The Royal Romance - The Valtoria Diaries

Breakdancing isn't in your job description

Maxwell had been out walking Chance one cold dark morning (ugh, December was miserable, Christmas couldn't come soon enough). On arriving back at the estate courtyard, he found a huge lorry parked up just the other side of the bridge.

"Whoooo, Chance. I think I know what this is..." Chance barked, and Maxwell rubbed his cold hands together. "C'mon buddy. Let's go and investigate."

As they got to the front door, they found Christopher talking to, presumably, the lorry driver and a couple of other guys who had come to help.

"Ah, Your Grace. These gentlemen are delivering the disco equipment and flooring for the ballroom annexe."

"Oh yeah..." Maxwell made finger guns at them all. "Gentlemen.. this way! This is where the magic is gonna happen.."

He was so happy that Jen had indulged his whim to install a disco in the ballroom.. or had it been her whim... whatever, it was going to make for some epic parties here. He was already putting together his NYE playlist, and selecting the cocktails that were going to be served up. It would effectively double up as their house-warming party, so it had to be immense.

As they all reached the ballroom, he heard a call from the stairway, and soon Jen was with them, in her black vest and jeans combo, a towel on her head. "I can't miss the installation of the legendary Beaumont-Jones disco!"

"Hey, sexy." He drew her in for a quick hug and a kiss. "I figured you could do with a lie-in. I didn't realise this was arriving today!"

She dropped her lip. "Well I was waiting for you to come and wake me up, but then I peeked out the window and saw the lorry...."

"Exciting!!" He jumped up and down.

"I know, I know!!" She joined him, putting her hands on his shoulders.

The men just looked at them as if they were weird.

Jen nodded, removing her hands from his shoulders and taking charge. "So the decks are going to go just over there... and the speakers here, and.... sort of here, I guess? Or do you do the flooring and the lasers first?"

"We've got it all planned out," one of the men said. "You can leave us to it. It'll probably take most of the day, but it'll be ready by late afternoon."

"Okay..." She looked at Maxwell, impressed. "We'll leave you guys to it! And.. thank you."

"I forgot about the lasers," he whimpered in excitement.

Together they headed into the drawing room.

"Do we get to test it out later on tonight?" he asked her.

"I would guess so.. we need to check it's how we want it, don't we?"

"Right. In that case, I'm off to find my laptop. You, my beloved, are in for a night of fun!"

***

Nine hours later and the inaugural disco was in full swing. Hana and Christopher were looking after the decks right now, obviously there was a good playlist set in place, and this Duke and Duchess were getting down.

"Been far too long since we did this," Jen giggled, as they pulled apart for a moment.

"My thoughts exactly," Maxwell declared. "And now we can do it whenever we like!"

The floor was so much fun, and he decided to jump from tile to tile just to see if it did really work how it was supposed to. It did, and every time he jumped onto one it lit up. "Imagine how cool this will look with a full dancefloor!"

"It looks pretty cool now.." The track changed. "Oh, tune!!!"

This was one of his staples, and after throwing her a sly look, he launched into one of his more audacious breakdancing moves, a deadman float followed by an elbow spin, and finished off with a windmill, to the soundtrack of the beats from the new speakers and Jen and Hana's encouraging whoops. Eventually, his feet touched back down on the tiles.

"That was amazing! But I thought you were all out of practice?"

Hana raised her eyebrows. "What were we talking about the other day, Jen?"

Now he looked nervously between the two of them. "What were you two talking about the other day?"

Hana giggled. "That's for us to know. But it may have involved a guitar.."

Jen looked mortified. "What Hana meant to say is that we thought maybe you had disappeared off to do some breakdancing practice."

"Ha. Well. I can practice anytime now!" He struck a pose. "I can teach you some moves?"

"I think I prefer my own style of dancing," Hana said politely.

"Yeah, I'm not so sure that's my style either," Jen said. "But I could watch you all night."

"Christopher? Fancy some breakdance lessons?"

Christopher's reaction was brilliant. "Ah, well, Your Grace... I am on duty."

"You are! And your duty is to get down with the beat!"

Jen was creased up in laughter. "Don't worry, Christopher. Breakdancing isn't in your job description."

"Ah, very good, Your Grace." Christopher looked thankful for Jen's input. "I think I'll just stick to pressing the buttons.."

With that the track changed into a more mellow one, and Maxwell turned his attention back to his favourite person. "May I have this dance, Duchess Jen?"

She shook her head. "You, babe, are a man of so many talents, I just can't keep up.."

He whisked her into his arms. "We both know you can."

They waltzed together to the romantic song for a few minutes.

"We totally have to nail this for our party," he said. "We need a move that's gonna get everyone going wow, what are they doing now?"

"We could do a lift?"

"We could, but I thought I'd save that for Bertrand's wedding reception. He'll be horrified."

She giggled. "Hana, any ideas?"

Hana came to join them. "I think you should go all out disco, to commemorate your new disco. We can all join in with that too."

"Ooh, I like your thinking Hana! I can come down those steps all John Travolta..." He struck another pose. "And we can do Stayin' Alive... Hey Christopher, drop a disco beat!"

"Uh.." Christopher scrambled to the laptop, but was obviously struggling.

Maxwell ran over and quickly put on the track he wanted. "Let's go!" Switching the lasers onto another setting, and turning on the smoke machine, he ran back onto the dance floor to join Jen and Hana in some disco moves. This was an awesome night, he thought. Hey, they were having such a good time, that someone somewhere had to be having a crap night to make up for it.