  &quot;Well, certainly not,&quot; Queen Marta stuttered because of James s sudden presence. &quot;But your queen gave me her word--&quot;
  &quot;A promise is a promise but when one family member needs immediate care and attention, he or she deserves all the proper care and attention they need,&quot; James replied, interrupting Queen Marta. He stood beside me and continued, &quot;If your family had this kind of situation, we would humbly understand and move the meeting to another day.&quot;
  &quot;In doing so, it shows you and your family don t value time at all,&quot; she smirked as she opened her fan, trying to cower James with her insensitive remarks.
  &quot;On the contrary, we do value time in this kingdom,&quot; James stepped forward with a confident smile. &quot;We value time with the people important to us. Meetings can wait and can happen at any time but when our family is in 

  She then took a deep breath, clearing her throat. &quot;It seems your son can already handle certain negotiations himself,&quot; she turned to James. After taking one last sip, she stood up and we did the same. &quot;I guess there s no reason for me to break the deal on what we agreed on. Your son is very intelligent, very capable. You must be proud,&quot; she smirked at James. &quot;Now, if you gentlemen would excuse me, I have a kingdom to attend to.&quot; We all did our respective bows and she just walked away, keeping her head up high. As soon as she stepped foot out of the room, the door slammed shut.
  James turned to me, impressed. &quot;You did well.&quot;
  &quot;She sounded like she was insulting us,&quot; I replied as I looked at him. &quot;I never wanted a mother-in-law such as her but since there s no way of getting out of the marriage, it s the least I could do. I will ne

  On a more personal note, Laura and I have yet to see each other again. I haven t visited her yet because I don t know if she still wants to see me after what happened. Maybe, this is for the best. Maybe, this is the sign that I have to forget her and everything that ever happened involving her.
  My solemn thoughts were interrupted when the trumpets started to play a fanfare outside, the bells started ringing as well. I quickly prepared myself and rushed to the Grand Hall.
  ???
  When I arrived at the stairs, I saw a lady wearing a big gown with a humongous fancy hat. Her face was absolutely covered with some kind of white paint. Red color circles on her two cheeks. She was talking to James, holding her large fan with her. She looked like a monarch but I couldn t tell what her title was with all the lavish things on her. I fixed myself one last time before walking towards them.
  Gonz

&quot;Well, certainly not,&quot; Queen Marta stuttered because of James s sudden presence. &quot;But your queen gave me her word--&quot;
  &quot;A promise is a promise but when one family member needs immediate care and attention, he or she deserves all the proper care and attention they need,&quot; James replied, interrupting Queen Marta. He stood beside me and continued, &quot;If your family had this kind of situation, we would humbly understand and move the meeting to another day.&quot;
  &quot;In doing so, it shows you and your family don t value time at all,&quot; she smirked as she opened her fan, trying to cower James with her insensitive remarks.
  &quot;On the contrary, we do value time in this kingdom,&quot; James stepped forward with a confident smile. &quot;We value time with the people important to us. Meetings can wait and can happen at any time but when our family is in some kind of emergency, family comes first before anything.&quot;
  &quot;Well… your son could ve 

Chapter 27 Sudden (a)