CHAPTER FORTY QUEEN JEANNE
Word gets around Never After that the next day is Princess Jeanne’s coronation. Little Jeanne must have made her way safely back to the North. Now Jack and Filomena are leaving to attend.
One cool thing about being a queen, though, is that she and Jack don’t have to walk from Westphalia to Northphalia. Now they get to ride in a carriage.
“Check this out,” Jack says, sitting across from her in the carriage. “They even have complimentary Lily Licks in here!” He holds up a white-and-yellow, flower-shaped lollipop and starts sucking on it.
“Are you sure your eye is okay?” Filomena asks. Jack’s in really high spirits for someone whose eye is surrounded with swollen dark purple skin.
“I’ve had worse. Don’t worry about me,” he says.
Eventually, Filomena looks out the little window and sees the Northphalian castle fast approaching. She sighs. “We’re almost there.”
“They’ll all be there, I promise,” Jack says. He reaches for her hand and squeezes it.
“But what if they’re not?” she asks.
“They will be.”
Filomena’s coronation was dramatic because of its impromptu nature, but it has nothing on the decorative drama of Princess Jeanne’s coronation. There’s no sign of King Richard’s army nor Riff’s barricade.
Everything is peaceful and joyous. As Filomena and Jack ride through the streets of Northphalia, they hear citizens cheer and bang on their carriage door. The Northphalian kingdom’s purple flags fly through the streets. In classic Princess Jeanne fashion, this coronation is clearly set to be the event of the decade. But Filomena can’t enjoy it yet; she’s still holding her breath.
As they arrive at the castle doors, Jack jumps out first and extends a hand to help her step down. Filomena smacks his hand away, laughing, and leaps from the carriage.
“Just because I’m a queen now doesn’t mean you can start treating me differently,” she says.
“If anyone tells me chivalry is dead, I’ll tell them you killed it!” Jack laughs and rolls his eyes. “I am your loyal knight after all.” He does a mocking bow.
Filomena pushes his shoulder jokingly, hardly noticing the crew that’s assembled in front of them.
“What in all of Never After happened to your eye, dude?” Alistair yells.
Filomena turns, yelps, and bursts into tears.
“Whoa, whoa, girl!” Gretel says, running to her.
“Are we that horrible to look at that she cries at the very sight of us?” Alistair brings a hand to his chest, pretending to be offended.
Through the tears, Filomena breaks into a huge smile and wraps her arms around her friends. The group hugs tighter and harder than ever before. Filomena never feels safer than when in a group hug with Jack, Alistair, and Gretel. They’ve been through so much, together and apart. But it never feels right when they’re separated. Filomena never wants to be parted from them.
“I’m so relieved you’re all right!” she says. “Is anyone hurt? Are we all here?”
“Rosie, Byron, and Beatrice are just inside helping Princess Jeanne get ready,” Gretel says. “They’re totally safe.”
“Let’s go inside,” Alistair says, hugging Jack. “We have a lot of catching up to do!”
They tell Jack and Filomena that the minute Little Jeanne arrived with the crown, they immediately put it on Princess Jeanne’s head. And once the crown was settled on her brow, as Filomena predicted, King Richard and his army turned to dust.
But, of course, Princess Jeanne wants a more … ahem … public celebration.
As they wait for the ceremony to begin in the main hall of Northphalia’s castle, Jack, Filomena, Gretel, and Alistair sit together in a pew among the lords, the ladies, and the Merry Men and Women of Queen Jeanne’s court.
“I can’t believe the answer was soup.” Jack laughs. Then he winces. His black eye makes big facial movements pretty painful.
“It was the most delicious cure to a curse you can imagine,” Alistair says proudly.
Filomena feels at ease for the first time in what seems like weeks. The summer solstice is tonight, and she’s relieved to see Charlie back in human form—sitting on the bench behind her—and that he and Hortense are officially King and Queen.
Hortense leans forward to talk in Filomena’s ear. “So what’s with all the fanfare?” she says, motioning to the elaborate decorations, the choir waiting to perform, the stained glass artist currently installing a stained glass panel of Princess Jeanne.
“Northphalia is the most tradition-oriented kingdom of Never After,” Jack explains. “They like to take these things really seriously.”
“Perfect for Princess Jeanne,” Gretel says.
And just like that, Princess Jeanne herself emerges at the front of the hall. She’s wearing a beautiful chartreuse silk dress that glints with amethysts.
“That has Gretel written all over it,” Filomena whispers to Gretel, who shrugs modestly but smiles.
Once Princess Jeanne sits, Rosie, Beatrice, and Byron sneak over to sit with the others. Filomena gives them each a silent hug as the ceremony starts.
“Seems like Beatrice and Princess Jeanne ended up getting along after all,” Gretel says. “Bea said that Princess Jeanne was really mad at her at first when she broke the news about Little Jeanne, but after that, surprisingly, they became super close! Princess Jeanne even wanted Beatrice to help her get ready.”
Filomena laughs. “Stranger things have happened in Never After!”
The ceremony begins. The choir starts to sing. Filomena leans back in her seat and watches Princess Jeanne take her rightful place as queen of the North.
Finally—finally—all is right in Never After. At least for the moment.