Die Königin (The Queen - A Prince Harry story)

Prequel 005: January 2010 (Karolina Augusta)

Sunday, 10 January 2010

5:57 am

Karolina Augusta woke up minutes before her alarm. It had happened every morning for over a decade. It gave her a few minutes of quiet, to run through that day's itinerary, to dread or look forward to parts of the day until her alarm went off. She had much to dread and much to look forward to today.

When she was younger it had been a clanging alarm clock that once belonged to her grandfather, now it was her phone and the default tone. She reached out, dismissed the alarm (she'd never hit snooze in her whole life), threw back the covers and swung her feet to the carpeted floor.

When Elizabeth had heard Karolina Augusta would be visiting London while she and Philip were at Sandringham, The Queen tried to get Karolina Augusta to stay at Buckingham Palace. Karolina Augusta politely declined not wanting to inconvenience Buck House's staff. Then The Queen tried to get Karolina Augusta to stay at Windsor Castle. Karolina Augusta politely declined citing a financial meeting in the City and not wanting to travel from Windsor to the City, then back to Windsor.

"We'll stay at The Lanesborough as we usually do."

When Elizabeth and Karolina Augusta said their goodbyes, she could feel her cousin hadn't entirely let it go, and before long a call from The Prince of Wales was put through to Karolina Augusta's office.

Ten minutes later she found herself agreeing to occupy Clarence House as its sole royal resident for the weekend. Her eleven staff were squeezed into Clarence House and the adjoining St James's Palace. Karolina Augusta would stay in the Yellow Suite. It consisted of three rooms, a bedroom, ensuite and large drawing room that tripled as a dining room and study. By square feet it was the largest guest suite in the House. As the name suggested, the bedroom and drawing room were primarily pale yellow in colour.

She had fifteen minutes before her pre-run breakfast arrived. She would have a full breakfast later in the morning but as she never felt good running on an empty stomach, a light meal was served before her run, usually consisting of a piece of fruit and jam spread across a piece of wholegrain bread.

With breakfast came staff. The lack of a separate dressing room caused logistic problems for her staff as they attempted to carry out their usual duties. Karolina Augusta had been amused to hear that her Aide-de-camp and Personal Assistant had spent their luncheon the day before 'drawing up their battle maneuvers'. Karolina Augusta had read through their proposal, found it to be their best option and gave orders to action the plan.

Thus, Karolina Augusta crossed to the armoire by the window and removed the winter running gear her Personal Assistant had placed there the night before. Karolina Augusta got changed, pulled on a pair of socks and her running shoes, then went to the ensuite to use the facilities, wash her face and pull her hair into a high ponytail.

Through the open double doors between the bedroom and the drawing room, Karolina Augusta heard someone knock. She bade them entrance as she collected her phone from its charging station on the bedside table.

"Guten Morgen, Eure Majestät," Major Sonja Lehmann bowed her head. A woman in uniform never curtseyed. Her Aide-de-camp had began her rotation a week ago and had another two weeks before she was rotated out. The Major was a twelve year veteran of the Air Force, a Rostock native, married to a Captain in the Navy, and proud owner of a menagerie of birds.

"Guten Morgen," Karolina Augusta said, smiling at the Major and the silver tray she had brought up from the kitchen.

Aside from her breakfast, there was a glass of water and her well used bottle of water to take on her run. Tucked under her arm, the Major had several newspapers from around the world. Karolina Augusta ate breakfast, drank her glass of water and caught up on the wider world under the watchful gaze of her Aide-de-camp.