Achilleas glanced at Evangelina, took what she said onboard. Perhaps there were those who might have responded differently to the challenges he’d found set in his path, but he couldn’t understand them. Nevertheless there was a small glow of pleasure at her words. He wanted to meet the expectations of those that looked to their King. Some of it was the need to prove himself, always, a trait that had become as much part of him as anything could be. And then perhaps more because of the doubts and questions he now had about his own father, he wanted to be better. Upright. The fact that despite his private stumbles that some people at least he could see that he was trying would be enough to satify him for now.
“.....thankyou” he managed. “That means...well, a lot actually.” He smiled at her, briefly unburdened, though his eyes still bore shadows of fatigue that came from poor rest. Achilleas knew he’d probably pushed the tolerance of his schedule enough already, and much as talking with Lady Evangelina had been a pleasant respite, he could delay no longer.
He offered his arm to the young woman to escort her back to the Palati, wondering where Theodora might be found at this hour of the day, only to pull a face at the request that fell from the Leventi woman’s lips. “I have no idea” he confessed, thinking how ungrateful it sounded. It was not his intent, but things had been rather scattered and chaotic since then.
“I think...many things were sent to Euttica and then with everything it is not something that has been looked at I don’t think. Unless Theodora has...I’m not sure. You can ask her”
The new Queen had been indispensible in addressing those things that Achilleas himself had paid no heed to. The organisation of getting Stephanos and Pia’s things moved and stored safely, of bringing what was needed from the Mikaelidas manor. Achilleas had one day found the entire contents of his study had materialised at the palati and he had no idea how. It was just there.
He supposed, like so many other things, that eventually someone would get round to addressing the wedding gifts too. It wouldn’t be him, not with the days before his departure sliding away like the ocean on a receding tide. “I’m sure if you’re curious, Theodora would appreciate the help in sorting the gifts” he added with a sideways glance at the pintsize Leventi, before escorting her back towards the palace to find her cousin and his wife.
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