Chapter 15
Of all the things Victoria had expected to do, hosting Anthony and Madeleine from Eastern Novigradia was near the bottom of the list. The only thing below it would have been helping with the search for whatever the Royal Historian had taken from the archives.
Yet, here she was, getting ready for bed after doing both.
She’d cleared her schedule as much as possible for the next week and planned to spend the vast majority of her time in the archives helping search for the missing item.
It would help her avoid the dry meetings she wasn’t a fan of anyway.
There were a couple of things that couldn’t be changed or cancelled but most of those were ones she would enjoy regardless.
Sleep didn’t come easily for her - or for Enzo. She could tell she wasn’t the only one trying to lay still and breathe evenly so as to not bother the other. Eventually, she rolled to look at him and discovered he was looking back at her.
“Can’t sleep either?” he whispered.
“No.” She flopped over onto her back. “I can’t help wondering if I missed something. Did he say or do something I should have noticed was unusual? Was he somehow using our lessons to cover up something he was doing?”
“Even if he was using your lessons, there wouldn’t be any reason for you to have known.
You didn’t know him well enough to know if he was acting off.
Even if he was, there could be a million reasons for it.
Everything from not getting enough sleep to an ill family member or any number of other things.
” He clasped one of her hands with his. “If you’d noticed anything truly concerning you would have told someone, right? ”
“Of course.”
“Then you have nothing to be worried about.”
“I’m not worried, necessarily. Just...” She wasn’t quite sure what the word was.
“Feeling guilty?” Quiet understanding filled his voice.
“Yes.” How had he been able to understand when she couldn’t quite understand herself?
He let go of her hand and slid across the bed until he was close enough to her that he could kiss the side of her head.
“You spent a couple of hours a day with him. You had no baseline for his regular behavior, so you couldn’t know if he was acting off.
It’s not unexpected that you would have noticed anything - if there was anything to notice.
Those like Jeanette, who worked with him regularly, didn’t notice anything off.
He may have been a bit quieter than normal or perhaps a little bit less patient, but nothing so out of the ordinary they were concerned. ”
“Mostly, I know there’s nothing I could have done or should feel guilty about, but at the same time it’s hard not to believe that.”
“I know.” He settled his head on the pillow near hers.
Victoria shifted until she faced him again. With his arm wrapped around her, she finally drifted to sleep.
When she woke, the first thing Victoria realized was that she was alone.
At some point, Enzo had slipped out of the bed and gone.
.. somewhere. A glance at the clock on the nightstand told her that she’d slept longer than she meant to.
What happened to her alarm? It should have woken her up nearly an hour earlier.
Not that she’d strictly needed to be awake that early, but she’d wanted to get a few things done before going to the archives.
Nothing of great importance, just a short workout and taking her time waking up and getting ready.
Usually, she wasn’t able to do that and generally had to hurry through her morning routine.
Unfortunately, she had to do the same thing this time, despite her plans.
The apartment seemed to be empty. The door to the suite Anthony and Madeleine had used stood open. Enzo was nowhere to be found.
Victoria grabbed a breakfast bar and coffee before heading for the archives. By the time she reached the main doors to the Hall of Kings, both were gone. The gallery was dimly lit as usual, but the light coming through the observation window showed her where everyone had gathered.
She joined the group though she remained on the outskirts of the group, leaning against the doorway as Jeanette introduced Madeleine to all of them.
They went around the room until everyone had said their name and area of expertise for the other historians while the rest of the palace staff shared where they normally worked.
Then it was her turn.
"Victoria. I've only been here a couple of months and am still learning exactly what my role is." She couldn't keep the smile from her face.
Most of those in the room turned, wide eyed and slack jawed while scrambling to bow or curtsy in her direction.
Except Madeleine who hid her own smirk.
Jeanette gave a nod her direction after everyone turned back to the front of the room. "Thank you for your help, Your Majesty. It is greatly appreciated."
Victoria gave a slight nod, but didn't comment further.
"I've assigned all of you to teams of three - two historians or other experts and one assistant to help with the inventory paperwork.
" She began calling names and handing folders to one from each group of three.
"Your assignments are in the folders. The historians and experts who work directly for the palace will be in charge of each team. "
Did that mean some of them had been brought in from the outside like Madeleine?
"If you find anything anomalous, please contact me or Mrs. Woodward Middleton immediately." Jeanette gave another nod. "Thank you all. Let's get to work."
Victoria moved out of the way of those exiting the meeting. They all looked a bit uncomfortable walking so close to her so she took another step back.
That was one thing she hadn't missed while being on her little sabbatical. No one had known who she was so no one treated her special because of who her parents were - or, in this case, who she was married to.
Once the room had cleared, she went back inside. "Where do you need my help?" she asked the two women.
Jeanette shook her head. "The king sent enough help that you're not needed as an assistant, but we would appreciate you working with us as reports come in from the others."
It stung, just a bit, that she wasn't going to be actually helping like she'd offered to. In a way, it made her feel...
A bit useless - or at least unnecessary.
Something Victoria had struggled with most of her life.
As the youngest child of a king, and a daughter at that, then the youngest sibling of another king, she felt like she was seen by many as an add-on, an afterthought.
The odds of her becoming influential in her own country were somewhere between slim and none.
It would be different in Dellisole, though that wasn't why she'd married Enzo.
It would probably be different, she amended mentally.
She'd seen enough of her mum's life to know there were still people who thought a queen consort was only good for ensuring the king had heirs. Not for having a mind of her own or impacting society in a positive way, only a negative one if she found herself involved in scandals.
It was one of the reasons she'd left Southern Santiero.
And now it was part of her life in Dellisole.
Wonderful.
As soon as he walked into the observation room, Enzo knew something was off about his wife.
He didn't know her well enough to put his finger on exactly what it might be, but he knew something definitely bothered her.
Before he could investigate what it might be, Jeanette and Madeleine noticed his arrival. Almost immediately, he was drawn into a conversation with them detailing their investigations to that point in the day.
It really amounted to... nothing.
There had been a couple of anomalies, but nothing more than what turned out to be slight record keeping errors.
As Enzo spoke with them, he watched Victoria out of the corner of his eye. She sat perched on a bar stool of sorts and had a device out, staring intently at it.
He couldn't tell for certain, but he thought it was her larger ereader, the one she could write on. Was she reading a book? Studying their history?
No. That seemed unlikely as she used the pencil to make a couple of notations on it before she erased something then made another note.
Something Jeanette said moved his attention back to his discussion with them.
There were several things she suspected might have been of interest to the now-disgraced historian, but the initial cursory inspection hadn't revealed anything questionable.
A more in-depth investigation had been started, but likely wouldn't be completed for a couple of days.
The most experienced historians and experts were working in those areas while others were divided among the rest of the artifacts.
Once their conversation with him ended, Jeanette and Madeleine left the room.
Enzo moved to Victoria's side, kissing her cheek gently as one hand came to rest on her upper back. "How are you? You were still sound asleep this morning."
She gave a one-armed shrug. "Fine."
He looked down to see what she was working on. It shocked him to see a grid with a bunch of numbers, but he didn't immediately recognize it. He felt like he should know, but it escaped him. "What is that?"
"Sudoku." She didn't look up at him or expand further.
Instead, she flipped the pencil upside down and erased some small numbers in the corner of one of the squares.
After flipping it back she wrote a large 9 before tapping on a box in the corner.
That brought up an answer page. It seemed that she only checked that one square because it changed back quickly.
As much as he wanted to know why she was doing the puzzle, Enzo suspected it would be better to hold his questions for later. "I've never played it. Can you show me sometime?"
She nodded. "Sure. When we have time."
Time was something that would often be hard to come by.
He didn't move his hand, but watched as she studied the grid, writing multiple small numbers in each empty box before erasing them and putting a single number in the box and checking it against the answers.
As the grid filled in, it seemed to go faster until there were four boxes left.
After staring at them for a long time, she finally put the pencil back in the holder along the side.
"There's no way to tell for sure which one goes where." She didn't elaborate on why that might be. After flipping the cover closed, Victoria slid off the stool. "I'll be back in a minute." She leaned up to kiss his cheek this time.
"I need to get back to my office. I'll see you later?"
Rather than kissing her cheek, he gave her a soft, real one. Together, they left the observation room, but went their separate ways as soon as they did.
Once back in his office, Enzo found himself immersed in all of the things he needed to accomplish. Meetings in person. Meetings over the phone. Meetings over video chat.
So.
Many.
Meetings.
One of the meetings had to do with finalizing the next rounds of knighthoods and damehoods. He'd never been a part of one of those before. He looked forward to the opportunity to bestow that honor on various members of Dellisolian society for the very first time.
His desk phone rang. The screen told him the call originated in the archives. He'd told his aides to put any call from them right through as long as he wasn't in the middle of another meeting. "Yes?" He never quite knew how to answer the phone in a situation like this.
"Sir, is the queen with you?" The voice sounded like Jeanette's, though she didn't identify herself.
He leaned forward, concern flooding through him, though he tried to tamp it down until he knew if there was actually something to be concerned about. "No. Is she not in the archives?"
"No, sir. The duchess and I haven't seen her since we were in the observation room with you earlier." She sounded more worried than he felt.
For now.
"She left the room at the same time I did, but we went different directions. I presumed she was going to find the two of you." He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and sent a text to Cap, asking the Director of Security to come to his office as soon as possible.
"No, sir. We haven't seen or spoken with her. We tried her office and mobile phone, but no answer."
For a few seconds, he pondered what to do. "Keep at your work." That was the most important thing for Jeanette and Madeleine to do. "I'll make sure someone informs you when we've discovered her location."
"Thank you, sir."
As the call disconnected, Cap entered from one of the side doors. "How may I assist you, sir?"
Using as few words as possible, Enzo explained the situation.
"She hasn't left the premises." The Director of Security seemed quite certain, though he didn't check any data. "Did you try reaching out to her?"
"Not yet," Enzo admitted, trying to hide his embarrassment over not doing such a simple thing first. "Jeanette said she wasn't in her office or answering her mobile."
"It's possible she will answer for you when she wouldn't answer for them, for whatever reason." Cap kept his face impassive, but didn't seem to be admonishing Enzo.
"That's true, but why wouldn't she answer them in the first place? Why would she leave the archives without telling someone?" That concerned him more than almost anything else, especially since it seemed unlikely that she'd left the building.
Cap shook his head. "You'll have to ask her, sir. Would you like me to have my teams discretely search the palace?"
After considering that for a few seconds, Enzo rejected the idea. "I'll see if I can get ahold of her. If I haven't found or heard from her soon, I'll have you do that."
"Yes, sir." After bowing his head toward Enzo, the other man left the office.
The first thing Enzo did was try to call Victoria. When she didn't answer, he sent a text. When he didn't hear back in a few moments, it was time to take more drastic measures.
He sent a message to Cap as he left his own office. He didn't know if Victoria had a favorite hiding place yet, but he'd start looking in his favorites.
Hopefully, he'd find her and she'd tell him why she'd disappeared.