Having the attention all on me was something that I had never been used to. And while that had slowly increased after I had started dating Carter, I wasn't exactly thrilled when the attention was on me. That's exactly what this meeting and every one that followed after that was going to be like. Carter was always the center of attention in his meetings because he was the one who was making the final decisions. Now that would be me. I wasn't exactly looking forward to it, but I couldn't avoid these meetings.

They would just take longer and I wanted to get them over with as soon as possible. Of course, I realized though that this might not be the only time when I would have to meet with government officials. Usually, balls fell under the Queen's line of duties and I knew that it was going to be expected of me to throw more than one ball.

Carter had promised me that I could be as involved with making decisions for the country as much as I wanted to. Or I didn't have to be involved with it at all. I knew that I couldn't completely sit back and do nothing. There were things that were expected of me, but I definitely was going to leave all the decision making when it came to laws and things like that to Carter. I did sometimes give him advice if he was ever having a hard time deciding on something that he had no experience with and I did.

As long as I had experience with whatever topic Carter was having a hard time deciding about, then I was okay with giving him advice. I never directly told him what to do though. The final decision was up to him.

"Good afternoon, Queen Morgan," a guard said smiling at me as I exited the car. I smiled back at him and said hello. There were plenty of similar greetings after that from everyone that Carter and I came across as we walked into the palace and up to the library where the meeting was going to be held. I didn't think we would have to wait for the meeting to start.

It seemed like Carter had left with the promise of returning with me as quickly as possible. And my suspicions were only confirmed when we walked into the library and saw everyone waiting around in the room. There were conversations going on everywhere, but they weren't loud enough to fill the room and make you feel like you couldn't hear a thing. Carter took me around to greet everyone before we sat down. I hadn't quite mastered learning all the names of the government officials yet.

However, there were definitely a few that I did remember because I had seen them a lot more than others. I tried not to make it look like I forgot anyone's name, but hopefully everyone understood that with the people I didn't see as much, it wasn't easy to remember their names.

"Are you doing okay, babe?" Carter asked me after we had sat down. Everyone else was following suit. The chatter in the room was slowly dying down and it wouldn't be that much longer until this meeting was started. That was better than having to wait for it to be started sometime later.

"Sure. I just want to get this over with," I replied looking over at him.

"As long as no problems arise, then things will go by quickly," Carter said smiling at me. I nodded my head and then said, "I don't intend to create any problems."

"I know you won't create any problems. At least not on purpose," he replied.

A gravel was hit against the table after that, begging everyone to be silent. It took a couple of minutes before everyone was quiet and all eyes were on the man with the gravel in his hand. Unfortunately, I couldn't remember his name. He was one of the people that I didn't see very often so that wasn't surprising. Maybe with all the meetings I would have to attend for my coronation and ball, I would be able to learn everyone's names and be able to remember them every time that I saw these people again. That would be nice. And I knew all the government officials would appreciate it if I could remember their names.

"His name is Howard," Carter whispered into my ear just as Howard started speaking.

"Thank you all for being here, especially the queen. We are all pleased that you could join us on such short notice," Howard said looking towards me after glancing around at everyone us. I smiled and then said, "Thank you for having me."

"Well we'll get right down to business. Let's start off with the coronation. It's going to take more time to plan the ball than the coronation so we have more time to plan the ball if we finish planning the coronation first. Things are going to be different since the last time we had a coronation for a queen. The biggest difference between the current queen and the previous one is that this queen hasn't quite learned all the rules of being a royal. We, of course, know that learning everything is going to take time, but there are some things that we certainly need to make sure the queen masters before the coronation. If the king has no objection, I would like Mrs. Braun to teach the queen," Howard said his eyes trailing over to my husband.

"Oh no," I heard Carter say under his breath. He sat up straighter and seemed to give the suggestion a thought and I think that was only because he didn't want Howard to know that he did not like the idea at all. I had never heard of Mrs. Braun, but that was probably because no one had ever suggested before that I be taught how to be a queen.

I figured that eventually someone would suggest I should be taught how to act like a queen when I was in public so I wasn't completely surprised. The only thing I was really surprised was that it hadn't been suggested sooner. Maybe Carter had been able to put it off until now. He couldn't exactly put it off anymore because now I was queen and I was going to be expected to show up at important royal events with my husband. And I was going to be expected to act like a queen, not like a commoner. Hopefully I wouldn't screw anything up. The attention would most definitely be more focused on me for awhile.

"Is there anyone else that Morgan and I can choose from? I'm not quite sure that Mrs. Braun is going to be the best option to teach my wife on how to be a queen," Carter said after a couple of minutes. I think there was a good chance that Carter had been taught by this woman at one point in his life. He seemed to be familiar with her and by the way he reacted to Howard's suggestion, I assumed he didn't like her. Or at least Carter didn't think she was a good teacher.

"Well I guess that we can give you some other options. Your parents used Mrs. Braun though, which is why I suggested her," Howard said looking confused. He probably had no idea why Carter wasn't agreeing to hiring Mrs. Braun.

"That would be great. My wife and I will choose someone best suited for her as soon as possible so Morgan's lessons can get started," Carter said.

"Alright then, does this mean that you're going to want to options with everyone we hire instead of using the people your parents usually use?" Howard said. I could tell that he was dreading the answer, like he was afraid of the changes of using different people than the previous king and queen. It made me feel like he was a fan of Carter's parents and wasn't thrilled with serving a new king and queen. I hadn't missed the fact that he had only used the instead of our when referring to me as queen. He didn't seem to think that I was his queen.

***

Almost three hours later, Carter and I left the library of the palace. We didn't talk the whole way home, but that was mostly because we didn't want to talk in front of Henry. He was a nice guy, but there was a possibility that he could pass on anything that Carter and I said in the car. It was safer for Carter and me to just wait until we got home to talk about what had happened in the meeting.

I wasn't too thrilled with how some of the government officials had treated me even though I knew that there were people who didn't approve of me being queen. They hadn't really figured out yet that I didn't want to have any part in ruling over the country. I only married Carter because I fell in love with him and want to spend the rest of my life with him. There was no ulterior motive as to why I married Carter.

My husband had been an absolute sweetheart throughout the whole meeting. That was no surprise though. If I had ever felt like Carter wouldn't defend me against someone who was treating me unfairly, then I wouldn't even be with him. I knew that it couldn't be easy for him though, defending me. He probably had lost some favor with some of the government officials, but that hadn't seemed to bother him. I don't think Carter really cared if they liked him, just as long as they could do their jobs without letting their opinions get in their way.

"We'll see you later, Henry," Carter said after the car had pulled up in front of our house. I hadn't even realized that we had arrived home until I heard my husband speak up.

"Goodbye, your highnesses," Henry said turning around to nod at the both of us. I smiled at Henry and said goodbye before following after my husband, getting out of the car as I held onto Carter's hand.

After Carter had helped me out of the car, I moved towards the front door and he shut the door. I had the front door unlocked by the time that he came up behind me. The car that we had just been in drove off and Carter shut the door to our townhouse after he had followed me inside. I heard the door lock as I took my coat off and headed down the hallway to the closet, going to be able hang it up this time since I had never done that when I had come home earlier.

"Are you okay?" Carter asked me as he followed me down the hallway. I looked over at him as I opened up the closet door and then grabbed an empty hanger.

"I'll be fine. They're not the first people to dislike me," I replied smiling at my husband, handing him an empty hanger so he could hang up his coat.

"I thought everyone was going to be civil. It's not like any of them ever put up a fight to stop us from getting married," Carter said as we both put our coats on the hangers we were holding. I hung up my coat once I was done and then took Carter's coat from him before hanging it up next to mine. After stepping back, I shut the door.

"Maybe they thought that your mother would put a stop to the wedding," I replied.

Carter and I stepped from the hallway into the kitchen. It was well past lunchtime and neither of us had eaten since breakfast this morning. I knew I was hungry. And I'm sure my husband was well so I headed over to the fridge to see what was inside of it. I knew that there were some leftovers that we could heat up and eat for lunch. Since dinner was only a couple hours away, neither of us needed to eat a big meal so a little bit of leftovers will do until it was time for us to cook dinner.

"If that's true, then they're not the only ones who thought that. I thought my own mother was going to do everything in her power to try and stop us from getting married, but she didn't even try one thing," Carter said as I felt him press his body against mine. I was pretty sure that meant he was hungry and wanted to see what was in the fridge as well.

"You're not going to fire any of them, are you?" I asked him.

"If you want me to, I will," Carter replied before I felt him lean even closer to me and then saw his arm reach for the leftover rice and chicken dish we had a couple nights ago. It had teriyaki sauce on top that also had been used to marinate the chicken with.

"I don't want you to do that. That'll just give the more reason to dislike me. If you find another reason as to why you should fire them, then by all means fire them because of that. Are you going to eat all of that?" I asked as I watched him take the container over to the island. I shut the door to the fridge and then walked over to stand right next to my husband.

"I'm guessing that means that you want some?" he asked looking at me. I nodded my head.

"Then I won't eat all of it. I'll share it with you," Carter said smiling at me. I smiled back and then we leaned in to kiss one another.

After Carter and I pulled away from one another, I turned around and bent down to grab some bowls from one of the cupboards in the kitchen while I heard Carter open up the container and grab a spoon to dish out the leftovers. I went back over to him and set the bowls down on the counter before watching my husband evenly separate the chicken and rice into the two bowls.

I picked up my bowl once Carter was done and took it over to the microwave to warm up my late lunch. Once I was done, Carter warmed up his lunch as I went over to the table to set down my bowl. I left my bowl on the table and went to grab forks for me and Carter.

When those were on the table, I went over to a different cupboard than the one that I had gotten the bowls from and grabbed two glasses. I set one on the counter for Carter and then went back to the fridge to fill my glass with ice and water. A little more than five minutes later, Carter and I were both sitting down at the table eating our lunches.

"Are you glad that you're done for the day?" I asked him. Carter nodded his head as he said, "Yeah, I thought that they were going to want to continue with our regular meetings after we were done talking for the day about your coronation. But much to my surprise, they decided to call it a day. Everyone seemed kind of eager to go home."

"They sure did. But I'm not complaining about all the extra time I get to spend with my husband now that he's free of meetings for the rest of the day," I said winking at him.

"I'm not complaining either. I'd rather be here with you then in those long meetings," Carter said as he winked back at me. I think we both knew where we were going to be and what we were going to be doing for the next couple of hours until we were hungry for dinner.

***

The meetings continued after the first one and turned into a twice a week thing that I seemed to dread more and more every time a meeting came up. Like Howard had mentioned at the first meeting, the coronation didn't take as long to plan as the ball. It was a pretty standard event that didn't require a lot to be planned because there wasn't that much to ever change. It was one tradition that every royal, either born or married, had to follow.

I had seen Carter go through his so it wasn't too much of a shock to hear all the things I had to do during the coronation. The only thing I was worried about was screwing up something, but Carter assured me plenty of times that everything was going to be fine and that I was going to be perfect. I don't think I was going to be perfect, but hopefully I won't mess up anything that would offend people, government officials included. It was lucky that I had such a helpful husband.

I don't think I would be able to get through this whole royal thing without him. It could have been a different story if I was the one who had been born royal. Then I would be teaching him how to be royalty instead of him teaching me. Carter had been exposed to the royal life a lot longer than me. And the things that he was used to were things that I was still trying to grasp because I was just being exposed to the royal life.

I've had a little experience with the royal life ever since I started dating Carter and maybe even a little bit before that, but now I was fully immersed in being a royal even if I didn't know exactly know how to be one. I guess you could say that I knew the basics.

You had to be extremely proper, which Carter's mother always was and still is today. If you didn't know she was no longer the queen, then you would think she was. She was even proper when she wasn't in public because she felt like that was how royal should always behave no matter where they were. I don't think I could do that even if I had been born a royal. It was tiring to always be on your best behavior. There definitely were things that I needed to work on to be a little more proper, but changing your everyday habits was going to take time.

Since I was never officially considered a royal until after Carter and I were married, I wasn't expected to completely act like one. At least not until we were engaged. After that I was expected to act more like a royal and follow rules that all royals were expected to follow.

There were definitely people expecting me to fail, even hoping I would, but I knew that there were other people who knew that I was doing my best to act like a royal. My first real test would be at the coronation. It was going to be my first official outing as queen and when the date was set and grew closer with every passing day, I became more nervous. I had tried hard not to think about the fact that the coronation was going to be televised and even more people would be watching.

I was kind of hoping that the government officials would decide against televising my coronation since I was only royalty by marriage, but they had decided it would be a good idea even though I wasn't sure how it was. Maybe they were hoping I would mess up and get more people to disapprove of me.

"Do you think your mother would want my coronation televised?" I asked Carter one night about two months later since the meetings had started. We were planning the ball, but that didn't mean that plans couldn't change for the coronation.

"I don't know. Why?" Carter asked me as he stared at the television. We were watching a crime show that I couldn't really focus on at the moment. I hadn't been able to watch any show properly since Carter had told me that I had to have a coronation and a ball.

"If she doesn't want my coronation to be televised then maybe she'd be willing to ask the government officials to cancel those plans," I said.

"How are you going to make it so she doesn't think that's what you want? You know if she knows that you don't want your coronation televised, then she'll want it televised. And anyways, I think my mother knows about your coronation being televised so if she didn't want it to be television then she would have already done something about it. My father keeps her updated and the government officials keep my father updated if they beat me to it," Carter replied still watching the television.

That was probably true. Just because we rarely saw Carter's mother didn't mean that she didn't know what was going on. There was always someone else to keep her informed. Carter's father only kept her up to date if Carter and I were okay with her knowing the news. That was usually private information though, like when our wedding date was. She hadn't been told when our wedding date was until after we had gotten married. Carter had decided that he didn't want her there simply because she had never once supported our relationship.

I had been kind of torn between his decision. On one hand, she was his mother and his mother should be at his wedding, but on the other I strongly disliked the woman so I didn't really want her there. Hopefully Carter never regretted his decision not to invite his mother to our wedding. The only way that would really happen is if Carter and his mother reconciled though.

"I guess that means I have to have my coronation televised no matter what," I said sighing and leaning my head back against the couch. Carter's hand grabbed mine and I felt him squeeze our hands together. He didn't let go of my hand when he stopped squeezing.

"You're going to be alright babe. You've been doing so well, just stop thinking so much about what is going to happen if you fail. It won't be the end of the world if you do. I'm still going to love you," Carter said looking at me this time. I smiled at him, leaned in to give him a kiss, and then when I pulled away, I said, "Thanks. I don't know if I can't stop thinking about it as much as I have been doing, but I'm going to try my best."

It was silent after that and I turned towards the television, hoping to get lost in the show and get my mind off of my upcoming coronation. Unfortunately the show that Carter had picked out was towards the end so having missed most of it, I let my mind wander off to think about the coronation. As much as I was dreading it, I couldn't wait for when it was going to be over with. I would be able to breathe a lot easier because then I would have to only deal with the ball, which was something that I wasn't too worried about.

The focus would still be on me, but it wouldn't be on me all the time. I wasn't going to be at the front of a room with people sitting behind me watching my every move. At the ball, I would be able to move around freely without so many eyes on me. There would probably be a few eyes on me everywhere that I went in the ballroom, but it would be better than the coronation.

"You ready for bed? Or do you want to watch another episode?" Carter asked breaking me out of my thoughts. I looked over at him and then said, "Let's watch the next episode. I completely missed the one that was just on."

"Everything's going to be alright babe. And when this is all over, you'll be so proud of yourself of getting through it instead of trying to find a way out of it. You know that if I could just snap my fingers and stop this from happening, I would, but I can't," Carter responded letting go of my hand, putting his arms around my shoulders and then pulling me closer to him. I leaned my head against his chest and got a little more comfortable.

"I know you would do that for me. I know that you would do anything for me. Thank you for everything you do for me, Carter. I love you so much," I said hugging my husband tightly. He kissed me on the top of my head and then said, "I love you so much too."

After that I was able to watch the next episode of the show that Carter had picked. I knew though it wasn't going to keep me from ever not thinking about my coronation again. It was going to creep into my mind once more. And it was only going to stop once my coronation had been finished. It was probably going to be the longest day of my life, but I'll be super happy and less stressed was it was all done with.