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The Fourth Son

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Old girlfriends

Eleanor, a princess by birth, was selected by the new king’s mother as his perfect match, and yes, in this principality and the other arranged marriages for their children were still done.

Marriage for love was frowned upon, but our new King was by virtue of the fact he had moved away because fourth sons were not going to be crowned king any time soon, was allowed to annul the arrangement.

The truth of the matter was that although they were good together, temperament-wise, they would have ended up killing each other.

Too young and too silly, that first attraction died away before they reached an age to know what love meant, and for our prince, what responsibility was.

Now, she was Richard’s choice, again not in line for the throne, and she found him a far more suitable and placid person to be with.

The truth was she had fallen in love with the country, and the lifestyle that she freely confessed was far better than her home.

When our new king meets up with his old paramour, whom he has not seen for many years, there are feelings there, but not enough to make an impression.

Now that Richard is gone, it’s a question of what she is going to do with the rest of her life, and it seems she wants to stay.

Why not?

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The Fourth Son

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Spies

Yes, I know you were waiting for me to inject the spectre of espionage.

After all the new joking is an avid reader of thrillers and spy novels, so there had to be a hint of something going on.

It’s not as if he’s suspicious of his father’s death, not that it should be a big deal, considering the way his father had treated him and his brothers and sisters.

It’s like everyone is glad that he is dead, but trying not to let that show through because it just wouldn’t be right.  But it is like a heavy load had been lifted, and no one is talking about it.

As if that isn’t another conspiracy theory!

So, the autopsy reports are in, and it might be construed that the doctor made sure that evil didn’t rise again.  In anyone else’s book, that might be murder, but what were the circumstances?

This is not a matter for him to investigate, and he has been advised not to do it himself but to allow his head of security to carry out discreet enquiries.

This is not something that will raise its head until the next book in the series.

As for the spy, he believes he needs to look no further than his mother and her fellow countryman, who is currently in the city and who also covers his movements by being one of several investors.

They have a chat in the Gardens.

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The Fourth Son

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A morning visit to the ski fields and the resort to inspect the works and the resort’s reopening.

It hasn’t been a week, but every day has caused pain.

But our new king had an ulterior motive and wanted to go to the top of the mountain to inspect the site where his older brother disappeared.

It would make a more obvious indication of his intentions if he were to go all the way to where his older brother was last seen, but he wanted to know if there was the start of a passage, where he could have escaped.

That would have to wait until he could convince Cherise, his bodyguard, that it was vital to his investigations, something she told him was hardly worth the effort of doing it himself and would recommend someone else to do it for him.

An argument for another day.

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The Fourth Son

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Diplomacy, or what keeps the wheels of international relations turning.

And sadly, not having much involvement in diplomacy except for the odd ball in New York stage by on of another of the dozens of countries who had Embassies there, the idea of coping with those events horrified him.

Step into the breach, the number one personal assistant who was conversant in a foreign language knew everything about his country and was familiar with all of the ambassadors in the city.

And who had expressed the desire to meet with the new king and congratulate him on his accession.

Yes, another state dinner.

And, if Ruth had her way, dancing.

He invites Ruth and Susie at short notice, and Susie is gobsmacked and overwhelmed like the girl she is, and he promises to rustle up a few princes for her to meet.

But.

No fainting allowed.

And definitely no fairy godmothers turning pumpkins into carriages.  They already had a gold coach, and she could use it if she wanted to

Rurh doesn’t think they will ever get her to go home after it.

And of course, she doesn’t have a thing to wear!

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The Fourth Son

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The royal archivist.

And the youngest sister to the king, in fact, she was only two years younger than him and also sent away at the request of her mother because she had been given the same treatment as the new king.

In fact, he, too, had been horrid to her, and it was not a reunion he was looking forward to.

Rather, oddly, the king had a separate morning room for breakfast and an atrium for lunch, a place where all the Royals could meet and talk over lunch, or just brood.

He’s spent many breakfasts with his brothers and sisters, but not so much at lunch, especially when they were at school.

Now Ruth and her sister could come down, and he could see them between royal duties and meet the other siblings, one of whom was Christine.

It’s awkward, but not as much as it could have been.  He was no longer the awkward, pugnacious little boy he once was, but their king.

It was also useful to discover that she was in the process of gathering up all the papers in the old King’s office and taking them down to her archive to be classified and archived, the relevant daily work papers to be refined by the secretaries to be processed.

He also had his PA team of three working closely with her to find out what projects and situations were in play and needed his attention.

Another problem sorted.  Perhaps.

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The Fourth Son

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So there’s nothing like an angry sister who never got to be queen, who sits gleefully in her office, plotting to put the new king in his place.

Yes, royal shenanigans indeed

Queen Isobel of the next-door principality is coming for a state visit, ostensibly to welcome the new king into his new role.

Why then does she burst into his office and gleefully announce the forthcoming arrival of the wicked with odd the west

Because in the old days when he was just a boy, Isobel and her used to torture him mercilessly, yo the point where it, and the treatment from his brothers at the behest of the old king forced him to run away to America.

Yes, survival of the fittest, the bullying was supposed to make a man of him/and his brothers, as it turned out, treatment that after he left was transferred to Edward and then down the line.

But..

As always, there’s more to the story, and it appeared from the briefing document that the annual negotiations between the two principalities had not been completed and signed, and there was a formal request that some items needed further discussion.

When he saw the draft contract, he could see why, but the negotiators had made the concessions so he could if he wanted to.

A lot would depend on that first face-to-face meeting and what her attitude towards him would be.  He had not seen her in the last 15 years, and he had expected he never would again, if he could help it, but things never quite go the way people want them to.

Something you steel himself for over the next few days before she arrived.

In the meantime, his sister could go and meet the Queen at the airport as his official representative, and he would make the formal welcome at the castle.

She will not be impressed.

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The Fourth Son

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There are still the endless questions on what actually happened from the moment the call came that there was a skier on the top of the mountain in distress.

And why the helicopter was called in, and everything that happened around that one decision.  It was, of course, the prerogative of the officer in charge of the ski patrol, at the time Edward.

The question was, was he supposed to be in charge when the two other brothers were out in the field?  That raised another question: Why were the two assigned together when the standing orders were only one could be in the field and the other on standby?

How did the Air Force send a newish pilot on a mission that hw had not flown before?  It was not good policy to not have an experienced pilot on hand

He was going to go up to the top of the mountain and see for himself, but on memory of the his years in the patrol, it was not that difficult to get to the spot where from the top ski lift, and if that was the case, then the avalanche was preventable.

It was going to be another interesting report when the final assessment was completed.  He would have to try and get the parliament to call for a royal commission.  Of course, raking over the coals might be the last thing needed, especially since the resort was closed while the slopes were regroomed.

The country needed a quick, blameless answer and reopened the resort for obvious financial reasons, aside from the employment and services it generated.

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The Fourth Son

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Breakfast is supposed to be that first meal of the day, the one that sets you up for at least the morning.

If you can, get to sit down and relax.

If you don’t have a thousand thoughts running through your head, and none of them are good.

He is surprised to find that no one thought it a good idea to have the two brothers and the king autopsied.

He doesn’t know what he’s looking for, but if there’s something, anything, the least of it would be for it to blow up in his face.

There were rumours, rumours he’d rather not hear, that his father had been acting strangely and making life difficult for everyone, which to a certain degree was how he generally was.

But….

Is it possible he may have recovered from dual heart attacks, or had he been sedated with an overdose of morphine?  Was it mercy that he died?  It was not what he wanted to think. In fact, it was the last thing he needed.

Those reports he received when he was back in America over that last year as his health declined and the old king was getting more and more despaired at the idea of Edward succeeding him, causing him to hang on longer than he should, were hard to read but not hard to understand.

It was the reason the new king believed, why the old king insisted on his return.

It would be good to discover what the old King’s motivation was, but now he was dead, perhaps they would never find out.

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The Fourth Son

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People to see things to do.

First on the list was his sister, the one hoping that when all else failed, she would become Queen.

Of course, being a surviving male, he had usurped her hopes, and it wasn’t going to be an easy reunion once they were alone.

And seeing Isobel, her counterpart in the next principality and fierce rival, and sometimes enemy at the gate over the last 800 years, nothing is going to be simple.

At least she hasn’t tried to assassinate him yet.

Then, there is the fiancé of Edward, the man who would have been king, and whose body had still not been recovered and probably might not.

She’s genuinely upset and appears to know nothing about any plot to disappear and meet up later in Paris, or that she was on her way to Paris for any other reason than just leaving like it was normal.

The new king insists she stay for the King’s funeral.

Then there’s the fiancé of Gregory, the princess that had Bern selected for our new king, as much a match could be made when they were younger.

They had never hit it off, but she stayed and found her way with the King’s immediate older brother.

She, too, seems upset, but not as much as she could be.  She wants to stay and honour his memory in some way, and that is fine with the king.

She had met his choice of bride and, being a non-royal, offers to guide her through the process, though admitting Rush is not going to be a shrinking violet.

Three down and lots to go.

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The Fourth Son

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Then there’s the so-called widow of the eldest son, the man who would have been king,

If they knew where he was.

And there’s a story to go with that; now he’s starting to shake the trees, just to see what falls out.

Our protagonist visits Edward’s fiancé, Arabella.

She was detained, in not so many words, when she was trying to leave the castle.

A preliminary investigation reveals that Edward had changed his will to leave Arabella the Paris apartment he owned and a sizable annuity several days before he disappeared.

There’s some dispute about his friendship with the skier he was supposed to be helping.

Does she know why he did that?

Are the tears and sadness real?

Was she trying to escape so that if they were meeting, they would have somewhere to live and money to live on?

She is expected to stay for the King’s funeral, and the others too.

An autopsy is carried out on the victims.