AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Will you agree to come home?”
What I have here is a standoff between my desire to stay as far away from the palace and my guilt at potentially losing a good man his job.
I say nothing for a long time.
The silence is abruptly ended when the door to the cabin flies open, releasing a cloud the color of bubble gum pink.
It’s not a cloud, of course. It’s a person. My sister, Princess Flora, is a blur as she rushes toward me, bundled in a wrap of pink faux fur over a matching day dress, beret, and ankle boots.
I barely get out “Flora, what are you doing here?” before she attack-hugs me.
It’s her way. Sigh.
“You’re a daddy? I’m an auntie? How dare you not tell me? Oh, brother, I could murder you, but I won’t dare leave my niece without a father.”
Nothing can be done when Flora is riled like this, so I accept the hug and let her prattle on.
“We have a lot to catch up on, Flora,” is all I say.
When she lets me go, she swats my shoulder. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
I rub the spot where she hit me as I try to decide which of her questions to answer first. I choose to start at the last one and go backward. “Because I wanted to tell you in person when we were both ready. We don’t know the gender of the baby yet. You’ll be an auntie and a godmother if you’re up for it. And yes, I’m going to be a father.”
She jumps up and down. “Godmother? Really?”
“As if there were an option,” I say. I haven’t discussed that part with Stasi, but I’ll apologize to my baby’s mother later.
She hugs me again excitedly, and the pink fur tickles my nose.
“You have to let me host the baby shower. You absolutely must.”
“Of course, Flora,” I say, picking pink fuzz out of my beard.
My sister claps her hands and then texts someone. “I’ll put Sable on the job. We need a whole original line of baby clothes, and I need her to design a theme for a baby shower, and to make it line up with the wedding decor and the theme for the coronation.” Oddly, she winks at Uther. “And I’m sure Sable could use all the tall men the king can spare to help.”
Uther stares at her blankly, and so do I. “Moving right along,” I say. “What do you mean, the coronation?”
“Now that you’ve been found, brother, you’re going to be king,” she says, looking at me like I’ve lost a marble or two from the royal marble jar.
My stomach tumbles. “No.”
“Sigurd.”
I change the subject. “Etienne and Kala haven’t killed each other yet?”
Flora’s wide eyes roll. “Oh, brother. No, they are utterly stupid for each other. And they’ve hired a publicist and are releasing press releases faster than the palace can. It’s all very dramatic and exciting. Except now, you’re it, brother. Torben’s out, Etienne’s out. You’re next. Buckle up and get ready to marry that girl.”
I wince, and Flora spots it. Nothing about spending my life with my little family scares me. No, the wince is about the thing that’s bigger than the both of us. It’s about ruling. I don’t want to change who I am. I don’t want to live in the palace. I don’t want to hobnob with presidents and the like. I just want to hunt, fish, and live inside my circle of trust.
“You do want to marry that girl, don’t you?” Flora looks horrified.
“More than anything,” I say.
“Then what’s the problem?”
I do not tell my sister about not wanting my life to change so dramatically. To say it out loud feels selfish somehow. But I say what I’ve always believed to be true since she was born when I was nothing but a whippersnapper of eight years old.
“Flora. Look at me. I’m no monarch.”
