"Come on, Inga!" Frederick laughed, grabbing Inga's arm and pulling her out onto the swing outside the window, "there's still room for both of us here."

It was a warm, sunny July morning. Inga sat next to her brother on the board outside one of the castle windows. It was only supposed to be for cleaning the windows, but it was an open secret that she and her brothers had always gone out to play on it since they were children. She found herself suddenly aware of the height as he did all the work of pulling them up higher, and the lack of anything below her feet had her thinking that she had never actually checked the weight limit of the ropes. She hadn't felt this way as a child. Why now? It had been a while since she'd climbed up to the swing to watch the harbor.

"I missed this," Frederick smiled once he got above the level of the outer wall, barely holding on to the rope on his side. "Here, let's swing-"

"No!" Inga interrupted, not daring to move her hands. "We're too high up. Sorry, it's making me nervous."

"Oh, sorry," Frederick chuckled. " I won't do anything crazy, I promise."

"Thanks," Inga said, still feeling her muscles tense, "I just- I don't know why this is suddenly bothering me. It's the height, but it's not. It's not like it's a problem if there's something solid under me."

"This board is solid," Frederick smirked, patting the plank they were sharing.

Inga turned to glare at him. "Not funny."

"It is, though," he mumbled.

They sat looking out at the fjord for a while. It had been light for hours, but the sun was finally rising over the mountains and shining on the water below, and it seemed like she could see the whole world from up here. Even with all the letters Inga had been getting from Henry on his grand tour the last several months, she hadn't felt the urge to go anywhere. His letters made her want to be with him to see the things he described, or to see how good of a likeness his drawings really were, but aside from that, she was realizing just how content she felt where she was.

"Is Mother still going overboard on your birthday party?" Frederick finally asked.

Inga snorted and smiled a bit. "I made her promise to keep it simple. Or at least, simpler than what she likes."

"I know you were very eager to help out Nanny at Mother's birthday party last week. You should just admit that you don't like parties, you know."

"Well, I don't mind having a party, it's not like I don't want anything to happen for my birthday."

"Is he coming, then?"

"Who?"

Frederick rolled his eyes. "You think that nobody saw you getting all those letters when we were visiting the Northuldra?"

"Oh, um…" Inga tried to think of a witty response, and was at a loss. "Henry and I enjoy writing to each other. What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing, I suppose," Frederick mused, "So, what was the package you got yesterday?"

"Just a book."

"What kind of book?" Frederick asked suspiciously.

"Oh, it was one Henry found for me in Portugal. Elizabeth had mentioned it in one of her letters last winter, and I guess it's really popular in America right now. Some teacher in Portugal who only knows French wrote a book to teach people English, and the translations are absolutely hilarious. I told Henry to look for it when he said he was going to Lisbon, though I didn't really think he'd remember."

"I think I've heard of that," Frederick remarked. "Is it really as bad as everyone says?"

"Absolutely," Inga laughed. "Remind me to lend it to you."

"Now, you still haven't answered my first question. Is he coming to your party?"

"I've told him about the party, and he hopes he can come, but he and Hilde have been traveling for quite a few months now and are only getting back to Corona this week."

"Thank you, that's at least an answer," Frederick smiled, "have you told Mother?"

"Not exactly," she hemmed, knowing that her brother was not about to accept her answer.

Her mother seemed to suspect something between her and Henry, but Inga wasn't ready to admit the extent of their relationship. Perhaps it was her mother's enthusiasm for planning what was supposed to be a simple birthday party, and perhaps it was the fear that her mother would start reminding her to wait, and that she was still too young for anything serious. She was too young, of course she was. That was why Henry was only a friend, after all.

"How did you 'not exactly' tell her?" Frederick inquired.

"Well, I asked if it was just going to be people from the castle and town, or if we were inviting other people, too."

"So now everyone is coming?"

"I don't know. She thought I was asking about Aunt Elsa, which is fine, of course she'll be coming."

"She was going to come, anyway," Frederick smirked. "Does Mother even know that you're writing to him?"

"Of course she does."

"Does she know that you're writing two sets of letters to him?"

Inga glared at Frederick. She moved her hand to punch his arm, but ended up grabbing his arm instead, letting out a small yelp, forgetting how high up they were.

"Do you want to go back down now?" Frederick asked her.

"Yes, please."

"Wait, Mother, how many people did you invite?" Inga asked with a sinking feeling in her stomach. After Frederick had pressed her on the issue a week before, she had gotten up the nerve to let her mother know that Henry was hoping to come to the party, but she still couldn't say if there was any agreement, and telling her mother just how often she was writing felt a little embarrassing.

"We had to send out official invitations to quite a few kingdoms, Inga," her mother explained, "since you insist that there is nothing going on with your friend. I told you that several times. I'll admit I was surprised at how many people have written back saying they'll attend."

"I-" Inga stopped to consider what she was going to say. There was nothing to say. She and Henry had never really settled anything. Still, she had never wanted a large party, and had only agreed because her mother had forgotten about her seventeenth birthday in the fog of having the new baby the previous summer. Inga had told her not to feel guilty, but she had agreed to a party the following year out of sympathy more than anything, and Inga had really hoped over the winter that the idea would be forgotten.

Her mother sometimes didn't understand her desire to be alone, and Inga did her best to remember this. "I don't mind, not really. I appreciate all the work you're putting into this."

Henry had already said he would come, as soon as she had written that they were planning something. She supposed that was where the mess of inviting half the kingdoms in the region had started. They couldn't invite just one person without some official announcement, and there was no official announcement. Inga hadn't wanted that.

Anna looked over the stack of letters. "What's this?" she read an announcement that had come from America, then handed it to Inga.

"Oh!" Inga laughed, "apparently our new ship builder threw you a birthday party."

"What new ship builder?" Anna rubbed her forehead.

"The shipbuilder that Elizabeth was writing to," Inga explained, suddenly realizing that perhaps Elizabeth was telling her things that hadn't made it into official communications. "It was while Lars was in Washington at the state funeral, so perhaps he forgot to send word about that. There's a lot going on, and he is taking the ambassador position seriously, you know."

Her mother sighed and looked uncomfortable. It was never officially acknowledged that Lars was, in fact, her mother's illegitimate son, and the gossip following his being given the American ambassador position had never honed in on the real explanation. The position was partly chosen because it was what he was trained to do, but her mother seemed to be surprised every time she heard about Lars actually doing what he was being paid to do.

"You should tell Elizabeth that we'll compensate her for the ticket cost if she wants to come back here for your birthday," Anna told her, "I don't want her feeling like she can't visit."

Inga suddenly wondered how much Elizabeth had been telling her that nobody else knew. "I don't think money is a problem for her," Inga hesitated. "She would love to come, but it's-"

"I hope she doesn't feel like she wouldn't be welcome here, that's all," Anna interrupted.

"No, I've made it clear that she would be more than welcome to visit," Inga insisted.

"I suppose there's a lot going on there, like you said."

Inga felt uncomfortable. Elizabeth had told her in her letters that she was expecting, and quite soon. Inga wasn't sure how many people outside of Boston they had told. She was fairly certain that Frederick didn't know, despite writing to Lars, but it was obvious that her mother didn't know yet. His letters to Arendelle were official and extremely formal. Whether or not her relation to Lars was acknowledged or not, this would be family in a very real sense. Her mother should know.

"Well, there is- at least, I think there is something else…"

"What do you mean, Inga?"

"I can't be certain, but her recent letters… She's been hinting about news coming."

"News? You mean…"

"I'm pretty sure Elizabeth is pregnant," Inga clarified. "She seems to be very excited, but she obviously can't visit here this summer."

"Of course," Anna nodded, looking out the window, beginning to fiddle with the hair by her ear.

"It's not exactly public, of course, but… but I thought you should know," Inga explained, looking down at her stack of letters, taking the one from the top and setting it in front of herself, but not looking.

"Thank you for telling me," her mother said quietly as she looked over at Inga. "I think now would be a good time to take a break."

Inga nodded and quietly stood up. She quietly but firmly closed the door to the study as she left. She wasn't sure if she should have left the room, but she had the feeling that her mother needed a little bit of time to digest the news.

July 2nd, 1865

Dear Inga,

I got your letter about the other guests at your birthday party. I didn't realize it was going to be such a formal event, I have to admit. I hope I didn't cause too much of a problem by saying I wanted to come. The official invitation arrived a day or two after we finally got back home. Unfortunately, I hadn't told Hilde about your party before this, and she had already agreed to go to the wedding of the Duke of Bielsko, or maybe it was one of his sisters. Not that it matters, but it would be rude for her to back out of that. I haven't really met any of them, though Hilde insists they were at our coronation last year. Can I blame you for that?

Love,

Henry

She looked at the sign off, and realized that she couldn't remember when he had started writing "Love" at the end. It had been at least a few weeks now. She was pretty sure that he had been the first one to write it, but did it matter? Neither of them had said anything about it, but she couldn't imagine ending the letters differently now.

Inga flipped over the piece of paper, and saw that he had made a drawing of the city of Corona from a distance. She sat looking at it, and realized that it was framed by trees, and only then saw a young woman sitting in the water. She groaned out loud, but couldn't help smiling. She had never really noticed the view the day she had met Henry; she had been too intent on keeping up with Elizabeth and her sisters as they were riding their horses, and her horse got startled by Henry's. That was the last time she had ever ridden sidesaddle.

Inga set Henry's letter down on her night stand, grabbed a piece of paper and began her reply.

Dear Henry,

I'm not entirely sure I like your latest drawing of me, but it was a lovely drawing of Corona. As far as the party, I'm certainly sorry to hear that Hilde won't be there, but if you're coming, I'll be quite happy to see you. I'm not entirely sure who else will be there, though the responses I saw today make it look like it will be a much larger party than I thought it would be when I agreed, but that's the price I pay for not planning my own party.

Please let me know when you'll be arriving!

Love,

Inga

As Inga was folding the letter and walking to the window, she heard a knock at the door. She quickly set the letter down on her bed and walked to the door.

She opened it to see Frederick standing there. "Inga, I've been looking for you," he said to her.

"You've found me," she laughed. "What is it?"

"I'm returning this," he told her, handing her the book she had lent him.

"Oh!" she laughed. "Did you enjoy it?"

"I'm not sure if I got the joke," he said sheepishly.

"Well, thanks for returning it!" Inga chuckled, walking over to her night stand to set down the book. She supposed it was a bit of a long shot expecting Frederick to find the humor in bad English. He never quite had the knack that she had for languages, but she wasn't going to say anything about it to him this time.

"It's a nice day, so if you're not doing anything, we should go riding," he said.

"What about Anton and Peder?" she asked. They had been back home for nearly a month now.

"Well, they're stuck with their tutors today," he explained. "And besides, your conversation is better these days."

"Fine," she chuckled, "give me a moment." She grabbed her letter to Henry, quickly putting it into her pocket.

"What's this?" Frederick asked, picking up Henry's letter.

"That's private!" Inga snapped.

"Sorry," Frederick apologized, handing the letter over to Inga, "but it was a very nice drawing. I didn't know that he drew."

"As long as you weren't reading the letter," Inga stammered.

"Well, now I'm curious," he teased.

"Actually, it's nothing terribly interesting," Inga admitted. "He's coming to my birthday party, of course."

"Of course," Frederick snorted, "along with a dozen neighboring kingdoms. I'm rather surprised you're having this many people for a birthday party. I wouldn't have thought of you having that many people invited to your wedding."

"What do you mean by that?" Inga asked defensively.

"Just, you know, you're not exactly fond of crowds."

"Well, no," she said, "and I'm starting to regret agreeing to this party at all."

"You'll have fun," Frederick assured her, "and this time I'll help you out if there's anyone you don't want who's bothering you. I promise."

"Thanks," Inga smiled. "Now, let's go out and take that ride."

Anna walked to the nursery, finding only the nurse watching as Baby Linne was napping.

"How are you doing, Karen?" Anna asked her.

"Very well, Your Majesty," the nurse whispered, smiling. "She's a darling, Linne is, sleeps well, never fusses."

"Well, you dote on her," Anna smiled back. "You don't mind if I sit here with you for a little while, do you?"

"Of course, Your Majesty, you don't need to ask me. She's your daughter, after all."

"Thank you," Anna told her.

The baby shifted a little, snoring softly, clearly relaxed, but in a position only a child nearing its first birthday could find comfortable for sleeping in. Anna realized that her youngest child was almost a year old. They would need to plan some sort of party. Not that a child that age cared, but she cared, and unlike Inga, her youngest wouldn't complain as long as there was food to eat and toys to play with.

Anna dozed off in the chair where she sat, thinking about what Inga had told her. Lars and Elizabeth had been married nearly a year, so of course it made sense that they might be having a baby now. But she had barely processed that. Until last year, she had almost convinced herself that it had never happened, that that first year really was a whirlwind tour of neighboring kingdoms, with those few months in the countryside of Corona having no special meaning. After all, as soon as she had recovered-and she was young and healthy, so recovery had happened quickly-she was hurried back to Arendelle, and everything seemed to be almost normal. Her nineteenth birthday party was what people in town were talking about soon enough. Anna and Elsa never talked about their trip to Corona. Anna had said she didn't want to talk about it, and Elsa had taken her at her word.

And now he was going to have his own children. She didn't feel old enough for that, but she had been overly eager to run off and get married when she was eighteen. She couldn't exactly fault Lars for wanting to settle down when he wasn't quite twenty-one.

The baby fussed a little and started to wake up. The nurse was already up ready to tend to her, but Anna suggested she go for some lunch.

"Hello, Linne," Anna cooed as she picked up the smiling child.

"Let's go for a swim," Frederick declared as they sat at the edge of the pond with their feet in the water.

"I wish you'd said something before we left, I could have brought something to swim in."

"That never bothered you when we were younger."

"Do I actually have to explain why I don't want to now?"

"It's a hot day!" he insisted.

"We're not that far from Oaken's," Inga suggested. "I'm sure we can get something, and Renata is working today, we haven't seen her in a while."

Frederick sighed. "If you want to go talk to Renata rather than swim, go ahead."

"That's not what I meant," Inga said as she turned away and got back up on her horse. She suddenly remembered that she still had the letter she'd written to Henry in her pocket. "Now that I think about it, I'm just going to go up toward the meadow."

"Fine, when I'm done, I'll come find you and we can get something to eat later!" Frederick shouted as she rode away. Inga heard a splash as he jumped into the pond.

Her horse walked slowly up the path toward her favorite meadow. As she reached the clearing, she hopped down from her horse and carefully tied her to a shady tree, then walked forward into the clearing.

"Gale?" she asked. The breeze whipped around her briefly, and she fished her letter out of her pocket. "Here, it's for Henry, of course."

With another swish of some old leaves, the air grew calm again. Inga laid down on the soft clover and sighed as the sun warmed her. She wouldn't have minded a swim, and perhaps she would remember to bring something to wear swimming the next time she came up. For now, she would settle for dozing off.

"Inga!" Frederick shouted, coming up the hill on his horse. His hair was soaked, so he had been swimming.

"I took a nap," Inga said, not that he had asked. "Did I miss anything?"

"No, I just got back here. Let's go to Oaken's since we're all the way out here."

"Fine."

The two rode away toward the woods.

"So, Inga," Frederick asked, "I stopped by the study when I was looking for you this morning."

Inga looked over at her brother inquisitively. She wasn't sure what he was going to be asking, and now that she thought about it, she had no idea what he had been told.

"Mother seemed upset. Did you have some kind of argument?"

"Oh," Inga began, still collecting her thoughts. "I was a little upset that so many people have been invited to my birthday party, but she pointed out-"

"She reminded you that if you don't have some kind of formal arrangement you can't just go and invite one particular foreign prince to your party, right?" Frederick smirked. "I've been telling you for how long, you're really just making things hard on yourself, you know that, don't you?"

Inga glared at him, but sighed.

"Still," he continued, "it seems like something else was bothering her."

"Right," Inga said. "Elizabeth is having a baby soon. Mother hadn't heard about it yet."

"Why would that bother Mother?"

"Mother…" Inga scrambled to think of what she should say. Now wasn't the time to tell Frederick the truth about Lars. "Mother feels bad that Elizabeth will be so far from all of their families right now."

"At least Lars's mother is with them, so they have that," Frederick offered cheerfully.

"Of course," Inga replied, biting her lip.

"It's funny, now that you mention that, a lot of things that Lars has said in his letters make a lot more sense," Frederick mused.

"He's written to you?" Inga asked him.

"Yes," Frederick admitted, "well, I wrote to him first, since it looked like he didn't have anyone from Arendelle writing to him about things that weren't just official business, which seems too bad, don't you think?"

"Yes, yes, of course," Inga smiled. Lars seemed to feel that it wasn't worth telling Frederick about their real relation, so she wouldn't tell him anything, at least not now. Perhaps at some point it would be worth telling him, but not now. "What has he told you, exactly?"

"Oh… just something about personal obligations and work obligations and being worried about the personal obligations, and then saying not to worry if it didn't make any sense and I'll probably understand when I'm older."

"I see…"

"I hope Elizabeth will be okay," Frederick said, looking out to the fjord below.

"I think she will be," Inga told him, "she didn't seem particularly worried. I'm sure we'll hear about it soon enough."

Kristoff opened the nursery door with one hand, the other arm holding his youngest son, still fast asleep. It startled Anna, who was sitting in the chair by the window holding the sleeping baby.

"Kristoff? I wasn't expecting to see you here."

"Karl fell asleep on our ride," he explained, walking in quietly to set the little boy down on his bed. "Where's Nanny?"

"I think I told her to go have lunch before I dozed off. Linne and I were the only ones in here."

"Have you eaten?" Kristoff asked, sitting on the empty bed next to her.

"No. I wasn't hungry."

"Really?" he asked, keeping his voice low.

Anna gave him that look. "Well, I am hungry now, I guess. But I really didn't feel like eating earlier."

"Is there something you're trying to tell me?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Anna looked at him, and he saw her confused look quickly change to a quick smirk. "No, not like that. I'm pretty certain, anyway…"

"I mean, I guess it would be fine," Kristoff chuckled, "Not like it would make a huge difference at this point."

Anna sighed. "I'm starting to think maybe I'm too old."

"Fair enough," Kirstoff shrugged.

"I felt a little odd the other day when Isabel was visiting," Anna said, "I still think of her as a young girl…"

"She's the same age you were when we got married," Kristoff reminded her.

"Yes, I know," Anna said, biting her lip. "Then there's Elizabeth."

"Oh, is she also expecting?" Kristoff asked, not really surprised. Elizabeth and Lars had gotten married at nearly the same time as Isabel and Captain Olsen.

"Inga told me this morning. She's been writing to Elizabeth, you know," Anna said, although the last point seemed pretty obvious to Kristoff. Inga had gotten along well with Elizabeth, and Kristoff felt bad that Elizabeth had to move, still he understood why.

"So, Elizabeth and Lars…" he began, not sure if Anna wanted to hear the rest out loud. She had obviously been thinking about it.

"Yes," she said, looking down at Linne and stroking her hair. "It's… it's kind of hard to think about, you know?"

"Of course, that makes sense."

"I hadn't really thought about… I hadn't felt old. Not really."

"I'm older," Kristoff said with a smirk, putting his hand on hers.

Anna rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean. I… I've been thinking about that… Lars, of course, and all of that."

"Well, of course. I think anyone would be. It's not exactly a shock that they would be having a baby now, but you didn't have much warning."

"Oh, of course, that's true. I guess I've also been thinking… Inga left the room before I could say anything. I think she thought she was doing me a favor."

"She doesn't really like talking about anything personal, that's obvious enough."

Anna handed Linne over to Kristoff, who carefully put her back in her crib. Kristoff took some pride in being the only one of the two of them who could reliably lay down a child without waking it.

"I wasn't much older than her, you know," Anna continued as he sat back down next to her. "I know, you're going to tell me that she isn't me, and I know that. But I feel like I should tell her more."

"You will," he said, scooting in a little closer. "Just bring it up sometime."

"You say it like it's so simple," she sighed.

"You're right, though, she isn't you," Kristoff added, kissing Anna on the forehead to keep himself from adding what he was almost going to say.

The door opened quietly, and Nanny walked in.

"Your Majesty, Your Highness," she whispered, curtseying, "I wasn't expecting to find you here."

"Oh, sorry, I told Karen to go get herself lunch."

Nanny sighed. "Have you had lunch, Majesty?"