"Good morning, Madam."

"Good morning, Josef."

Mary Poppins replied, stopping on her way towards the nursery to talk to the queen´s bodyguard.

"Where have you left your charges?"

The man asked and she couldn´t help but smile amusedly.

"The princes are having breakfast with their parents."

"Impressing- how do you do that?"

"I´m afraid I don´t know what you are talking about."

"Of course you don´t, I should have known- you are the best thing that could have happened to those boys, you know- and somehow you manage to criticize without being told off for it, enviable."

"I have a lot of experience with rather complicated parents, believe me- and they are lovely boys, very well behaved, nothing like my last job."

"Not so well behaved children?"

"Oh, don´t get me wrong, I was exceptionally fond of the children- actually I went back two times when the additions to the family arrived, they were five children in the end, three girls and two boys."

"That´s a lot- it must have been exhausting."

"The two oldest not so much and the youngest not either, the third and fourth were twins, they were exhausting, always fighting about their toys and always crying at the same time- the little girl was lovely, Annabel, she was really special."

Mary smiled reminiscently, then she stood up straighter and turned her attention back to the man opposite her.

"I heard you have met Bert."

"The new gardener?"

"Yes, him- we are old friends."

"And he came here to find work close to you?"

Mary hoped sincerely she wasn´t blushing, those strange feelings for her friend seemed to complicate every single thing she did, even a conversation.

"Uhm- yes."

Josef smiled knowingly.

---

"Mamam, can you come and play with us?"

The queen smiled at the excitement in her son´s voice.

"I´ll come upstairs with you and stay for half an hour, Phillippe but then I really have to get some work done, it´s very late already."

"Ok- bye Papa."

Rupert ruffled Phillippe´s hair, then smiled at Pierre and kissed Clarisse´s cheek.

"I´ll see you all later."

The king left the room and Clarisse took Phillippe´s hand while Pierre led the way outside and towards the staircase.

"Joe!"

Phillippe pulled his hand out of his mother´s and ran towards the man who had just come down the stairs- Clarisse watched as Josef picked her son up and held him high over his head, causing the small boy to squeal with delight.

Josef put Phillippe back down and smiled at Pierre.

"Good morning- I heard you´ve been outside already."

"Yes and we had breakfast with Mamam and Papa" Phillippe told him excitedly, turning back to Clarisse with a bright happy smile on his face.

The sight made Clarisse´s heart ache, how easy it was to make her children so happy and how rarely she even made the effort to try.

"Good morning, Your Majesty" Josef bowed his head while the boys started chasing each other around the entrance hall.

"Good morning, Josef- Pierre, Phillippe- don´t-" "Let them" Josef told her quietly, "they need to be just boys from time to time."

The queen sighed, then nodded.

"All right, I suppose that´s true- but I hold you responsible if they crash into a suit of armor and knock it over."

"I thought that sort of behavior was a tradition within the royal family" Josef teased her and Clarisse blushed.

"Oh you are awful- I think you need to be punished for that, you will have to come upstairs with us and wait for me outside the nursery while I play with the boys."

"I would have done that anyway, I need to accompany you back to the office afterwards."

"I do know that- it´s just much more fun to pretend that I can actually make you do things you don´t want to do anyway."

Clarisse pouted, thinking how silly she was for flirting with him so obviously but other than her sons no one was around and thankfully they were to young to read the obvious signs.

---

Mary looked up from her needle work when the door opened and the princes entered the room, followed by the queen.

She smiled at Clarisse Renaldi`s pained expression when Phillippe thrust some toy soldiers into his mother´s hands and started to explain to her where to position her troupes on the battle field and where Pierre´s and his own would be, then she quietly left her seat by the window and closed the door to her own room behind herself to give the queen some time alone with her sons.

A smile played around Mary´s lips at the sight of a vase holding some beautiful yellow roses on the dressing table, Bert always managed to surprise her somehow, he always had.

She walked over to the window and wasn´t surprised when she spotted Bert tending to some rose bushes near by.

Mary opened the window and quietly called Bert´s name, smiling when her friend looked up at her.

"Hello, aren´t you busy?"

"Not right now- the queen is with the boys- I found the roses."

He smiled happily up at her and shrugged in a most charming way.

"I couldn´t help myself- do you like them?"

"Of course I do, they are wonderful- I have to go now, I don´t want the queen to think I´m chatting instead of doing my job."

Bert laughed, nodding and looking at his watch.

"You are right, I should hurry up as well- will you be outside after lunch?"

"Yes, I will" Mary smiled warmly, her heart was beating very fast in her chest and it was a very nice feeling, she couldn´t help but admit it.

"I´m really sorry but I do have to go" the queen told her sons apologetically as she allowed Josef to help her get up from the floor.

"I will see you at lunch, we´ll eat outside today."

"Oh, great" Phillippe smiled enthusiastically as he hugged her goodbye.

Clarisse stroked her son´s messy dark hair, then kissed Pierre´s forehead before following Josef over to the door he was holding open for her.

"Thank you" she said once they were out in the corridor alone and the door had closed behind them.

"What for?"

"You know what for- for coming in and telling me I had to leave now so it wouldn´t look as though I wanted to leave to the boys."

"Well, you don´t really want to go and do paperwork, do you- but that´s what it looks like to them, now they will blame me for making you leave."

Clarisse laughed lightly as she smiled lovingly up at him.

"You are such a perfect gentleman, Josef, I really can understand all my female staff pining for you in secret."

"They do?"

Josef asked, making Clarisse giggle even harder.

"Of course, you should see the way they are looking at you when you walk past, it´s one of my favorite past times to watch."

"I have never noticed, I must have been too occupied with my own favorite pastime."

"Which would be what?"

Her voice was a bit breathless and Josef kept up his husky tone as he replied "Watching you."

The queen lowered her gaze, her blue eyes now hidden beneath her long dark eyelashes as a faint blush crept into her porcelain cheeks.

"I apologize, Your Majesty" Josef quietly added, "that was inappropriate."

She couldn´t answer for they had reached her office door and were within hearing distance of the guards on either side of it.

Josef held the door open for her, the sleeve of her dress briefly brushing against his hand as she walked past him, causing him to momentarily hold his breath.

He followed her inside and briefly smiled at her her secretary who was standing next to the queen´s desk with a deep frown on her face.

"Good morning, Your Majesty" the older woman said stiffly, glaring at Josef as though it was solely his fault that the queen was late.

"Good morning, Juliette" Clarisse replied as she took a seat at the desk and reached out for a couple of letters lying on the surface in front of her.

"What have I missed?"

Josef was sitting on one of the stone benches next to the maze, deep in thought.

Why couldn´t he simply have kept his tongue in check, it was bad enough that he flirted with the queen anytime he got the chance but it was a completely different thing to actually tell her how he felt about her, up to now she had been able to pretend that she didn´t notice the looks he gave her and from time to time she even flirted back, now she would probably feel extremely uneasy around him and he probably had spoiled their friendly relationship.

The sound of light footsteps made him look up and he got up from the bench in surprise.

"What are you doing out here all alone, how did you get away from the guards?"

She smiled nervously.

"I managed to slip away- don´t blame them, I really lead them on and they believed me."

"I will talk to them later- why are you out here in the first place, anyway?"

"I was looking for you" she admitted, stepping closer to her.

"Come, sit with me" she instructed him gently before sitting down herself and waiting for him to follow her lead.

Josef sat down hesitantly, he knew what was coming and completely against his usual habit he would have given anything to avoid the conversation they were going to have.

"Josef, you know what I want to talk about, don´t you."

"I believe so, Your Majesty" he replied stiffly, avoiding to look directly into her eyes.

"I already have apologized and I´m doing so again, I´m truly sorry for my- slip."

"This isn´t about what you said, Josef- it´s about how you feel- about me."

She added, leaving him in no doubt that she knew exactly that he hadn´t just been teasing her earlier.

"I´m afraid I can´t help how I feel about you, I promise to not let it show again though" he offered but the queen impatiently shook her head.

"We are living a lie, Josef- we can´t be around each other in such close proximity and pretend all the time, it´s devastating- for both of us."

She bit her lip and Josef suddenly understood the full meaning of her words.

"You mean- but how could you- you are beautiful, important, perfect- I´m just- nobody."

"Oh Josef, how can you say something like that?"

Tears were running down her cheeks now but they only made her look even prettier, more fragile.

Before he knew what was happening she had wrapped her arms around his neck and hidden her face in his neck, her slender body shaking as he tentatively pulled her close to him.

"I love you" she whispered against his skin, "I love you so much I can´t bear it."