BOOK 3 of The Ostler's Boy Series
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Love. Duty. Valor.
Court & Class.
A pseudo-medieval romance through the eyes of a reckless princess.
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After Svana and her Knight, there was a Princess and her love of adventure.
Eliza Rose, the wildes...
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"Miss Eliza," Nikolai woke me up.
I opened my eyes in awful regret. My body was fixed in a horrid position; my bones felt like they were made of dried-out clay. I tried to crack my back, but it was useless.
"I don't think I've ever slept so badly before," I moaned.
"The Princess and the Pea, eh?" he asked.
I forced myself onto my hip. "I don't know what those words mean together," I said. "Did you wake up completely mad?"
He laughed. "Never mind. There's rabbit for you if you like?"
I found the roasted meat he referenced and nearly lost whatever remained in my growling stomach. "Oh, my God! No!"
He swallowed the bite he'd taken from his own drumstick and used it to point at me. "Did you wake up completely mad?"
"I'm..." I turned away from it. "I'm a vegetarian," I said.
"Ah." He bobbed his head. "Wish I would have known." He set his skewer down and swiped his hands together, venturing into the tree line, then came back a few minutes later with a handful of berries. "Here."
I took them, smelling one. "Are they poison?"
"Oh, man! You know what? Those are, I think!" he said.
I had already dropped the bushel when he told me he was kidding. With a scowl, I scooped them off the ground and tried to wipe them off with the sleeve of my dress before I ate them.
"Don't get out much, do you?" he asked.
I blinked at him. "How could you tell?"
"I'm sorry to hear that. You're clearly the adventuring type. It must be hard to be inside all day," he said.
"I have my books," I said. "Sometimes I can imagine I am the hero, and for the few hours I play the role, I am invincible. The hero always wins, you know?"
"Aye," he nodded. "In the perfect world."
Somewhere a bullfrog croaked at us. The knight stretched and started to ready our gear. I watched him for a few moments longer, contemplating life.
"Do you think I'm a silly girl?" I asked.
"I think I know better than to answer that," he said.
I rolled my eyes. "You sound like the Duke."
"Is that fact?" He grinned. "And you're sure you're not in love with him?"
"We're acquaintances," I said.
"Of course. Which part was his, I wonder?" He put his thumb and finger to his chin. "My dashingly good looks?"
"How would your dashingly good looks sound like anything?" I asked. "That's not how sound works."
