The Princess Bride

Chapter 10

I'd been under the assumption that the majority of my time would now be devoted to wedding preparations, but after only a few days, I hardly heard anything about it. I was still made to sit with Roberta for several hours most days for her to criticize absolutely everything I did and said, but I also began shadowing the queen for some of her duties.

Mainly, I sat with her as she entertained visitors who were considered important for some reason. It was fairly boring most of the time, and I wondered if Roberta hadn't intended the whole thing as some sort of punishment for being overruled with several wedding decisions. But I understood that very soon, I would be expected to know many of these guests. I would have to converse with them, and possibly entertain them on my own. So I forced myself to be attentive and remember everyone's names as well as the sorts of things they liked to discuss.

My favorite duty was still being allowed to sit in the Great Hall as the king heard various concerns. Nothing was any more fascinating than it had been before, but at least I wasn't the focal point while I was there. For the most part, I tried to pay attention. For one thing, it was important to understand how things worked in the kingdom and how the king handled various situations. For another, if I were going to do as Alex had suggested, and attempt to make things a bit more fair for the lower classes, I needed experience and information in order to know where to focus my energy.

Still, sometimes the whole thing was dreadfully boring and I couldn't help but allow my mind to wander. Besides, I sincerely doubted that I would ever need to know about the suppliers of grain and other materials. That had been the majority of the business today and it almost made me long for my sessions with Roberta. At least I didn't have to fight to keep my eyes open then.

This particular session was beginning to feel endless. For a while now, I'd been fantasizing about escaping with Alex to our private room once we were finally dismissed, and only realized that I'd been staring at him when he met my eyes and winked. A second later, the king regained my attention.

"Before we adjourn today, we have one more issue to address," he said to the room.

Curious, I glanced around, noting that there didn't seem to be anyone waiting to speak. How odd. It was rare enough that the king kept everyone past the usual time of dismissal, but the only people remaining in the room besides the members of the royal family and myself, were the advisors. I'm sure they had concerns sometimes as well, but this was not the time for those concerns to be addressed. This was the appointed time for the king to hear matters from those people who were not members of his staff.

"My son tells me that his fiancee has a concern to bring before me."

It took a moment to process the king's words. When I understood, my eyes went wide. Frozen, I quickly glanced around the room as everyone's eyes settled on me. The king smiled kindly, and Alex, now wearing a smirk, sent me another wink. Papa and a few others like Lord Stanton seemed amused, but the majority of the men were clearly not overjoyed by this prospect.

"Apparently, it is a matter of some importance," the king prompted after a few seconds when I didn't respond or move.

Swallowing the lump in my throat, I forced myself to my feet and vowed to kill Alex later. I'd known that I would have to speak with the king about this, but I hadn't been aware that it would be today! And I didn't realize that it would be in this particular setting. Perhaps it had been naive of me, but I had hoped that I might be able to address him more privately. Possibly over breakfast one morning.

But this! Alex could have at least warned me about this! He'd coached me pretty thoroughly on how to go about it, but I still felt incredibly unprepared.