Once the sandwiches and dessert had been eaten, Frederick declared that he was going to go back to his room to change into more comfortable clothes. Inga thought that wasn't such a bad idea, but didn't share her brother's willingness to leave a social event before being excused. Elsa and the Crown Princess walked off to discuss something privately, and Henry and Hilde left to continue their preparations for the events later that week and the rest of the Corona Royal Family followed.

After standing on the patio for a moment while the servants cleared the tea, Inga decided to go inside and catch up with Frederick, and walked down the hallway to find him. From around the corner she could hear young women giggling and thought she heard her brother with them. Inga hurried toward the sound and saw three ladies cornering her brother, who looked trapped despite being noticeably taller. Inga couldn't place their accents, but they were well dressed, so she assumed they were ladies from some other kingdom also visiting for the occasion.

"So, Prince... Frederick, you're from Arendelle?" one of the ladies hummed, getting very close to Frederick, who looked uncomfortable. "I heard they have a dozen children."

"Eight children," he corrected, his voice cracking slightly.

"Still, quite busy," another giggled, touching his arm.

"Well, right now they are," he replied earnestly. "New babies are a lot of work."

"Oh, I would have thought they were busier last fall," the third butted in, looking up at him and winking.

"Huh?" Frederick stared in confusion. "I mean, the holidays have a lot going on, but we have a lot of help for that."

"There you are, Frederick!" Inga called over, grabbing his hand and glaring at the ladies. "I've been looking for you."

"What for?" her brother asked.

"Something," she spat out, not even bothering to think of an excuse, dragging him away. "Nice meeting you," she muttered glaring back at the women.

"What was that about?" Frederick asked when they were a distance away. "They seemed awfully interested in Mother and Father's schedule."

"Um, I don't think that was it," Inga mumbled.

"What was it, then?" he demanded.

"Nevermind that," she insisted. "Look, just watch out for, you know... women like that. I don't think they had… um… your best interests in mind. Maybe their own interests."

"I don't understand," he whined. "They were getting annoying, but what's that got to do with what our parents were doing last fall?"

Inga blinked as she looked at her brother. "As far as I'm concerned, you've answered your own question, Fred. Look, you're not bad looking, and you're probably going to inherit the throne someday-"

"Not if you can help it," he quipped.

"Oh, you heard, then? That wasn't my idea," she apologized. "And they haven't made any decisions. Hopefully it won't matter for a long time, anyway."

"And what about you?"

"Don't worry about me," she told him. "Anyhow, like I said, it wasn't my idea."

"Thanks? I guess…" he mumbled. "So, I need to learn to avoid women who are too curious about our parents?"

"That wasn't…" she suppressed a laugh. "That wasn't really my point, but you know they were teasing you, right?"

"I still don't get it."

"Fine, ask Papa when we get home."

"Why Father? Why not Mother? And I thought you were involved in a lot of the planning, too?"

Inga covered her face. "Well, you can certainly ask Mama if you like, but leave me out of it!"

"But…"

"Let it go, Frederick!"

They walked in silence to their rooms. Frederick stopped before going into his room, and Inga waited to see if he wanted to say anything more.

"Inga?"

"Yes, Frederick?"

"Do we have to dress up for dinner?"

"No," Inga laughed. "I don't think there are any dinner plans. Why don't we go into town to find something to eat? I need to make sure that Elizabeth's family has been paid for all the clothing. At least I know they got the saddle back now. I really hope there wasn't a big scene when it got returned, or I'm sure her younger sisters will never let me hear the end of it."

"Wait, what happened?" her brother asked.

"Elizabeth had to hurry off following her sister, and I needed to catch up, and the horse got spooked, and I'm really not used to controlling a horse riding sidesaddle. It's different. So I got thrown into the water. I guess I should be glad I had a soft landing and didn't break my neck."

"Yeah, I'd never get to go anywhere again," Frederick muttered.

"I'm glad you care," Inga laughed. "So, I'll knock on your door in a half hour. Go change. Don't get distracted."

Inga found the extra new clothes had already been delivered to her room. They were carefully hung up in the closet next to the clothes she had packed from home. Looking at the clothes side by side, she decided that, at least for the coronation ball later that week, she would wear the new dress. For the time being, she was happy to change into something less constricting. She swallowed her pride and called one of the castle maids to help loosen her corset so she could actually breathe freely for the evening.

Frederick knocked on her door after exactly a half hour, surprising Inga with his promptness.

"I'm hungry," he explained. She had to laugh. They headed outside.

"Frederick," Inga began once it looked like there was no one from the castle listening. "Did you notice what the Crown Princess said to Aunt Elsa?"

"Huh?" He questioned. "I mean, they've met before. I guess they want to catch up."

"It's just…" Inga paused as they crossed a street. "It's just that the Crown Princess mentioned a letter that Mother was supposed to have shared, and it seems that she didn't."

"Mother's been tired," he stated.

"Yes, but…" she waited for some passers by to be out of earshot. "It's just that, I think I was with Mother when she got that letter. I didn't think about it at the time, but she wouldn't let me look at it, even though she claimed it was just a standard letter wishing everyone good health. I never did see that letter. And the thing is, Elsa didn't get whatever letter she was supposed to get, but she didn't seem to be surprised about that."

"Well," Frederick shrugged, "like I said before, Mother's been tired. People do funny things when they're tired, like fall off horses."

Inga stopped and glared at him. Frederick kept walking.

"Hey, we're almost there!" He waved back at her, and she followed him.

They arrived at Elizabeth's family home. The sisters swarmed them immediately, simultaneously commenting about Prince Henry himself having come to the house to return the saddle, and then, since the younger girls hadn't met Frederick, pestering him with questions about him and his interests. He seemed more than happy to talk about horses with them.

"Really, Inga," Elizabeth whispered to her, "Why didn't you mention meeting the Prince this morning?"

"I didn't know who he was," Inga admitted.

"I thought the royal families all sent each other portraits of each other? I know Lars had seen pictures of all of you before he left, although they were rather out of date."

"I… I didn't bother to look," Inga stammered. "I suppose it was a little foolish of me."

Elizabeth's mother came in and told them the cook had enough food that they could invite Inga and Frederick to dinner. Inga tried to protest, but her brother was quite hungry, and their aunt had said nothing about dinner plans, nor had anyone from Corona's Royal Family.


It was dark by the time Inga and Frederick returned to the castle. It had been a long day, and even Frederick was ready to head straight to bed. Dinner had been delicious, and there was more than enough food to satisfy even Frederick's appetite. Elizabeth's sisters had quickly lost interest in teasing the young prince, and Elizabeth successfully managed to steer the conversation away from her sisters hinting about Inga and Prince Henry.

Inga paused outside the door to her room after Frederick had gone into his own room. She heard her aunt's voice from the room next door, and the door was slightly ajar, so she decided that perhaps she would wait before heading to bed and see what was going on.

"...but I understand. Objecting to his placement would have drawn too much attention with those examination results. You don't need to apologize."

"Still," the Crown Princess replied, "I should have made more of an attempt to get in touch with you about that earlier."

Inga softly knocked on the door. "Aunt Elsa?"

Elsa had been starting to say something and stopped. "Inga, it's you! Please come in!"

Inga walked in, and Elsa and the Crown Princess were sitting at a small table by the window. The latter informed them that she should be getting to bed soon.

"I do hope my son didn't cause you too much trouble this morning," she smiled.

"Um, what?" Inga mumbled, looking down at her shoes. "Oh, right… No, no, don't worry about that."

"Well, then, good night!" she told them cheerfully as she left.

"I'm sorry, I completely forgot about dinner," Elsa apologized as soon as they were alone. "Did Frederick find something to eat?"

"Don't worry, we both did," Inga assured her. "I needed to check in with Elizabeth's family, anyway, both about the saddle and about the new clothes, and their mother invited us to stay for dinner."

"I hope Frederick wasn't too much trouble," Elsa chuckled.

"Well, about that…" Inga sighed.


It was the night before the Coronation festivities, and the clock in the center of the city struck eleven. Elsa knocked on the door to Mrs. Nilsen's house.

Elizabeth answered it. "Oh!" she gasped.

"Elizabeth, it's late, what are you doing here?" Elsa asked her.

Mrs. Nilsen walked over. "We were having dinner this evening and stayed talking," she said kindly. "Elizabeth was asking if I might move back to Arendelle after she and Lars were married. I told her I would have to think about it." The woman gave Elsa a glance, lost on Elizabeth.

"I…" Elsa saw that Elizabeth had moved to the sitting room to pick up the dessert plates. She lowered her voice. "Margit, I think that could work out nicely. We'll discuss it more later."

Elsa and Mrs. Nilsen went to sit down, and Elizabeth joined them when she returned from the kitchen.

"It would really be nice," Elizabeth began. "With Lars being so busy, you know… I've made friends in Arendelle, of course, but Lars... his job isn't likely to stay in one place for very long. Every few years he might get a new assignment... and with Karl in the Navy and away at sea so much…" she looked hesitantly at her future mother-in-law.

"You are right, dear. I really don't have much left to tie me to Corona." She glanced at Elsa again.

"You'll have to show me the places in Arendelle that you remember when we get there," Elizabeth gushed.

"I think a lot has changed in twenty years," Mrs. Nilsen sighed. "I really don't know how much I'll recognize."

"Well, of course, if you don't have that many ties to Arendelle now, either, perhaps you can follow along whenever Lars gets transfered. You'd think with my father being a captain I wouldn't worry about it, but Father is just gone a lot. We've never had to actually move. It's… it's different somehow."

"Moving is always difficult," Mrs. Nilsen said quietly, looking at the plain ring on her left hand.

Elizabeth sighed, looking like she wanted to say something that she shouldn't. She looked up a moment later. "I really don't mind, not for him. It's almost funny. My sisters always talk about meeting a prince. I'm sure I don't need to convince you, Mrs. Nilsen, but I think Lars is better than a prince. I hope I don't sound too ridiculous."

"Well, I don't think you'll hear an objection from me," Mrs. Nilsen smiled.

Elsa looked at Mrs. Nilsen as she sat pensively between the two. "Elizabeth," Elsa spoke suddenly. "If you really are sure about having the wedding soon, I can write to my sister to make sure that most of the arrangements have been made before we return."

"Your M- Elsa, you really are too kind," Mrs. Nilsen told her.

"That would be… but I don't want to impose too much!" Elizabeth replied, tense with excitement.

"It would just be making sure the bishop has time in his schedule for all the preparations, and reserving time in the Cathedral. Think nothing of it," Elsa told her.

Elizabeth let out a happy sigh. "And then, tomorrow I get to see the Coronation! I had agreed to go to Arendelle this month in part because I thought there was no chance I would get to go. This is just so exciting! I really am getting everything I want," she gushed, then frowned a little. "I don't mean to sound selfish, sorry."

"No, no, dear, you can think about yourself sometimes," Mrs. Nilsen assured her with a hug, looking up at Elsa.

"It's much later than I realized," Elsa declared. "Elizabeth, do you need someone to walk home with you? I should be heading back now. There's a lot to do tomorrow."