In the afternoon, Elsa and Olaf returned to the castle, followed by General Mattias and Halima whom they had been visiting earlier in the day. Naturally, Meibel, Kate, and Edith followed along, eager to meet the royal family of Corona.

"Meibel, where are Kate and Edith?" Halima asked as they were about to go inside.

"I heard some man from Corona ask them if they were friends of the royal family," Meibel said.

"Who was it?" Elsa asked.

"Someone from a newspaper, I think," Meibel replied.

Elsa wasn't sure which paper or which person from Corona it might be, but she hoped that neither Kate nor Edith would say anything to raise suspicions about Inga. There would be gossip, of course, but the last thing she needed was someone considered close to their family saying something.

"Oh, there they are!" Halima sighed, seeing the girls running through the courtyard to catch up.

"Sorry!" Edith said, still out of breath. "I thought he was asking for directions or when the public wedding party was going to be or something, and then he offered us money, and Kate said-"

"I said we don't need money, and I grabbed Edith to go," Kate interrupted. "Now here we are!"

"Why was he offering money?" Olaf asked.

"I imagine he's trying to get stories for his paper in Corona," Mattias replied. "I don't trust them."

Before more could be said, Frederick showed up at the door, and they followed him inside.

Dinner, they learned, would be on the early side, as lunch at the castle had been light and the King and Queen of Corona were tired from their journey and wished to retire early, so they soon were gathered in the dining room.

"General Destin Mattias," Kai announced as he entered.

"Your Majesties," General Mattias bowed to the King and Queen as he walked over to greet them. "I had the pleasure of attending your wedding when I was serving as the personal guard to Prince Agnarr."

"Oh my goodness," the Queen said. "We were all much younger then, certainly. It is a pleasure to meet you again."

"Thank you," Mattias smiled. "Though, if I may be so bold, you hardly look a day older."

Elsa noticed the queen blush a bit, adjusting the veil on her bonnet. She hadn't thought much of it the summer before, but Elsa realized she had never seen Queen Ariana with her hair showing, even though portraits from decades before had shown it. She kept the thought to herself, though.

"General, you've been to Corona?" Frederick asked, following Mattias to his seat to pester him with questions.

Elsa proceeded to sit next to Rapunzel, hoping she might be able to get in a few discrete questions.

Inga's appetite had mostly returned in the past week, but this dinner was too soon following their lunch for her to be hungry, so she mostly moved her food around her plate while her attention jumped between different conversations around the table. Frederick was excited to learn all about the trip Mattias had made to Corona years before, and Henry's grandparents began remembering their own wedding.

"I don't know if you remember this, General," the King began, "but King Runeard was hounding me at dinner, saying if we had a girl, we ought to arrange a marriage with Agnarr."

"I'm fairly certain Agnarr was not in the room for that, and I was assigned to stay with the prince," Mattias replied, clearly sensing the awkwardness of the topic for the family.

"He was already twelve or thirteen, much too old to consider for someone not born yet, even if things had worked out differently," Queen Arianna added quietly.

"You could have been our grandmother?" Sofia blurted out at Henry's mother, who was sitting near her.

"I don't think so," Rapunzel replied. "Your grandfather was probably twenty years older than me."

"Oh," Sofia replied, sounding somewhat disappointed.

"For many reasons, I think we should change the subject," Queen Arianna said.

Frederick began asking about the Naval Academy again, and Henry's father was asking Inga's father more about various things he had seen with him years before. Inga's mind began to wander, knowing very well why her mother had been gone during that time. Who sitting at this table was aware of that story? She had told Henry, and his own mother was involved in the cover-up, of course, but who else? Did his sister know? What about his grandparents?

"Inga?" she heard her mother say, snapping her out of her reverie.

"Yes?" Inga answered, trying to make it sound like she'd been paying attention all along.

"They were asking if you'll have bridesmaids, and I realized we hadn't talked about that."

Inga tried not to panic. She had promised Kate and Edith, but were there expectations? She hadn't thought about this. This is what came of their family never traveling to royal weddings.

"I had promised Kate and Edith that they could do it when we were talking last week," Inga admitted, "I hope I'm not forgetting some protocol or another."

Kate and Edith both perked up at the mention of their names, and were looking over curiously.

"Oh, no, that's fine," her mother smiled, "we certainly have a lot of details to work out, but perhaps we'll worry about that tomorrow."

Inga nodded. She looked over at Henry, who was seated across the table. He seemed to have the same look in his eyes. Had he also realized just how little they'd thought about details?

"Wait!" Sofia called over from the other side of the table, interrupting Inga's train of thought, "What about me and Marie? You said we'd be-"

"Sofia," her mother helpfully interrupted, "that was for flower girls. I don't think Inga would want to change that."

"Ohh…" Sofia said, sitting back in her chair, "Right."

Kristoff woke up the next morning to Anna at the bedroom door speaking to Kai.

"Yes, noon will work, thank you, Kai," she said, closing the door.

"What's at noon?" Kristoff asked.

"You don't have to get up yet, but we're going to get straight to the point on negotiations with Corona."

"What do we need to negotiate, anyway?"

Anna sighed as she sat down.

"Plenty of things, all of which we should have had months to work out."

"Do I need to be at the meeting?"

"I think it's best if you're there. You'll want to know what the plans are."

Kristoff didn't really want to hear about how much Corona or Arendelle were offering for Inga's hand in marriage, but Anna was right. It would be better to know than to be taken by surprise.

"I still haven't spoken to Frederick," Kristoff said. "I imagine it's not the most important thing today."

"That will need to wait now," Anna agreed.

"Good morning, Henry," Inga said from across the hall as he emerged from his room. They met in the middle of the hallway and kissed briefly, realizing they might not be alone.

"Have you been waiting long?" he asked, looking concerned.

"Don't worry about it," she smiled. "Though I was half worried I'd see your valet before seeing you."

"Oh, James," Henry laughed, "he's in there getting things cleaned up."

"Of course," Inga nodded. "Does he always like to work so early in the morning?"

"Umm," Henry flushed, not saying anything else.

Inga realized he was probably thinking about when James walked in on them that morning after her birthday. That night was the reason they were so rushed to get married now.

"Should we go outside? It's not too cold today."

"That sounds like a good idea," Henry said.

"Is there a chance we'll run into your family?" Inga asked as they walked along.

"I don't think so."

They stepped outside and Inga glanced around to make sure they were alone.

"Do you think they know? Have you told them?" she asked.

"I haven't told them, not really. Hilde practically guessed when I returned to Corona."

"Wait, what did you tell her?" Inga stopped, and Henry stopped a moment later.

"Nothing, I swear. She just has a way of figuring things out like that."

Inga realized she was holding her breath, and forced herself to breathe again.

"You really said nothing?"

"She knows me too well, that's all. I guess I looked… guilty?"

Inga started walking again, taking Henry's hand.

"I suppose we won't want to say anything at the meeting," Inga sighed. "Your parents and grandparents will eventually know, of course, but no need to tell them just yet."

Henry leaned his head to hers.

The garden was empty, just like they had hoped. A few hardy flowers still did their best to bloom, but for the most part the place looked ready for the long winter. The gardeners would be coming in to take care of it in another week or two.

They sat down on a bench. She snuggled into him, and he held her tight.

"What are we doing?" she asked. "Do we even know what we're doing?"

"Does anyone really know what they're doing? Even if we were doing things exactly the way we were supposed to, would we know?"

"Last summer I thought we had thought about everything already. Obviously we had hardly thought through anything… But now, even the things I've thought about…I had no idea. Where are we even going to live?"

"Inga," Henry said, kissing her forehead, "neither of our families has disowned either of us, and both of them have approved our marriage, so we have our choice."

"Is that what your family has told you?"

"They said we'd talk about it later, though that was before… this week. I don't know what they expect, now that you mention it. Do you want to stay here? I'd be willing to do that."

"I… I would," Inga said, realizing that she was crying, "but I don't want to fight about it. I don't want anything to turn into a fight right now."

Henry held her tight. Inga pressed her body into him. She had been feeling better physically the last week or two, but she realized she was too easily upset by stupid things. It wasn't like she had ever been a model of having a cool, calm demeanor. She realized she was about to get upset simply thinking about this. She gave up and buried her face into Henry's shirt to cry.

"I'm sorry, Inga," he said as he stroked her hair.

"There's no point in feeling guilty now. It's done," she insisted, even though she didn't feel it.

"I don't know," he sighed. "I guess- I think I'm as scared as you are."

"You don't sound scared," she sniffed, almost smiling.

"I'm too scared to show it," he said with a forced smile. "But I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I'm terrified."

"I hadn't even thought about… about this part of… of what we were doing. You'd think with my mother I'd know what I'm doing. But I-"

"It's scary, but you'll do well," Henry tried to assure her.

"How can you know that?" Inga demanded.

"I saw you with your baby sister. You'll be fine."

"You saw me handing her off to a nursemaid."

Henry smirked. "Like I said, you'll do fine."

Inga glared at him. "You think I want to be one of those women who hands off the baby to a nursemaid all day and goes to parties?"

"No, I mean, I'm just saying we won't be on our own."

Inga took a deep breath. "You're right. I might feel guilty about it, but it doesn't really matter, does it? If I do anything at all as a mother, people will talk about what a wonderful instinct I have for it, even if all I'm doing is spending a few hours a day parading them in public."

"Them?" Henry chuckled.

"Oh, well," Inga stopped herself, "I guess it just seems normal to me."

"I'd be fine with that," he smiled.

"I guess that's good, since we're getting a head start on things," she sighed.

Henry stood up and helped Inga up. He put his arm around her waist and they walked back to the castle, somehow both agreeing on where they should go without asking. They went inside the kitchen door. The kitchen was empty, and they grabbed a few pastries to eat.

"Where to now?" he asked her.

"It's probably almost time for the meeting," she said.

"Do we need to be there?" he smirked. "Aren't the royal wedding details the things that the bride and groom aren't allowed to decide?"

"If you remember, the Bishop was rather insistent that we both were going into this willingly."

Rapunzel made her way to the marriage negotiation meeting, but decided to check on Ambassador Meyer, as she didn't often get to speak to him in person. She turned the corner toward his room, and stopped instantly as she saw someone else at his door knocking. It was Ludvig Holst. He had been in Corona the day they left. Had he been on their ship? It might be possible.

The door opened.

"Is His Excellency there?" Mr. Holst asked.

"He's preparing for an important meeting," the voice said from the crack in the door. Rapunzel recognized it as Tomas Pincar, one of the replacement candidates she had hand-selected to replace Lars Nilsen the year before.

"Do you think he would have time tomorrow?" Holst asked.

"I'll have to get back to you. Where are you staying?"

"I'm at Hudson's Hearth," Holst replied.

"Well, that's simple enough. I'll send a note with His Excellency's answer this evening."

The door closed, and Rapunzel breathed a sigh of relief as Holst left the opposite direction.

When the coast was clear, she went to the same door and knocked.

"What is it now?" was the answer before the door was fully opened. "Oh! Your Highness! My deepest apologies!"

"Don't worry about it," Rapunzel said. "I was wondering if the Ambassador has any questions for me before the upcoming meeting?"

"Your Highness!" Ambassador Meyer said, rushing up to the door. "To what do I owe this honor?"

"Your Excellency," Rapunzel smiled. "As I was telling Mr. Pincar, I simply wished to learn whether you have any questions to ask me privately?"

"Come in for a moment, please," Meyer said.

"Certainly," Rapunzel replied.

Pincar stepped back to allow her in and quietly secured the door.

"I have been wondering," Meyer began, "has the succession question been answered? The council here have given only the vaguest of answers."

"I can honestly say that we have not yet discussed that issue. I believe we have time to worry about the details, for both Arendelle and Corona."

"Arendelle's succession, after all, seems secure at the moment, but as you know, such things can change easily enough."

"Yes, I've heard about the difficulties they've been experiencing in the Southern Isles in that regard," Rapunzel said. "Neither Arendelle nor Corona restricts succession to the male line, though. The Southern Isles could solve their problem very quickly if they were willing to."

"Of course, of course," the Ambassador replied.

"If that is the only thing you can think of to ask me, then I will be on my way. Thank you for your time, Your Excellency."

"Your Highness," the Ambassador said with a formal bow.

Hilde had spent most of the morning in the guest room that was assigned to her. It was a different room from her visit the prior fall, most likely because they were expecting all of them this time, however last minute her brother's wedding plans were. She had a lovely view of the town and the fjord, and it was a clear, crisp day, so it was nice to simply sit and look around for a change.

Eventually, though, she wanted to get out. She knew there would be a lunchtime meeting for the negotiations, but she had not been invited. She would try to catch someone in her family before the rest of them went in, so she walked to the room her parents had been assigned.

"Oh there you are, Father," Hilde called out as her father came out of the guest room. "Is Mother in there?"

"No, we have the first of the negotiation meetings today, and I think I'm running late," he said.

"They really don't want to delay anything, do they?" Hilde asked.

"There's a lot to be decided," he said somewhat evasively.

"I thought that was why they were going to have the wedding next summer?" Hilde asked, knowing full well what she was implying. "Before Henry left this last time seemed to think both he and Inga had accepted waiting until next summer, anyway."

"Hilde, if you're trying to get a confession out of me, I don't know any more than you know. Quite possibly less, because I know how you can get your brother to talk."

Hilde sighed. She saw her grandparents walking in the direction of the meeting room. "I suppose you should get going."

Her father looked down the hall. "You're probably right. Watch out for Holst."

"I'll talk his ear off about having a new shawl if I see him."

"Do you have a new shawl?" her father asked, looking at her shoulders.

"No, but does it matter?"

Anna arrived early for the lunch meeting. She wasn't sure whether it would be more lunch or more of a meeting, and hoped that, as usual, Kai was taking care of all those details. Kristoff, thankfully, arrived a few moments later. He walked over to where she was standing by the window and gave her a kiss. The two stood looking outside for a few moments, then they heard the clock strike noon.

"So, I guess we'll see how much they're expecting of us now."

"Who?"

"Everyone from Corona, really," Anna sighed. "I don't really know what they expect. We haven't even discussed if-"

"Her Royal Highness the Crown Princess Rapunzel of Corona," Kai announced.

"Hello," she said, looking like she wanted to hug Anna.

"Hello," Anna replied, touching her hand, "who else is planning to be here?"

"Well, I hope everyone… I mean, you know, my parents should be here soon, and Eugene needs to change from the ride. And, well…"

"Is Henry going to be here?" Anna asked, "Because we told Inga to be here."

"Oh, yes, well, you know how he is…"

"Do we?" Kristoff asked, looking at his wife.

"I'm afraid things can get a little bit chaotic here," Anna laughed nervously.

They stood somewhat awkwardly for a moment.

"Anna," Rapunzel said hesitantly, "I… I don't want to sound judgemental, or like I'm jumping to conclusions, or anything like that, especially, you know, with how… with what the circumstances were the last time I saw you." she finally took a breath.

"Um, what do you mean?" Anna asked, looking at Kristoff quickly.

"Please don't think I'm judging you," Rapunzel said, "that's the last thing I'd want to do, but- this is happening very quickly. Is there- Just before my parents get here, is there anything we should know?"

Anna held Kristoff's hand, and felt him take in a deep breath almost the same time as she did.

"Henry hasn't told you, then?" Kristoff asked.

"No, he hasn't," she told them, "but I think I know. I just need to be sure that I'm not jumping to conclusions."

"We decided it was imperative to have the wedding right away," Anna said quickly, "and your suspicions for the reason are probably correct."

The Crown Princess nodded and sighed. "I think we have an understanding, then. I hope-"

The door opened, and Kai announced the King and Queen of Corona. Everyone greeted each other again, more formally than the day before. Anna hoped to get a few moments alone with the Crown Princess Rapunzel later on, and perhaps figure out what she was about to say.

"We're almost set to go, I suppose," King Frederic said, looking around.

"Eugene was talking to Hilde when I saw him," Queen Ariana apologized. "I'm sure he'll be here soon."

"There, you look very nice," Oline told Inga. "If it's fine with you, I'll pick up around here while you go to the meeting."

Inga looked around, realizing that the room was absolutely not presentable at the moment. "If it's not a problem for you, I suppose. Thank you, Oline."

Inga walked toward the door, hearing some voices outside as she opened the door a crack.

"Oh! Father, what are you doing here?" she heard Henry ask.

"I'm running late, that's what," he laughed, "are you ready to go?"

"I'm waiting for Inga," Henry replied. "I promised her I would."

Inga walked out then.

"Hello," she smiled. Henry stepped across the hall and grabbed her hands.

"Hello," he said, moving his face close to her like he wanted to kiss her, but stopped short.

"Well, I don't know about you two, but I was late for a meeting," his father said, starting on his way.

Inga linked her arm around Henry's and they started on their way, following a little way behind his father.

They held back a bit to let his father enter the room a few moments before them, waiting to hear Kai announce him and close the door again.

Inga kissed Henry before taking his hand and walking up to let Kai know they were there.

After they were announced and greetings had been made, Inga looked around the room. Henry's mother was looking at her. She knew. His mother obviously knew, and it wasn't a look of suspecting some possibility, it was the look of knowing. Her parents had told Henry's mother. She was going to find out eventually.

They were ready for discussion. Inga got to sit next to Henry. They had to look dignified, at least, to the other people in the room. Underneath the table, she could feel Henry's foot poking at hers. She glanced sideways at him, trying not to look obvious. She wanted all this business to be done with, to be allowed to spend as much time with him as she wanted, no longer needing to hide if they were alone.

First on the agenda was discussing where they would live. Neither she nor Henry were asked. She wasn't sure if she was supposed to speak up, or allowed to, or expected to. She wasn't sure if she wanted to speak up right now.

"Inga, what do you think about that?" her mother asked.

"About what?" Inga replied, realizing, much to her embarrassment, that she hadn't been paying attention.

"I was telling King Frederic and Queen Arianna that I thought you might like to stay in Arendelle through the end of the year. It's up to you, though."

"Oh, yes, I'd like that very much," Inga said. "I think Henry is fine with that, too, right?" She looked over at him.

"Of course!" he smiled, sliding his hand slightly toward hers, but not quite touching.

"Very well, that shouldn't be a problem," King Frederic acknowledged. "Now, for the more delicate question. I believe that Arendelle had a succession bill last year which, to my knowledge, hasn't been resolved yet. Has there been any decision on this?"

"I am assuming that no decision will be made, certainly not any time soon," Anna replied. "And I'm assuming you're asking whether she's going to be first in line or fifth in line after me. Does this make a difference to you?"

The Queen looked at him, shaking her head, while the Crown Princess looked between her father and Anna, shrugging slightly.

"No, no, of course it's not an issue, I just wanted to be sure there hadn't been any changes recently," he explained. "A prince of two realms would require more coordinated education. While Arendelle has been receiving considerable aid from Corona, it is nobody's intention to have a personal union of our kingdoms."

Inga looked over at Henry. He looked back, clearly not having thought about this any more than she had. The baby was going to be in the direct line for the throne of Corona, of course she knew this in the back of her mind. She hadn't really thought about this in such concrete terms. She had thought she needed to relax and enjoy herself more, and what had happened? But did it matter? She wasn't sure. Still, here they were, discussing their future, with only minimal input from her and Henry. It wasn't like they would have gotten much more input by doing things in the proper order, but there would have been time to limit each negotiation, and not overwhelm them with everything at once.

"I think that's enough for today," Anna said when they had been at their luncheon meeting for nearly two hours. "We can meet again tomorrow to figure out everything else, I think."

Nearly everyone stood up and began several conversations all at once. Inga was still sitting next to her, looking like a frightened animal. It wasn't her daughter's usual shy side, nor did she look angry. She looked afraid and overwhelmed.

"Inga," Anna said quietly while putting her hand on her daughter's shoulder, "let me know if you need anything."

"Thanks," her daughter sighed. "Maybe later?"

Henry came back from having talked to his parents briefly, and made eye contact with Anna as he helped Inga up. His eyes darted away almost as quickly as they met hers.

As she watched the two of them leave the room, she wondered whether Inga had said anything to Henry about the dress fitting. Or if Inga had told him about his own mother's involvement in her past. Or had Rapunzel or Eugene told him by now? Would he have reason even to ask such a thing? Lars had spent a lot of time at the palace of Corona as a child, Elsa had told her this. Surely it would have raised some questions. Then again, the Crown Princess didn't have any children of her own at the time. Could that have been explanation enough for everyone?

Most of the others who had been at their lunch meeting had left. Kristoff was standing next to her, but she knew he had promised Frederick to meet after the meeting.

"Anna?" Rapunzel asked as she came walking up.

"Yes?" Anna replied, giving a nod to Kristoff that he could get going.

"Do you have time to speak alone?"

"Of course," Anna said, taking a sharp breath, "Let's go to my study."

After they entered the study and Anna closed the door firmly behind her, they walked over to the window and sat down.

"We haven't really spoken," Rapunzel said, "not since…"

"It's been twenty-one years," Anna acknowledged. "I'm sorry."

"I wasn't-" Rapunzel seemed to be gathering her thoughts, "I wasn't really expecting you to. And I was sorry to miss your wedding. And the coronation, of course, that too."

"You had a good excuse," Anna smiled. "That was right after your twins were born, I was paying attention even if I never wrote."

"I understood. Your sister still wrote up until her abdication. And you always treated our ambassadors well."

"Everything happened so fast when Elsa abdicated, anyway. I mean, the coronation did. I suppose the wedding happened quickly, too. The real one, I mean… not like this, though."

"No, I understand," Rapunzel assured her.

"And… I was terrible for not writing to you," Anna said. "Somehow, I had completely forgotten that Elsa had been writing to you personally before then, since, you know-"

"Yes, since the night of the birth. You don't mind if I say it out loud, do you?"

Anna took in a long breath. "Of course not. It happened."

The two looked out the window. Anna spoke again after a few moments.

"They have a baby of their own now, he and his wife. I don't know how many people he told."

"He did tell me that," Rapunzel said. "I hope you don't mind, but he's written a few times."

"That's fine," Anna nodded. "He told me he had a very happy childhood, though. And you did your part to help that, I think."

"Thank you, but I think Margit Nilsen was responsible for more of that than I could hope to be. I just took care of spoiling those two boys when I got the chance."

"I can understand that impulse," Anna smiled. "I don't think Inga ever got told no when she asked for anything. And before you ask, yes I'm questioning that now."

"I wasn't going to ask."

Anna stopped and looked at Rapunzel, who was looking guiltily at her.

"Anna, really, I want to apologize. I don't exactly know any details, but I think he should have known better."

"I don't know about that," Anna sighed. "Inga was quite insistent that it was… she told us it was mutual. She's not afraid to make a scene, I can tell you that much."

Rapunzel sighed. "That's good to hear. At least, I think it is."

"It… it can be. It's good in this case. I think I know why you're worried. Elsa told me that Inga was a little slower to warm up to Henry. I don't think there was anything aside from whatever was going on in her own head, though. She sometimes gets some ideas about things-"

"Things you know neither of you told her?" Rapunzel smiled.

"You know how it is?" Anna asked.

"Hilde is that way. She takes herself so very seriously, and I don't think either of us tried to pressure her, but she still is so very serious about everything she does."

"I wish Inga had been a little more serious about this. Or maybe a little less serious. I don't know. She still hasn't told me what she was thinking, and I've been afraid to ask. It's stressful enough as it is."

"Of course," Rapunzel nodded. "I know Henry was quite serious about getting married."

"Just two more days and that will be done with."