The Royal Romance - The Valtoria Diaries

Everything

It was a cooler evening than usual, and Jen gazed from their balcony into the darkening landscape below. The last few days, she'd noticed some tell-tale signs of autumn creep into what had seemed to her to be a perpetual Cordonian summer; it was yet another sign in her mind that things had started to move on, and that it was time for their new life to start.

It was hard to believe, but she'd only been here for seven months, and she reflected on the massive changes that had taken place in her life in that time. Somehow she'd gone from a single broke waitress living in a tiny shared New York apartment to a married affluent Duchess living in a huge Cordonian mansion. And if she thought about it, her favourite transformation out of all of those components of change, was the single to married one. She smiled to herself. She was so, so lucky.

She heard the bedroom door close gently, followed by footsteps behind her, and waited patiently.

"There you are.."

She turned to face him with a smile. "Where did you think I'd be?"

He shrugged. "I had wondered if you'd vanished down one of those secret passages that I still haven't found.."

She put her arms around his waist, giggling. "I might have found one of them last time we were here, but as this is technically my house I'm going to enjoy keeping it secret from you for a little bit longer."

"No fair!" He dropped his lip. "What's mine is yours..."

"And what's mine is technically the property of the Duchy of Valtoria," she teased. "But, don't worry. You found me. No need to go looking for secret passages tonight after all."

"You're right. I've found what I was looking for." He put his hands on her shoulders, running them down her side. "The only thing I really need. And we're finally here. In our new home. In our new bedroom..."

"Mmhmm?" She glanced across in the direction of the bed. "You know, we never did make it as far as the bed last time..."

"And I only have your say-so for how comfortable it is," he sighed. "And, you know what, I could just do with sinking into a comfortable bed right now.. it's been a looong day.."

"Well." She began to unbutton his shirt. "If that's the case, you are seriously overdressed." She held his gaze as she completed her task, and moved her hands up to his shoulders to nudge the shirt onto the balcony floor. "There."

"You know, I'm still wondering if anyone can see us from here."

She giggled. "There's probably a dirty old man in a cottage over the hill with his binoculars out hoping for a repeat of last time."

"In that case, I must defend your honour and insist you accompany me this way immediately."

She chuckled. "I like that. You sound like, I don't know, such an old fashioned gentleman."

He laughed. "That's the Percival in me, I suppose."

She threw him a look of confusion. "Oh, don't tell me after seven months you're finally revealing to me you've got a split personality.."

He laughed. "Yeah. Autumn comes and I'm a different person until the Spring.."

"I hope not.." She giggled, and went to kiss him, touching his cheek as she did so.