Chapter 13
It was the first time Victoria had been called to Enzo's office for an urgent meeting.
Her aide hadn't used the word urgent, but she had told Victoria to drop what she was doing and go straight to the king's office.
She chose to go through the main entrance rather than the side one. The aide in the outer office stood and bowed her direction before telling her she could go inside.
Once there, she quickly scanned the room to find Enzo, one of his aides - she didn't know his name - as well as the head of public relations and head of security, along with one of his aides.
Everyone stood from their spot around the conference table. Enzo motioned her toward the empty seat next to him. As she took her seat, so did everyone else.
"What's going on?" She looked from one to the other before landing on her husband. "Is everything okay? Did the announcement cause a stir?"
"We delayed the announcement until this evening, ma'am." The PR woman answered. "For now we have another issue to deal with. I'll let the others explain that."
Cap rested his forearms on the table. "When was the last time you spoke with him, ma'am?"
Victoria looked at the rest of them again. "Um, a few days ago? We had a history lesson, and he told me he'd let me know when the next one was, but I haven't heard from him since. Has something happened to him?"
"We're gathering information at this point," Cap continued. "Did he give any indication that he might not be contacting you for longer than a day or two?"
Victoria wracked her brain. "He was having a conversation in Italian the last time I was there.
I didn't understand all of it, but it seemed like there was an issue at an event coming up.
I don't know what event or even what kind of event.
He was off that whole lesson, just... not himself.
Looking back, I think he may have been preoccupied for a couple of days before that, but not nearly to the same extent. "
Cap shared a look with his assistant. "Thank you, ma'am."
A shiver of alarm went through her. "Is there anything I need to be concerned about?"
"Not at this time, ma'am. Should something change, we will let you know anything you need to know as soon as we can."
She noticed what he didn't say. They wouldn't tell her anything and everything. They would tell her what they thought she needed to know when they thought she needed to know it.
Not much different than Southern Santiero.
She hadn't liked it then and didn't like it now.
It was one of the biggest reasons she'd left.
Of course Cap had kept tabs on her, she knew that much.
She'd sent postcards and holiday or birthday cards, but no real contact with anyone in her family until she returned for her eldest brother's wedding. But, somehow, she’d still known he had people watching her.
Fortunately, she'd never had any incidents that would require interference by them.
"Thank you for joining us, ma'am. We appreciate you taking time out of your day to answer those questions."
Victoria knew she was being dismissed without actually being dismissed. Technically, probably only Enzo could do that, but it was clear that Cap was ready for her to leave.
As she stood, so did everyone else.
Enzo walked her to the side door that led directly into her office. "Thank you for your help." He leaned down and kissed her cheek. "I'll see you at dinner."
Once back in her own office with the door closed securely behind her, Victoria turned to stare at it, contemplating the meeting she'd very briefly been a part of.
Did any of them know what event the historian had been talking about?
Was it something to legitimately be concerned about?
Couldn't it have just been an event the late queen had planned before her passing? Or something equally innocuous?
Though possible, she knew it was unlikely. His attitude and reactions weren't of the sort that would lend itself to that explanation.
Doing her best to shove it out of her mind for the moment, Victoria went to her desk and pulled up the plans for the state dinner with the rest of the Commonwealth of Dellisole, all four countries of the Sargasso Sea, and other dignitaries, including her family.
The head chef joined her about half an hour later to go over the menu and allergen friendly alternatives.
One thing she did know was to trust her team.
Being new to Dellisole, she deferred to the chef's judgement about what the menu should be.
She knew the traditions and delicacies and what might be considered a faux pas depending on exactly who was in attendance.
Once that was done, the Planner of Special Events joined them for a few minutes before the chef left to go back to work.
"How close are we to having this planned?" Victoria tried to hide her weariness.
Hopefully, she'd get used to this sort of thing with time, but it wasn't something she had much experience with and this seemed like a time when she'd be likely to mess something up and offend a whole host of nations at the same time.
"We're getting there, ma'am." The event planner's sympathetic tone endeared her to Victoria.
"Most of the decisions have been made. The late queen did as much as she was able before her passing so you wouldn't have to do quite as much.
She tried to at least narrow the choices down to two or three as much as she could. "
Thank goodness. Victoria knew her mother-in-law would have been able to do this in her sleep and knew that one day, likely years from now, she'd be able to do the same thing.
The first thing they went over was the place settings. There were multiple sets of china, flatware, glassware, and stemware to choose from. Once again, Victoria deferred to the judgement of the expert. Next came flowers. Then decorations.
And the seating chart.
The protocol officer joined them for that task.
Certain members of entourages from different countries couldn't be seated next to each other.
A few members of the same entourage couldn't be seated next to each other.
Members of Parliament and the Council needed to be spread out so no one felt like they were being slighted by the lack of a Dellisolian near them.
"At least I didn't have to worry about one of these for a wedding reception," she said with a sense of relief washing over her.
"It does get complicated." The protocol officer clearly sympathized.
"It's like one of those logic puzzles. You know - if Susie had a beverage that was $3 and the chocolate drink doesn't have coconut or sprinkles, but the $4 beverage wasn't coffee then which one of these four people had which of these drinks for what price and with what topping? "
Victoria groaned. "Ugh. I hate those. I mean, I'm usually pretty good at them, but they frustrate me.
" She needed to download a new book to her Kindle Scribe.
She was almost done with the book of logic puzzles she'd been working on and only had four Sudoku puzzles left in the other book. They were a good way to keep her brain engaged while also not being anything important that she could screw up. There were enough of the Sudoku puzzles that she could probably erase them and do them again, but she’d be too likely to remember too much about the logic puzzles.
Giving herself a mental shake, she turned her attention back to the problem at hand.
How to seat everyone while not offending anyone.
Piece of cake.
Theoretically, the missing Royal Historian should be nothing more than an annoyance.
In reality, it seemed it could be much greater than that.
Enzo didn't quite understand exactly what was going on, but he'd gathered enough information to know it couldn't be quite that simple. It couldn’t be if it was enough to postpone their brief holiday to the shore.
"What exactly do we think he took with him?"
The head of security shook his head. "We're still trying to figure that out.
None of his assistants have been able to find anything glaring.
They're still trying to finish an inventory of everything in the archives.
It's possible he managed to get a small item out of the palace, but not likely something big.
There's plenty of things that are important and valuable but small enough to be secreted on a person or in a briefcase. "
"How long do they expect it to take them to go through everything?
When do they think we'll have answers?" He wanted to give an order, to find out immediately, but he knew these things took time.
"Please make sure they know overtime or other expenses aren't an issue.
Within reason, of course, but there's a lot of leeway there. "
He received a nod for an answer. "They're already working as long as they can without being over tired which can lead to errors. They're all sleeping here in the palace and, when they do leave, are subjected to more vigorous searches than they have been in the past."
Enzo sighed. "It's too little too late and only serves to tell them we don't think we trust them - even if they do understand the reasons behind the searches."
"I understand your point, sir, and a visit from you would likely be greatly appreciated, but we won't stop the new protocol anyway."
He tilted his head toward his aide, who nodded.
"You have some time this afternoon, sir."
"Please make sure it stays clear so I can visit with them as long as necessary. Perhaps Victoria would like to join me. She's been learning about our history. I'm sure she'd like to see some of that history in person. I don't think the historian had done much with her except lectures."
His aide tapped out a message on his laptop. "Perhaps you'd like to have lunch with the queen and then walk over together?"
"That's an excellent idea. Please arrange it, if she's available."