II. The Impact of Her

~ Six ~

An hour had passed and Gonzalo was writing across from me.

He nibbled on the end of his pen as he thought of what he should put into the speech.

"Gonzalo?" I called out.

"Yes, Your Highness? Do you need anything?" he quickly looked up to me.

"No, I'm perfectly fine," I smiled. "I'm just a bit concerned and confused because you seem to be struggling with the speech."

"I'm trying to create something that you requested specifically, young prince," he replied, looking down at his speech. "I guess writing speeches isn't as easy as I thought it would be."

"Gonzalo, as I mentioned, you don't have to create a perfect one. All you have to do is the foundation for the speech and I will do the rest," I answered with a smile.

A knock on the door interrupted our conversation. "Who is it?" I spoke.

The door creaked open and my page entered, carrying a scroll with two hands in front of him, his arms stretched forward. "Your Highness," he bowed with his arms still stretched forward. "This document is from His Majesty. He said that it's what you requested of him."

Oh, it could be the decree that we talked about a while ago. Gonzalo was kind enough to be the one to receive the document. As Gonzalo walked towards me with the scroll, my page bowed and went on his way.

As the scroll arrived in my hands, I opened it and Gonzalo returned to his seat. I then read through the decree until the very end, making sure that James didn't leave any important details out. After reading, I closed the scroll and set it aside.

As I looked across Gonzalo, he was still struggling with the speech. He already has his head in his hands, sighing and groaning in frustration.

"Gonzalo," I called out as I closed the report I was looking through, moving it to the side. "I have another task for you."

"Yes, young prince?" he looked at me attentively.

"I want you to prepare my study room for my guests. I'll be having the captain and the crew members visit me and my study would be my accepting room," I explained.

"What about the speech?" he inquired.

"Leave it here so I can take a look at it," I said.

He nodded and handed the speech over to me. He took a quick bow and proceeded out of my room.

As my eyes landed on the paper, he had only written three lines, which were part of the opening remarks for a speech. I sighed as I grabbed my pen and wrote the speech myself.

~*~*~*~

In the midst of the silence within my room, my door opened without any warning, causing me to stand up from my chair.

As the door opened wide, Mallory appeared.

I sighed and sat down, returning to my report.

"Well, that's a way to welcome someone into your room," she remarked sarcastically, closing the door behind her.

"That's because I wasn't giving you an inclination that I'm pleased to see you," I snapped back, not paying any attention to her.

She walked towards me, sitting across me with her arms on the table. "Aren't you even going to talk to me while I'm here?"

"Should I?" I asked back, still not paying attention to her.

"Robert, why are you playing this kind of game?" she replied with another question. "I thought, even just a little bit, you'd be pleased to see me today."