“I don’t want to come in and take over. I’m the new one around here.” The last thing she needed was a contentious relationship with her sister-in-law.
Enzo tossed his tie over a nearby chair. “I feel quite certain she’d be happy to hand that particular task over to you.” He took her hand and pulled her to her feet. “Besides, you may be the new one, but you outrank them. If you want something, you’re within your rights to choose it, regardless of who else is involved.”
Even if Enzo said she had seniority over the rest of the family, Victoria didn’t think they would see it that way.
She had an idea about how well invoking that privilege would go over - and she had no intention of finding out of finding out she was right.
Beingking wasn’t for everyone.
Enzo had known since he was young that one day, he would wear the crown, at least figuratively. Kings didn’t wear them often. At their coronation. The opening session of Parliament each year. Very rarely was there another reason for him to. Victoria would wear tiaras on a fairly regular basis. His mum had as well, but not kings.
He stared at the spreadsheet on the screen of his computer. Budgets and the associated math weren’t high on the list of things he enjoyed. Neither was the need to determine which programs would get more funding and which ones would see it be cut - or eliminated entirely.
With a groan, he pushed against his desk, sending his wheeled office chair several feet back. Spinning until he faced the other direction, he stood before walking to the side table and pouring himself a glass of water.
In the two weeks since his mum’s service, he felt like there were far too many days where he put in twelve or fourteen hours. The only days he could stop after ten hours were the ones when they had a dinner event to attend.
He knew it would get easier in some ways. The more he did the job, the more confident he would be in doing it and - to one degree or another - the less time it would take.
All he had time for in the morning was a quick breakfast so he could be in his office around seven. If he didn’t have a lunch meeting, he ate by himself or with an aide while working in his office.
At least he’d been able to have dinner with Victoria most evenings - as long as she didn’t mind waiting until eight or nine to eat. He couldn’t be certain if she was waiting for him specifically or if that was when she’d want to eat anyway.
Either way, they ate together most of the time.
The news of their marriage had been well-received by the citizens of the country. For that he was eternally grateful. If the people were disgruntled over the news, it would have so many effects on so many things - and none of them good. It would taint his relationship with both the Council and Parliament. It already wouldn't take much to make it adversarial most of the time. The old guard still held sway in both bodies, though the Parliamentary leadership didn’t all fall in that category. They tended to be cantankerous when it came to modernizing more than absolutely necessary.
One of the first things that needed to be on his agenda was absolute primogeniture. Even in the mid-2020s, Dellisole still clung to male primogeniture. If something happened to him andhis next eldest brother, his sisters would be skipped in favor of the fifth sibling - despite his current status as a minor for a while longer.
That needed to be fixed.
He also needed to make certain everything was in order for him to be his brother's legal guardian until his birthday. It would shock him if one or more of the aides hadn't already seen to it. That was the kind of thing they were good at - making sure to take care of things that would never occur to him.
But it still warranted a query.
By the time Enzo reached his quarters, he'd already divested himself of his tie and had undone the top three buttons of his shirt. He hated how stifling a button-up shirt could be. A larger neck size didn't help, at least not enough without being big enough for him to look like a little boy playing dress up in his father's clothes.
As far as he knew, he had no experiences that would lead to him feeling... claustrophobic wasn't quite the right word, but hemmed in by the collar. He didn't feel it in tight spaces, though he'd never been trapped in one. It seemed likely that an experience like that could change his outlook.
He'd rather not find out if he didn't have to.
"Hey." Victoria walked in from the back of the apartment. "How was your day?"
"Long." He tossed his tie and jacket on a chair before flopping into another one, slouching against the back with his arm over his eyes. "All days are long right now."
"That should get better with time, shouldn't it?"
He didn't uncover his eyes but he could tell she had taken a seat on the low table in front of him, even before her hand came to rest on his knee. "Theoretically. Right now, I'm getting up to speed on so many things. If we'd had longer between the time Mum found out about her illness and the time sheleft us, I'd have been able to do more of this in the lead up to that time. Even if she hadn't insisted I take a short holiday before becoming king, I wouldn't have had time to be read in on everything I needed to be. The learning curve is steep."
Yawning, Enzo used his abdominal muscles to propel himself to a seated position, his forearms coming to rest on the tops of his knees. Victoria covered his clasped hands with her own and leaned in until their foreheads met.
"The consequences of making a misstep could be catastrophic. I can't mess things up and ruin the legacy left in my care by centuries of my ancestors. Not all of them were upstanding men and women. Some were downright cruel at times. But overall, especially the last couple of hundred years as everything started to modernize with the continued spread of democracy to previously dictatorial monarchies."
"Dellisole had their own version of the Magna Carta as early as the mid-1400s, right?"
Enzo felt the crooked smile he was known for begin then widen into a full grin. "You're learning your history."
"I've been taking classes. Study sessions would probably be more accurate. The royal historian gave me a brief overview - that took three hours a day for three days. Now we're delving into more detail in some of the more important events and people. We haven't made it back to the... whatever we call the Magna Carta type document here, but we did talk about it some last week."
