Chapter 7 #2
The Dowager Prince Consort nodded, but tapped his pen against the closed cover of his tablet.
"There's something missing, but I'm not sure I can put my finger on what it is.
Overall, I think it's a very good plan and likely the best option we have given the rest of the circumstances, especially since it won’t cost much more - at least compared to a full wedding. "
"What do you think it might be?" Jake asked the question. He didn't know enough about what was expected from a royal wedding.
Jessica's aide pulled up something on her tablet and appeared to be scrolling. "The grand entrance."
"What do you mean?" Jake still didn't know.
"The queen and her father arriving a carriage or other vehicle and exiting outside the cathedral.
Walking down the aisle. The first look by the groom.
Those things." The aide closed the cover on her tablet.
"The appeal isn't in the actual wedding itself.
The appeal is the pomp and circumstance before and after.
The guest list. The dresses. The fasteners and hair pieces.
Who's seated where and what that might say about a particular person's relationship with the couple or their hierarchy in the family itself. "
"All of that isn't an option," Prince Anthony told them. "But can we incorporate some of it, somehow? Perhaps..." He appeared to be thinking it over.
"What if we did an abbreviated version?" Catherine seemed to have an epiphany of some sort.
"The family and I can leave from the west entrance and take one route to the Cathedral.
There we get out of the vehicle and do a walk and first look on the side balcony there.
Sort of like it would be inside but... not.
Much shorter. Perhaps Jacob waits inside while we arrive and walk in through the main doors.
Jacob emerges onto the balcony. It's positioned in such a way that many on the ground should be able to have a good view of it.
That can be the end of the 'aisle.' We have a little moment, wave, perhaps do a very, very short ceremony of some sort, then Jacob and I take the carriage back to the palace by a different route and come in the front gate. "
"That's an excellent idea." Jessica looked quite proud of the queen. "Perhaps exchange rings since I don't believe you did that at the first ceremony?" She looked at them for confirmation.
"Then we have a plan." Catherine pushed her notepad away this time, hoping they were done.
"First, we need to decide what the press release will say about why the marriage took place as it did.
" Jessica pressed a button and a new slide appeared.
"We leave it fairly vague. Long-forgotten regulations, ones that haven't been relevant since the last monarch with a regent, were scrutinized.
They required the monarch be married before the regent fully hands everything over.
The queen and prince consort met many years ago and recently became reacquainted.
They chose to have a very small, private ceremony then share their joy with their beloved people prior to the ball. "
"I think that sounds good." Catherine looked at Jacob. "What do you think?"
Jake felt certain he looked like a deer in the headlights. "I leave it in the capable hands of those who have far more experience in these matters. I'm better suited to look at it all in two hundred or so years and figure out what it all meant."
His father-in-law chuckled. "A very diplomatic answer."
The rest of those gathered joined in the laughter.
"I think this is a very good plan," Prince Anthony went on. "Please get it all written up and discuss the security details with Mr. Hopkins. Have him contact local authorities and the cathedral to make certain it can be done."
"Many of the roads near the palace will already be closed for the ball," Jessica informed them. "I reached out, very quietly, to the Cathedral, and it doesn't seem like there will be any issues, but we'll need to confirm."
This time Prince Anthony pushed back from the table. "Excellent. I do have another meeting to attend momentarily. To quote my son-in-law, I leave it in hands far more capable than mine when it comes to these things."
With that he left. Jessica and her aide weren't far behind.
Jake found himself alone with Catherine. He reached over and covered her hand with his. "It's a great plan."
She gave him a half-smile. "I know. Doesn't mean I'm thrilled about it in general, though."
"I know." For the moment all Jacob could do was support her however possible. It would have to be enough.
The press release had been sent out into the wide world.
One thing Catherine didn't like to do was read stories about herself, her family, or anything else in the tabloid press. The regular press could be bad enough, so she let others send her articles to read rather than seeking them out.
Fortunately, plenty of aides spent part of their time trolling the Internet, watching video media, and reading print media.
Her private work email dinged. Very few people used it so it likely warranted a quick check.
The email was from her senior aide. Jessica and her assistant wanted to meet with her, Jacob, and her father as soon as possible.
She sent a note back to keep her updated on the time.
After all, her aides knew her schedule much better than she did.
There was a video conference with the king of Terralago, a country consisting of two main islands in the Mediterranean, in the afternoon.
They would be discussing trade and tourism.
Her father would sit in on the meeting, but only intervene or give input if absolutely necessary.
A message came through on the palace's digital messaging system. They would be arriving in about fifteen minutes. That should give Catherine enough time to finish making notes on the document she'd been reading all morning. Only a couple of pages left to go.
Somehow, she managed to get engrossed enough that she didn't hear the side door open, but she did hear the snick as it closed.
"Don't let me interrupt." Jacob set his padfolio down on the conference table in front of the chair that had, somehow, become his.
"I'm almost done." She read the last half page and didn't see anything worth noting, but would likely need to reread it again later.
Flipping the folder closed, she pushed back from her desk.
"It shouldn't have taken me more than an hour to read that," she told him as she yawned and stretched. "I've had a very hard time focusing."
"I can relate." Jacob had moved to stand next to her and held out a hand to help her stand.
She took it, gratefully, noticing once again the electricity that seemed to crackle between them. When she made it to her feet, she didn't take the time to think about what she was doing, but instead leaned forward letting her forehead rest against the front of Jacob's shoulder. "Thank you."
The sound of his laugh made her smile. From the beginning, Catherine had found herself falling in love with his laugh, no matter what form it took - chuckle, guffaw, regular laugh - she loved them all.
His free arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her closer to him. She dropped his hand and linked both of hers behind his back.
One of his hands splayed against the small of her back while the other one rubbed small circles between her shoulder blades.
Another thing she could quickly and easily find herself getting used to.
Her messenger pinged at her again, but she didn't move.
Not until she heard the whisper of the main office doors opening as her father's voice drifted through.
Even then, all she did was turn her head far enough she could see him walking toward her with the PR team following behind.
A minute later, they were all seated as Jessica pulled up the first slide.
"The response has been overwhelmingly generally positive," she told them.
Jacob leaned forward. "Shouldn’t it be either overwhelmingly positive or generally positive, but not both?"
"Typically, you'd be right, but this is a bit of a special circumstance.
The vast majority of people seem to have a generally positive opinion on the information in the press release, but on a scale of one to ten, it would be more like a 7.
5 rather than an 8.5 or higher, which we would consider overwhelmingly positive.
" Jessica clicked a few times and brought up a scale.
Catherine had seen ones like it many times before.
One meant you absolutely hated the thing being judged while ten meant it literally couldn't get any better.
Enough at either end would average to a "neither good nor bad" feeling about the news, but wouldn't accurately reflect the feelings of the population.
A pie chart popped up. "Of the polls done so far today, about 75% of people fall somewhere between a seven and eight.
Of the rest, about 10% are absolutely giddy, 5% think you should all be run out of the country and possibly off the edge of the flat earth, and the remaining 10% are generally between a four and six - not thrilled but willing to give it a chance. "
"So this is good?" Jacob asked, likely hoping to clarify.
Thankfully, he had. Catherine had the same question, but didn't want to ask. She'd been around this sort of thing her entire life. Jacob hadn't, so his ignorance worked in her favor as well. She'd have to remember to thank him later.
"Very good." Jessica set her laser pointer down. "We were hoping for at least 50% to be somewhere between a 5.5 and 7, so slightly positive but not strongly positive. That 85% are at a seven and above? We're thrilled."
"Excellent." Her father jumped in for the first time. "It's what I would have expected, but I understand why you didn't."
"Why the better than anticipated results?" Jacob unknowingly helped her out again.
"From the data we've seen so far, the only reason it's not more positive is because they were informed after the fact.
The plan to celebrate the wedding before the ball has gone a very long way toward mollifying those who would otherwise have been quite upset.
" She picked up her pointer and used one of the buttons to advance to the next slide.
Catherine recognized the layout of the streets of Vesperi Skye.
A red line started at the west entrance and continued to the Cathedral.
A blue line started at the main entrance of the palace and took a relatively straight route to the Cathedral, joining the red line for most of the way.
A purple line left the Cathedral and meandered its way back to the palace.
"These are the anticipated parade routes," Jessica told them, despite the label on the slide clearly saying the same thing. "One change made from what we discussed previously is that the prince will leave via the west gate and you will leave via the main gate."
"Why is that?" Catherine asked. "And don't say it's because they all would prefer to see my dress over Jacob's tuxedo. Those outside the main gate will see it when we return. Those along the first part of the route outside the west gate won't see me at all, only Jacob."
Jessica exchanged a look with her aide. "That would be the best option, ma'am.
In fact, we suggested you both take the same route from the west gate, just about ten minutes apart.
The route from the Cathedral back to the palace will be significantly longer and encompass all of the other typical routes for caravans of this nature. "
"Who overruled that idea?" Once more, Jacob asked her question before she could.
"Mr. Hopkins believed this would be the queen's preference," the aide told them. "He seemed to indicate this route would be safer for the queen as well, though he couldn't point to a specific reason why the route from the west gate wouldn't be as secure."
Her father tapped his pen against the closed cover of his notepad.
"Why don't we set a meeting up with Hopkins?
I've known him for years, and he has a gut instinct about some of these things.
If that's what it is, then we need to strongly consider taking both of them out the front gate, but diverging from the return path fairly quickly.
If there's another rationale, then we discuss it and see what can be done. "
As they all nodded, he stood. "Jessica, please be sure to thank your entire team for their hard work. All of you are all greatly appreciated."
Catherine and Jacob both stood as the other three left the room. As soon as they were alone, she sat back in the chair and the conference table but slouched in a way quite unbecoming of a queen. "I think that's good?"
He perched on the edge of the table closer to her. "I think so. Seems like it anyway. It's almost time for lunch, isn't it?"
Catherine forced herself to sit up straight. "Yes. It should be here any minute."
"Good." Jacob hesitated and stared somewhere over her head for a brief moment. "There's something we do need to talk about, Catherine."
"Okay." She had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. This wasn't an "I don't want what I ordered for lunch" conversation. It had a feeling far closer to "now that we've told the whole world, I'm pretty sure we made a mistake" conversation.
He looked back down at her, this time looking straight in her eyes. "We need to talk about the balcony kisses."