Anna watched her daughter Inga run back to the castle. She had the council scheduled to meet the following afternoon, but Inga was asking to meet with only herself and Kristoff, along with Henry. She was going ahead with this, even if she still hadn't said so in so many words. Most of the past year there had been rumors that the two of them might be engaged, but for Anna it still seemed like a bit of a surprise. Anna had pictured Inga growing up, assisting her more and more with royal duties, or traveling abroad if she so desired. Until recently, she hadn't seemed interested in any sort of romance.

Still, Henry seemed like a good choice. They already knew the family, and Elsa had expressed no concerns about Henry from the summer before, so what more was there to do than get the blessing of the council to move forward?

Inga was feeling giddy as she made her way up the stairs, trying not to run and attract attention. She found herself at the top of the stairs in the guest wing. Henry came running up the stairs behind her.

"I thought you were already here!" she whispered.

He was a little out of breath. "A few more people wanted to talk to me, sorry!" he panted.

Inga grabbed his hands. "You told me you had something for me?"

He smiled, and they walked to his room.

"Wait right here!"

He let himself into his room, leaving the door open a crack. Inga walked over but resisted the urge to look in. He would be out in a moment. Suddenly, she heard someone coming from around the corner, and jumped into the room in a panic. The door shut behind her with a light slam.

The window was wide open, letting in the warm summer air. The music and muffled voices from the party down below made her wonder if anyone had noticed that she was gone.

Henry looked up in surprise. He was unbuttoning his shirt, and it took Inga a minute to look away, focusing on his jacket, vest, and tie tossed on the back of a chair.

"Sorry," she apologized, glancing back at Henry, "someone was coming, and I didn't want to be seen lingering around up here."

"Oh, it's, um, fine," he replied, fiddling with the button that was halfway out of a buttonhole. "I didn't mean to be so long, um, but when I saw James earlier, he made a comment about needing to send my things to the laundry tomorrow, so, um, I wanted to change shirts. It's warm, and-"

"It's fine," Inga said before he could continue. "I was with you all night."

Inga stepped toward him, glancing at his hands on his shirt. "It is rather warm though, isn't it?"

Henry looked her up and down. "You are much better dressed for the weather than I am."

Inga fiddled with the chain around her neck without thinking about it.

"You can take the ring out of hiding, now," Henry smiled.

"Could you help me with the chain?" Inga asked, stepping toward him, lifting her hair.

"How do you even get this off?"

"There's a clasp right there," Inga explained.

"Oh, um, yes, I knew about the necklace," he stammered, "but, your dress…"

"What?"

"Sorry, you can pretend I didn't say that," he apologized and stepped back, holding the chain with the ring in his hand.

Inga reached for the necklace, leaving her hand in his. "I can get this dress on and off on my own. It's easy."

"You-"

"Nevermind," Inga interrupted. "You had something for me?"

Henry set the necklace on the bedside table and picked up a small wrapped package tied up with string.

"What's that?" Inga asked as he handed it to her. She untied the string and pulled aside the paper to reveal a small framed painting of herself, the way she had dressed at his coronation ball the summer before. She could only stare at it.

"Do you like it?" he asked.

She kissed him. "Yes," she said, holding the painting to her chest.

He touched her cheek, tracing a line down to her shoulder, which her dress left exposed. He played with the tassels on the short sleeve, before his hand moved down to her bare arm. She shuddered a little bit and giggled. They weren't supposed to be in a room alone like this, and yet here they were. There was something exciting about it.

The sun had set over the ocean an hour earlier, but the sky remained light. The party would continue through the night. Anna loved the activity.

Kristoff helped Anna fend off diplomats who didn't want to wait for their scheduled appointments later in the week, and they danced together as the light faded.

After a particularly vigorous dance, they took a break to walk through the gardens.

"So," Kristoff began, "does the council know why you're calling them together tomorrow afternoon?"

"I suppose some of them suspect," Anna said. "Dagmar told me as much."

"I forgot she's on the council," Kristoff laughed.

"We rarely need her for a quorum, and her estate is a bit far."

Kristoff nodded. "Are you going to start planning the wedding, then?"

"Only if Inga wants. And I don't want to rush her, of course. They're both young, so they can wait."

Kristoff gave her a look.

"They can wait," Anna repeated. "I know what you're thinking."

Kristoff gave a bit of a smile. "I'd be happy for them to wait, of course. There isn't any hurry."

The clock struck midnight, barely audible over the continued music of the party in the courtyard. Elsa appeared at the edge of the garden.

"I'm glad I found you," she told Anna. "I just wanted to let you know I'm heading to bed now. Do you think breakfast tomorrow will work?"

"Around ten?" Anna asked.

"Perfect. It was a delightful party, Anna."

"Good night."

Elsa walked up the stairs toward the family bedrooms. At the top of the stairs, she heard some commotion, and Frederick, Anton, and Peder ran past her on the stairs and toward their rooms.

"It's after midnight. You should try to be quieter so people can sleep."

"Everyone is still at the party," Anton protested.

"I'm not," Elsa reminded him.

"Well, almost everyone."

"Inga already went to bed, and we're right outside her room."

"I didn't see her come in," Frederick said.

"It was an hour ago," Elsa pointed out, "and if you've been running around like that, I'm pretty sure you missed her."

"Oh," Frederick sighed.

"You don't have to go to bed," Elsa offered, "but maybe find someplace away from the bedrooms to run around? And please, not the guest wing!"

"Fine," the boys groaned.

"Good night," Elsa said.

"Good night, Aunt Elsa."

The morning sun streamed across the room, and the door opened without a knock.

"Oh, excuse me, Your Highness," James apologized, "I was not expecting you to be up this early."

"I… it's the sunrise. It's so early here, you know, James," Henry answered with an unsteady voice.

"Very well," James said, bustling around the room, "I'll just take these to the laundry, if you don't mind."

"Thank you, James," Henry replied, letting out a long breath as the door closed behind his valet.

It was hot and noisy in the laundry, and as usual in the summer, they tried to get started before dawn, in the hopes of being done before the heat of the day, particularly if there were any guests at the castle. The regular diplomats who stayed on were bad enough, but other visitors would send down clothes at such odd times, they simply needed to be ready.

"The nerve of some of these visitors," the younger girl complained, "This dress, her maid only brought it down not even a half hour ago, and we're supposed to drop the other laundry to get it clean!"

"Are you complaining about that dress?" the head laundress shouted over the din, "the dress belongs to the daughter of the Queen's former lady-in-waiting, I'll have you know."

"We're working on it," the older girl shouted, "but you might want to check on the man who just came in here. He's standing in the doorway right behind you."

"Yes, what is it?" the head laundress grunted at the foreign valet standing there.

"Sorry, this place is so confusing. It took me forever to get here. I see others know their way better than I do," he said, eying the dress.

The laundress raised an eyebrow. "Just tell me what you need us to do."

"Could you just see that Prince Henry's clothes get cleaned?" the valet told the head laundress.

"Prince Henry, eh?" the woman said. "Well, here, give me His Royal Highness's clothes. I'll make sure they're taken care of!"

"Thank you," the valet said, exiting the laundry.

The woman went back to talking.

"Wait, you say the chambermaid saw that girl going into his room last night?" was the last thing James heard as he went up the stairs.

Inga lay on her bed, thinking about getting ready for the day. A bath first might be good. Perhaps she should call up Oline to collect her dress, but then they would feel the need to run her bath for her, and she could do that herself.

She and Henry were going to be meeting with her parents, and the council was already called to meet later in the afternoon. She felt a little giddy, but also a little terrified at the idea. Henry had mentioned the steamships between Arendelle and Corona, so they could probably get his family over in time for a wedding. Wedding planning wasn't a thing she put much thought into. She just wanted to get married.

Kate and Edith would giggle about weddings all the time, discussing dress details and bridesmaids and flowers and cake, though as far as she could tell from their conversations, they didn't have anyone in mind to take part in their future wedding plans yet. It didn't matter to the sisters, they just liked the idea of weddings.

Inga set the water running in the bathtub, got some towels ready, and went back to check on the clothes she would put on. She thought of the ring and felt her finger. But of course it wouldn't be there, because she had been wearing it on a necklace. She put her hand to her neck, then looked over on the nightstand, but it wasn't there. She must have left it in Henry's room.

Inga decided not to let this bother her, and went to soak in the tub. She thought about what they might say when meeting with her parents. Her mother wouldn't be surprised, of course, so there would be no objection.

Frederick had mentioned to her more than once that the council would probably quickly decide against having her first in the line of succession if she was married to Henry. She had never particularly liked changing the succession, anyway, and even if she had felt ambitious, she could understand that the council would not want the risk of having the two countries in personal union. But as it was, she was glad if the decision was made simpler.

The water started to cool down while she was lost in thought, and even with the warm breeze coming through the window, she decided it was time to get out. She dried off and began to dress, finding something appropriate for the meeting with her parents. Once she was dressed and her hair done, she rang for Oline to come up.

"Good morning, Your Highness," Oline said as she came in.

"I just need my dress from the party taken to the laundry," Inga smiled.

"Will Your Highness need it soon? There's a bit of a backup with all the guests."

"Goodness, no, I don't think I'll be wearing the dress for a while yet."

"Very good, Your Highness," Oline replied with a curtsey, picking up the clothes to leave.

Henry lay in bed and looked around as the sun slowly moved across the room. Soon, he would need to get ready, since he was going to be meeting with Inga's parents later in the day. His painting of Inga was still sitting on the nightstand, along with the ring and the chain. He would need to figure out how to get those to her.

In the meantime, he would lie down on the bed a little longer. He needed to clear his head. The night had been more than he could have hoped for, and he didn't know how he could focus on anything today. He would have to try for the sake of talking to Inga's parents. As he laid back on the covers, staring up at the ceiling, images from the night before earlier flashed in his mind. He grabbed his notebook and pencil and started studying the moldings on the corners of the ceiling. They were fascinating wood carvings, and drawing them was going to require intense concentration. He proceeded to fill several pages with detailed sketches of the ceiling and the furniture, and the window trimmings.

Kristoff had woken up when the clock tower struck eight, which was later than he usually slept. The party had gone on through much of the night, so he ended up sleeping in. Still, someone would need to let the reindeer out of the stables for some morning exercise, and he preferred to do it himself. Outside the stables, he heard some commotion, and an all too familiar smell was wafting in.

"Hello!" he shouted, hoping whoever it was would say something.

The stable hand ran to the door. "You two, don't you know you can't smoke here?" he shouted. Kristoff walked toward the door, hoping his appearance would provide some backup against whichever idiot visitors had decided that the stables were in any way a sensible place to take a smoking break.

"Sorry, sorry! We won't smoke, we just were looking for a quiet place to take a break!" the young man said. His companion looked like he would try to light up a cigarette the minute they were alone again.

"Fine, but don't think we won't notice," the stable hand reminded them. "Remember, that's dangerous with all this straw around. We're not just being killjoys."

Kristoff stood back and let him come back inside to tend to the horses. "Idiots," Kristoff mumbled, and the young man gave an exasperated smile back and rolled his eyes.

Kristoff stayed by the door for another minute to see if the young men would try to light up their cigarettes after the warning they had just gotten.

"So, you and that chambermaid?" the one nudged the other.

"Nothing that interesting. She's pretty, but a bit of a gossip, to be honest. There's better girls back in Bergen, if you ask me."

"What kind of gossip?" the first one asked with a chuckle. "I heard someone say they'd pay good money for stories from royalty."

"Ohhh… well then, you know the prince visiting from Corona?" the second one hinted.

"Yes, of course," his friend scoffed.

"Seems, according to my laundry girl, he had one of the noble girls from the countryside in his bed last night."

"You don't say… how'd she hear this?"

"She was up in the guest wing during the party last night, and said she saw the girl going into his room with her own eyes."

"Really? I thought it was him and, you know…" the friend told the other young man.

"He's a prince. When does that stop them? Besides, the prince asked her for the first dance, you know, instead of the princess, and later someone saw them running off to the garden."

"You don't say… that is interesting," the one nodded, starting to light up his cigarette.

Kristoff stepped out. "Didn't someone tell you not to smoke here?" he growled. "Go into town if that's what you want to do, but not here!"

The two ran off, and Kristoff tried to calm down as he went back to finish letting the reindeer out. He reminded himself that there was some kind of misunderstanding, but he needed to speak with Anna, even if she was with her sister right now. Perhaps it would be better if Elsa was there.

"Your Highness," James said as he returned to Prince Henry's room, "I hope I'm not… interrupting."

Henry looked up. "What do you mean?"

"Your Highness," James began, appearing to be carefully selecting each word before speaking. "I apologize for intruding this morning. I promise not a word will leave my lips."

Henry swallowed. "It's… it's fine… but… I… I'm not entirely sure I understand. Who else would even know?"

"I heard some talk in the laundry room. I'm not sure who or what they exactly saw, but I'm fairly certain that it is linked to you."

"So, James, what did you see?"

"That doesn't matter." James walked over to the bedside table and straightened out the picture and the chain with the ring. "But please remember, I may be discreet, but I'm not blind."

"I swear…" Henry began, not sure what he could say.

"Your parents have asked me to keep an eye on you."

"Yes," Henry sighed. "And I'll be writing to them later today to let them know what the wedding plans are."

"I hope that happens soon," James told him.