Important – My MC is Viktoria Petit, and my King Liam is called King Istvan
Rating – PG maybe? I don’t think there’s anything bad in here except a couple of swearing…
Disclaimer – Characters are Pixelberry’s, not mine, this is just for fun & I don’t make any money from it. There is also some direct text from The Polo Match Chapter included in my fic below.
This fic was written as part of the April Writing Challenge set by @laniquelove : April 16th: Random Headcanon – this is something that I first thought about when completing an MC questionnaire someone asked me a while back. So this fic explores that HC and actually gave me a timeline for it happening; the visit to Kiara’s estate, with the wine tasting and diplomacy over dinner…
Thank you for your support friends, as always appreciate any comments or constructive feedback – I hope that you enjoy this little (slightly long) one-shot x Enjoy – VP 💖
The first notions of the concept had come to her in beautiful Portavira. The success of the charity polo match had really got Viktoria thinking – if they really put their minds to it, how much good could they do in Cordonia? Imagine how many other worthy causes were out there – they shouldn’t just pull together to raise funds for emergencies… What if they could do something proactive, to enhance the everyday lives of Cordonia’s citizens? What if they leverage their status to help those in need? It could be a win-win situation: if the Cordonian people benefited from her idea, would it increase the royal family’s popularity? Could her idea help keep her precious Istvan safe?
Viktoria knew she had struck on something golden as she lay alone in bed that night; ideas swam around and around inside her head. There was little point in trying to sleep; she was too wound up by the excitement and possibility of it all. She switched the bedside lamp on, made herself a mug of warm coffee then jumped back under the soft white duvet, her dinky little laptop balanced on her knees. Hours passed in what seemed like minutes, she trawled dozens of websites, forums and blogs, bookmarking sites and rattling notes onto the Word document in the background. Finally, just after 4am, she closed her laptop, excited but satisfied as she curled up to try to catch a couple of hours sleep before they would be heading to Kiara’s family estate. She would try to steal Istvan away for a bit tomorrow to tell him all about her big idea…
—
The next morning, Viktoria finished packing and headed out of her room. She found her friends standing in the courtyard, huddled around Maxwell’s phone. Viktoria smiled,
“Morning, everyone. Are you watching the polo match highlights, or did Maxwell find another cute dog video?”
As Vik stepped closer, she could see the shock and anger written across their faces,
“Is everything ok?”
Hana looked like she might cry,
“No.”
Viktoria felt goose bumps forming: what the hell was going on? Drake’s face contorted as he fumed,
“Those bastards…”
‘Would someone just spit it out already?’ – Viktoria was beginning to panic,
“What happened?”
Maxwell stumbled over his words,
“It’s… It’s bad Viktoria.”
She looked to Istvan, wide-eyed as he explained,
“The attackers have sent out another video.”
Vik watched in horror as the assassin spoke to the camera,
“Look to your King, Cordonians. He could not protect his own court… And he cannot even protect the Crown’s most prized possession. Let the destruction of the orchard at Applewood serve as a message. Your government is weak. Divided. And soon… It will meet the same fate as the Cordonian Ruby.”
Adapting their travel arrangements to head directly to Applewood to survey the damage, Viktoria’s plan to discuss her idea with Istvan went on the back-burner. Now wasn’t the time. Her normally stoic fiancé was so consumed with anger and worry following the torching of the orchard, he needed all the support and gentle reassurance that she could give. Istvan, although a young King, was a very capable leader but the assassination attempt at the palace had shook him to his core, knocking his confidence in his own abilities. This latest threat had compounded the negativity he was feeling and Viktoria hated to watch her strong, lionhearted man doubt himself.
—
The day at Kiara’s chateau had gone well. Her family were among the nicest and most down-to-earth nobles that Viktoria had met during her time in Cordonia. Vik’s favourite thing about the day was that she’d been able to spend a decent amount of time with her fiancé. They’d had a twilight wine-tasting with their friends and Kiara’s brother Ezekiel overlooking the gorgeous rolling landscape of the family’s vineyard and the mountains beyond; she and Istvan had even selected a delicious red wine for their wedding toast, the Old Vine Zinfandel… Later that evening she’d found Istvan in the study at the chateau where he’d requested a selection of traditional Cordonian foods for them to try together – her favourite part had been the fresh bread with the apple butter dip. It had been a relatively stress-free part of the Unity Tour, considering the challenges she’d faced on some of the previous days… The couple were able to simply chat and enjoy each other’s company; she’d even been able to steal a few delicious kisses with Istvan.
As they rose and headed through the maze of corridors to their bedrooms, Viktoria decided this was the perfect opportunity to talk to him about her idea,
“Istvan, will you come to my bedroom for a moment? I have something I’d like to show you…”
Istvan grinned wickedly at her, gripping her wrist and spinning her flush against him in a tight embrace,
“Mmmmm… I like the sound of that… But… You know we shouldn’t Vik…”
She punched his arm lightly, feigning shock,
“So naughty your Highness!! It’s nothing like that… Although I still think it’s ridiculous that I can’t share a bedroom with my fiancé… But let’s not get back into that again!! I genuinely have something ON THE LAPTOP that I would like to show you. If you have ten minutes for me?”
She fixed a ridiculously sweet smile on her face and vigorously batted her eyelashes at him. Istvan chuckled, thinking to himself, ‘Another wedding moodboard!’, he’d already seen about a dozen, but putting them together made her happy, and he truly couldn’t wait until she was his wife. He tenderly kissed her forehead,
“For you, my beautiful girl, ten minutes is nothing.”
—
Istvan sat down on the small armchair beside the window in the ornate bedroom, Viktoria plopped her little laptop down on the occasional table so that he could see the screen. She paced back and forth, taking a deep breath as she started to impart her idea to him,
“I want to start a charitable foundation Istvan.”
He raised an eyebrow, this wasn’t what he expected but he was intrigued. She continued,
“What we all achieved together in Portavira was amazing, but why stop there? That was disaster relief, but if you start to talk about ‘philanthropy’, my god Ist, think about what we could do?!”
Viktoria hit her stride, her words coming faster; the enthusiasm coursed through her as she spoke,
“Let’s look at what we can do – in a variety of different settings: education, animal welfare, medicine, sport – whatever. We would raise funds and awareness for the issues that affect the daily lives of people living in Cordonia. Look at this-”
she tapped a few buttons on the laptop, setting images flashing before his eyes,
“-the idea is that you involve the public in the decision-making process. We let them nominate the causes, obviously we vet those to make sure everything is above board, and then you let the people vote for say five winning recipients. People love taking part Istvan – it’s like ‘The Voice’ or ‘The X Factor’!”
His mouth was slightly agape, he shook his head looking at the screen,
“Wow, Vik…”
She continued,
“I really want the people in Cordonia to accept me. I’m a foreigner, and a commoner, swanning in and marrying their King. I’ve been living in the lap of luxury since I came for the Social Season and haven’t contributed a single Euro in tax towards any of it… I feel like I should be giving something back to these people.”
He nodded,
“I think I understand what you’re saying. The Unity Tour hasn’t exactly been an inexpensive event.”
Viktoria grimaced,
“It’s not just that Istvan, we literally just finished a Global Engagement Tour for a wedding that didn’t happen… Between that and some of the policies your father has put in place like tax breaks for the wealthiest nobles…”
Istvan lowered his head, embarrassed,
“Well… Yes… I can understand why we aren’t highly popular in the opinion polls right now…”
She touched his arm,
“I wasn’t trying to be unkind when I said that; and there’s never an excuse for terrorism. But think about it this way Istvan: if we get involved, and I mean ‘grassroots’ with the Cordonian public, we can show people that we aren’t what these terrorists say we are. We can raise the royal family’s profile at the same time as we help people. And… I hope that the less controversial the royal family is, the safer our lives will be?”
Istvan stood up, wrapping his arms around her,
“You’re incredible? How the hell did I strike so lucky to meet someone like you on a random night in New York Vik? This is… Marvellous.”
Viktoria beamed at him,
“Do you like it? Do you think it’ll work Ist?? I mean, you know my degree was in Marketing and Event Planning so I could make a pretty good attempt at arranging and promoting Charity Balls, music or sports events, Gala Days… Hell, it’d be nice to actually get to use what I learned, didn’t exactly need my major wiping tables…”
Istvan gave her a sympathetic smile, she’d told him before about her dreams of running her own agency after university, but competition was so stiff, especially in New York… Vik didn’t have the capital to set up her own venture, and even getting a position in her field proved to be impossible; it was absolutely cut-throat in the City. That’s how she had found herself waitressing in the first place… She carried on,
“I know there’d be a lot more to running a foundation than that. I don’t know how to do everything, like the finance side of things, but I could get help, right?”
Istvan agreed,
“Of course. After the wedding, you should have more free time than we’ve had over the past couple of months. Vik you know you’d absolutely have my full support, but I don’t know how much time I’d be able to commit to helping out?”
Viktoria kissed his cheek and winked,
“What? You mean you’ll be too busy ‘King-ing’? I don’t want you to be under any more pressure than you already have Ist, this would be ‘my baby’. Maybe I could rope Maxwell in? I think since we got engaged and ‘Madeleine’ has been my Press Secretary, he’s feeling a bit left out, we used to spend lots of time doing things together. It’d be nice to get to do more stuff together again, I kinda miss all his craziness and the wake up calls…”
Istvan took her hand in his,
“Viktoria I think that is a wonderful idea. And I think Maxwell would be delighted.”
Viktoria sighed as she walked with him to the door, lacing her arms around his neck, prettily pouting,
“Do you reeeally have to go back to your own room tonight, your Majesty?”
Istvan’s hands rested on her curvy hips, leaning his forehead against hers, he whispered hoarsely,
“You’ve no idea how much I wish I didn’t have to sweetheart… But if I’m seen sneaking out of here in the morning…”
She smirked as she ran her shaped pink nails over his broad chest,
“You could just tell them we stayed up all night discussing ‘The Cordonian Monarchs’ Trust’…?”
—
End – VP 💖
