The area that half his sandwich had vacated was no sooner filled by the half of Luke’s pasta dish. He took care not to spill any strand on the table, but not too careful as to plate the pasta in a manner as presentable as the kitchen staff or any professional chef would. It ended up a pile of noodles, tomatoes, with the lobster sitting on top. It was the taste that she enjoyed anyway, not the presentation.

The image manager, her expressive face had closed off after hearing the princess elect’s proposal. Luke couldn’t have guessed what exactly Ms. Viscomi was thinking of at that moment, which side of the argument was winning. On one hand, Rhiane had a point. Her natural charisma and easy sense of humor was what won the public over. On the other hand, if she failed to deliver the impression of the royal family that the queen expected of her during the first public broadcast as the princess elect and officially the crown prince’s future bride, it would take the campaign back to square one. In short, in the event that Rhiane Black failed, Luce Viscomi’s work load would be doubled. He understood her hesitation, but Luke consented his fiancee's idea anyway.

With the half of Rhiane’s sandwich in one hand, he addressed the appointed image manager. “I do not see any problem with it. Teleprompters will be switched on regardless, am I right?” 

“Yes, your highness.” She was clutching her tablet close to her chest as if it was where she was getting all her reassurances from. “We have prepared a set of answers for every question that was enumerated by the interviewer. Of course, every statement was in line with the vision of her majesty, Queen Camilla. Ms. Black, I was meaning to run the pre-approved statements through with you for your personal comments. Rest assured, the intention of the crown is not to feed the words to your lips, but to make sure that the public is not misguided.” 

The public was being misguided by near lies and almost truths anyway. It didn’t matter if the pre-approved script would be used or not, Rhiane knew how to push a message across her audience. She had, in his opinion, no intention of maligning the image of her benefactor, especially not on the first day of her engagement with Luke. “Here’s what you will do, Ms. Manager,” Luke started. “Leave your script on the teleprompters as if Ms. Black has every intention of reading it. She will not be expected to recite it for the camera, but it will stay nonetheless as a back-up in case she finds herself at a loss of words. It should arrest your worries about her looking silly.” Which he doubted. If anything, his very opinionated future wife had a lot to say about matters in general.

“Will that be okay with you?” He turned to Rhiane, smiling. Though it was not clear if it was because of the confidence she had displayed going against protocol, or because he was imagining her screaming her lungs out and regretting the night she brought the idea up to Luke. “Needless to say, I accept. You will have your fair share of adrenaline rush with or without Ms. Viscomi’s consent. That is, if the queen will not have your head after tonight.”

“Or her tongue,” Ms. Viscomi chimed in. “Ms. Black’s head is much too pretty to waste.”

Luke nodded in acknowledgement. Rollercoasters and sky diving, he thought as he bit into the juicy bit of meat of the sandwich, what had he turned this woman into? Could their little daredevil act in the island woken up the thrill-seeker that had long slept within her? Establishing to the public that she enjoyed those kinds of activities would only make it easier to weave a story around the accident that would eliminate her from the royal line. Mistakes were not uncommon even when a rollercoaster or a parachute was properly maintained.

“I’m sure you can manage the interview without the palace staff’s help,” he said in a much lower tone. “Without any doctor examining you and giving his clearance, I’m more concerned about your body’s capacity to finish the interview. I don’t want you collapsing during live broadcast, so tell me right at this moment if you are still feeling ill.”