He gave a short laugh. Then he looked at me seriously. "It was bad, my little girl. Very bad. But I warned them when they offered us the crown. We werent always the Prince and Princess of Ponte Corvo. We began our lives as ordinary people."
Then I looked at Jean, and I made a stupid mistake. "Jean," I said, "would you ask someone to take my shoes off?"
Next, the queen introduced me to a thin old woman in a black dress. "Her Majesty Queen Sofia, the Queen Mother," she said.
"And this is His Majestys sister, Her Royal Highness Princess Sofia," the Queen continued.
The Queen nodded. The Kings face still showed surprise. He was wondering whether he had heard me correctly.
"Im sorry. I can provide anything else. But I cant provide that yet."
But there was no welcome in her look or in her voice. I touched her hand with the end of my cold nose. I didnt see why I should kiss it.
A servant brought me a glass of hot wine. For a moment it made me feel better. Then I suddenly felt everyone looking at me. I could even feel their thoughts.
"Good Heavens!" I thought. "A Queen Mother! How many queens are there at this court? She must be the wife of the king who was murdered , Gustav IV; the grandmother of the boy Gustav whose place Oscar is taking."
"I hope youll be very happy at our court, Your Highness," the old woman said in a very low voice. She seemed to speak without opening her mouth.
"I want a bath, please, Jean. A hot bath," I replied.
Yes. I had disappointed them. They has wanted a beautiful young princess, with a royal manner. What had they got instead? A Frenchmerchants daughter, thirty-one years old, with a very ordinary face. A girl whose nose turned up at the end. A girl who neither looked nor behaved like a royal person.
It wasnt an unusual request. Jean himself has often done it for me when Ive been very tired. But I was forgetting that I was in the royal court of Sweden. I had only one thought: "my feet were cold because my shoes were wet."
"Excuse me. Its warmer here by the stove," I told her.
There was a sudden silence. It was broken by a loud laugh from Mariana Koskull. The Queen looked at her fiercely, and the laugh changed into a cough.
At the door I turnedround. I was going to call Oscar. But he was busily examining the buttons on the Kings uniform. The old gentleman looked happy, so I left my son with him.
I bowed to her. Her eyes looked straight through me. She smiled, but it wasnt a smile of pleasure. Then she held her hand out to me. I suppose she expected me to kiss it.
Jean came to me and offered me his arm. "I must ask Your Majesty to excuse my wife," he said. "She is wet and cold after her journey. She would like to rest."
"They offered you the crown, Jean. Not us," I said. "But now you must go. Theyre waiting for you, and Oscar needs you. Send Marie to me, and Ill go to bed. Im very tired."
Then Jean introduced me to His Majesty King Charles the Thirteenth. The old man got up from his chair with difficulty. Jean held his arm and helped him to stand. His eyes were weak. Only a few white hairs remained on his pink head.
I nodded. "Tell me, Jean. Did I behave very badly this evening? Are you ashamed because I wanted someone to take my shoes off?"
"Oh dear, another Sofia! Was she really a princess? She has a face like a goat. Her smile was meant to be kind, but it showed a fierce set of long teeth. How old was she? Seventy? Eighty? I couldnt be sure."
"Dear daughter, dear daughter," he said. And he sat down again.
Jean was introduced us to the Queen. This is my wife Desiree, Your Majesty. And this is my son Oscar.
"Thank you, Marie," I said. "I couldnt stay here without you. All wives complain about their mother-in-law. Now I understand their reasons. Mine is really terrible."
I bowed again. Then I noticed a big white stove. I had met stoves like that on our journey from Halsingborg. When we stopped, I always warmed myself by one. Now my hands and feet were still like ice. So I stood by the stove and warmed them.
"What do you mean? Dont people have baths in Stockholm?" I asked. "Dont even the Queens and their ladies have baths?"
Marie put hot water bottles in my bed. Then she spread the Emperors sable fur over the blankets.
"Wont you take a seat, madame? " said the queen. She sat down and pointed to an empty chair beside her.
Jean said nothing till we reached my bedroom. "Ive had this room prepared in the Paris manner," he told me. "French wallpaper. French curtains. Everything is French. Do you like it?"
"No. No one does. I told you that this place was like Versailles. Our French royal family never had baths. The Swedish one doesnt either. I cant change all their customs at once. You do understand that, dont you?"
"My dear daughter Desiree, I welcome you," she said solemnly.
