All The King's-Men (The Yellow Hoods, #3) Read Free

the dirt, about two feet deep, searching for water.
    “My father said the lesson was always think first, and never go anywhere unprepared. It’s served me well, and I want you to understand that nature seems wonderful and kind, but it isn’t. There are also dire lynx and other predators out there.”
    Egelina-Marie rolled her eyes. “Dire lynx? Why not just say dragons?” Seeing the response her dad was preparing play out on his face as his eyes furrowed and his jaw tensed, she quickly added, “But I get your point.” She slouched in her chair and poked at the backpack. 
    Standing up, Egelina-Marie slung the backpack over her shoulder and paused. Then she walked around the table and gave her father a hug. He was an enormous man whose moustache occupied almost half his face at times. 
    “I love you, Egelina-Marie,” said Gabriel, his eyes misting up.
    “I love you, too, Papa. Thanks for the story. I’ll always remember to think before I do something like Uncle Jacques, okay?”
    Gabriel gave his daughter a kiss and watched her walk to the door and pause.
    “Did they ever find the baby?” she asked, her face bracing for the answer.
    With a heavy sigh, he replied, “No. The King, from what I heard, pretended like he’d never had the boy. He removed all paintings of him, took his name off the official ledgers, and so on. For all intents and purposes, the boy never existed.”
    Egelina-Marie wondered if there was some poor soul out there, unaware of who he really was, wondering why he felt like a third wheel in whatever world surrounded him. 
    Smiling at her father, she walked out the door. 
    Gabriel stood there, thinking, after the door closed. A few minutes later, Victoria came out from the bedroom and cuddled right up to him. “Now that makes me proud enough to make you some pudding.” She poked him in the belly.
    “You know, I don’t think I need any right now.”
    “Who are you, and what have you done with my husband? Because I’ll help you hide the body,” whispered Victoria, laughing.

    A flash of light caught Egelina-Marie’s attention. She turned to notice Richy practicing with his shock-sticks.
    “What are you doing?” she asked, curious.
    Richy stopped and pulled back his hood. “Oh, you’re back,” he said, smiling. “You were quiet for a long time, and so I thought I’d practice a bit. I didn’t know what else to do.”
    Egelina-Marie frowned. “Was I really thinking that long?” She remembered them getting back to the Ginger Lady’s house, but it seemed like it was only a moment ago.
    “I’m not sure. Long enough for me to get bored,” Richy replied.
    “Do you practice a lot?” she wondered.
    “Usually every morning with Tee and Elly. We started doing that about a month ago, or at least I found out about it a month ago. It’s kind of weird doing it without them.” Richy put his unarmed shock-sticks back into the hidden pockets of his yellow cloak.
    Egelina-Marie untied her horse and walked it over to him. “Richy… we can’t go after Bakon without help.”
    Richy deflated. “I kind of figured you were going to say that.”
    She lifted his chin and smiled into his eyes. “We have no food, no water, no firearms and almost no money. We have no idea what we’re heading into or which of the two cities he went to, if that’s where he even went. Never mind that the soldier was sorry about something, and my gut is screaming that we’ve got to find out what it is.”
    Richy nodded in understanding, a small smile on his face.
    “What?” she asked, trying to make sense of his reaction.
    “You sounded like your father for a second there. He said things like that when we were hunting for the Red Hoods, the day we met Franklin.”
    “You seem to know a lot about what my father says,” she retorted.
    “Yeah, well, he says interesting things.”
    Egelina-Marie grinned and messed his hair. “Let’s go get the others, and then we’ll head out after Bakon together. He’s a