"So how do I look?" she asks, adjusting the mask.
"Very mysterious," Magnus says. “Like most women.”
"Beautiful," I tell her, tugging it up so I can see her eyes better. "Now even more so."
"So what do you say?" Magnus says. "We have a few hours here before we go out and--"
"Sir?"
We all turn around to see Freddie standing by the entrance to the library.
"Yes?"
He clears his throat and slowly walks toward us.
"Freddie!" Magnus greets him, raising his hand in a high five. Magnus lives to bug Freddie. "What's going on with you, my good man?"
"Hello Your Highness," Freddie greets Magnus and tepidly taps his palm to his before retrieving it rather quickly. He looks to me. "I hate to be a bother but you do have cocktails with your mother and father over at Drottningholm."
"Well I guess tell them I'm cancelling."
Freddie winces. "They were rather concerned, you see, since you've been having so many high fevers recently. They've noticed your absence this last week."
Of course they have. They notice everything now. "Tell them I'm not well yet."
He sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. He hates lying to them. "Fine. I will do my best."
"Meanwhile," Magnus says, "here!" He throws a mask at Freddie who catches it with one hand. Jeez, I had no idea Freddie possessed ninja reflexes.
"What is this?" Freddie asks.
"You're coming with us!" Magnus announces.
Freddie looks at me. Worried.
"By order of the Crown Prince of Norway," Magnus says, deepening his voice into a bellow, "I command you to attend this masquerade ball with me, this American beauty, and your boss, his Royal Highness, Viktor of House Nordin."
Freddie just sighs. "Do I have to?"
"Yes," Magnus barks. He looks to me with raised brows. "Right?"
I shrug. "I guess."
I know it's Magnus's goal in life to get Freddie good and properly drunk, so perhaps this will finally be the night.
Either way, it's actually a rather brilliant idea on his behalf. I do want to take Maggie out, I do want to show her a good time and have a good time myself without being cooped up in this place. I want us to have fun and a masquerade ball seems like a pretty good start.
"Okay Freddie," I say to him, reaching over and plucking his iPad out of his hands. "You're off the clock now."
He cocks a brow. "If I'm off the clock, sir, then this should mean I can retire to my room."
I quickly give him back the iPad. "Fine, you're back on the new clock and your job this evening is to accompany all of us to the party. You understand?"
He nods. He understands and he doesn't like it one bit.
At least he doesn't until we're getting ready to go to the party and are hanging out in the study, drinking. Freddie has two shots of aquavit and suddenly his face is red and he's laughing like crazy at his own jokes, half of which I don't even understand. By the time we actually leave in a limo to this party that's being held in a grand old building in the old town, Gamla Stan, we’re all feeling pretty damn good.
“Shit!” Maggie cries out as soon as we exit the limo in town, her heels sliding on the snow. I immediately reach for her before she bails on the slippery packed snow.
“You can’t possibly walk in those,” I tell her and scoop her up into my arms. “Looks like I’m carrying you.”
“My prince,” she says in her best fair maiden voice, lacing her fingers around my neck.
The winding narrow streets of Gamla Stan are hard enough to walk on when it’s just cobblestone but packed in snow it’s another story.
“Are you cold?” I ask her as I carry her. She’s got a furry coat she found at a vintage store in the hipster area of Sodermalm, covering up the long green silk gown that she bought the other day. I feel like Gatsby holding Daisy in his arms, if Gatsby wore a mask. Perhaps I also feel a bit like Batman.
“I’m fucking freezing,” she says but she’s smiling broadly. “Does this place ever get warm?”
“Summers are delightful!” Freddie says to her, weaving up the narrow street in front of us. “It’s hot and dry and the best place to go is Lake Mälaren where their Majesty’s palace is. So many nudists on the beaches, it’s incredible the amount of breasts you see!”
I glance over my shoulder at Magnus. “You got him drunk, now it’s your responsibility to watch him.”
Magnus just grins at me, looking absolutely sinister in his tux combined with that mask.
“I thought Swedes were used to nudity,” Maggie says as we round the corner and see the building at the end of a square, a line of masked people waiting to get in, shivering in the cold.
“They are!” Magnus yells, running up from behind us and nearly slipping on a patch of ice. “But Freddie here has never seen a breast in real life.”
“Very funny!” Freddie exclaims, awkwardly adjusting his glasses over his mask. “I’ll have you know that I do have a girlfriend.”
This is news to me.
“Who?” I ask.
“Is this a real girlfriend or someone you met on the internet?” Magnus asks, elbowing him in the side. That nearly takes Freddie down and he has to lean against a building to keep his balance.
“People you meet on the internet are real,” Freddie says, suddenly so serious.
I look over my shoulder to see how the security team is catching up. Surprisingly, none of them were overly annoyed to be wearing masks on tonight’s detail. I suppose they would never grumble to me either but I think it’s giving them something different to do for once.
The party is held by one of Stockholm’s software developers and apparently he also has a rather kinky side because the moment we step inside, we notice all the rooms are quite dark and done up in red silk and there are a lot of half-naked people walking around. Freddie must be losing his mind at all the bare breasts.
Magnus and I separate as to not draw too much attention to ourselves since the two of us together are a pretty recognizable pair, even with masks on. The song “Two Princes” seems to play wherever we go.
I’m also sure there are a few people who know who I am just from the way I walk and hold myself but the real point of the masks is to obscure who Maggie is.
Even though you can’t fully see her face, she looks absolutely beautiful. She’s wearing this bright red lipstick and her hair is done up in curls that fall softly around her sparkling mask. The slinky green dress shows off every curve and gleams like an emerald next to her milky skin.
It’s always been a fantasy of mine to have sex in a public place with people in the next room, especially if everyone is dressed to the nines and there’s a formality about it, but I won’t risk it here. Though I’m pretty sure around every darkened corner people are having sex, we can’t afford to get caught at this point.
So I just hold Maggie’s hand and we cruise around the room, admiring people’s masks, sipping champagne and stealing kisses. There’s something so wonderfully freeing about all of this that it reminds me of being in Hollywood with her again. No one knew who we were, no one cared and it was just the two of us, getting to know each other’s bodies, each other’s hearts.
As we plunk ourselves down onto a loveseat in the corner of one room, and she nestles into my arm, I realize that this is just the tip of the iceberg. That down the line, I’ll look back at this moment and realize that I didn’t know her the way that I eventually will. That though we are both in love, there are many steps to love and this is just the first one. My love for her will only grow with time, evolve and deepen.
Or it won’t.
That’s something a fool in love would think.
The thought strikes me, a cold ice pick to my heart.
I’ve tried not to think about our future together, tried to focus on the here and now but I know, lingering just out of sight, like a floating dot at the corner of your vision that you can’t quite focus on, that something will change. That these times, this honeymoon period where it’s just us two in secret, that it will soon become very real and with that, a lot harder.
We will be tested. And I just hope we have what it takes to pass.
“Are you happy?” I ask her, my fingers pressed against her warm cheek, the dim chandelier lights reflecting in her dark eyes.
She blinks at me in surprise and smiles. “Of course I am. Are you happy?”
“More than I thought possible,” I tell her, giving her a soft kiss.
“We have a problem,” Magnus announces in a low voice, interrupting us.
I look up to see him standing in front of the love seat, his eyes looking wild beneath his mask.
“What?”
“Freddie’s been unmasked. We have to go.”
Maggie and I sit up straighter. “What happened?” I ask, now noticing that some people by the door to this room are looking at us and whispering.
“He was hitting on some guy’s woman and they started fighting. His mask was ripped off. The guy immediately recognized him as Freddie Vereberg, your private secretary. We have to go. Now.”
“Shit,” I get to my feet, hauling Maggie up. “Where is he now?”
“Your people have him don’t worry. But the jig, as they say, is up.”
I look around and then start pulling Maggie toward the door and down the stairs.
“Don’t go that way,” Magnus hisses, “that’s where the paparazzi are waiting outside.”
“Paparazzi?” Maggie squeaks.
“The bastards are quick.” Magnus points down the hallway. “The back door is there, exits onto the royal palace of all places.”
“The royal palace?” Maggie asks. “Another one? How many do you have?”
“Too many,” I tell her as Magnus starts to walk away. A crowd starts to form around us. “Where are you going?” I yell after him.