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“Enter,” I said, glancing over my shoulder, expecting Balduin to drag me away, but instead, it was Iskandar…not a good sign.
He walked into the room and came directly to my ear…also not a good sign. “We just caught two protesters trying to sneak into the palace—”
I turned around so quickly, I was nearly off the chair. I stared at his face. “What?”
“Old drainage pipe. They wanted to speak to the queen…convince her not to go to the ministry office tomorrow. We are keeping it private right now; only the guard knows,” he said under his breath.
Every damn month it was something! Damn the prime minister and this godforsaken, pain in the ass law!
“Gale? Is everything all right—”
Knock.
Knock.
“Enter!” I said, already on my feet. This time the one that came in was Wolfgang. Confused, he looked at Iskandar and then at me.
“Wolfgang, what is it?” Odette asked him.
“Um… Dr. Banerjee is here, asking if she could meet you, ma’am. She said she may have found a solution.”
“Who?” I questioned, looking at Odette. “You called for another doctor?”
“Not a medical one. She is an academic from Royal University. I asked her to talk to me about the prime minister’s law,” she said, rising as well.
I glanced at Iskandar. The time of this was a little too convenient.
“Wolfgang, have her wait in my study. I want to hear what she has to say,” I said and looked back to Iskandar; he nodded so I didn’t need to repeat myself.
“Okay, I’ll come with—”
“Actually, Odette, I need you to stay here. We’ll speak later,” I said, already to the door. Just as Iskandar opened it, I saw Balduin preparing to knock. “Let’s go, Balduin.”
“Sir? Is everything all right?” he questioned after me.
“No, not at all. But what else is new,” I muttered to myself before finally going into my study.
“Iskandar, what do we know about these two people?” I asked him, walking around my desk.
“Early information we’ve gathered just from ID and fingerprints is that they seem to be a young couple, sir, 2015 refugees from Myanmar,” he said, putting his phone in front of me. “They came with paperwork and files. They have a daughter born here, and under the new law, they are worried about losing their status in the country. They want to speak to the queen for help.”
“What do they think she will do?” I asked, scrolling through their family photos. “Did they think there would be no consequence for breaking into our home? They are now more at risk of whatever they were worried about. The queen has no power over this… They would have been better off speaking to the welfare ministry!”
“I do not understand, either, sir,” he replied, taking back his phone from me. “So far, I assuming they were simply desperate?”
“It goes beyond that,” Balduin spoke up, catching us up to speed. “You might not realize it, but there are a lot of people in this country who look at the queen as a sort of patron saint.”
“What?” That was new. “Patron saint of what?”
“Foreigners,” he answered, and my shoulders dropped. I did not like that word labeled on her. This was her home now. “You might not like it, sir. It may not be what you figured, but they look at her and think, it doesn’t matter where you come from; you can end up being a queen.”
I rubbed the side of my head. What could I say to this? I knew she was admired; in fact, she was on the cover of magazines, with or without her consent, almost every month. If not in this country, some other country. Everything she did had a secret message or was expressing some thought to them. We were just two people trying to live our lives as normally as we could.
“And what of this Dr…what is her name again?”
“Dr. Banerjee,” Balduin replied. “I do not know much about her yet, sir. I just know the queen has met her before.”
I looked at Iskandar, and he shook his head. “I do not have information on her. But I will have Thelma give me her report.”
