The Hidden Princess: Secrets Revealed (Book Two)

Chapter Two: "Men are disgusting"

"Men are disgusting," I said, gagging as I helped clean out the showers and latrines. Benedict raised an eyebrow pausing his work beside me.

"Did she complain this much when she was still a boy?" he asked looking at Louis, Shepherd, and Alakay who all shook their heads with a grin. "Seriously Sam, you gotta man up," Benedict said, shoving my shoulder.

"And how does one man up when one is not a man, Benedict?" I asked, standing and facing him with arms crossed.

"By facing difficult situations... like this," Alakay said walking towards me, a gleam in his eye. After it was too late, I saw the bucket of water he had been using to clean come splashing my way drenching me from head to toe. I let out a scream then proceeded to gag as the filthy water entered my mouth. Lunging at Alakay my only thought was to get him back, but what I didn't see was Erik walk in.

"I thought you lot were supposed to be cleaning the latrines, not each other?" Erik asked, walking in with laughter in his eyes as he scolded us.

My brothers turned to him in innocence. "Sam was just checking if my water was still fresh enough to clean with; or if I needed new water," Alakay smirked.

Erik chuckled, shaking his head. "Looks to me like it needed to be emptied," he said then turned to me. "Sam, why don't you stop messing around and get cleaned up. The castle has sent a messenger for you," he said.

"Wait, she gets out of cleaning just because the prince is in love with her?" Alakay asked.

Erik shrugged his shoulders. "Guess so, now you better hurry up before the stench of the water soaks into your skin," Erik said, chuckling as he walked away. Walking near Alakay I shook my head sending a spray of water over him laughing as he shoved me away. I jogged to my private bathing area and cleaned up before heading for the castle, for whatever reason I was called.

"And what pray tell are you three doing?" I asked, walking into the courtyard of the castle where Nikolai, Isabella, and Chloe all stood with swords in hand. They turned, smiling at me. Nikolai let his sword drop and walked over pulling me close, my heart fluttering as I felt his arms go around me.

"I'm starting their training," he said, nodding at our sisters.

Slowly pulling away I raised an eyebrow. "Training?" I asked walking over to the girls and inspecting their training swords. Nikolai nodded as he strolled over. "We... well I... asked if Nikolai would give Chloe and I at least the basic instructions on swordsmanship. I felt so useless when La Fray was here. I want Chloe and I to at least be able to stand up for ourselves a little bit," Isabella said.

I nodded glancing to where Chloe stood. "And you agreed to this?" I asked, shocked that Chloe would be willing to pick up a weapon. She wouldn't have anything to do with them when Papa tried to teach us back in Hillsdale .

"Like Isabella said, we could do nothing for ourselves when the castle was attacked. We want to change that," she said.

Nodding again, but still not quite understanding the whole picture. "And why not ask Sir Gregory to do the training... one of his duties as battle master is to train," I said taking Chloe's sword from her to feel the weight of it.

"To train the knights... and my brothers. When it comes to Chloe and I's training I wasn't sure if he would do that. We are girls and although the Dragons have accepted you, I'm a princess not a warrior," she sighed.

"And so through conversation we decided this was best. I agree that they should both have some skills in defense. Once we get a little way into their training we'll bring it up to father but until then I thought you and I could handle it," Nikolai said grinning at me.