Princess at Sea Read Free Page B

or anything.” Grabbing the ladder, I started up, hiding behind my responsibilities as ambassador. I felt like the bottom of a chu pit for my lies of omission and my lack of trust in him.
    A confused anger at myself warmed me as I held my skirts with one hand, the ladder with the other. It wasn’t fair. None of it. Whom I gave my heart to was no longer linked to the crown, yet I was still ruled by it. I left him with his cards, as silent and as frustrated as I was.
    The wood framing the hatch under my hand was warm from the sun, and I lurched onto the deck. Like a blow, the wind struck me, pushing me and making my skirt flare. It wasn’t cold, but so strong a force took getting used to. My toes gripped the wood, polished by sun and sliding ropes. Squinting from the glare, I held back the brown curls that had escaped my topknot.
    I was facing the stern, and the clouds behind the tilting horizon were blue with rain. The waves were choppy since the wind was blowing against the current, tearing the wave tops as tonight’s storm grew closer. At the wheel, Captain Borlett gave me a sympathetic nod, looking stiff and uncomfortable at his unintentional overhearing of the royal argument. I thought he looked inexcusably relieved that it wasn’t his responsibility to put an end to it.
    A welcoming nicker pulled my gaze to my horses, standing tethered against the wall of the galley shack at the bow. The black animals were here only because Alex’s horse hadn’t taken to the water, and Contessa had rightly insisted they should have matched animals.
    I didn’t mind riding borrowed horses myself when we went ashore to assure the populace that they really did have a queen, and she had our mother’s elegant, regal beauty even if I didn’t, but the royal couple should be on horses in which we were confident. Jy and Pitch were well behaved, and had been trained for water travel even before Kavenlow had given them to me. The gelding was my favorite. I had named him Jy, short for Jeck’s horse, which is what I had called him before knowing he was really mine.
    Contessa’s voice pulled me to the railing where Alex had nearly pinned the white-clad woman. Her fair skin was even paler in anger, and she had taken a defensive stance, with her hands on her hips, looking like a fishwife despite her wearing enough silk to make a tent. Alex, too, had lost his teasing air, having a stiff attitude with his chin high and his jaw set. His freckles were lost behind a red tinge. My mood of exasperation shifted to one of bother. She must have insulted his honor. It was the only thing that could arouse the fun-loving man’s slow temper.
    Setting aside my thoughts of Duncan, I went to the railing, then forward across the sloping deck. “Contessa,” I called, but neither of them heard me over the wind.
    My sister drew her heart-shaped features tight, pushing herself away from the railing and boldly into Prince Alex’s space. The two of them made a handsome couple in their finery despite their anger. “You’re wrong,” she said, loud enough for the sailors below to hear, and I cringed. “You may have wiggled your foul way into my palace, but your Misdev cruelty will not gain one foothold in Costenopolie as long as I breathe!”
    â€œAnd you are a silly woman who has no inkling of how the world works,” he said. From the wheel came Captain Borlett’s audible intake of breath.
    â€œYou chull!” Contessa shrieked. “And you’re a royal snot who can’t see the ocean for the waves. The power to chop the hands off thieves will not be given back to harbormasters and village leaders. Kavenlow will hear every complaint before sentence is cast. I don’t care how much it pulls from the coffers. I will see your sword broken and you slinging chu before I let you convince me otherwise!”
    â€œThe sword of my grandfather will not break,” Alex said, setting a