The Royal Romance - The Valtoria Diaries

You can say that again

"All I could get out of Madeleine was that, and I quote, under the circumstances it would be prudent for us to bring our luggage with us from Valtoria for onward travel to the airport tomorrow morning," Jen sighed. "I don't know anything more about any of this than you do." She was a little annoyed to be honest. All these weeks she'd spent counting down the days until they finally (finally!) got to go on their honeymoon and, days before, they'd received a formal invitation to the royal palace, the day that they were due to fly out.

"Well, obviously Rick knows we go tomorrow, given that it's his personal island," Maxwell reminded her. "His personal, secluded, private, tropical island..."

Jen allowed herself to smile a little. "Mmhmm.."

"So he won't want to hold us up from that. Maybe he just wants to catch up with us before we go. Life has been... different, since the wedding."

She raised her eyebrows. Maxwell was right. Life had been a whole world of different and she'd never known it could be as much fun. For so long, well, ever since they'd met, life had been lived at a fast pace, never sleeping in the same bed for more than a couple of nights in a row, always travelling on to the next place. It had been fun, but it was only when it all stopped that she'd realised how exhausting it had been. Now? For the first time, certainly since she'd come to Cordonia, maybe for the first time in her adult life, she had a home.

And whilst all of that was amazing beyond belief, it wasn't the best thing about her new chapter. That was sitting next to her as they pulled into the palace driveway in their limo, and had just happened to be the best thing about the previous chapter, too. Not becoming a Duchess, not becoming Cordonia's national hero, not being proposed to by a king, not getting her own personal mansion. The best thing that had ever happened to her was, simply, Maxwell.

"You can say that again," she said with a grin.

"Life has been..."

"No matter," she said, holding a hand up. "Looks like we've arrived. Is the limo staying here with the cases?"

"I guess."

"Well, let's go and see what's going on."

They headed into the palace, followed closely by Chance, and towards the boutique, which was where they had been instructed to report.

"It's been a while since we headed down this corridor together," she admitted. "I seem to think we'd just done something quite important... hey, what have you got there?" He was carrying a... man-bag?

"Nothing... well, it's not nothing." She hadn't seen his worried face for a while.

"Maxwell."

"It's... err.... Our passports! I didn't want to leave them in the limo."

"Oh, okay. Wouldn't they have fitted in my bag? Save you..." She glanced at it. It did actually quite suit him. "It's not a problem, you know. Just never seen you with a bag before... and I have seen rather a lot of you, don't you think, babe?"

He grinned. "I'd say by now you've seen all..."

"Jen! Maxwell!"

They were interrupted by Hana, who came running out of the boutique. "I thought I heard your voices!"

"Hey," said Jen, hugging her friend. "What are you doing here?"

Hana produced an envelope. "Well, I got this invitation..."

"You got one too?" Jen looked at Hana's invitation. "Aw, Hana, I wish I'd known. We could have shared a lift from Valtoria! How did you get here?"

"I took the train," Hana admitted. "It was nice. Just like old times! And I didn't know if you two would be invited, so I didn't want to say anything..."

"Those etiquette lessons don't always pay off," Jen reminded her. "We could have saved you a train fare!"

"Oh well. It's nice to spend a bit more time with you before you go away on your amazingly perfect honeymoon... Wait, I thought you were going today?"

"Yeah, we are," said Jen, dropping her lip. "After whatever this is."

"You got any clue what this is about?" Maxwell asked her. "Because we haven't."

"You got the message too, huh?" Drake meandered down the corridor behind them.

"DRAAAAKE!!"

The three of them pounced on him, to his obvious irritation. "Hey, calm it down..."

"Sorry, but having gone from seeing you like every day to not seeing you for about, what, is it five weeks?" Jen giggled.

"We miiiiissssed youuuu!" Maxwell wailed.

"Okay, keep your hair on," Drake said, clearly enjoying the attention more than he wanted to admit. "It's good to see you all."

"And here I was hoping this would be a solo appointment," came another familiar voice, stepping out of the boutique. "Although I see your usual timekeeping still prevails, Jen."

"Olivia!" Jen ran to greet her. "It's great to see you. How's Lythikos?"

"It's okay," she said, a little guarded. "I've been here for a couple of days, since I got the invitation."

"And how are you?"

"I'm okay," she said. Jen smiled at her. She imagined that Olivia, a little like herself, had got a lot to process now that the trial was behind them. After how well they'd all bonded over Christmas, she must have felt a little isolated in comparison in Lythikos on her own afterwards. Although, Olivia would never admit that bond. She was her own worst enemy.

"All the gang's together!" Maxwell said, jumping up and down. "Oh, wait, except Rick.."

"Whatever this is, I think Rick is in on it," Drake explained. "I saw him coming out of the royal armoury the other day, but he wouldn't tell me what he was doing in there."

"Now that you mention it, I heard him talking to Madeleine yesterday about some kind of a guest list," Olivia mentioned.

"Ooh, what if it's a surprise party?" Maxwell suggested. "Or some kind of a drill... A surprise party drill?"

"I don't think you're far wrong there," Jen said to him. "I guess we all just have to wait and see. Right. Come on. What am I wearing?"