Author's Note: If Allura didn't have a bad enough time last chapter, this one only makes it worse! However, before one can be fully redeemed, one must totally fall – even if it takes several chapters.

Castle Surprises

Daniel was standing in the rec room, wishing he could have gone with everyone else. Allura was still quivering with rage, and Daniel was afraid that she would start asking him questions about the Dradin trip.

Allura in fact was all set to do that when another holoscreen popped up, with one of the communications' officers on it. "Incoming transmission from Planet Pollux, Your Majesty. Priority immediate, code black, and it is to your private line." Allura muttered something under her breath, but indicated for the officer to send it though.

She was not surprised to see her cousin on the screen. "Good evening, cousin Allura. I need to talk to you about an important matter!" Bandor said, as he shifted in his chair, and Allura could see the night sky of Pollux from the window in back of him. He looked at her and asked "Do you feel all right? You look very upset." Daniel had to turn away, so Bandor wouldn't see his smile, but Fredericks saw it and gave him a wink.

"Bandor, we just received word of an incoming attack from Lotor." Allura said, not wanting to go into the real reason. "Yes, I heard that he had escaped, again. Well Voltron will deal with him, and maybe this time he will stay dead!" Bandor was not that interested in Lotor, since he was not coming after Pollux.

"I wanted to let you know that I am moving up my visit to next week." He announced, and Allura was all set to protest, but he went on "I understand that it is a strictly private visit, no state functions. I want to see my nephew, and as my ambassador there indicated, I want to spend time with Lady Larmina."

Allura groaned and said "Bandor, I'm not sure that is a good idea. I understand your intentions, and am flattered that you would consider her. However, she is rather young and not ready for marriage!" Bandor wasn't buying it "Cousin, if she is old enough to go to Dradin, she is old enough to get married!"

"You know?" Allura said aghast. "Yes, I've seen the picture. That is part of the reason why I'm moving my visit up. I want to get there before Prince Fauk of Odeos does. My Ambassador there has let me know that the idiot is interested in her also." Allura now decided this had to be a bad dream.

Prince Fauk, who was a total imbecile, had in fact contacted her several weeks ago, about establishing some trade treaties. He was set to visit next week, and she was not looking forward to event. At the time she had not seen any reason why he felt the need to come to Arus about a simple matter, but now she understood. Allura was also annoyed with her Ambassador to Odeos, who had not told her of Fauk's intentions!

"Bandor, you really don't want a girl who has no idea of what it takes to be a queen!" Allura was surprised that Bandor would want to marry someone who had behaved like Larmina had. Bandor huffed and said "I don't want someone to discuss state policy with. I have ministers for that. Allura, I work almost 20 hours a day, and can't remember the last time I did anything fun. I want some companionship, and someone I can talk to. Hey, maybe she'd take me to Dradin! See you in a week cousin."

Allura looked at Daniel, Fredericks, and Coran, who had come in at the tail end of the transmission. "He is totally serious about this! Why would he want to marry someone who behaves like Larmina?" Allura asked, not understanding it at all.

Daniel, without thinking blurted out "She's fun! And she's hot!" He realized he had said the wrong thing when Allura looked at him like she had been looking at Pidge earlier. Daniel tried to recover "His Majesty seems lonely! I feel bad for him."

Allura raised her chin and said in a dulcet tone "The most important part of being sovereign is always doing your duty. That must come before anything else; even it means you are lonely! It is a scared right to uphold the dignity and honor of the throne." She paused, and then said "A consort must understand that, and help the sovereign in that mission."

Fredericks, flashing back to cornering Crown Prince Eammon in the chapel to try to get him to spend time with his wife, groaned! He was hearing the same pious, sanctimonious voice now, as he used to hear then. Fredericks was now sure that Her Majesty would never marry, as no man would ever meet her standards.

As Fredericks was thinking those thoughts, Allura got off the subject of royal duty, and on to the subject of her annoyance. She turned to Coran and said "Coran, how come I am just now hearing about Prince Fauk's real intention? And why did Pollux's Ambassador know about it before ours did?"

Coran sighed, and said "I will talk to him and find out, Your Majesty." Allura said "Fine, but please draw up a list of possible replacements. I think that post will be coming vacant soon." She turned and walked out of the room.

After she left, Daniel said "I still feel bad for King Bandor, he sounds lonely! I can see why he would want to have some fun!" Coran and Fredericks exchanged a look and said "His Majesty is not the only royal who needs to have some fun!"

Allura got up to her study, and opened the com link, so she could follow the fight with the robeast, but so far all was quiet. It gave her time to think about the scene that she'd had with Larmina. She was shocked at both what Larmina had done, and then how they had gone at it in front of everyone. She shook her head, not understanding why Larmina had not listened to her.

'I specifically told her, all those weeks ago that I did not want her to have a relationship.' Allura thought to herself. She went on 'she thinks she is in love? What does she know about love?' She replayed the scene downstairs in her mind, and flinched when she heard Pidge say 'we're engaged.' Allura remembered Larmina saying something about that, and then Pidge had said something else, some reference to her.

Allura was starting to wonder what had been going on, and for how long. 'Maybe I can nip it in the bud' Allura thought, hoping that Larmina was just pulling her chain over it all. She then thought about the whole Dradin thing, and started to seethe at what Pidge had done. Her niece was a representative of the royal house of Arus, and needed to behave accordingly!

Taking a deep breath, she realized she was getting too worked up. It had not helped to have Bandor invite himself down either. Allura still couldn't believe that he had not been the least bit concerned about Larmina's behavior, or that indecent dress she wore. 'Why am I the only one who sees the problem with all this?' Allura thought, still boggled that her cousin was willing to make Larmina his wife and queen.

She knew she was getting worked up again, but Bandor had just poured gas on the fire. Allura decided to write Larmina a letter. She had discovered in the past, that putting her reasons in writing, giving them to Larmina, and letting her think about them, seemed to work better.

Once she was done she sealed the envelope and decided to go take it to Larmina's room, to leave it for her to read tonight. When she got down to the room, she entered it and paused to admire the decor. Allura had to hand it to Larmina; she had done a good job. The room looked bright, comfortable, and inviting. Allura thought about her room, which had been redone for her after she had become Queen.

Larmina had offered to do her room, but Allura had not wanted to hurt the castle staff, so she had turned the girl down. Allura's room was formal and beautiful, but she never spent a lot of time there. It was hard to think of sitting there and relaxing, while she would have had no problem doing it in Larmina's room.

Allura's room had a balcony that overlooked Lake Arus, but unless you went out on the balcony, you really couldn't see the lake. Larmina's room, with the big bay window, had the better view of it. She saw how the sofa and chairs were positioned, so you could look at the lake. She walked over to the sitting area, to look out the window.

She was admiring the view, and turned to look at the room as something on the low table caught her eye. It was an odd looking tablet, but Allura knew she had seen it before. It took her a bit, and then she remembered Pidge showing Daniel and Vince a prototype for a new gaming system he was developing. That pad was part of it.

Larmina didn't like video games, so Allura wasn't sure why she would have the tablet up here. Allura walked over to the coffee table, and went to lift it up, for a closer look. Under the tablet was a pair of the glasses that Pidge wore when he was doing computer work. She felt her heart sink to her feet, as she looked at the items.

She was trying to think of any explanation, but the obvious one, for what Pidge's tablet and glasses were doing up here. Allura then thought back to the way Pidge had put his arm around Larmina, almost protectively, and how Larmina had looked at him adoringly. She had thought it was strange at the time, but was so busy arguing that she had not given it any more thought; until now.

Allura was close to hyperventilating, and she felt like she was going to pass out. She sat down on the sofa, and tried to decide what to do next. On one hand she knew that if she left now, she wouldn't have to know anymore than what she did, or what she suspected she did. However, Allura decided that if she was going to nip it in the bud, she had to know what she was nipping.

Walking over to the bathroom and closet, Allura hoped that she wasn't going to find anything. She was trying to convince herself that Pidge had just been up here in the sitting room, maybe showing Larmina his new game. That was still bad though!

Once Daniel and Vince had arrived at the castle, Allura had had a long talk with Larmina. She had explained why the boys could not be in her room, even if they were just hanging out. She remembered that Larmina looked shocked at the thought of bringing the boys upstairs to the family quarters. Allura had not even considered saying anything about Pidge or Hunk, because at the time she would never have thought it would be an issue. The guys knew the rules, all having been trained by Nanny for years.

Allura walked into the bathroom and smelled Arusian lavender, Larmina's favorite. She had to smile when she thought of Lance explaining once that lavender smells like lavender, whether it is from Arus or from earth. Larmina wasn't having any of it, being sure that the Arusian variety smelled better.

The bathroom was not as big as Allura's, but still good size. Over at the bathtub she saw several bottles of bubble bath, and bath salts. She had always found it privately funny that Larmina's second favorite way to deal with stress, after fighting something, was to take a bubble bath. As Allura looked through the cabinet and under the sink she was impressed with the hair stuff that Larmina had.

As Allura thought of Larmina's hair, she remembered the picture from Dradin. She had never seen her niece with her down and straightened like that. Larmina had curly hair, and Allura knew she hated dealing with it. She thought of that picture now, and had to admit that Larmina's hair had looked great.

That thought though reminded her why she was in the bathroom to begin with. She looked under the sink, and saw a black toiletry bag. When she opened it, her worst fear was confirmed. Allura walked over to the closet, more for confirmation than anything else. She saw one of Pidge's flight suits hanging there, along with some of his other clothes. Allura started opening drawers, and in one of them she saw some male underwear and other items.

Slamming the drawer shut, she felt both embarrassed at what she was seeing, and furious at her niece for letting Pidge up here. It was not a onetime thing either, but an established relationship. She wondered how long it had been going on for!

Allura wondered how many nights, when she had been down the hall, Pidge had been upstairs with Larmina. She felt a wave of anger pass over her, as she thought of him sneaking up here, to, to. Allura couldn't even complete the thought, it was so outrageous!

She left the room, shaking with rage, clutching the letter. 'At least I know what I am dealing with now!' She thought to herself, and then 'I will take care of it to!'