I wake up from where I fell asleep. My stomach is grumbling. I need the toilet. I need a shower, to wash off the sweat, to wash him off me.
Sighing, I leave my secret haven and slip through the secret passages until I exit on the floor of the north wing. There I head to my suite, passing the staff and guards.
"Princess!" a few guards rush to me. But I wave them away, ignoring them.
Not the first time I disappeared, in this palace. And thanks to my father, who I might add, is or was, the only one that knew of my secret spot, for it was his, when he was a boy, and he had granted me this solitude, with clear agreeance that if I disappear, it is to my secret spot and not out of the palace. Only then, would he order the guards and staff to not search for me. Unless I am gone for more than six hours. Unless I failed to check in via my mobile – which in this case, I did not have with me.
I see Gavin standing outside my door. He is stoned faced. Expressionless. Ignore him while my heart tears apart, I breeze past him as he tries to call my name, and I slam the door on his face. Hard.
And I lock it.
After a very long shower, I exit my bedroom, dressed in comfy jeans and a shirt and there I find my mother, waiting in the sitting room. "Mom!"
"Like to explain yourself?" and I gasp in horror.
"Umm. Like what?" I ask.
"Like you disappearing for four hours. Not even your mobile on you. During a pandemic. And I heard a rumour that you were having sex in the gym! Clementine. I hope that was not true! And besides. If it was, who the hell is the boy!" she shouts at me.
"Mom," I move to my favourite chair. "I am old enough to have sex with whoever I want," I tell her.
"Clementine Alisha Emerlina Joyce Graceline. I don't care if you are seventeen or twenty-six. You are a princess and have to uphold yourself accordingly. Especially as you are second in line. Now. Who was it?" she rants at me.
I am looking at my toes, where my feet are on the chair, knees up to my face while my arms wrap around my legs. I keep quiet.
"CLEMENTINE!"
"Gavin" I blurt and cringe.
"OH, GOD! You frecked your bodyguard!!" she screams at me. "Are you insane? GAVIN! GET in here!" she yells and I look at her in shock.
"NO mom!" I shout at her, but the door opens and there he stands.
"WHAT IN GOD'S NAME DO YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING!" my mother shouts at him so loud, I felt the whole of Denmark could hear her.
"MOM! Stop it!" I bolt off my chair and run over to him. Standing as a shield, I shout at my mother. "STOP IT. I love Gavin. And I wanted it. And it was consensual."
"You are seventeen!"
"So? You and Daddy stared before me!" I shot back.
"How? Who?"
"Who told me? Daddy did. He knows that I am in love with Gavin. He knew. Why do you think Gavin was sticking to me? Because not only was he the one I trust with my life but also because I love him. Why do you think I never took interest in the boys at school or anywhere else? Because I have loved Gavin since I was thirteen!"
"Oh god!" I hear Gavin mutter behind me.
"Mom! Gavin is my bodyguard. And I will decide what happens to him."
"I am your mother! And I have a more senior rank."
"No mother. You do not. I am second in line and therefore I have senior rank over you," I corrected her, crossing my arms and stared at her.
"Not according to Carolyn. Besides, I am still your mother and you are still a minor."
"Mom. Just please. Trust me? Okay?" I move closer to her. She looks at me, then him. Then back to me.
I see her sigh. Quickly I sat and I hugged her. I won this battle. Now to get Gavin to change his mind. He'd better. For several reasons.
With Gavin silently dismissed, the door closed.
"Why him?" asks my mom, to me.
"Why daddy?" I ask and she glares at me with narrow eyes, then smirks.
"Your dad and I were an arrangement. Little did our parents know that we would fall head over heels."
"Well, like you, I fell for Gavin. When he saved me from Gressa that day. Covering me with his shirt. I fell so hard for him."
"Did he…"
"Never. Not once. Well, till today."
"But he is so old!" She complains to me. He was ten years older than me.
"Mom, grandfather was twenty years older than Grandmother," I stated a fact and she nodded to me.
"I don't think I want to know how all this started. I just thought you would still have time to grow up. Oh god! Please tell me you used a condom!"
I smirk at her. "I am on the injection. Doctor Knots put me on it after I complained of period pains."
"So now what," she asks after a bit of silence. "What happens with or about you two?"
"Well, that is another issue I have to work out."
"Want to share?"
"Can I take a rain check?" I smile at her and she sighs again, nodding.