This is all extremely wonderful, thank you so much. I love the callback to Marie Antoinette! (MT "I NEED this alliance, child of mine! Your brother thinks a promise from that awful man in Potsdam is worth the paper it's written on.")

I also love how you were like, "I know, I'll put in gobs and gobs of dates, that'll make Mildred happy." Mildred is happy. ;)