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I turned to her, a genuine smile on my face. “Emilie, this is incredible,” I said. “I can’t believe how amazing this is.”
She tore her gaze away from the whales and looked at me, her eyes softening with something I couldn’t quite define. “It truly is,” she replied, her voice tinged with a sense of wonder.
“Do you still come out with your father?” I asked.
She scrunched up her nose. “No. He’s far too busy for that. If we happen to be out on the water and he sees one, then he’ll watch.”
“What about Nora? Does she still like to hop on a boat at sunrise to watch whales?”
She laughed softly. “No. Nora is different. Like I said, she’s the real princess. She knows how to drink tea and can talk about flowers and China patterns.”
“And you can’t?”
“I can talk about them, but I wouldn’t have a clue what I was saying,” she joked. “I know a pretty flower.”
“Aren’t all flowers pretty?”
“I don’t think so,” she said. “You’re going to think I’m crazy, but I don’t think roses are all that pretty.”
“Now thatiscrazy,” I said, laughing.
“It’s not that I think they’re ugly, but I look at a lily or a tulip and I smile. Those are pretty. I really like wildflowers. And ferns.”
I saw something deeper, something unexpressed and hidden beneath the surface as she talked. There was a vulnerability in her eyes, a longing that she kept hidden from the world.
As the whales continued to grace us with their presence, I made a silent promise to myself. I was determined to break through the ice around Emilie’s heart, to show her that love was worth believing in, and that she didn’t have to carry the weight of her responsibilities alone.
In that moment, as I watched her gaze at the whales with a sense of pure joy, I knew that there was more to Emilie than met the eye. I got to see the real her, but I knew there was more. I was going to keep pressing until she revealed all her secrets.
As the boat rocked gently on the waves, I reached out and gently touched Emilie’s hand, a silent gesture of support and understanding.
“This is probably a silly question, but do you own your own boat?”
“Not a silly question,” she said, laughing. “Technically, the royal family has a boat. I do not personally have a boat.”
“Why not?”
Her sweet laughter washed over me with the breeze. “I guess I never really thought about buying a boat. Now, there is no way my family would allow me to have a boat.”
“I would think now is exactly the time you can have a boat. You’re heir to the throne.”
“Which is why I can’t,” she insisted. “I can’t be the queen going out to watch whales when there is important business to take care of.”
“You’re allowed to take a day off,” I said. “You should be allowed to do the things you love.”
She took a deep breath. “I don’t think you understand.”
“Explain it to me.”
“I’m the second daughter. There was almost no chance I would ever take the throne. Do you know they already planned her coronation? They have written the announcements and the whole thing. No one expected it to be me.”
I nodded, kind of understanding what she was saying. “Okay, but I’m sure they’ll accept you. It’s not like you’re nobody.”
“I’m not her. I wasn’t supposed to be the one taking over for my father. They are going to be scrutinizing my every move. Every little thing I say and do is going to be watched. I’m a young woman, which is already a strike against me.”
“There are plenty of female royals,” I said.
“The circumstances were different. No one knows me. I’ve always been the girl in the back or the other daughter. I’ve never been seen as the heir. When the media writes articles or my family gives one of their rare interviews, my name is mentioned twice at most. I know my parents are working their asses off with a team of PR people trying to figure out how to introduce me as the next queen.”
