The king waved to a messenger who was waiting nearby with his head bowed, then spun around and sat down on the temporary throne he’d had set up in a spare room. The room was luxurious for a hotel, but it was modest compared to what the king was used to.
“Oh, sorry. I’m dressed like this because I was just in the bath. You take it easy too,” the king said as he took a sip of cold tea. He was wearing only a nightgown and slippers.
“Yes, Your Majesty!” The messenger, who was actually a chamberlain in this case, relaxed his posture a little and pulled out the many reports he’d brought from the palace. “Every office has made their own reports, but almost all voice concern with the job Prince Elliott has been doing in your absence. In particular, the series of events I reported to you the other day about his breaking off his engagement to Miss Rachel Ferguson...”
“If they’re all more or less the same, summarize them for me,” the king requested.
“Yes, sire!” The chamberlain closed the report. “Come back soon. That about sums it up.”
“I see.”
The king quickly downed the rest of his tea and set the cup to the side. He glanced down at all the reports spread out on the low table, a pile so big that they’d been too much for the chamberlain to carry.
“Ah, yes. I would love to return to the capital soon, but it seems my lower back still has other ideas, you see.”
“Yes, sire. I also bring word from the castle keeper, Grand Duke Vivaldi.”
“From my uncle?”
The king obviously couldn’t ask anyone to read a personal letter from a fellow royal on his behalf, so he accepted the envelope and opened it. The contents of the letter could be summed up in one line:
“My heart can’t take much more of this. Please, come back soon.”
Returning the grand duke’s letter to the envelope, the king picked up the pen and paper beside him and wrote, “I’ll do what I can.”
“Please deliver this to my uncle. I’m interested in what’s happening in the capital, but these stiff shoulders of mine just won’t get any better. I’ll contact you again when I’m able to leave.”
“Yes, sir!”
Once the messenger was gone, the king also exited the room he’d set aside for audiences and returned to his designated annex of the hotel.
“Welcome home, Your Majesty,” the queen said as he entered. She was sitting with the duke and duchess on the sofas in the reception area. All of them were wearing bathrobes. The king changed out of his nightgown and into a bathrobe too. With a look of exasperation, he plopped down on a sofa and took the large mug that one of the maids offered him.
“Ugh, they all keep saying, ‘Come back, come back.’ I keep telling them I’m here at the hot springs because my feet hurt. I couldn’t possibly make the long trip when I’m so sore, you know?”
The king, who’d worked up a sweat playing polo just the other day, knocked back his mug of Pilsner with a face that was the picture of health.
“Oh, if it’s that bad, you should really cut back on the drinking,” the queen said with a grin.
The king burped, then, with a straight face, said, “I’m drinking all this alcohol as a disinfectant, you know?”
He glanced at the table lined with dishes that had been spiced for a commoner’s palate, more intensely flavorful than anything served at the palace. He chose a bone-in chicken broiled in soy, picked it up with his bare hands, and dug in. He washed it down with a hard golden seltzer.
“When I think about how I’m not allowed to enjoy things like this in front of others anymore, it makes me wish I’d never become king.”
“It’s important to keep up appearances in our line of work,” the queen said. “It makes times like this when we can let our hair down all the more fun.”
The king licked his fingers as he flipped through the reports on the side table. “Honestly, how is it that a young lady who’s in prison can send much more detailed reports far more frequently than the government and the royal court?”
He’d quickly skimmed the mountain of reports the chamberlain had brought from the palace, just in case, but they only told him two things. The first was that Elliott was blisteringly incompetent. He was so intent on harassing Rachel in prison that he was neglecting his duties. The second, which was related to that dereliction of duty, was that Elliott was constantly causing trouble around the palace. It wasn’t exclusively Elliott, but he and his crew were always involved in one way or another. From there, the reports all concluded that there was no end in sight and begged him to come back quickly.
The king scowled as the faces of the people he’d left in charge in his absence flitted through his mind. “Can’t any of them say, ‘We’ve got things under control while you’re away. Take your time and enjoy yourself’?”
“You have to admit, this is a highly irregular situation,” Duke Ferguson said with a slightly pained smile. He knew both his daughter and the prince well, but he’d never considered that they might cause an uproar like this. In the case of his daughter, that was in part because he hadn’t wanted to imagine the possibility.
“It’s the politicians and bureaucrats’ job to handle this sort of thing competently. If this continues, other countries will call our ability to rule into question,” the king remarked with a villainous smile on his wizened face. It didn’t look nearly as impressive as it would have if he weren’t wearing a bathrobe provided by the hotel. “Besides, there’s someone right here who’s managing to handle the situation. Isn’t that right?”
Now it was the duke’s turn to scowl.
“I don’t know if I’m handling it well, or if she’s just toying with us.” The duke glanced up at the maid who’d brought fresh drinks. “I won’t ask your shadow agents to hand the reports to me directly, but could they at least leave them on the desk? Waking up to find them on my pillow is not doing my heart any favors.”