She heard the quiet gasps and whispers begin.
With a grin to cover her annoyance, she leaned in slightly. "That's not an announcement," she clarified. "But when the time comes, theKingdoms of Dellisole Islands Sagawill be at the top of the list to read our children when they're old enough."
Some of the faces in the crowd looked far more disappointed than they should.
This little speech couldn't wrap up soon enough. "I would like to reiterate what Vincenzo said a few moments ago. We are grateful this organization exists and thrilled to continue my mother-in-law’s work. Thank you."
For some reason, she received a standing ovation even though neither of the other speakers had.
Enzo escorted her out of the banquet hall and to their waiting SUV. The ride back to the palace passed in silence as did the walk to their quarters.
Once the door to their suite had closed behind them, Victoria spoke. "I wish you would have told me."
He turned with a puzzled look on his face. "Told you what?"
"That I'm the new patron for the Literacy Council and would be making a speech this evening." She set her clutch on a table near the windows. "I was caught off-guard and hope I didn't screw anything up. The pregnancy rumors are likely already making the tabloid rounds, even though I clarified immediately."
If possible, the confusion on his face deepened. "You didn't know? It was supposed to be part of your briefings. No one told me you hadn't been and I thought you would have said something if you didn't want to be a part of it."
"I'm happy to be a part of it. I just wish I would have been given a choice. It was never brought up to me as even a possibility."
"With everything else going on, following up slipped my mind. Please accept my apologies."
He sounded sincere, so she nodded. "Done." She perched on the edge of the bed. "What else is bothering you? Don't tell me nothing because I know something is."
Enzo came to sit next to her, his shoulders slumped. "You're right. There is something wrong, but I don't know that there's anything we can do to change things."
Surely in thehistory of the world, nothing good had followed those words, but it was too late now.
Victoria took a seat and waited quietly waiting for him to go on, her hands clasped tightly to keep from wringing them, he was sure.
"I had a meeting with the Chairman of the Council earlier today." He sat across from her and watched to see her reaction.
She had none.
"As the queen, you are entitled to a seat on the Council."
Still no reaction.
"He seemed to insinuate he would do everything in his power to keep you from taking the seat that rightfully belongs to you."
There still wasn't much of a reaction, but Victoria finally spoke. "Why would he do that?"
"I'm not sure. To exert some control over me? Over us? To throw his weight around? Because he has a deep seated hatred of the Dynasties of the Sargassian Sea? I really don't know. He mentioned your citizenship and place in the Line of Succession in Southern Santiero. Those are things we already knew we needed to deal with in one form or another." He kept watching to try and gauge her reaction. Had she thought more about it? Had she decided what she wanted to do, even if they hadn't discussed it yet?
"I would prefer not to give up my Southern Sargassian citizenship, though I would understand if our children weren't automatically given dual citizenship, especially not your heir." Victoria wouldn't look straight at him, but at least she wasn'tstaring at her hands. He thought that might be a good thing. "I also wouldn't expect them to have a place in the Line of Succession. I said I have given my place up though I don’t know that it’s legal at this point. I am willing to publicly stipulate that, should it ever come to that, I would plan to abdicate. I'm already far enough down the line that something catastrophic would have to happen for me to even be on anyone's radar as the next successor."
"Why only likely abdicate? Why not say you would actually abdicate?" Enzo found himself genuinely curious. It didn't matter much to him, since she was right about the catastrophies necessary, but he did want to know her rationale.
Victoria unclasped her hands and sat back in her chair. "Because I don't want to be tied to something? I want to have wiggle room. If, God forbid, something happened to you, especially before we have children, there's probably not a place for me here. I would go home."
Those things hadn't occurred to Enzo. He also tried to relax some in his chair as he contemplated what she'd said. "There will always be a place for you here, but I can understand where you’re coming from," he said slowly. "I can also understand why we wouldn't want to say that publicly. There's no reason for the general public to know that we've thought about those things."
"Definitely not. I'll tell my mum or my brother if it ever comes up in conversation, but I won't bring it up." She closed her eyes and sighed. "Is there anything else we need to discuss this evening? I'm exhausted and would really love to take my hair down and wash it."
Enzo stood and held out a hand. "We can be done for the night. I'm sure we'll have other things to talk about in regard to all of this sometime soon, but there's no reason it has to be now."
When she clasped his hand, he helped pull her to her feet. Rather than let go, he wrapped his arms around her and felt her almost melt against him.
