[iAt Amalie's hesitation to his question, Orion's mind began to fret, could the bumpy journey disrupt his, no, their child's development, could it cause the Queen to miscarry, would the excitement and stress over seeing her family once again hinder her pregnancy? To be fair, Orion probably didn't give his wife's strength enough credit, she wasn't weak or feeble, she was strong and very rarely succumbed to illness, she was wary when disease was reported. She wasn't the nimble flower he imagined her to be, she couldn't wither with the cold, no Amalie was strong, Amalie was a fighter. There was no doubt in his mind that she would do anything within her power to deliver this child into the world, and surely god wouldn't be cruel enough to take another child from him, he had lived his life by The Lord above; Kings were chosen by divine intervention, it was the reason the Lancaster's had managed to merge the separate kingdoms into one, all those years ago, it was The lords will and he would be damned if the line was to end with him.
"I will be perfectly fine, Ori. Do not worry. The physician said the heartbeat was strong. And I will be careful, I promise you," Amalie finally reassured and the King found himself taking a sigh of relief at the thought of his son having a strong heartbeat. With a quick nod and a small smile Orion let his worries evaporate, for the time being, no doubt something else would resurface later to cause him anguish. Suddenly the thought of the summit didn't seem as daunting, naturally he was still a little worried, he had never met Sir Francis Rayleigh, he always rejected all invitations to court or for a audience; pressing his knuckles to his lips, Ori went into a deep thought about the Rayleigh's, it wasn't so much that he was afraid of a rebellion but rather sabotage, who they try and assassinate him at this summit? He liked to think they were more civilised then that but the truth was, you never really know the people you are closest with, so how can you presume to know strangers?
Amalie squeezed his free hand, bringing him sharply from though, "Focus on the summit, my love. You know how important peace is to me,I don't want my children to grow up in a world full of war." Orion frowned briefly, he was fully aware of his wife's objections to a war, he didn't particularly fancy one either, he had seen one war and that had been enough, but sometimes the only way to get through to people like the Rayleigh's was by brute force and he will do anything to keep the Seabel throne under Lancaster rule. "My dear, you know I will do what I can" he sighed "but, I must warn you not to set your heart on the success of this meeting, we both want very different things, the Rayleigh's want the South to become its own country and I will not, for the life of me let that happen, I will not be the one who goes to the halls of my fathers, a man who ruined what they fought to build, I can not be that King" he uttered, his voice strong and powerful, he did not wish to alarm Amalie, but, he did not want her to suffer a crushing blow if these meetings proved to be a waste of time, like he suspected them to be, though, he did take solace that he would get to know his enemy a little better.
"I need you to do something for me..." He began cautiously, what he was to ask her would probably be something she would strongly object against, but she was in a powerful position to help him "sweetheart, I need you to gather what information you can, from Harriet about the Rayleigh's. Please know, if I could ask anyone else, I would, unfortunately Rayleigh supporters are loyal and they do not trust strangers, the only way for me to know what they are thinking is through your sister, she will open up to you and you can listen." He asked, his blue eyes trailing up her body to meet her eyes.[/i]