"I have a gift for you," my father said. He sat on my bed to wake me up.
"It's too early," I argued, burying my face beneath my pillow.
"Do you know what time it is?" he asked.
"No," I moaned.
"Then how do you know it's too early for gifts?" he mused. "Come on. Get up."
"No," I said.
"Eliza," he pressed.
"Dadddddy," I moaned louder.
"Come on," he sang. "I cannot stand to see you sleep through the entirety of Autumn."
"I'm not sleeping through Autumn," I said. "I'm sleeping through the morning."
"It's half past noon," he told me.
"What?" I shot up. "Why didn't anybody wake me?"
"Amy tried," he said. "But you've been quite the slug all month."
I shifted, clearing the sleep from my eyes. "That's not..." I tried to find a good reason, but I hadn't realized he was right until he'd said it. "There's been a lot of social things," I found.
"You haven't been to half of them," he said. "You slept through the luncheon yesterday."
"I'm sorry; I must be ill," I lied.
"Come on, then." He patted the bed. "Get up. Let's go outside."
"I don't want to," I whined.
I followed him into the stables, which felt strangely clandestine, given how often he checked if we were followed.
"Daddy," I tried. "Why do you keep looking around? What are we doing here?"
"It's just over here," he said. He dug into a box beneath a different one and opened a bundle of wrapping paper to another, thinner box.
"What is it?" I asked.
YOU ARE READING
A Crown in Ash (The Ostler's Boy Book 3)
RomanceBOOK 3 of The Ostler's Boy Series ----- Love. Duty. Valor. Court & Class. A pseudo-medieval romance through the eyes of a reckless princess. ----- After Svana and her Knight, there was a Princess and her love of adventure. Eliza Rose, the wildes...