The Family Portrait

A knock woke them up, and the door creaked open a crack.

"Mama?"

"Yes, Inga?"

"Could you help with my hair, please?" She said as she opened the door the rest of the way.

"Yes, of course," she said as she sat up slowly, "come sit on the bed here."

Inga walked over to the bed and then stopped when she heard a snore, her skirt swinging like a bell, brushing the edge of the bed.

"Papa!" Inga chided, "Dinner is less than an hour! You need to get ready. I just had to nag Fred, too. I don't know what they were getting into in the stables..."

Kristoff sat up rubbing his forehead. "Is he cleaning up now, at least?"

"I threatened that Nanny would give him a bath if he didn't start right away," she said with a laugh, adding sternly, "you should do the same now."

"Or you'll send Nanny up here?"

"No… Papa!"

He got up and closed the bathroom door behind him. Inga sat down next to her mother.

"Sorry, Inga," said her mother beginning to part her daughter's blond hair, "I should have had Gerda let us know when it was time."

"No, I'm sorry, Mama, it's just, I do feel awkward when it ends up just being me at these things. I enjoy some of the conversations, but you know what most of them are hoping… ow…"

"Oh… it got tangled in back there, let me work at that," she said, working at it as gently as possible.

"...and I'm taller than most of them. I shouldn't care. I just wish I knew that I was done growing."

"Freddie is as tall as you now. I think you're done."

"You're probably right. But that still leaves me stuck dancing with short foreign princes. But I know you won't understand."

"You'd be surprised."

"Wait, what?"

"There, done," the queen said, pulling the last ribbon tight, "go take a look."

Inga got up and walked to the mirror. "Oh, that is nice, thank you!"

"Have a nice evening, and please don't let anyone bother you too much, it's just a dinner," she said as her daughter kissed her cheek and ran out the door.

As the princess ran down the long hall, she saw a young man at the other end. She stopped briefly, took a breath, and walked slowly as she had been trained to do when dignitaries were around. She knew several official ships from various countries had arrived that morning, and they would all be at the evening's dinner, but she wasn't used to seeing any of them on their own.

"Are you lost?" she asked, noticing that he was looking at one of the family portraits.

"No," he replied, hesitating, and recognizing an older version of the girl in the portrait he had been admiring. "Pardon me, I hope I'm allowed to be here, Your Highness. You would be Princess… Anna Iduna Ingeborg...?"

"It's fine to be here, but most people don't explore alone. And, yes… that is my name. Sorry, you are?..."

"Lars Nilsen, private secretary to His Excellency the Ambassador from Corona. I'm sorry if I'm in the way. I had nothing to do before dinner, and I decided to look at the paintings. I assume this one was a few years ago?"

"Oh, that… yes. I was only nine. That baby is seven now, and there are some more now...."

"Yes, I was debriefed before we arrived, I shouldn't expect to see the Queen for some weeks, and perhaps not His Highness, either?"

"Are you always this formal, Mr. Nilsen? And you don't sound like you're from Corona."

"I'm sorry, I was rather afraid of offending a member of the royal family."

"I don't think we're easily offended, at least not in that way. And you can call me Inga, if you're not in front of anyone who cares."

"Um, thank you," he stammered, "you can just call me Lars, if you like, Inga."

"There, that makes things easier," she said grabbing his hand to shake it.

"So, how many of you will be at tonight's dinner?"

"Just Papa, myself, and Frederick," she paused to point at the boy next to her in the portrait.

"Oh, yes, I heard he goes by that name," he said as his eyes scanned the portrait some more, settling on the queen holding the baby, "and your mother, do you have any idea how long she's... to be in confinement?"

"She thinks it might be another week or two until the baby comes, though you never can tell. She's always back attending official functions after a week or two. Well, almost always... after the twins, it was several months before she made any official appearances. I didn't even see her for a long time, and Papa didn't even come out of the room for a week, which seems like a long time when you're four…"

She stopped what she was saying as she remembered sitting outside her parents' door each morning hoping to see them, and Nanny would find her and tell her that she should let her parents rest. Finally, one day while she was sitting outside the room, her aunt was quietly exiting. She knew she was visiting, but had hardly seen her this time.

***

"Inga!" she gasped, "What are you doing here? How long have you been here?"

I'm sorry, I was waiting for Mama and Papa to have enough rest so they could see me again."

"Mama still isn't feeling well," her aunt said gently, "but I think I can get your Papa."

***

Inga paused, biting her lower lip, and closing her eyes briefly, and looked more closely at the portrait she usually walked past.

The young man interrupted her silence, "My mother told me she always wanted a large family…"

The princess realized that she had been monopolizing the conversation, and asked "You're really from Corona? Your name doesn't sound like it."

"My mother is from Arendelle, and my older brother was born here, too, but they left before I was born. My father had died when… Oh. I was instructed not to talk about that time. I'm sorry."

"Oh, don't worry about me. That was before I was born. But I won't tell," she said, getting close enough that her skirts were brushing against his leg. "You said you have a brother? Are you close?"

"He's only a year older. He's a lieutenant in the navy, just last year. Their ship was back in port, and the captain threw a big party for everyone. Mother and I don't get to see him as often as we like, but he writes every chance he gets. I even had a letter waiting for me when we arrived here this morning. Three letters, in fact. One from Mother, and another from Elizabeth…" he trailed off.

"Who is Elizabeth?"

"My… fiancee. She's the daughter of my brother's captain. I met her at the officer's party last year, and I proposed right before sailing here. Her letter this morning is that she's on her father's ship now, and will be visiting here before the end of the summer."

"Oh, that is exciting!" she said, not quite sure if she felt disappointed or not, "What is she like?"

"She's very sweet. She has three sisters, no brothers. Their mother doesn't go out much when their father is at sea, so my mother helped me a bit, coming up with excuses to pay visits to her mother."

Just then, Gerda entered from the other hall. "Your Highness, are you dressed for dinner? Oh, good! Your father wishes to see you in the library before you go."

"The library? Oh, well, I suppose so. Thank you, Gerda. Can you see if Mr. Nilsen here needs anything?"

"Of course, Your Highness," she said turning to see the young man.

"Please excuse me, Mr. Nilsen," Inga said, hurrying away down the hall.

She tried to think of what her father could possibly want to tell her that he couldn't have told her when she was in her parents' bedroom. Perhaps she was just to make sure that Frederick was on his best behavior and not trying to interrupt. But he could tell her that at any time. In fact, she was the one who tried to get him better behaved.

She knocked on the door as she entered.

"Oh, good, Inga, Gerda found you, then?"

"Yes, Papa, what did you want to tell me?"

"Your mother and I were talking this afternoon," he began, fiddling with a book that had been left on the table, then setting it down and walking over to the window.

"Oh, no," she interrupted, "there's someone I need to meet, isn't there? Did someone offer enough money or a good enough trade deal? And why didn't she tell me herself?"

"What?" Kristoff said blinking in confusion.

"Isn't that what this is about?" Inga realized she was shouting, and took a breath before continuing, "I really could accept it if people would just be transparent about it, but everyone seems to be talking in some kind of code. I'm tired of these mixed messages, looking me up and down, trying to see how clever I am, and how well I dance... Just tell me who I need to marry and what the benefit will be, and I'll do my duty…"

"No… what? What makes you think we would ask you to do that?"

"Isn't that what you're supposed to do with a sixteen-year-old princess?"

"No, I mean, some people do… a lot… I suppose, but… no, that is absolutely not what I was going to tell you…"

"Oh…?" she looked at his face, but he was looking at the fireplace now. He picked up a small vase as he collected his thoughts.

"We were… your mother and I, we were thinking that it's rather unfair that you're fifth in line, and if this next one is a boy, sixth, and…"

"Yes," she interrupted in a monotone, "I'm quite aware of where I stand."

"And, if you'll let me finish, your mother is going to call the council together this week to discuss changing the succession rules."

"Wait… but… what about Fred?"

"Hopefully you'll have a lot of time to discuss that some time in the future, that's up to you. But if anything happened right now, well, just to be sure…"

"Is there anything you're not telling me? Did the doctors say something?"

"No, your mother is just fine," he said, though Inga could see that same look in his eyes she remembered seeing when he finally came out of the room to see her when she was four.

"Sorry, Papa, I guess I should just say thank you," she said as he took her in for a hug, and he seemed more sure this time than the time she was little.

"Just… try to give me a little time to say things first? I don't know what that rhetoric tutor is teaching you. I never had one of those."

"You did have a French tutor," she teased as they sat down on the sofa.

"Yes, after he came storming in telling me that you were asking for Latin and Greek. I was pretty sure we'd hired him for Latin and Greek, but he seemed to think he was just to teach you French until your brothers got older."

"Oh, I remember. It wasn't that long ago. I told him I already know French, and if he wanted to teach French he should teach you."

"Yes, he told me that. I think he wanted me to punish you for impertinence, but I thought it was a good idea. He didn't seem pleased when I repeated the French he was saying, though."

"You didn't tell me that part, just that you sacked him."

"Oh, well, you were only ten. Your mother still hasn't told me what he was saying."

"Well, we should get going soon," she said, jumping up.

"We should see if Fred is already there."

"When are you going to tell him?" She asked.

"If the council decides to go forward with it, then we'll talk about it," he said, "and you don't have to, but I think…"

"Thank you, Papa," she said, running off ahead.