Page 23 of Kingdom of Betrayal and Unknown (Kingdom of Bellhollow #1)

I wish I could tell her, but she wasn’t talking to me, and I have a sneaky suspicion that if I answer, Prince Archie isn’t going to be happy. He never is when it comes to me.

“She has failed to give me a date when she is available to come to the palace for lessons. Once a week, I want her to come to the palace to take etiquette lessons. That is what I am requiring of her,” Prince Archie declares.

“Adeline said she would ask you, but she has failed to do that twice, so now I am coming to you.”

I take a deep breath. I have mentioned it to my mother, but I never told her I needed an answer right away. It’s hard to know when she is pregnant and could give birth at any point. I can’t see into the future to know what day she is going to give birth on.

That’s impossible.

Unless I could talk to the witch and she could tell. But no one has seen the witch. No one knows what she looks like so I can’t do that. I also don’t know if I want the witch to know who I am.

“I am so sorry, Prince Archie. She meant no disrespect.” My mother bows slightly. “We have been so busy preparing for the market, and then she left for Hellhollow to get supplies before the first snow came. She almost died and has been recovering since.”

“It’s no problem.” Prince Archie smiles. “We are here now, and I would like an answer before I leave.”

I keep my face neutral, trying not to show how irritated I am at Prince Archie.

I want to yell at him, tell him to leave and never come back.

That I’m not interested in him and never will be, but I don’t want to end up in the dungeon…

or worse Tarravega. I don’t want anything to happen to my parents if I decide to tell him I’m not interested in him.

“Can I talk to my daughter for a second?” Mother asks.

Prince Archie waves a dismissive hand in the air. “Go talk. I will wait here for my answer.”

Quickly, I walk over to my mother and lean in so we can talk in hushed voices.

“We will discuss this later,” my mother hisses at me.

My eyebrows pull together as I look at her, not understanding why she is angry at me. What have I done to deserve it? I didn’t want the prince to come to our house. I didn’t want any of this to happen, but it did.

“What days are you free?” she asks.

“What days are you willing to let me go for an hour or two?” I reply, not answering her question.

It doesn’t really matter what I want. I am helping around the house and getting things ready for the next market. It is up to her to decide what she thinks is best for me.

Mother sighs and stands, looking at the prince, smiling. “Monday afternoon. After she finishes all of her chores for the day.”

Prince Archie glares at us, and I clasp my hands together, not liking how he is looking at both of us. Why isn’t he saying anything?

“She has chores to do every single day, but Mondays are normally lighter. She can come in the afternoon. I don’t know what time exactly since chores change all the time, but Monday afternoon is the best answer I can give you.

Sorry, Prince Archie. As you can see, I am about to have a child and she has been helping around the house to make sure we have everything we need.

She is going to get busier as the days go on and I get closer to having the baby,” my mother explains.

A smile flashes across his face. “That is fine. Monday afternoon is when the tutors will be expecting her. They will only keep her for an hour, but she will be there every Monday unless otherwise stated. The first Monday, I will be here to escort her to the palace, and after that, a guard will come to get her.”

“Thank you so much, Prince Archie.” Mother bows slightly.

I bow, not saying a word. I don’t feel the need to say anything to Prince Archie. Not when he is trying to destroy my life day by day, request by request. He does not get that luxury.

“I will see you Monday.” Prince Archie looks at me before leaving, shutting the door behind him.

I take a deep breath in and slowly let it out. That was something I never thought would happen. Prince Archie in my parents’ home? Never. He never goes into people’s houses in the village.

I hope no one else saw him come or leave.

We are already the gossip of the town since they saw him walking with me twice so far.

“What was that?” My mother slaps my arm. “How did you forget to mention that you were supposed to talk to me about that? How foolish of you, child.”

I was wrong. I thought I had told my mother about him wanting me to take lessons, but I must be remembering wrong.

“It slipped my mind!” I take a step back.

“The first time it slipped my mind since the prince was injured, and I was concerned about it then. The second time, we were so busy with the preparation for the market. Then I almost died from walking from Hellhollow so it really did slip my mind. I’m not lying! ”

I briefly remembered the first time and could have told mother, but I didn’t want to. Mother has to understand that I don’t like Prince Archie and I will do whatever it takes to stay away from him.

My mother gives me a disapproving look, and I hold my hands up in the air.

“I’m telling the truth,” I gently say. “You know we’ve been busy.”

“You’ve been really distracted lately. Is it because of Prince Archie?” she asks.

“No, it isn’t. I promise,” I genuinely say.

Prince Archie doesn’t come to my mind often. But Kieran… Kieran is a different story. He is constantly on my mind, and there is nothing I ca n do about it.

Every little thing reminds me of him, even though I don’t know him that well. I haven’t known Kieran for very long, which baffles me that I can think about a man this much. Never in my life has someone distracted me this much, but Kieran is proving to be a major distraction.

From the way his eyes pull me in, to the way I feel super comfortable around him. And the pull I feel toward him is like nothing else I’ve ever felt before. Everything about him is captivating.

He is the reason I’ve been so distracted, and I’m not mad about it. If anything, it makes me happy that someone has captivated my attention. I have been worried I would never find somebody.

Not that anything can happen with Kieran. It is a law, one that is punishable with whippings or death. Even though I have this burning passion for him that seems to grow day by day, I can’t do anything about it.

“Are you okay?” Mother asks. “What has happened to make you so distracted? It seems to have come out of the blue.”

I feel terrible that I haven’t told mother yet. I don’t want to risk her telling the guards or being disappointed in me. I don’t know if I can handle that.

“I’m just tired,” I gently say, partially lying.

I feel terrible that I’m lying to her, but I don’t want her worrying about me. But I guess by not telling her she is going to worry even more.

“The prince taking interest in me has just caught me off guard. I don’t know what to do because I don’t want his attention,” I tell her truthfully. “I want to be outside, and he doesn’t like that. I’m worried that anything serious blossoms between us, my freedom is going to vanish.”

Nothing is going to blossom between me and the prince. I will never fall in love with him. Not with how badly he treats the Fae and townspeople.

I can’t be with someone like that.

Not now and not ever.

“You are going to make it through this. The prince has taken an interest in you, but it may not last. But you also need to be prepared for it to be a long-term thing. With how he was looking at you, it could very much last until he dies.” My mother gives me a small smile.

“I know that’s not what you want to hear, but someone needed to say it. Skylar isn’t going to be the person.”

Tears prick my eyes as I nod. Everything in me hopes he loses interest and moves on to someone else. Hopefully, it’s Skylar so she can live her dream of living in the palace with more money than she knows what to do with.

“Maybe if I hang around Skylar the next time he’s in town he’ll see her and take interest in her. Maybe then he’ll leave me alone.” I chuckle at the end.

I can hope of a situation like that but deep down, I know that even if Skylar was next to me, Prince Archie wouldn’t take an interest in her. He has his eyes set on me, and he’s not going anywhere.

Mother doesn’t say anything as she starts to sew some fabric.

“I’m going to rest for a couple of minutes before I run to the creek to collect some water for laundry. We haven’t washed any of the new fabric.” My shoulders sag as I sit. It’s exhausting always being on your feet and never having time to relax.

We are almost out of water and with it being so cold outside and snowing, it’s going to take several hours for the ice to melt. Several hours of wasted time if we run out.

“Why don’t you get the water from the well? It’s much closer than the creek, and you don’t have to melt the ice,” mother softy says.

“I told you last time that I can’t do that.

The last time I went to the well, a guard stopped me and asked what I was doing.

When I said it was for laundry, he informed me not to use the drinking water and to go down to the creek,” I tell her.

“He said if I show up again, there would be severe consequences.”

I don’t know if he was telling the truth, but I’m not going to find out. I don’t need that kind of trouble following me or anyone that I love.

“I’m not surprised. They have gotten more strict about things recently. Sometimes, I wonder if something is happening that we don’t know about. Something that is going to affect all of us,” my mother ponders.

And I’m inclined to agree with her. Things have been changing over the past couple of years.

Most of the changes they’ve made don’t make any sense but some of them have been good.

Are we running out of water, and that’s why they are cracking down?

Or do they want to put more rules in place so they can have a tighter leash on us ?