It was time for the dreaded documents. Amaya took them out of their leather envelope and placed them in front of him.

"I want you to read this summary and tell me if there's anything more to add to it."

Her new partner did not move. "What is it?"

"It's everything my spies have uncovered... you prefer. A list. And I wanted you to confirm it is complete."

"A list?"

"Yes. Read it and let's move on."

"Now?"

"Do you want me to get one of the secretaries, to read it to you? Out loud?" Her eyebrows helped communicate her sarcasm.

He dragged the paper closer to him, still looking at Amaya. "I see that the seduction part of your plan has ended."

"The... seduction part... has not started. You will know if it does." She pronounced 'if' with the appropriate amount of doubt. Behind her words, Amaya was flattered that he thought she was trying to seduce him, it meant the conversation did not go as badly as she had feared. He did not find her behaviour as unpleasant as she thought he would.

He finally started to read the documents she knew by heart. It took a person three minutes to get through it all. She counted in her head, moving her eyes over the shelves, for each title she saw, she added a second.

At the count of sixty, he lifted his eyes and surprised her. "And... how is Greta?"

Amaya launched into her prepared speech, without pausing for breath.

"Greta told me to tell you she is deeply sorry and she hopes that you would understand and forgive her. She enjoyed your time together, and she underlined you are always welcome to visit her at her new castle if you ever want to."

He pushed the paper back. He already knew what was in it, obviously, he had been there, he remembered that night.

"Is that everything?" she insisted. "There is nothing else that you would need? I want to be... prepared. It's not worth being Queen if I'm going to get dragged into a dungeon every night." Her choice of words was intentional, and he knew it.

Amaya decided to give him a push, "At least not without a warning." That should get him to reconsider his silence.

"It's everything," he said as if defeated.

"Then," her brightest smile said, "It won't be an issue."

He was rattled, men often were, when faced with her natural ruthlessness. Amaya saw him getting an idea, because his eyes moved, measuring her. She prepared herself for the worst.

"Then, the first floor bedroom that I've shown you," he shuffled through his sketches, "becomes an actual bedroom, where we will meet, at a set time, daily, to..."

He was looking down, so the smile she wore, waiting to see how he was going to phrase that further, was invisible to him.

"... discuss the status of our plan and what has been done and what needs to be done next. A command centre, where the mutual interests will be handled. The rest remains the same."

Amaya was serious again when he finally looked up, mirroring his expression.

"I did not think to gather information about you, because I clearly underestimated your," he searched for a word, "Methods."

But, of course, he had already found a solution.

"We will just have to rely on our honesty pact."