Monaco Jet Set Chronicles
Chapter 20
Charlotte waited for her tante Stephie in the drawing room. She switched on one of the lamps and walked around the cozy room filled with family photographs in beautiful Waterford frames. Pictures of Louis, Pauline, and Camille at the beach or park or opening Père Noel Xmas presents were most commonplace. One picture in a silver frame caught Charlotte's eye. It showed 14 year old Andrea in a swimming pool with Louis holding Louis on his shoulders. "Gosh, that was ages ago," thought Charlotte. She looked around for more pictures of her and her siblings with her aunt's kids, but found none. There was one of Steph and Andrea at Monaco National Day in 1999, Steph and Pierre at MND 1997, Steph and Charlotte at MND 2000, and some other MND pictures of them together, but that was it. It made Charlotte sad that she wasn't finding any *private* pictures of her or her siblings or mother with Stephanie...
"Congratulations," came Stephanie's voice. Startled, Charlotte spun around, still clutching one of the photograph frames.
"Pardon?" Charlotte asked, confused.
Stephanie smiled and stepped closer. "I heard about your success at the jumping. Second prize. That's amazing."
"Yes," Charlotte said. "I was disappointed that you weren't there."
Stephanie smiled apologetically. "Well, I was really busy, I'm sorry, Charlotte. I had to drive Louis and Pauley to the airport. They flew to Auron to be with Daniel today."
Charlotte rolled her eyes. "Please... a servant could've driven them to the airport. Admit it; you skipped out because you couldn't face my mother, your sister."
Stephanie gave Charlotte an incredulous look. "No, Charlotte. I wanted to take my kids to the airport myself. I never leave that to the servants. When you have kids of your own someday, you will understand. Sending my kids away is a very emotional experience for me and I'm always there to say goodbye and see them off."
"Fair enough," said Charlotte, looking down at the table where she had picked up the frame and setting the frame back in its place. She looked back up at Stephanie.
"So," Stephanie said. "Is this why you came by to visit at 11 pm, to berate me for not showing up at Fontvieille today?"
"Heavens no," Charlotte said. "I'm not really upset about that. I just missed you."
Stephanie made a noise like "aw" and looked very touched. She walked over to Charlotte and they hugged.