Chapter 1 - Her Highness Alice of Alpia-Istria

I knew immediately that something was wrong when my father sent one of the officers of the red guard to escort me to his room, less than five minutes after the special duty had begun. A maniac had exploded a bomb in Berlin, east of the kingdom of Germany, while people were in vigil at st. Alexander's square, the city's main and most famous square. Many died. Including children.

Rue and I didn't even have time to assimilate what was happening when the officer knocked on the door of my room. It was late, but without hitting an eyelid, she made me change my clothes and began to touch my hair, much more agitated than that of a sailor, while I continued to be amazed, in front of scenes of terror that never ceased to be repeated in the news.

Desperate people running in all directions, the noise of the DAMS, the police trying to contain the spectators; All of these images seemed so surreal that anyone who called had at the time might think it was a low-budget movie about world war iii, but no, it was all real, and it was happening now.

- Alice, if you don't stand still I'll never be able to finish! - rue complained, both determined hands holding my hair on top of my head to attach them to a coke.

- excuse me - I answered quietly, forcing myself to stand still, biting the lower lip to test the pain. I was shocked and nervous, and it wasn't just the horror I saw. My father had never called me into his office at such an hour.

In fact, my father had never made me an official call. Whenever he wanted to talk to me, he would knock on the door of my room and ask if I could get in. Formality was something that had never existed between us and that was the reason my heart was so restless. I didn't want to admit, but my

Subconsciously I seemed to know what was waiting for me.

When rue was finally satisfied with my appearance, I assumed my most serious posture, I got up from the small cushioned sidewalk facing my hairdresser and left my refuge, aware that I was walking into the unknown. Outside the room, the officer who had brought the summons waited to escort me to the administrative wing of the palace of Vienna, and as I walked in that direction, my leaps echoed through the empty aisles almost as loud as the indignation that was growing inside me. Who would have the courage to commit such an atrocity?

Throughout Germany, groups of people had gathered in the parks and squares of their cities in a simultaneous act of love and solidarity. At five and a half months of pregnancy and 44 years of age, queen aletta - the commoner who had ascended the throne and conquered the entire country with her charisma and empatia - was in serious danger of her life by carrying on with her only pregnancy beyond the five-month mark. It had been news that she would withdraw from public life. That had been in the headlines the week before and that's why the whole country was worried. Sels suffered miscarriages during her marriage to erel. Six.

If the worst were to happen again, his majesty pieter DE Rosenthal, king of germania and my uncle, would be without heirs because it was clear that the queen's attempts to conceive a baby ended there, and if so, my father would remain first in the line of succession to the German throne, and I would remain second.

The only problem was that my father was already king, king consort of alpy-istria. And I the heiress of her magnanimous majesty, queen daphne amelia theodora wittelsbach.

If this were not an argument enough to admit that the idea of having me as heir to uncle pieter was absurd, the resentment that existed between alpia istria and germania over the dismemberment of the old countries that made up Europe after the third world war had not yet healed completely.

In fact, this animosity should no longer exist, my maternal and paternal grandparents, Kings of alpy-istria and germania respectively, worked hard for this alliance. That's how dad ended up marrying my mother. And that's how I was born. Not the beloved and desired daughter of a loving couple, but the indissoluble seal of a pact between two countries that negotiated their children in an attempt to erase the weapons of their ancestors.

There was no one but the officers of the red guard in the anteroom of the royal cabinet. Although it was late, that was just one more indication of what was waiting for me. If my father did not want witnesses it is because the matter was more serious than I imagined.

I stopped for a few seconds before entering the open door because I needed to remind myself that I was not going to meet my father. It had been the king who had summoned me, and he would expect nothing but my composure in the face of whatever was asked of me. I would find in that comfort a leader laden with responsibilities and concerns rather than the only person who loved me for who I really was. When I entered, he was standing near the window and looking at the horizon as he always did when something bothered him.

- he asked to see me - I asked when I got close to his desk and my father turned to me.

- Alice - said my name with some weight in her voice and pointed to me a chair, totally serious - please sit down.

I sat down and put my hands on my lap trying in vain to prevent the cold I had started feeling in my navel from spreading to the rest of my body. My father sighed deeply before he started.

- pieter the I just told each other, he sent aletta to the farmhouse in Frankfurt - in the state of westfalen I completed mentally, almost on the border with alpka-istria - he does not want her to be even more worried than she is - my father continued - it is too much pressure on the poor woman.

I agreed in silence. You could see he still had a lot to say. Dad had that gravity in his look that scared me. She had seldom seen that expression on her face and never had the situation come to a happy end.

- do you remember van basten? - he asked with a tone of voice lower and lower than normal

- Duke of Saxeburg - setti. Nothing good would come from a conversation that started at that point. Van basten was next in line to the German throne after me and was known to be a man of little character.

- himself - my father sighed, and at that moment he seemed to me much older than his forty-four years - Alice - he completed - it was no coincidence that the attempt. It happened right in the main square of Berlin

I felt a shiver of bad omen coming down my spine, Berlin was the capital of the duchy of saxeburg, that was very serious. Van basten was an ambitious man who was always against the peace agreement sealed with my parents' marriage. He told anyone who wanted to hear that the agreement made Germany look like a weak kingdom.

- pieter and I think he wanted to punish his own people for supporting our family - my father continued - and if that is true, no one else from east Germany will speak in our favor for fear of reprisals, van basten will use the people to hit us again, because he sees in aletta's pregnancy an opportunity to take us out of the way and take the throne - he concluded, looking me in the eye - and I know that more people will die because of that.

Everything made sense then. What my father wanted by calling me at that time to talk to himself and to talk about our duty to the kingdom of germania, he as king of alpy-istria needed to remain neutral. But me? Well... He wanted me to assume my role in the game.

- then we need to stop it. - I replied, my hands trembling with the adrenaline mixed with the fear that had spread through my body - we cannot let it trap us and leave us without options, and we need to do something, and we need to do it quickly.

A sad smile appeared on my father's face and he sighed deeply, picked up a briefcase that was in the desk beside and pushed it towards me.

-there's one thing you can do, Alice. And that's what I want to talk about.

Five days had passed since my father summoned me to his office. Five days of sleepless nights and fear that everything would go wrong and the situation would get worse.

I had said yes to the plan he and my uncle had conceived. In fact, I had already moved to Rosenthal palace with all the pompa needed for a princess who had avoided the spotlight in recent years and finally allowed herself to be seen. My mother had tried to intervene, to prevent me from cooperating, but the final decision was up to me and she had no choice but to let me come.

My arrival in Amsterdam, the capital of the German kingdom, had been reported on all the TV networks, some even broadcasting live the moment when my parents' official plane landed at the airport. And when the aircraft door opened, there was a crowd waiting for me with orange and black banners in their hands, the colors of the German royal family, the colors of my father.

I watched them as the security procedures for disembarkation were being done and was afraid. If they knew the real reason I was there, they might not be so happy to see me. But all they knew was that I would take over the schedule of my aunt, queen Aletta, while she spent the remaining months of her pregnancy in the countryside and away from the stress of public life.

They didn't know what was at stake, but for the sake of all, my mission there needed to succeed. And for that to happen, I couldn't falter. Not for a second. So I forced myself to put a smile on my face and get out of the plane waving, trying to look as normal as possible.

That, in fact, was my father's backup plan. When he handed me that folder in his office, I realized that it had been a long time since the files were stored in his drawer and that he was only showing them to me because there was no other option. As a father, he had done his best to protect me. But as king, he had an obligation to keep people safe.

'I won't force you, Alice,' he told me that day, 'if you don't want to go through that, pieter and I will find another way of dealing with the problem.'

"It doesn't seem that bad," I replied, trying to look excited, "I promise I'll try, but I can only answer for myself. He also has to be willing."

Him.

Luka von lowestein.

My third cousin.

After my father and I, van basten and his couple of sons, the next in the line of succession were duke von lowestein and his eldest son. And that's why my father and my uncle wanted to get us married. The two of us together would seal the line of succession and take away from van basten any advantage he thought he had, making him harmless. Which is exactly what we would need if aletta lost the baby and I was really going to inherit the two thrones, or there would be another war.

I vaguely complained that I had met luka when I was twelve at a Rosenthal palace party. He was older than me, kind of a nerd, wearing glasses and reading a book in a corner, while the other kids and I were watching the circus mini cubicle that had been hired to entertain us.

In a way, I was happy that my mother insisted on being away from my father's family for all those years. He couldn't think about what it would be like if luka and I had grown up together and I saw him as part of the family and not as a distant relative. He was a stranger to me, which in a minimal way made it easier.

According to the documents in the briefcase, luka was a quiet person who supported the reign of uncle pieter and consequently the peace treaty with alpy-istria. He was very intelligent, had studied in a boys' college and graduated as a political scientist. He won the German chess championship two years in a row and had a boyfriend with Thea, niece of king erik of Norway, while in college.

Coincidentally, king erik was married to princess Sophie, my mother's younger sister, and so Thea and I had a cousin in common: Stephen.

Thea and Stephen had been raised together, almost like brothers, and she used to not accept it very well when I went to visit him in Stockholm because it meant she needed to share it with me. However, their relationship did not last long.

When the two formed, Thea accepted a job at the austro-asian court and the relationship ended. Luka took up residence in Amsterdam as soon as she graduated, where she currently divides her time between teaching at the royal university and helping her father with administrative duties in the city of Bremen, the capital of her family's duchy.

I understood why my father and uncle had chosen him. Apart from the fact that he was also in the line of German succession, luka was perfect. He had the ideal resume, temperament and commitment, and seemed able to deal with any problem that came up with an effective snap of fingers. He even had the right attitude. There were many pictures of him in the briefcase and in all of them he looked more like a prince than I ever looked like a princess in my entire life. Luka was natural, as if she had been born for that. And it was beautiful. But something had to be wrong. No one could be perfect that way.

The small defects he might have didn't matter to me. My problem was if he was a prejudiced type, who judges without having all the facts. I had done things I wasn't proud of when I was younger, things that marked my life. There had to be a chance that luka and I would become friends, or at least companions, after all together we would share a life full of responsibilities. That's why I asked my father to let me first meet him and have my own opinion before telling him what the plan was.

It was early and rue must have been sleeping when I woke up. Knowing that it was no use pretending to sleep to force the time to pass, I got up and went to sit on a cushioned bench next to one of the huge Windows of my room.

When I lifted the heavy curtains, I let myself look at the garden of the Rosenthal palace, my new home. Outside, the sun began to show through the clouds, its light turning everything it touched into gold fora few seconds. Before long, the radiant light of early spring entered the room and made me notice details I had not noticed the day before when I arrived. For example, the picture on the fireplace in the anteroom was of my young father. That made me realize how much uncle pieter was striving to make me feel at home.

When the clock struck five-thirty, I went into the shower. I was tempted to fill the bathtub, but it needed to be ready at eight and I didn't want to be late. I let the hot water run through my hair while I wanted everything to go well. It would be my first day as aunt aletta's replacement, and my first engagement was the unveiling of a bust in the parliament garden, followed by a boat ride open to journalists to give them and the public a chance to get to know me better.

In fact, the inauguration of the bust was scheduled for three weeks, but uncle pieter thought it would be a good idea to link my arrival to the homage to Logan Adams' captain and mentor, considered a hero in Germany for having survived a shipwreck in the Pacific Ocean and for having lived for two years on a deserted island in the middle of nowhere until he was rescued a few months ago.

I got out of the bath and, while I was drying, I heard the street singing quietly on the other side of the door. When I opened the bathroom door, my bed was already arranged and the dress I was going to wear was separate, but rue was nowhere.

- Rue? - I called.

- I'm here. - she answered from inside the closet and soon showed up holding a pair of shoes and a small velvet box - good morning Alice!

- good morning. Did you manage to sleep?

She made a face.

- I'll have to get used to the mattress. - Rue put the jewelry door on top of the hairdresser, the shoe on a stool and turned to me - and you?

- same thing. - I untalked. My friend agreed, but I knew she knew my insomnia wasn't the mattress's fault. Few people were aware of my real reasons for being in Germany and rue was one of them. I sat in the chair facing the mirror and she stood behind me, still pretending she believed in me.

- how do you want your hairstyle? - wanted to know, while

I would massage my hair with the white towel and face my reflection in the mirror. - I trust your taste. - he said and her face lit up

In a sincere smile.

The radio was quietly turned on and played a selection of animated songs as she prepared and hummed me. Rue had chosen a blue pleated dress with ivory collar and a set of necklace and pearl earrings to accompany. It was a sober look, which I found convenient for a ceremony like the one I was going to attend. I was ready more than half an hour before breakfast began in the great hall and, as arranged the day before, I went to meet uncle pieter in his office.

I thanked the curious child I had been for having discovered the false door behind the statue of the Roman woman with flowers on her head at the end of the southern corridor. It was much faster to use that passage to reach the lower floor, where the administrative area of the palace lay, than to go down the main stair. When I got there, the German secret police officer who was guarding the door of the royal cabinet made a subtle bow to me and opened it for me.

There was no anteroom there like in my father's office in the Vienna palace. The door that the PSG agent opened was straight into a long room, furnished in a simple way. Uncle pieter was sitting in an armchair and reading a newspaper.

- Alice, honey. You arrived early. - he said, putting the newspaper aside and getting up to give me a kiss on the cheek - I was only waiting for you in twenty minutes.

- if you are getting in the way, I'll come back later.

Uncle pieter laughed.

- of course it doesn't get in the way. On the contrary! - he pointed to a twin armchair the one he was wearing for me and then sat down - that's good because we will have more time to talk. I imagine you have thousands of questions to ask me.

And there really was. But of all, the one that needed to be answered most urgently was:

- when will I meet luka?

He looked at me and, at that moment, it looked so much like my father that it made my chest hurt.

- the luka should arrive in two days. - he explained me - he is in Bremen, on the family property. If I made an urgent summons, people would be suspicious, so I asked him to come when possible. In any event, he thinks he is a candidate for a seat on my council.

- thanks for doing that uncle. - I thanked - I know that you and my father could simply order us to get married.

- we would never do that. - he assured, looking a little offended - you are like a daughter to me, Alice, and your father would die for you! I would do everything differently if I could, but I'm just a man. - uncle Pieter sighed tired - and the most I can do at this time is try to control the damage.

- let's do it together. - I reassured him.

- I know that, my dear. Staying together is what our family does best. - he answered with a smile, picked up the newspaper that he had discarded with my arrival and started leafing through it. - incidentally, I have just had an idea that may help us. - he completed, separating one of the sheets and offering it to me.

The top of the page carried news about my arrival at the palace along with a large photo of me waving from the flight of stairs to the crowd. I looked at my uncle, not understanding what he wanted to tell me. He then pointed to the news item that was below my photo.

The caption read "Damon Adams is also in the palace "in bold letters. The text below was brief and spoke about the ceremony of homage to the deceased captain that would take place today. There was also the photo of an austere man dressed in a nautical uniform that I recognized as being the Damon Adams.

- Damon is one of the most influential men in Germany today. - uncle pieter said - become friends with him, and make the popularity he has work on your behalf Alice.

I sighed deeply.

Marrying luka was only half of my mission. The other half was to win the support of the people. Marriage would only work if everyone saw me as the undisputed heir of uncle pieter. The problem is that my mother had made a point of getting away from germania when I was growing up, and because of that the only memory that the germans had of me was the troublesome girl that had blown up the covers of gossip tabloids years ago.

And let's be honest. Who would like to have that girl as future queen?

I didn't blame them, but I couldn't allow our last move to fail because of my failures. At that point, having given in to so much, I would do anything to succeed. Even if it meant manipulating someone to have your friendship.

- I'll do what you ask, uncle. - I answered, no matter how angry I was.

Continued