The King cleared his throat and began his rehearsed speech.<br/><br/>"The honor goes to meself, me family, and the peoples of these kingdom, my lord.  We have enjoyed good relation with we friends in the Reikmar Compact many before your princes were united into one nations, and We are overhappy now to take this walk to making these relations .. more formality."  The king was speaking in the language of the Reikmar, which in many ways bore no resemblance to his native tongue.  It was, however, the native language of both his wives (past and present) and so it was not totally alien to him.  Several of the Council suggested it would be a magnanimous gesture to greet the envoy in his native language, but he'd had precious little time to practice.  The king somehow managed to not mangle it too badly -- or so he thought.<br/><br/>So much for the concession to welcome him in his own language.  Switching to a more civilized tongue - and specifically the Miragliano dialect of said language, the King presented his lovely young Queen and the Crown Prince to the Count - and by extension to the Count's entourage.  The king's manner of dress looked rather plain compared to the Count's.  It had been selected for him by the Queen.  Ironic in that the nobles and even the merchant class of Miragliano had throughout history tended to dress more elaborately than the "barbarians" that would become the Reikmar Compact.<br/><br/>The King, and everyone else in the kingdom it seemed, were unaware the Queen and the Count had met before.<br/><br/>=======<br/><br/>As for his part, Gilberto, the Crown Prince, had decided of his own accord to wear the elaborate officer's uniform of his own Regiment.  He knew women liked men in uniform - well, in elaborate uniforms anyway - and his beautiful stepmother had once commented on how handsome he looked in it.  He never suspected the Count would be in military uniform as well, and by all objective measurements, the Count's uniform outshone his own.<br/><br/>Gilberto tried not to appear intimidated, but that was certainly how he felt.  In the battle of the uniforms, he felt he was in competition for the attention of the most beautiful woman present -- the Queen -- and he had lost.  And he didn't know what to do about it.  It was one thing to feel jealousy toward his father -- that was something he'd learned to accept.  But now, he felt jealousy toward this new interloper and it would take time for him to figure out what to do about it.<br/><br/>With a hint of sadness in his eyes, he glanced at the beautiful Queen to see how she was reacting to the handsome Count.