'The Royals' Gives The Queen Her Own Saucy Story

Amongst the many, many dramatic story lines unfolding on the E!'s first scripted series The Royals , from Prince Liam's love triangle to Princess Eleanor's blackmail-as-a-result-of-date-rape issue (which isn't sitting quite right with me), one of the most mysterious story lines by far is that of Queen Helena's secret boyfriend Captain Lacey. In the series' second episode "Infants of the Spring," the Queen enters her bedroom after a long day at a garden party, kisses a man she'd paid particular attention to at said party, and tells him that she loves him. That's all we get. We know that his name is Captain Alistair Lacey, and he is a "highly decorated war hero" — nothing more. Naturally, the question on all our minds is how Captain Lacey and Queen Helena know each other, and almost more importantly, how long they've been having these secret rendevous.

At the moment, it looks like no one even knows that Alistair and Helena knew each other before the start of the garden party. In fact, the Queen's adviser Rachel (who is now also Eleanor's social media adviser) introduced Captain Lacey to Helena as if they had never met. But obviously Queen Helena's got everyone pretty well fooled. This man's been around for a while, and in the absence of fact, I've got a few educated guesses as to how this pairing came to be.

1. Captain Lacey & Queen Helena Were Pulled Apart Way Back When

We don't know much about Helena's past so far in the series, but it's definitely one area of the show that I hope will be explored further very soon, especially considering how much she hates Ophelia for being a "commoner." There's got to be some deep-rooted personal reason for that level of hatred, right?

It could be that Captain Lacey and Helena were once together but Helena's mother wouldn't allow for the relationship to continue because as a military man, Lacey is a commoner. It would follow that when it came time for Helena to settle down, she had to find someone who was in the appropriate social sphere. It would make sense considering Joan Collins will be showing up soon as Helena's mother, the Grand Duchess of Oxford, and you don't cast Joan Collins to play a mother without some serious issues.

2. Captain Lacey & Queen Helena Met When Prince Robert Joined The Military

Another mystery on the series is Prince Robert's identity and his death. We know that he died in a military accident, so it could be that Helena and Captain Lacey met when Robert joined the ranks. It would be easy for sparks to fly if Helena took the time to ask Alistair to keep an eye on her son. It would give him a reason to come back, apologize, and help his lover mourn the loss of her son...

3. Captain Lacey Knows King Simon

Perhaps the two secret lovebirds met thanks to King Simon, maybe at a banquet, maybe during some kind of event regarding the fallen Prince Robert, or hell, Queen Helena could have interrupted the King and Captain Lacey during a military meeting — literally anything could happen on this show.

I'm sure, whatever their meet cute was, the writers will reveal at least a little something soon enough.

Image: Tim Whitby/E!