Die Königin (The Queen - A Prince Harry story)

Prequel 003: November 2007 (Catherine)

November, 2007

Schwerin, Mecklenburg

Kate's mind wandered for a moment, lost in the absurdity at what her life had become. When Karolina Augusta invited her and William to visit Mecklenburg in July, the last thing Kate expected to happen was to spend a good chunk of an afternoon lying on the wooden floor of the Golden Hall, while Lina and her mother told her the history of the room and the stories behind the paintings on its ceiling.

William and Klaus were sitting close by, occupying themselves with the dogs. William had a lifelong interest in art and history but he'd seen and heard all this before. "I have no idea how many times I've visited Schwerin," William said when she'd asked some weeks before. "Must be nearly a hundred." He'd gotten quiet for a moment before adding, "we'd visit five or six times a year when Mum was still around."

They'd started their tour after a scrumptious lunch in the Orangerie, with the dormant garden on the other side of the wooden green framed windows.

First stop had been the Schlosskirche, which was apparently the only room worth visiting on the ground floor of the Palace. "The rest is offices and staff areas," Lina explained. The family's private chapel, used mostly by the staff nowadays, was much larger than Kate expected it to be. It beautifully combined Renaissance and Gothic Revival elements. Kate was quite taken with the vaulted ceiling of white stars on a blue background.

Second stop had been the Principle Guest Suite where Kate and Will would be spending the night. The six rooms of the suite (reception room, drawing room, bedroom, ensuite, and his and hers dressing rooms) were warmly decorated in woods of various colours, and wallpaper of deep blues, reds and pale yellows. The dressing rooms were the pinnacle of storage, function and elegance. The ensuite was modern while never looking out of place.

Everything about Schweriner Schloss was warm. The feeling had enveloped her as soon as she'd stepped out of the car and cast her eyes around the striking, vaguely circular courtyard. She had taken a deep breath and when she breathed out, something settled inside her that she couldn't describe as anything but warm. Maybe comfort. Or welcomed. But that could have been the enormous, crushing hug she received from Lina after Kate curtseyed. Or the adorable patience of Lina's dogs as they waited for William to kneel down to greet them. Or the way Klaus had asked after her each member of her family by name. Or the way Eleonora's hand on Kate's back guided her to her seat in the Orangerie.

She could have been compounding her feelings about the people with the building they lived it, but she didn't think it was that simple.

As the group had left the Guest Suite, Kate became more and more taken with the building. Wood filled every room. Where there wasn't carved wooden panels on the walls there was tightly woven silken wallpaper of deep blue, red or pale yellow (or half-panelled and half wallpapered). One stunning room had neither and instead painted murals of legends of old lined the room. There was little marble, more on the walls than on the floors. All but a handful of rooms had intricately patterned multi-coloured wooden floors and not a single room was permanently carpeted. "We bring out runners when the tourists are allowed in," said Eleonora in hushed tones. When Kate asked about the dogs' effect on the wooden floors, the former Queen Regent shrugged, "we only have the three and their nails are kept short."

Before the Golden Hall, used primarily for dancing, had been the Banquet Hall, a room almost twice the length of the Golden Hall, and used for state dinners or other such events where hundreds of people were attending. The Banquet Hall was similarly decorated in white and gold with religious murals on the ceiling and coats of arms and portraits along its walls. The grandest piece, Kate thought at least, was the internal balcony along the window and the spiral staircases they'd all climbed (except for the dogs). The view of the room was magnificent, almost outmatched by the view out the window. Kate could almost picture how it would look at night, with the lights of the city reflecting off the lake.