Today, Prince Charles, as usual, stays in his room and works hard on his pen and ink.
He has always had the habit of writing. Of course, compared with his talented cousin, he does not have the literary talent to write poems and articles. What he likes to write is some political discussions and some personal diaries.
When he wrote his notes, he was meticulous and detailed. He not only recorded his experiences and what he saw and heard, but also mixed in a lot of personal comments and opinions.
He plans to write a memoir like those big shots in his old age, and there is no doubt that what he records now will be the best material for that time.
However, today his work was inevitably interrupted because there was a gentle knock at the door of his room.
He subconsciously covered the notebook, then carefully put it away in the drawer, and then turned around and asked.
"who is it?"
"It's me, Your Highness." A voice came from the door in response.
He immediately recognized that it was the voice of the little maid beside His Majesty.
I don’t know how His Majesty could lie about his relationship with Teresa in front of her... An ambiguous smile appeared subconsciously on his face, but it soon calmed down.
Then he opened the door and found Chanel standing in front of him with a serious face.
"What's the matter, Chanel?" He tried his best to show his most humble smile and said to the maid.
"Your Highness, Princess Teresa, please come over and talk." Chanel lowered her head and replied.
Although her tone was calm and respectful, Charlie suddenly felt something in his heart and his expression changed slightly.
The reason why he reacted so violently was, of course, because he had always had a ghost in his heart.
Ever since he heard the news that Her Majesty Theresa was about to come to the island, he had always had a premonition that something bad was going to happen. However, his cousin had his own way and no one dared to dissuade him, so he did not dare to say anything wrong and could only watch her helplessly.
Go to the island.
Originally, it didn't matter that she came to the island. It was just that he had a mistress in name. But what he was most worried about happened to happen. His cousin trusted Teresa so much that he actually asked her to take charge of everything he had.
finance.
And this means that Teresa will soon learn what she has done, and she will not be fooled so easily.
Just because he felt that something was wrong, he waited for Theresa to arrive on the island and deliberately drove a wedge between Chanel and Theresa, hoping to confuse the situation. It would be best if the two of them could not cooperate. In this case
He can also get temporary safety and then find a way to solve the problem.
However, it seemed that his plan failed again. He didn’t know what happened in the middle, but he could clearly see that Chanel and Theresa got along well. At least on the surface, Chanel was respectful and obeyed Theresa.
All assignments.
So he suddenly had no other tricks.
"What's the matter?" he asked tentatively.
"It's just some ordinary business issues, you don't need to worry about it." Chanel replied.
It was broken. He immediately screamed in his heart that something was not good.
From Chanel's behavior, he knew that this matter had come to light, and Theresa had really discovered it.
His face instantly turned very pale, and a little cold sweat appeared on his back.
He subconsciously looked behind Chanel and found that there were no guards behind her.
In other words, if he pushed Chanel away and ran away, he could do it.
It's not that he didn't make preparations for such eventualities. As long as he ran now, he could immediately find a small sailboat on the island that was on standby and escape.
But after only a second, he rejected the idea.
Escape? Where can you escape? What will you do after you escape?
If he escapes, he will inevitably bear His Majesty's wrath. Then he will declare what he has done to all the supporters of the Bonaparte family, and then expel himself from the family. At that time, although he can rely on some
Money leads a prosperous life, but politically it is dead and there is no future for it.
He was so ambitious that he could not accept political death and became a lonely ghost.
So he made up his mind in just a moment.
You must maintain your position in the family, so no matter what you face next, as long as you can barely get through it.
"Okay, I understand, let's go over there." He tried his best to smile as normal as possible, and then nodded.
"Please come with me." Of course, Chanel didn't know that His Highness had so many thoughts in just a short period of time. He turned around and took him to the reception room that Aigron usually used. But this time, sitting on a chair
It's Teresa.
When he saw Theresa, Charlie didn't dare to express his anger and immediately bowed to her respectfully.
"Do you have any orders, Your Highness?"
Although he was respectful on the surface to Chanel, who was just a maid, he was quite disdainful in his heart; but it was completely different for Theresa. His "His Royal Highness" had long been just an empty shell, with only the support of the Bonaparte family.
Only someone within the family would recognize her, but Theresa was completely different. She was a real princess, so standing in front of her, Charlie subconsciously lost a few points in his aura.
"You are too unfamiliar, my brother." Teresa replied with a smile, "I have said before that you are His Highness's brother, so I will respect you as my own brother. You don't have to be so reserved. In this way
It makes me embarrassed instead.”
Charlie laughed awkwardly and didn't know how to answer.
Of course he couldn't take Teresa's words seriously, but since she said so, he couldn't help but show off.
Fortunately, Theresa did not embarrass him, but immediately entered the topic, "I invite you to come over. Actually, I have some questions that I want to ask you. Please come over."
She waved, and Charlie walked to the desk obediently.
Then, he saw an open account book on it.
It's over... He knew immediately that the situation was over.
But he could only bite the bullet and pretend that nothing happened, waiting for the judgment to come.
"I have written some personal comments on this account book. Please pick it up and take a look. If there are any mistakes, please point them out..." Teresa pointed to the account book and continued to indicate.
Charlie could easily tell that Her Majesty Teresa's words were obviously out of breath, and her cheeks were sickly red, but he couldn't care less about it now.
He picked up the account book with anxiety and flipped through the pages.
Soon, he saw sweat dripping from his forehead, because many of the problematic transactions above were specially marked by Teresa, and the estimated price difference was also given. Charlie compared them one by one with the memory in his heart, and found that almost all of them were written by her.
Right.
So sharp!
At this point, he knew that it was useless to say anything more. It was obvious that everything was already under control. She called him over for a showdown today just to hold him accountable.
Although he could insist that Theresa had no evidence, what was the point?
He put down the account book and looked at Teresa with a slight pleading.
"Your Highness, I am very satisfied with your vision and I can't give you any more advice."
He was not afraid to beg Teresa for mercy, and he was not afraid to beg a woman as long as he could escape the crisis.
"That is to say, you admit that you did enrich yourself, right?" Teresa looked at Charlie with a calm expression, and then asked, "So how much did you take? Where did the money go?"
"The amount is about as you guessed." Charlie sighed, "As for the use... I squandered most of it, some for personal expenses, and some for my friends."
"I really didn't expect you to do such a thing!" Teresa frowned, and then began to rebuke the other party, "You keep thinking about reviving the family, but you act for your own selfish interests whenever you have the opportunity.
Is this worthy of His Highness's trust? And is it worthy of my own status? Don't you feel ashamed?"
Being scolded like this by a little girl in front of her, Charlie was of course filled with anger, but the current situation was stronger than others, so he could only lower his head and apologize to Theresa.
"Your Highness, please forgive me... I was confused and obsessed, and made such an excessive move. I also regret it very much. I am ashamed of Your Majesty and betrayed his trust. I'm sorry! I really don't know how to face it.
To Your Majesty..."
"You don't have to worry about this. I haven't told His Highness yet." Teresa replied in a low voice, "His Highness is so busy now, and I don't want him to lose his temper over this kind of thing. Besides, I'm afraid that such a shameful thing will spread.
It doesn’t look good either.”
Your Majesty doesn’t know yet?
Charlie felt relieved and felt as if he had been granted amnesty.
He now had a thorny feeling towards his cousin. If his cousin really aroused great anger, he didn't know how to deal with it.
As long as the cousin doesn't know about it, it will be easy to handle.
At least judging from Teresa's tone, she hoped to solve the problem quietly without making any noise.
Of course, he didn't know that Theresa said this just because Aigron told her.
"Thank you, Your Highness!" He thanked Teresa immediately, "I really can't express my gratitude to you in words."
"Words are inherently feeble. If you are really sincere to solve the problem, take practical actions." Teresa was not infected by his excitement. Instead, she narrowed her eyes slightly to hint to herself.
the meaning of.
Of course Charlie knows that now that he has reached this point, he must take practical actions to make up for his mistakes. It is impossible to muddle through.
"I will try my best to make up for the shortfall, but it will take some time." He gritted his teeth and then made a promise, "Please give me a little grace."
Seeing that he finally made a practical promise, Theresa's expression finally relaxed a little.
This step is enough. Since His Highness does not want to completely break with this cousin, there is no need to continue to force him.
"Anyway, you are His Highness's cousin after all, and we are all a family. I don't want to make you look too ugly, so... we might as well solve the problem in another way."
"What do you mean?" Charlie asked immediately.
"I told Your Highness that our family is thin and we need everyone to work together to overcome difficulties. But this does not mean that all family members must be selfless. You have your own objective needs just like everyone else." Theresa
He replied in a low voice, "So, in my opinion, part of the previous deficit was indeed your reasonable expenditure. I don't want to force you to go bankrupt immediately, but you must accept this deficit and make up for it slowly in the future."
After finishing speaking, Teresa picked up the pen, handed it to Charlie, and motioned for him to open the account book.
"Sign your name on the back of every transaction I write, and write that this is what you owe."
Charlie's eyes suddenly opened wide.
In fact, it doesn’t need to be so complicated at all. You just need to calculate the general ledger and ask him to sign it. Teresa deliberately asked him to sign everything, which was almost humiliating.
He looked at Teresa pleadingly, but received no response. Obviously this was the last grace.
Unexpectedly, some old memories came back to him.
Great! An Austrian woman has climbed on top of us again to show off her power!
At that time, he was very young and had not felt that kind of anger and pain, but now, his whole heart was trembling because of this anger.
But now, he can only swallow his anger, because the situation is not conducive to him. Teresa has the evidence of his crime. If she reports it to His Majesty, he will lose everything.
So he could only bow his head and admit his fault.
He picked up a pen and tremblingly wrote his name behind every handwriting written by Teresa in her account book, completing the punishment given by Her Royal Highness the Princess.
This name that he was usually proud of seemed so shocking to him at the moment, making his eyes hurt.
There was a deathly silence in the room, with only the soft sound of paper and pen rubbing together. After an unknown amount of time, he finally completed his work and signed his name wherever Teresa requested.
"Your Highness, I have completed it as you requested." With a sense of despair and exhaustion, he looked at Teresa again.
Should it be okay now? He asked in his heart.
Theresa remained silent, taking the account book, flipping through it, and then putting it aside.
"Very good, then I don't have any objections. As long as you admit your mistakes and can correct them, you are still our beloved brother after all, and I will respect you as before." Then, she smiled slightly, but the smile was invisible.
How cordial, "Next, I hope you can take a warning and stop playing tricks. If there is a next time, I won't be so easy to kill. I think you will be able to think clearly about the consequences by then, right?"
"I understand, Your Highness." Charlie could say nothing more at this time. He could only nod, "I will definitely change my ways and do my best to serve Your Majesty and you from now on."
Teresa looked at him and said nothing.
Charlie was stunned for a moment, and then suddenly understood something. "I will definitely obey your orders from now on. If anyone dares to be disrespectful to you, I will never forgive him!"
"Okay, then I have nothing more to say. I wish you all the best." Teresa waved her hand gently, signaling the other party to leave.
Charlie, who was covered in cold sweat and close to collapse, finally left this sad place with anger, unwillingness and joy.