Cheating Royalty (Chasing Royalty Series, #2)

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Grace’s critical eyes run over my disguise before brushing one last stroke of powder across  my nose.

“Do you think they could recognize me?”  I ask, my hands fiddling with the cloth tied tightly around my head to hide my blonde locks.

“Only if they are willing to stare at every single woman there for a few hours. I learned a lot about appearances as your lady in waiting. It’s amazing what a little makeup can do. The only similarity you have to Princess Admira is her eye color.”

I nod nervously and help her brush the powder across her own face. The guards won’t be looking for only me. Both Grace and I were supposed to leave the kingdom two months ago.

I know it was foolish to risk my life yet again staying in one city over from the castle, but nothing Grace said could convince me. I begged her to let us stay until I see Alexanne declared Queen. Until all of my futile hope of William and Victor realizing who the true murderer is crushed into the cobblestone as the crown is placed on Alexanne’s head.

Tomorrow we will gather the meager belongings we’ve collected, from selling my jewelry and dress that I was wearing when I left the castle and from Grace’s work in a sewing shop, and leave the kingdom. We still haven’t decided which kingdom we will settle down for the rest of our lives, but we plan to head north. One thing is certain. Once we leave, we will never come back to my true home.

I pull on one of my two dresses. The rags could barely be called a dress in comparison to what I use to own. One sheet of rough cloth stitched haphazardly together, a coarse belt pinching it around my thin waist. Between selling my castle possessions and Grace’s hard work at the sewing shop, we’ve stayed a step away from starvation, but it’s never been far enough away to relax.   

I take a deep breath and walk across the creaking, dirty floorboards to our “kitchen”. A miniscule stove and a pot of dirty water we call our sink. Thinking of the kitchen of the castle, overflowing with every kind of food imaginable sends a wave of pain through my aching stomach. Nevertheless, I shield the pain from reaching my face and put a potato into the stove to bake.

A breakfast for Grace and me to share.

Grace tidies up the blankets strewn across the floor, the same ones that double as our beds at night.

“Admira…” She raises a book into the air.

I look away, pretending to be very interested with the potato baking in the stove.

“Did you steal this one too?” She sets it down next to a pile of my other four books. Stolen books.

“It’s not fair. I have just as much right to learn as everyone, but we’re too poor. Alexanne gets to sit in the castle, paging through the hundreds of books in the library. I have to steal each and every one that I want to read. I know I shouldn’t, I know that it’s wrong, but…” We’ve had this conversation before. I repeat the same message every time.

I know it’s wrong. I can’t attract any more attention that I already have. I will stop. But I don’t.

I pull the potato out of the stove by covering my hand in cloth and cut it in half. We don’t have any plates to set it on, just some ragged cloth.

I sit down on a blanket we call our table and Grace joins me. I begin shoveling the potato into my mouth with my fingers before Grace stops me.

She pulls a small package, slightly bigger than my thumbnail. “For your birthday.”

I take it gingerly, and peel off the gauzy wrap. A miniscule slice of butter sits inside. I don’t know if I’ve tasted butter since I left the castle.