Valentina

The ceremony had been nice, in fact if it had been a true wedding about love, family and celebrating a relationship between two people who were utterly devoted to each other than it would have been pretty close to perfect. But in this case it was just a means to an end, the first step in a much larger plan. As a result, Valentina was actually bored out of her skull and she was pretty confident that even the king's sister was having a better time than she was, which was ironic because Valentina was pretty sure that she was in love with the man who just married another woman. Valentina had hoped that she would at least have Guinevere for company, but after greeting the waiting crowds she had excused herself, which had led to another twist of irony in that Tatianna had to take on a more prominent role. This consequently meant that the two of them had spent the last couple of hours in each other's company. Tatianna had always been nice enough to her in the times that they had been together in the same wider company, she certainly hadn't done anything to warrant Valentina disliking her, and yet something about her got under Valentina's skin. She was just always so cheery and by God did she know everyone. It felt like every 30 seconds someone new would come over, and every single time Tatianna would greet them with a smile and a laugh. This included, to Valentina's dismay, the servants and their children. Just like with Tatianna, she didn't have anything against the servants per say, she just didn't consider it necessary, and so she greeted every new face with a tight-lipped smile and tilt of the head. She wasn't here to make friends, if the situation had been different then maybe she would have approached things differently but for now she just wanted the day over with.

Taking advantage of the lull in meet and greets Valentina allowed her gaze roam the room. Her new husband had wandered off some time ago probably trying to escape the awkwardness of standing between her and Tatianna while trying to pretend the whole situation was entirely normal. Not only did Valentina think that Tatianna was in love with Lancelot, she was also 100% convinced that it was the same on his part. For starters he wasn't exactly looking down the aisle towards her when she was approaching the dias, anyone close enough would have seen his eyes occasionally dart to the right. Even now there was like an invisible cord that ran between them despite being at opposite ends of the room, and what was even weirder was the way that everyone else respected it and even acted as though it was real. Having observed everyone very carefully since she arrived, Valentina had very quickly noticed the unspoken rule that no one got in-between the two of them, physically or otherwise. It was a shame really, as objectively Lancelot was very good looking and Valentina might have been able to have some fun while she was here, she certainly wouldn't have been opposed to it, but alas things were way to messy for her liking anyway. She would still act as the dutiful wife, if anything she had to. She didn't realise how close all the Knights and their families were; she had quickly learnt that eyes were on her at all times and she knew that their loyalty was not to her. It was most definitely going to make things more difficult. Trying not to sigh, Valentina searched for a clock to tell her the time. That way she could work out how much time left she had to suffer through and when she could most importantly get out of her incredibly uncomfortable dress. She couldn't help but wonder why beautiful things were so often the most painful.