Chapter 376: Poor professor.
Sienna could not wait for anyone to beat her to the conclusion she had jumped to. "They are having an affair."
Almost everyone tilted their heads, wondering if that was truly what was going on.
"Ooh." Grace-lyn tapped Ali’s back slowly, "I thought you would say they eloped. It’s St. Vitts after all. They could be husband and wife already."
Sienna had actually thought the same thing initially, but, she didn’t want to make declarations without proof. "It did cross my mind, that they may have done one of those five minute weddings. But, my office has not yet received a request for an update in their marital status or proof of marriage in the form of a license. So, I can’t be sure that they are married. But I am sure they are knocking on each other’s doors at night."
Ali looked at her mother curiously. "Mm, mama, why would they knock on each other’s doors at night? Do they wake up hungry like me?"
The adults blinked.
Elias shot Sienna a warning look, as if he was worried about what she would say to their daughter.
"Yes baby, they are hungry." Sienna replied.
The professor cleared his throat at the front. The way he looked at their group, was without appreciation. He was trying to educate them, but they were gossiping. The dignified fox lord and matriarch of the fox clan!! Where was their etiquette?
They came across the glass dome where the lightning fish were housed. The water was sparking as fish swam back and forth. The kids were very excited to see it, and they Ali stuck her hands on the glass, smearing it with ice cream.
The professor, was so glad to see the enthusiasm that he drew in a sharp breath, exhaled and prepared to dazzle them on the history of lightning fish.
But just as he started to talk, Lady Cadelaria’s sharp voice cut across the group.
"You should all be careful in your dealings with the royal family lately. Someone in the ranks is preparing for divorce."
The professor froze, his mouth still open, pointer raised toward the hologram with detailed information on lightning fish. The man wondered if this was the kind of information he needed to be hearing. Then again, he had signed an NDA before joining the research team here. What the nobles said or did, was not to be revealed. If it leaked, tracing it back to the source was always easy.
"Ha! Since when are you a tattle tale, Cadelaria?" Sienna asked.
Cadelaria’s face turned slightly red. It wasn’t that she wanted to tattle, but she wanted to fit in within the new family dynamics.
"Who is it?" Grace-lyn asked curiously. "Please don’t say the queen and king. They are such a perfect couple."
"And yet the queen has not given the crown and heir after many years of marriage." Lord Marius finished with a ’tsk’. "If she is forced to divorce, it will not be in her favor. She will leave without a penny. She will never re-marry. And she definitely cannot ever have children. The only life she can live is like that of a widow. A dead queen is better than a divorced one."
Mrs. Miller’s gasp could have cracked the glass dome.
"A widow can re-marry, have a ....passionate life and have a child, if she pleases." Sienna pointed out. "But it’s not Serenya. If she was going to divorce, I would know." Besides, she had sent her aunt Linera to deliver ten fertility fruits to the queen. In ten days or less, the queen would be pregnant. She was certain that the queen had shared this information with the king. If he had waited for so many years, he could surely wait for a few days.
Grace-lyn’s wide eyes turned to Sienna. "Don’t tell me it’s the queen mother!"
The professor’s frown deepened as the family turned eagerly toward the gossip, ignoring the lightning snakes entirely.
"Now that’s a divorce I can get behind." Sienna said with a smile.
The professor tripped and nearly fell. As for the tour guide, she was pretending to be deaf and dumb. The professor steadied himself on the railing near the dolphin enclosure and cleared his throat, attempting to resume his explanation, but the tide of gossip was unstoppable.
"Divorce in the royal family." Chase shook his head. "That means scandal, inheritance disputes, and endless tribunal hearings. The last divorce in the royal family was sixteen years ago. It dragged on for three years."
Lord Marius snorted. "Because royal divorces are never about love. They are about power, land, titles and who gets the ancestral jewels. Mark my words, this will end in a war of lawyers."
Ali, still nibbling on the last bits of her ice cream chimed in with childish bluntness. "Mama, my ice cream has divorced me. I demand a new one."
The adults laughed.
The professor pinched his the bridge of his nose, muttering something about "unprofessional interruptions" under his breath. Sienna almost felt sorry for the man. When she caught his expression, she laughed. The poor man had no idea what a tour with her family was like. He was lucky that Eli was quietly nestled in her arms.
They moved onward, past tanks of giant squid, luminous ones, circular ones! Sienna had never seen so many different types of squids.
"Mama, don’t even think of cooking them." Ali warned.
While they laughed, the professor valiantly tried to redirect attention. "Observe the hydro-current stabilizers in each tank. They keep the water pressure balanced so the squids can thrive--"
But once again, he was cut off. This time, by Lord Chase Twindell, who had been scrolling through his holo-messaging board. "Dammit! I can’t believe they are going bankrupt. I just invested thirty million in one of their companies. What kind of noble family hires their matriarch’s uneducated lover as the CFO for their companies?"
Everyone moved in or turned to him. They were all involved in various businesses. News on bankruptcy could mean a big loss for someone in their group. Chase was already a victim.
"Who is going bankrupt?" Marius bellowed, pulling his phone out to heck the latest news. And he was not alone, because Elias, Sienna, Cadelaria...everyone was checking their phones. Even Eli!
The professor’s pointer had fallen to the ground. He was checking his phone as well, and anxiously looking at Lord Chase every other second. "Which family? You can’t say such things and leave us all hanging. If a noble family has fallen, that means dozens of businesses are about to be closed. Some people are about to lose everything!"
Anxiety swept through the group. Only Ali was happily focused on her second ice cream of the day.