There’s a temptation this week to let the headlines be swallowed by the return of Harry and Meghan’s to British soil – but dwell on it too long and you risk missing what’s actually happening at the heart of the working monarchy.The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have returned after six years away. Now with their two children – and two pooches – in tow, one wonders exactly how long this will all last for.While one part of the family narrative seems very firmly to be rooted in looking back, the rest of The Firm is resolutely looking forward. Take this week alone.‌The King’s bromance with French President Emmanuel Macron was back on show at the British Museum, where the two leaders walked the length of the Bayeux Tapestry – returning to English soil for the first time in 1,000 years.Much was made, not least by Charles himself, of the strength of long-term relationships to make such a return – Sussexes take note! Diplomatically and culturally, it’s as significant as royal soft power gets, and it will draw visitors by the million when the exhibition opens to the public next week. And fresh from the summer break, thank heavens there is more to come!Buckingham Palace has confirmed the King and Queen will undertake an Autumn Tour, taking in Antigua and Barbuda for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, a solo visit by the King to The Bahamas as its head of state, and a state visit to Guyana marking sixty years of UK-Guyana relations.Three countries, two continents, in little more than a week – not bad going for a monarch who turns 78 in just a few weeks and remains under ongoing cancer treatment. Nobody would blink if he scaled things back.‌Instead, he’s boarding long-haul flights to shake hands, cut ribbons and represent a country that, in his condition, would forgive him for staying home. That is what duty looks like when nobody’s forcing you to perform it.Now hold that up against the path Harry and Meghan chose the moment they walked away. Their departure was framed, by themselves, as a search for freedom from institutional life, and what’s followed in the years since has largely been a string of commercial ventures built around… themselves.Netflix and Spotify deals, lifestyle brands, six-figure speaking engagements, a podcast that came and went. None of this was off limits, of course, and plenty of people would take the money if it were offered.‌But it is work that serves their own bank balance and profile, not a country, a Commonwealth or a public they’re answerable to. There’s no equivalent, in six years of Montecito life, of an ailing head of state getting on a plane because 56 nations are expecting him.That’s the uncomfortable comparison sitting underneath this week’s return. It isn’t really about whether Harry and Meghan are entitled to come home – of course they are. It’s about what ‘royal’ actually means once you’ve stepped outside the institution, and what’s left of the word duty when the only obligations left are the ones written into a contract.The King, at 77, mid-treatment, doesn’t get to renegotiate his terms. Guyana was invited months ago, CHOGM has been in the diary for a year, and none of it moves because he’s tired or unwell. That’s the job. It always has been.‌But as Charles looks to the future, there is also much to look forward to with the next generation of royals. And if anyone in the family embodies ‘fresh start’ this month, it’s Prince George.Next week he begins life as an Eton schoolboy , following his father and, before him, his uncle Harry, into those famous tailcoats.It’s loaded with symbolism: the future king, at 13, starting an education built to produce leaders, at a school that has quietly tightened privacy measures around its new intake.‌For William and Catherine, it’s a moment of pride and, I’m told, plenty of nerves – magnified by a watching world.But don’t mistake George’s new chapter, or the family’s talk of renewal, for any thaw with the Sussexes. William and Catherine have long taken the position of “live and let live” – publicly indifferent, privately guarded – and that hasn’t changed.As one insider put it to me this week, the Wales household simply doesn’t have the bandwidth, or the inclination, to fold a reunion narrative into a period that’s entirely about George settling in. Renewal, for the Prince and Princess of Wales, means their own family’s next chapter – not anyone else’s comeback.This is an extract from the Mirror's Royal Insider newsletter - click here to sign up.‌Content cannot be displayed without consent