...
London, Kensington Palace, Rose Hall.
The fireplace in the classroom quietly burned, casting a gentle light on the desk beneath the velvet curtains.
Princess Victoria sat behind the small central desk, furrowing her brow as she transcribed Shakespeare's passage annotations with a quill pen on the exam paper while Arthur stood by the tall desk behind her, holding a lesson plan in his hand, occasionally glancing at Victoria's paper and the clock ahead, calculating how much time remained until the end of the test.
The Duchess of Kent, dressed in a gray-blue silk gown, sat with poise on the wicker chair by the window, holding a fan motionless, her eyes constantly fixed on her daughter, leaving no room for any distraction.
Lady Leisen sat beside her on a low stool, frowning slightly while organizing today's thick stack of class notes to prepare for revisiting the day's lessons if Princess Victoria decided to review them that evening.
