Merkurvilla, Markund
A kiss. What a simple thing. What a marvelous thing. To kiss the one you love. To embrace the one you love and forget about the world. Big mistake. You should never forget who you are. And where you are.
A young woman stood still in the middle of a large green park. Her private park. She was not particularly tall nor particularly short, her long hair was black and her eyes were blue. There was something about her lips, pressed tightly against each other, that revealed a strong will, a determination to do things as she wanted. And that was precisely what had caused her doom.
“Your Royal Highness”, a soft voice said behind her. She turned back.
“Yes?”, she replied.
“Miss de Mahlberg is waiting inside.”
“I’ll be there in a minute.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
She did not wait to see her servant leave, but resumed her position, looking at the distant horizon where the trees formed a natural fence that separated her property from the rest of the world. Then, as if that fence gave her strength, she breathed deeply and walked towards the house. A few minutes later, when she entered her study, a tall and older woman stood up and curtseyed.
“Your Royal Highness”, said the woman with a melodic voice.
“Miss de Mahlberg”, she acknowledged. “Please sit down.”
She went towards her desk to sit face to face to Ena de Mahlberg, the King’s private secretary. De Mahlberg was extremely thin and looked permanently hungry, not due to any eating disorder but rather because she did not have time to eat. Her expression was stern, but the eyes betrayed her and suggested a feeling of compassion. There was a short silence, broken by the younger woman, who was always impatient.
“We both know why you’re here”, she said, serious. “What will be my punishment?”
“The King has offered two alternatives”, Ena began.
“Alright?”
“Ending your affaire with Duchess Henriette von Kerlich…. or exile.”
Princess Helena of Brasland looked at Ena, trying to hide the shock she had just felt. It was so cruel, so out of character from the King, that for a brief second she thought it was a joke. But no, the palace would never joke in a situation like that, one that she herself had caused. Avoiding to show any emotions in front of her brother’s private secretary, the princess pulled herself together and spoke.
“You mean I have to choose between two kinds of hell?”, she asked with a sarcastic smile.
“There’s always one lesser evil”, Ena replied, coldly.
Ena resented having to deal with this situation, especially because she liked the young princess very much and believed she had a bright future at Court. But the scandal that Helena had provoked was so explosive that she had no choice but being tough, very tough. She herself had proposed those two options to the King and he had accepted. In Catholic Brasland there was no space for a princess publicly flaunting her relationship with another woman.
“How kind of you”, said the princess, her eyes raging with contained fury. “How much time do I have to leave the country?”
“Three days”, answered the private secretary, calmly.
With these words, Princess Helena bursted into tears, no longer able to keep her composure. It was a sad spectacle to watch, and Ena de Mahlberg deeply regretted it, even though she would not allow herself to show any empathy. The young princess, only twenty years old, could not stop crying for long minutes, and so Ena waited patiently, feeling her heart beat fastly and constantly rejecting her own impulse to comfort her. When Helena was finally able to stop, she wiped her swollen eyes with a handkerchief and looked directly to Ena’s face.
“I can understand the King’s coldness”, she said. “But you, of all people, to come to my house and inform me that I have to leave my country just because I love a woman? You?!”
Ena did not blush, but her eyes could not hide that a wound had been reopened in her heart, after being closed for many years.
“This is not about me”, she said with tremulous voice. “This is not about what I think or feel, is about how a princess of the royal house should behave in public, and the consequences of that behavior.”
“And what if I refuse?”
“You cannot and you will not refuse. You will marry a man or you will leave the country. And we expect your reply today.”
Without excusing herself, Ena stood up and left the room. She repressed her emotions with all the inner strength that she possessed, but once she got into her car and the chauffer crossed the gates of the princess’ home, she could not help but cry all the way to the Royal Palace, where the King was expecting her.
*
The next day, the news of Princess Helena’s lesbian affaire had been picked up by the kingdom’s serious newspapers from the tabloids. The palace had tried to deny the story, but there were pictures that clearly showed Helena with her lover and namesake, a member of Brasland’s premier noble family, the Kerlichs.
That morning, Duchess Wilhelmine von Kerlich sat for breakfast at her stately country residence, Iffenbach Castle. Her husband, the 86-year-old Duke Winrich, had gone hunting with other family members, so the old duchess was alone when her maid brought a copy of her favorite newspaper, the conservative Markund Gazette. There, in the front page and occupying half of it, was a picture of her granddaughter Henriette kissing the lips of the King’s sister. They were embracing each other’s bodies in an attitude of clear sexual interest. It was more than the duchess could resist. When the maid came with tea, she found her lifeless, sitting still in the chair she had occupied at breakfast time for forty years. The doctors later declared it had been a heart attack.
When she was informed of her grandmother’s death, Henriette said nothing, but locked herself in her room. “That old fool”, she muttered to herself, more irritated than sad over the whole affair. They had never gotten along.
Since Henriette belonged to the highest noble house in the country after the royal family, the scandal exploded at the heart of the upper nobility. Her parents, utterly embarrassed and also angered at her after Duchess Wilhelmine’s death, tried to take her away from Markund and lock her in a mental clinic to “treat her condition”. They believed that homosexuality was something that could be corrected. But Henriette, a woman of character, absolutely refused and she stormed out of her parents’ home. A crowd of reporters, gay groups and religious fanatics were waiting outside of the Kerlichs’ mansion and blocked her car. The police, who had appeared to control the crowd and avoid a violent incident, forced the people to make way to the duchess’ vehicle and she was finally able to drive away. Everyone expected her to go to Princess Helena’s home, Merkurvilla, so reporters did not even bother to follow her, they just called their counterparts outside of the royal residence to be alert for the duchess’ arrival. But the two Helenas had a plan and they fooled everyone. The young duchess drove to the countryside, where in the middle of a lonely rural road, she left her car to another young woman who was expecting her. There was another car waiting for her, and she got into it. The chauffeur took her to a small airport nearby, where a private jet waited. She embarked on it and travelled safely to the island of Nix, where another private jet took her to New Chalcedon. There, her lover's mother, the former Queen Lia of Brasland, waited for her. That is how Duchess Henriette von Kerlich was smuggled out of the country, leaving her life (family, friends, books, clothes) behind. As a Kerlich, no one would have expected her to have a real job in Brasland. But she would soon find out that the Queen had other plans for her.
*
That night, at 11.55 pm, Princess Helena sent her reply to her brother, King Georg IV. She asked for a meeting with him, and he immediately replied that he expected her that same night at the palace. And so she went. Right when she crossed the gates of the Royal Palace, Helena felt like an outcast. Everything there seemed to her unpolluted by real life, too rigid and artificially kept in order to fulfill a specific function: to symbolize an idealized, sanitized version of Brasland. One without lesbian princesses… or kings who sleep with a different actress every week, for that matter.
It was late and most people at the palace where sleeping, but the chamberlain who escorted Helena to the King looked slightly disgusted by the princess’ presence. As it took several minutes to get to the sovereign’s study and the chamberlain’s expression was barely concealed, at one point Helena stopped the man, angry.
“If you cannot change your stupid expression I prefer to go to by myself”, she shouted.
“But, ma’am…”, mumbled the man.
“Get out of my presence”, she ordered, defiantly.
Without a word but with visible anger, the man retreated a few steps and then turned around, disappearing in the long corridor. Sighing from relief, the princess walked the final stretch and knocked the door.
“It’s me, Helena”, she said. Without waiting for a reply, she entered the room.
The King looked at her with surprise.
“Where’s the chamberlain?”, he asked, puzzled.
“Probably looking for a first cousin to marry”, she said sarcastically while she curtseyed.
He did not laugh and instead invited her to sit.
“Let’s go to business. You ruined it, Lena. You ruined it completely.”
“Why? Because I fell in love with a wonderful human being who happens to be a woman? Because I dared to allow myself to be who I really am?”
She knew perfectly that was not what he meant, but she wanted to release some of her fury and frustration on him.
“Don’t play the fool with me. You know I couldn’t care less about whom you love, but the rest of the country doesn’t think the same. We live in a Catholic country that in many ways still lives in the 18th century. What did you expect?”
Helena started to cry.
“I expected my brother to protect me.”
“I am King first and brother second. I can’t let your irresponsibility to risk the Crown’s prestige. You put yourself in a vulnerable position, Helena. Couldn’t you kiss your lover within the privacy of your bedroom? Did you have to go all the way to Ostis and expose yourself in a harbor?”
“Private harbor.”
“It’s still a harbor, exposed to all curious eyes to watch you.”
“I never thought someone was watching”, Helena mumbled.
“They’re always watching, Lena”, the King said. “They’re always waiting for some of us to fall. Don’t you see it? You failed the test, you were not careful enough, and now they’re asking for your head. You have placed me in an impossible position: my kingdom or my sister. You know what my choice will always be.”
“The kingdom”, said Helena, almost hypnotized, as if she was repeating a sacred mantra. “Always the kingdom.”
“You’re the sacrifice, sister”, Georg said, without a hint of emotion. He had to be tough. “You exposed yourself and now you pay for your recklessness.”
“Now I pay”, Helena repeated, shocked by his coldness.
She looked at him, hoping to find at least a drop of warmth, but she found none. He had started to become less of a man and more what he was meant to be. A living institution. Cold, detached, even cruel if he needed to. The princess stood up and walked to the door. Before opening it, she curtseyed to the King, and then she disappeared.