The sun was beaming in the sky, and the rays were shining through the window glass of the large windows of the Cronad Palace. A man in a suit with a butler bow hurries through the corridors towards the end of the hallway, where he knocked thrice on a large door.
"Your Highness?" He called out before he opened the door. The two guards standing outside the door gave him a puzzled look. He poked his head in and saw the Prince was still in bed watching something that seemed like a Rugby game on his television.
"What is it, Mr. Andrews?" He turned his face with a slight irritation and gestured to him to come in. Mr. Andrews trembled a little as he clutched the newspaper behind his back and walked in slowly.
"It.. it is the news, my prince." He stammered a little, and he hesitantly holds out the newspaper towards the Prince. Leander took the newspaper, and his eyes blinked twice before it focused on the headlines and the picture that accompanied it.
******
The Headlines were trending all over the internet, and everyone in the royal family called one after the other to the palace phone lines.
"Don't answer any of them, Mr. Andrews! I need peace." Leander was sat on the chair next to the windows as he siped on his morning tea and tried to avoid looking at the front page of that newspaper again.
"But your mother insists on speaking to you, my prince. You know her, if you won't answer, she might fly down here." Mr. Andrews had been working at the palace since his teen years, and he witnessed the young prince grow up in front of his eyes. As loyal as he could be, he always tried his best to protect the young prince from scandals and tried to hide his sporting pleasures. But this time, things had gone too far. Especially, at the time, when the coronation was so close.
"For fuck sake.." Leander muttered as he got up from his chair and paced towards the telephones. His flowy nightgown was dragged behind him lifting the fabric a little in the wind. He picked up the phone and dialed the connecting room. All the calls to the royal members were done through a particular line and not through normal cell phones.
"Connect me to the Queen." His soft but stern voice reached the other end and was immediately met with the reply, "yes, of course." And he heard a dial tone and ringing almost immediately.
"Leander, are you okay? You are buzzing throughout the world. What did you do?" The Widow Queen was worried, she had been a regent to their kingdom for a few years. She didn't want Leander to take up the responsibilities until he was done with his education and when he is sure about the succession.
"I am not sure, mom. I was out last night, and I had no idea that there were paparazzi there. I tried to be cautious, mom."
"If you were, this wouldn't have happened. I think your uncle has something to do with it. He voted against your succession, and I don't think anyone else would have dared to go against a prince." The Queen tried to reason as she panted a little through the phone.
"I don't think it is him, mom. Did you read it? This is not even about last night, whoever wrote this, must have done a lot of research to bring such things out in open. I wonder why the newspaper agrees to print it." He could only think of that as a logical explanation for whatever was happening.
"We will look into it, son. Don't you worry, we will straighten this out, and everything will be alright?" Leander shook his head at his mother's nativity. She still believed that royalty was all-powerful, and they could take such accusations from a future king's name.
"Of course! I will speak to you soon." He puts the phone down and looks at Mr. Andrews and then at the newspaper. "We have some research to do." He announced to him with a tight smile. To which, Mr. Andrews replies with a humble bow.