The Royal Romance - The Valtoria Diaries

Their next priority

Hana had travelled from Valtoria to the capital on Friday, arriving at the palace late on Friday afternoon, and had spent a relaxing evening with Rick. They'd exchanged stories of the last fortnight, and reminisced on both recent and long ago events. It had been unexpectedly enjoyable; Hana could not remember ever having one to one time with Rick before. He was a font of wisdom and a fascinating companion.

Once she'd relayed the story of her move to Valtoria and the opportunities she'd already had to help Jen and Maxwell out with duchy affairs, she'd listened to his reciprocal tale of the last two weeks, and couldn't help but detect a loneliness in the way he spoke. With Drake being away in Lythikos, he'd seemingly had little in the way of company. Regina kept herself to herself. Leo visited infrequently. Bastien was seldom sociable. And Madeleine was.. well. Madeleine.

They'd both agreed that Drake was probably more than ready to come back from Lythikos. All they'd had on their group chat and individual messages with him was daily moaning about the cold. Hana had thought she'd warm him up on his arrival with a nice hot chocolate; Rick had suggested a whisky would please him better, and to be fair Rick was probably correct.

Rick had spoken at length about the day that Maxwell had joined him for lunch at the palace. Hana, curious to see if she could elicit any clues as to the purpose of Maxwell's trip to the capital, had listened carefully. She'd had an inkling that he'd been presented with some sort of opportunity, and was waiting until the time was right to tell them all. Funnily, from the way Rick spoke about it, Maxwell's visit seemed to have been the highlight of his fortnight, which Hana thought a little odd considering how awkward their friendship seemed at the moment. When he'd then started talking about his subsequent engagements, he'd looked lost.

The next morning, Hana had taken a refreshing walk in the rain around the palace grounds, and down to the lakeside where she'd taken Jen ahead of the Homecoming Ball. On returning to the palace she'd called her mother; really just to gauge if she was still talking to her, which she seemed to be. Afterwards she'd read a little of her book, and played piano in the palace drawing room.

Then, as she'd wandered the halls of the palace, she'd bumped into Madeleine. She didn't really know where she stood with Madeleine right now. They'd exchanged a few frosty sentences of conversation, but Madeleine had not been keen to talk for long. Jen had joked once that she thought Madeleine had a crush on Hana; that she couldn't see, but she was all for getting to know her a little better to figure out what sort of relationship they could have going forwards. Hana was willing to let past grievances stay in the past; although Madeleine had been unkind to her during the engagement tour, Hana knew that Madeleine's life had not been a happy one at that stage. Being engaged to a man she did not care about and who she knew did not care about her must have been a trial, even if the engagement was leading to her becoming Queen. She often wondered how Madeleine could be happy. She wondered if Madeleine herself knew.

Hana had then spent some more time with Rick, and Regina, who had joined them for afternoon tea. And just afterwards, Drake had wandered in as if he had never been away, muttering a string of complaints about the train from Lythikos, the weather (the rainy season had definitely hit) and the fact that all they'd left him to eat were tiny little sandwiches. Hana had instantly relaxed. With Drake being back, the dynamics had felt back to normal.

When Regina had returned to her quarters, the three of them had spent a little time together, just like old times. Hana had decided to message Jen on the group chat to wish her a happy birthday, and had caught her first thing in the morning over there so got a response straight away. Jen had sent them some pictures of New York; it seemed as if she and Maxwell were having a magical romantic break. On Thursday night, he'd taken her back to the rooftop lounge where they'd had their first kiss. Then yesterday they'd gone to the zoo at Central Park, before visiting the Statue of Liberty. It might have been Hana's imagination, but Rick and Drake didn't seem quite so enthused by these updates.