Choosing Love

Chapter Four

Mal gave a small laugh to try to cut the tension in the room. "I'm sorry, by the way, for cutting our meeting short the other day. I had family coming in that I hadn't seen in a while."

"Oh yes, King Ben did state that you'd have relatives coming in from the Isle," Natalie nodded. "I take it one of those relatives is responsible for that smudge?"

"Yeah," Mal nodded.

Natalie shook her head. "I know we've only just met but I would advise you spend more time with your family not from the Isle. After all, as a daughter of Hades, you have family all over Auradon. Why not the daughter of Hercules? You two should be around the same age."

Mal rolled her eyes. "I do spend time with my cousins on the Auradon side of things, but I spent my whole life around Uma."

"I know, I know," Natalie said in a strange tone of voice that Mal honestly couldn't put her finger on but it rubbed her the wrong way. "But you wouldn't want something to happen that might embarrass anyone would you?"

Mal tilted her head. "What do you—?"

"Now, as your handler, I'll be in charge of making sure you have the skills to make it in the royal court," Natalie said, cutting Mal off before she could finish her question. "That'll mean meetings, lessons, and of course you'll be arranging a tour of the kingdom and be responsible for planning cotillion."

"Isn't there a committee—?"

"Yes of course but you would be the head of that committee and making the final decisions on things like, lighting, decorations, party favors, etc. Princess Audrey had the spot previously but as she is no longer dating King Ben..."

Oh Gods, I've got a Sleeping Banshee fangirl as my handler, Mal thought and then inwardly shook her head. Okay you don't know that. After all, she's only mentioned Audrey once and really, did she say anything that wasn't true? Audrey's no longer dating Ben.

Natalie turned around and picked a book up off the desk behind her before turning back to Mal. "This will be the most important thing you'll ever use," she said. "King Ben's council has everything in place for your schedule."

"Okay...but what about classes?" Mal asked.

"That's factored in."

"Ben said he'd block out time for me to practice my magic," Mal said and unless she was mistaken, Natalie seemed to roll her eyes.

"Yes, yes. King Ben did reach out and we've blocked out three hours a week for you to practice your magic."

Mal smiled as she saw that those hours were in fact blocked out, highlighted in purple. If Ben knows about this planner, I've no doubt he's the one who blocked these hours out, she thought. All in all it wasn't as bad as she had thought. A few more lessons than normal, and she wasn't looking forward to the meetings about cotillion but all in all, getting used to the royal court wasn't as bad as she'd been imagining.

"Now these meetings are subject to change," Natalie told her as Mal thumbed through the planner. "I would suggest you read up on the royal court and the proper way to act."

"Oh, my mother's already done—"

"While I'm sure Maleficent has taught you many things, Mal, Auradon is different than the Isle," Natalie said as she plopped a stack of books onto one of the desks that was in the room.

"Lady Persephone's my mother," Mal stated, noting that it was probably one of the few times Natalie hadn't cut her off in the conversation.

"Of course, of course," Natalie nodded, as if she was humoring Mal. "But you did say that you lived with Maleficent for six years. That's what I understood from your speech at the coronation."