[i]“This way, your most royal highness. We continue the tour around your kingdom. Robert, please lead the way.”[/i]

Claire was actually warming up to her fiancée, if only for the day. “Finally, someone sees me for what I truly am,” she laughed, taking his arm and following Robert throughout their soon-to-be home. She did think it was funny how the other bedroom already had furniture, but she didn’t comment. Maybe theirs was just that magnificent?

When he mentioned dinner parties Claire visibly pouted, hating the idea of spending her time on such silliness. Unlike most married women who owned a house this large [i]she[/i] had a job to do, and an important one at that. Surely parties could be put off for a while. “Wait. You’re joking,” she asked with narrowed eyes, an uncertain grin on her face. “Spirits don’t actually exist! I’ve never seen one, and I don’t believe in things I cannot see, Nicholas, except God himself. You’ll have to either show me one or stop speaking like a child,” she informed him. “Talking about ghosts isn’t a very nice way to introduce me to the estate, you know!”

[i]“The library, I believe is almost as large, but at the moment the book collection of yourself and your father’s is still in York.”[/i]

Claire was walking along one of the near windows within the ballroom, admiring the outside view when she heard Robert go on. “Is that where you’re originally from?” she asked, turning back to look at him. “Do you have any family besides your father? Siblings, your mother?”

It was a gorgeous room, the floor looking as if it were just polished that morning. It really would be a grand place to host events. “Nick,” Claire sighed, holding out her hands for him to take as she came back to stand in front of him, “you said you always wanted a simple life. Why are you pushing for this grand, overdone wedding, then?” A wedding, then parties…it was beginning to sound like she would be talking to everyone in England…

Perhaps she could turn this around yet. “When Father says everyone will be there, does he mean all those fancy men in uniforms, too? The higher-ups doing all that work and planning to defend our country and honor in this war?” Yes, play the part of the ignorant woman who only pays attention to titles and flashy clothing. It made her want to gag, but nobody was afraid to part important information to someone who seemed innocent, especially if it gave them their five minutes of fame in front of the ladies. “If we [i]must[/i] have this wedding, if we can’t just run off and have the ceremony ourselves, then I do wish to meet all of them. I have so much respect for anyone willing to put their lives on the line for this country, don’t you?” Right. Put their lives out there needlessly, when it wasn’t even their war to fight. Why Britain would get involved in the first place was beyond her, for it had been explained to her that Russia was only trying to expand land for better ports so they could trade. Was that so wrong? And as for the religion aspect of it, as far as she knew Russia was doing what was best for the Ottoman Empire. She hadn’t seen it that way at first, but after multiple conversations she finally saw it the “way things really were”. And Britain was in the wrong for interfering.

“Perhaps after meeting them we could have them over for one of our ballroom parties.” Or if they got to the right people, a private dinner would be even better. “Even they need to relax and forget the troubles of the world,” she commented, slipping her hands away from his and laying them on his chest. This house was helping her forget her own. It was a terrible shame she couldn’t fully enjoy it like a wife should be able to.