Chereads / The princess and the soldier / Chapter 5 - What a send off

Chapter 5 - What a send off

The body of king Leopold was flown to the capital on Wednesday the 5th of November and was taken to the Magdalene Hall where the King lay in state for three days. some 408 000 people passed through to veiw the King, with queues going as long a three kilometres.

The funeral which was held on the 8th November began with a formal procession; the coffin being carried on a gun carriage hauled by Royal Navy seamen, as is traditional at the funerals of Maltese sovereigns.

The procession was accompanied by the Queen, Crown Prince, the Princess and Angelo and four royal dukes. Numerous foreign monarchs and other representatives also attended to  St George's Chapel where a service was held and the king interred in the royal vault.

following the service, Angelo and his bride flew to Alsasce, a province in the north of the country where the pincess had a secluded mansion where she kept to herself whenever there was something troubling her...only to appear again on the following monday when her brother, the crown prince, officially ascended the throne.

The new king was inuagurated in front of millions of his people and the crowds braved the winter cold and took to the streets to celebrate the ascension.

Angelo was overwhelmed by all the happenings as he was naturally a person who shunned the limelight. He found himself regretting his decision to become a part of all this madness.

He was frustrated also by the fact that his new wife didn't seem to consider him as anything but an official accessory which she could display in public but avoided in private.

He found himself missing the rural outpost he had been deployed at and wishing he had never met the royal family and made any promises to the now deceased king.

The sound of the phone ringing woke Angelo from his thoughts and he remembered that he was supposed to be entertaining the foreign dignitaries who seemed to be familiar with the whole setup and were chatting happily as if there wasn't a funeral held there a few days ago.

He looked around and noticed that his bride was looking at him disapprovingly while talking to her brother; the King.

He tried to get out of their field of vision and attempt to start a conversation with the Ambassador of Malawi, a slim build man in his thirties who seemed to be the only other individual in the room who wasn't trying to act like everything was normal.

They talked about the conflict in Malawi at the moment and how best the international community could assist at the moment. Discovering that the ambassador was a former soldier, Angelo's spirits were lifted, he now had a friend who understood him and could be considered trustworthy.