It took a split second for Enzo to remember Anthony meant Victoria when talking about the queen. "I know Victoria willappreciate it. She's new to the archives, obviously, but I know she'd like to learn as much as she can while she's there anyway."
The conversation stalled for a moment before Anthony changed the subject himself. Enzo knew the other man was just trying to get his mind off of the first potential scandal of his reign.
One topic of conversation was the next Games of the Sargasso Sea. They would never host them in Dellisole, but they'd been participating for a couple of decades. From there, the discussion wandered to a number of other areas, but nothing too serious. A buzz on Enzo's phone told him it was time to visit the archives.
He led the way with Anthony walking next to him asking questions about the portraits and tapestries and other items lining the halls. Enzo didn't know nearly as much as he should. Once things settled back down, he needed to do some studying of his own.
When they entered the archive, Victoria was the first to notice them. Madeleine and Jeanette were completely engrossed in whatever item they were looking at.
Victoria walked toward them, accepting a greeting in the form of a kiss on the cheek from Enzo. "I don't understand half of what they're saying," she told them. "I understand the words, but not in context. You'd probably do much better than I could." That last was addressed to Anthony.
He laughed but didn't confirm or deny her supposition.
The three of them continued to discuss the archives in general while watching the historians discuss... whatever it was they were talking about.
Victoria turned to Anthony. "Would you and Madeleine care to have dinner? We don't have a plan at the moment, but we'd love to have you join us."
Enzo almost smacked his head. He should have thought of that.
"We would be honored, ma'am." Anthony tipped his head toward Victoria. "If we can get Madeleine away from this part of the palace long enough." The smile on his face indicated he wasn't really annoyed.
If Enzo had to guess, Madeleine's passion was one of the things Anthony loved about her.
"I don't know what time we'll finish working here." Madeleine looked at Jeanette. "I would expect we'll be here late."
Jeanette shook her head. "We've been working very late and starting very early. We're almost done for tonight. We'll get back to it fresh tomorrow morning." She looked at Enzo and tipped her head. "Thanks to the extra assistance you approved, Sir, we should be able to accomplish more much more quickly then we have the last couple of days."
Madeleine gave Victoria a smile. "Then we would be honored to have dinner with you."
Enzo watched as the two women carried on a conversation he couldn't quite follow, not from lack of trying but because they spoke a bit too softly and laughed a bit too much to hear what they did say.
He turned to Anthony and asked if they'd like to stay in the palace to make it a bit easier on Madeleine. Anthony hesitated then agreed.
The two men turned to walk out together. A quick text to his aide conveyed the information that the other couple would be staying with in the palace and joining them for dinner. The rest would be taken care of from there.
Rather than going to the quarters he shared with Victoria, Enzo led the way to a large balcony. They fell into an easy conversation as they waited for their wives and Enzo found the seeds of hope beginning to take root.
Perhaps, in Anthony, he'd found someone who could not only understand what he had to deal with, but who could be his friend.
The thought made a real smile cross his face and the tension begin to seep out of his shoulders.
A true friend.
That would be nice.
15
Of all the things Victoria had expected to do, hosting Anthony and Madeleine from Eastern Novigradia was near the bottom of the list. The only thing below it would have been helping with the search for whatever the Royal Historian had taken from the archives.
Yet, here she was, getting ready for bed after doing both.
She’d cleared her schedule as much as possible for the next week and planned to spend the vast majority of her time in the archives helping search for the missing item. It would help her avoid the dry meetings she wasn’t a fan of anyway. There were a couple of things that couldn’t be changed or cancelled but most of those were ones she would enjoy regardless.
Sleep didn’t come easily for her - or for Enzo. She could tell she wasn’t the only one trying to lay still and breathe evenly so as to not bother the other. Eventually, she rolled to look at him and discovered he was looking back at her.
“Can’t sleep either?” he whispered.
“No.” She flopped over onto her back. “I can’t help wondering if I missed something. Did he say or do something I should have noticed was unusual? Was he somehow using our lessons to cover up something he was doing?”
