The doughnuts and hamburger, though blander than the ones back home, revitalized me so the following day I handled the bridal lessons like a champ. Even the nitpicking Madame Chalaise was impressed.
Since I was starting to get the basics down she had me run what I could only think of as drills from a very sissy boot camp—walking with a book on my head while wearing impossibly high heels, smiling, turning, waving, repeating.
Once I got into a rhythm it was a mindless task so I could focus on other things. I ran a mental tally of what I knew about the people in this place, both from the novel and my own observations.
I only saw the king at meal times. In the book he actually wasn't all that important a character. He was on Sigmund's side but in the end passed away before he could do much to help his heir due to an unexpected illness.
