“Stop this at once,” the King said. It was then that I noticed, Julian had swiftly moved around the stage without catching his mother’s attention. I hadn’t seen him move either. Yet there he was, standing behind the King like he had been there all along. Like he had just been whispering in the K
The next morning after the event, I went with Nicholas to speak with Julian. He was in a sitting room, sipping coffee while reading through a newspaper. Terry’s face was plastered all over the front page, under the headline: Traitor. It still didn’t seem real. I expected him to pop out from any co
Beside me, Nicholas grunted. We both ignored him now. Julian smiled at me. “Thank you, Piper.” As day turned into evening, and evening into night, I could not stop thinking about Jane’s knife and how closely I had come to being skewered. If Nicholas had moved a half-second slower, and I coul
Confronted with the scenario of the man I wanted to sleep with very clearly about to sleep with someone else, I did the only thing I could think to do. I swiveled on my heel without a word and took off down the hallway. I fully intended on returning to my room, crying my eyes out, and then pretend
Nodding at Nicholas, I moved past him and returned to his rooms. He released me at once and fell in step behind me instead. Inside his rooms, I moved toward Lilliana, who was down on one of the ornate rugs. Her legs were kicked out of her, her nightgown drawn up to her hips. She peered up with a s
The next morning at breakfast, Elva and I sat beside Susie and across from Veronica and Tiffany. The excitement with Terry’s capture seemed to be the popular topic for everyone else at the table, except for us. None of us seemed overly thrilled to ever mention Terry’s name ever again. At least, I
Soon, Elva got squirmy and Nicholas lowered her down. She rushed back to her toys and Nicholas came toward Charlotte and me. Charlotte immediately stood. “Please.” She offered him her seat. “I couldn’t,” he said. “I have chores that need tending to,” Charlotte said. That didn’t seem entirely t
That night, I sneaked out of my room when everyone else was asleep. The guards pretended they didn’t notice. Then I quietly walked down the hallway, keeping my steps light as I wound my way through the palace until I stood before Nicholas’s door. I gently knocked, and it opened right away. Nicho