"Romance? Dragon?" He gave a quizzical look. "I guess I could be convinced to watch a show with a two-headed dragon."
Catherine leaned back and pulled the quilt back up. "Then let's go."
Jacob used one of the remotes to start the first movie and another to dim the lights.
Taking a deep breath, Catherine decided to make a bold move.
She shifted slightly, leaned to the side, and rested her head on her husband's shoulder.
After they both slept in a bit later than usual, Jacob and Catherine found light breakfast food waiting for them. It had likely been delivered the day before, but they hadn’t discovered it on their search for a snack.
“What’s the plan for the day?” Jacob asked the question around a bite of yogurt.
Catherine gave a one-armed shrug. “Nothing as far as I know. Mumeleine said something about having lunch if we wanted to, but nothing specific. When is your family leaving to return home?”
“Early this morning. My mum needed to be home in time to prepare for a meeting tomorrow.” He scooped another bite of yogurt onto his spoon. “They’ll be back for the coronation. They didn’t want to make two trips in such a short time frame, but they wouldn’t miss either one for the world.”
“Then lunch with them isn’t an option.”
He shook his head. “Do you want to eat with your family? Maybe just your parents?”
Catherine stared into her cup of coffee, but didn’t answer.
“It’s okay to say you’d rather not,” Jacob told her quietly. “We don’t have to do anything we don’t want to. We can stay in and watch movies or read books or nap or anything else we might want to do.”
“I think that would be my preference.” She still didn’t look at him.
“Then that’s what we’ll do.”
She set her bagel on the plate and picked up her cup of coffee, wrapping her hands around the mug.
“You know, everyone thinks being queen means you can do whatever you want, but that’s not actually in the case.
In fact, it’s rarely the way things work.
Maybe they did centuries ago, but not in this day and age.
Much of my time is occupied with things I have no control over being added to my calendar. ”
Jacob turned that over in his head as he scraped together the last bite of his yogurt.
“I never really thought about it, but now that I have, I’m not really surprised.
Between your work as the administrative head of the country, the ceremonial head of state, charity work, and everything else, you probably don’t have much time that is simply yours to do with as you choose. ”
This time she shook her head. “No. Papa was careful about what charities and causes he chose to introduce me to or have me support. He chose things he knew would be important to me - children who have lost a parent or mental health concerns or early childhood education. There’s a lot more, of course, but he’s always been cognizant that one day I’d be doing it all on my own. ”
“You’ve been very fortunate to have a regent who wasn’t only out for his own gain, but looking out for you and the country.” As a historian, he knew that those kinds of regents were the exception rather than the rule.
Catherine nodded and looked up at him for the first time since the topic changed. “Papa has always been the best choice. It’s what Mum wanted. Even most members of Parliament thought he was the best choice, but legally they were required to choose someone else until Mumeleine figured out a way.”
Jacob could tell she wanted to say something else so he waited for her to go on.
“In a year or so, I’m going to propose a change to the succession regulations.
The sitting monarch should name the regent for his or her heir and update it every few years.
There still needs to be oversight by the Council and Parliament, of course, but the monarch should choose who will help their heir.
It should also be reevaluated after major life changes, such as marriage, or the passing of the potential regent, or in the case of serious medical diagnoses. ”
“That makes a lot of sense. Hopefully, the powers that be will see the wisdom of that.”
She went back to staring in her coffee mug. “Except I’m young and female. Parliament and the Council are still dominated by older men who sometimes have issues with internalized misogyny and ageism.”
He reached over and set a hand just above her pajama-covered knee.
“You’ll bring them around. You’re smart, sophisticated, well-versed in diplomatic matters and negotiations, looked up to by everyone, not just women.
I see the way people look at you when you’re out in public - at general public appearances or making speeches or in Parliament.
The vast majority of the people admire and respect you.
The others will either come around or be outvoted and drowned out by those supporting you. ”
Was that a blush creeping up her neck and into her face?
And he realized exactly where his hand was. Careful not to snatch it away too quickly and thereby drawing more attention to it, Jacob leaned away from her, and took it with him. Someday, he could probably do that without the color rising to his cheeks as well, but this was not that day.
“Thank you.” The tears shining in her eyes reinforced the sincerity in her tone. “It’s nice to know someone believes in me.”
“Lots of people do. Your parents and siblings for starters.” He took a sip of his coffee.
“They have to.” The half-smile on her face told him it still meant a lot to her. “They’re my family.”
“I did even before I met you. I hadn’t seen any recent pictures or I would have realized who you were a lot sooner, but everything I’d read impressed me.
As I’ve gotten to know you, that impression has continued to be reinforced with every interaction we’ve had and every interaction I’ve observed with you and your family or staff or the people in general.
You might be queen because of your genetics, but you’ve done the hard work to show you not only deserve the job, but excel at it. ”
“There’s still a lot of criticism…” she started, but didn’t finish the thought.
“How much of it is criticism against your policies or you as a person?”
Catherine gave a half-shrug and continued to stare into her drink.
“Very little.” This time the act of resting his hand on her leg was much more intentional.
“There is some about some of your actions - like they wish you spent more time with the people, but they also understand you’ve been working hard to make sure you’re well-prepared to take over everything by yourself.
They know your father has prepared you well, but also that it has to be an enormous amount of pressure. ”
“Are you sure?”
He gave her leg a light squeeze and smiled. “I am. Your people love you. They respect you. You’ve already done an amazing job, and you’ll continue to do so. I promise.”
She visibly relaxed.
“And they’ll back your proposal.” He brought the conversation back to the earlier topic. “You’ll make the right choice for your heir - whether, God forbid, it’s your brother or, someday, our child. Everyone knows you will.”
Catherine tensed again slightly.
Jacob suspected he knew what she was thinking. “I don’t expect it to be me, Kins.” The use of the nickname surprised them both. “Not at this point. Maybe someday, but if - again God forbid - something happened to you in the next few years, your dad would be a much wiser choice.”
This time, her shoulders relaxed completely. “I didn’t even know I was worried about that. Thank you.”
Jacob stood and leaned over to brush a kiss against her forehead. “You’re going to be amazing. You already are.”