AllFreeNovel
Share Us
1
VICTORIA
“Iknow what it is, it’s another golden cage! Don’t worry; I’m used to those by now.”
Frustration, anger, and helplessness boiled inside of me in equal measure. Part of me wanted to pick up one of my suitcases and fling it off of the palace balcony, down into the immaculately tended and sculpted garden dozens of feet below.
I thought better of it, of course. I might’ve been angry, but that didn’t mean I’d do something so immature and foolish.
“I understand why you’re mad, love.” Anna Murphey, my personal attendant since I was a girl, spoke from inside of my bedroom, her words coated with her Dublin brogue. “Good reason or no, it’s not fun to be yanked out of your home and spirited off somewhere you have no control over.”
I said nothing at first, my eyes on the stunning view of the capital city of my home, Candara. The landscape at night, with its broad boulevards illuminated with centuries-old gas lights, never failed to calm me.
However this time the longer I looked, the more upset I became. My eyes tracked from the clusters of Second Empire townhomes that made up Rochefort, the oldest neighborhood in the city, all the way to the gleaming skyscrapers of the business district several kilometers in the distance, then out toward the barrier of bulletproof glass above the stone of the balcony.
I had to pull my eyes away. It was too much to bear, despite the truth of Anna’s words. I knew it was there for good reason.
“I hate this,” I said.
Anna, tall, slim, and dressed in her usual smart and sensible style, stood near my enormous four-poster bed, a set of suitcases open on the mattress beside her.
“I don’t even understand what’s going on,” I continued as I stepped into my bedroom from the balcony, my heels clicking on the mosaic floor. “One moment I’m relaxing in the garden after dinner reading and the next there’s a security detail swarming around me and rushing me into the palace.”
“I’d ask if you questioned your father about what’s going on, but I already know the answer to that.” She offered me a small smile along with her words. She’d been around the block with me enough times to know the situation—that as the princess, a pretty little jewel to be admired and nothing more, I was the last person in the palace to know anything.
“I don’t have any idea where I’m going or how long I’m going to be there,” I said, falling back onto the bed, letting out a sigh as I looked up at the domed ceiling of my room accented with gold and ivory, a huge, gorgeous chandelier hanging in the center of it all. “Of course I don’t—making me aware of my own situation would be respectful. No, I’m to do what I’m told, to go where I’m ordered, then sit on my hands like a good little girl until Father tells me it’s OK to come back.”
Anna let out a knowing sigh as she came over to sit on the bed next to me.
“I know this is difficult love,” she began, reaching over and taking my hand. “But I’ve known you and I’ve known the king ever since you were a little girl, ever since…” She trailed off, but I knew to what she was referring—the death of my mother when I was five. Anna had been brought on shortly thereafter when she was just sixteen. “I know your da loves you like mad, and he wouldn’t do this unless he was damn certain that it was the best way to keep you safe.”
I brought in a full breath and let it out slowly. She was right. Father wasn’t a tyrant—not with me or with the kingdom. He cared, even if his care meant that he erred on the side of being overprotective more often than not.
“Is this how it’s going to be for the rest of my life?” I asked Anna, my blonde hair splayed out around me as I looked up at the ceiling. “Stuck in the palace, never to leave unless there’s a security threat? There’s a whole city, a wholekingdomout there that I never get to see because Father is too afraid that something might happen to me.”
“It’s not always going to be this way,” Anna said. “You’ll be married before too long, then starting a family, and—”
“I’ll be married to the safest possible choice—and notmychoice, of course.” I closed my eyes, realizing that I’d cut off Anna in the middle of her trying to console me.
I sat up.
“Sorry, I’m complaining and you’re just trying to be there for me like you always are.”
“Think nothing of it, love. You’re in a tough spot. I don’t blame you one bit for being upset. All the same, we need to get moving. Your brother said we needed to be packed by eight,” she checked her watch, her green eyes flashing. “Shite! It’s a little after.”
A knock sounded at the door, a booming noise that gave me a start.
“Who’s there?” Anna called out.
“It’s me.”
I sprang up and hurried over.
“Victoria!” Anna scolded. “You know that you’re not supposed to open doors like that!”
“I can if it’s my brother.”
I approached the door, Anna reaching my side just in time to pull it open.
