After ten years, Tilia and Richard decide to retire.  They leave Umbria for a long vacation, intending to relax, ignore politics, and let the new monarchs learn to stand on their own.  Unfortunately, Albert starts calling desperately every few hours . . . which rather defeats the point of their vacation.  They finally determine to cut off his access, hiring a skilled wizard to create wards that permit only Cecelia to transport to or call them.

The terrified new monarchs flounder on for a year, doing a pretty poor job, their lack of confidence exceeded only by the bueaurocracy's mockery.  Jenny feels horribly guilty that she never has time to be a good enough mother, and she hates seeing nannies do all the work raising her kids.  Then a nasty epidemic sweeps across the nation, and all three kids are hit hard by it.  Jenny snaps.  She holes herself up with her three kids, refuses to leave, and will not touch the slightest hint of political obligations.  For the first time, Albert's left completely alone to run the country.

With half of Albert's counselors sick, and the rest pulling double-duties, he can't get them to help him.  He runs to Cecelia and begs her to contact their parents -- but she refuses.  She tells him to man up, stop crying, and get to work.  He knows what monarchs are for, and it's high time he learned how to do it.

So he goes home, in a haze of desperation to pull his country through.  Feverishly, he studies, creates laws, funds research, encourages, quarantines, does everything he can think of to get his people through this.  When he doesn't have time to sit waffling, he turns out to have sharp instincts and a talent for inspiring creativity.  By the time a cure is found, he's gone from a subject of mockery to demanding obedience and receiving it, but he doesn't even notice this change; he's too busy.  He's just shocked to realize, one day, that people have started praising his decisiveness and political acuity.

Jenny never does go back to full-time ruling.  She comes out of the crisis with an iron determination to spend her time with her family, and she only puts in face-time as a figurehead at necessary functions from then on.  Despite Albert's pleading -- he's convinced that she could be just as good a ruler as his mother used to be -- she fires all their children's nannies and begins full-time motherhood, complete with homeschooling.  He's rather stunned, as he is not sure what to do about this, but he eventually gets supportive when he notices their kids seem happy.