Pigsty Princess Read online

  She swallowed. “Then come back to the ballroom and dance with me again.”

  He shook his head. “I like you, Mari, but I’m not going to marry you. I can’t afford to bond with a commoner.”

  “Commoner? What are you talking about?”

  “Mari, you can stop pretending. Everyone in the kingdom knows you’re not the King’s daughter by blood. How else do you explain your Insensitivity?”

  Mariana felt as though her bones had liquefied. With great effort, she stayed upright until she found a nearby bench and dropped to it. The two other women rushed away, giving her sidelong glances as they passed. “Why would you say these things to me? I thought you had feelings for me. Real feelings.”

  “I did. “ He sat next to her and took her hand. “I was young. I thought your deficiencies wouldn’t matter, but I’m a Metal Sensitive, and I need to wed someone who can complement my Abilities. I have to think about my inheritance.”

  He stared into the night on the other side of the balcony railing. Mariana wondered what he was seeing.

  “I can use my abilities to strengthen the defenses of Sasoin. Maybe one day, I can add to our holdings. My sisters will need property to take to their own marriages, unless they wed above their stations.”

  “My father will give me property.” Her argument was weak, for while Liliana had gotten a large estate, she was the Royal Princess and second in line for the throne until Grand Duchess Victoria delivered her child. Liliana’s husband, Nigel, had been of high noble blood, his father an Amar, a cousin of her grandfather.

  Darius shook his head. “I cannot count on that, and there is still the issue of the Bonding. Face it, Mariana, I need to do better.”

  Chapter Two

  Twenty minutes later, Cognate Prince Ramone opened the door to the Queen’s sitting room. Mariana glanced at him from where she was curled up on a mauve loveseat, wiping her nose with her sleeve.

  “If Mother saw you, she’d be horrified,” Ramone said, smiling. He pulled a small white square of batiste from inside his jacket and handed it to her. “Did you forget that ladies, and especially Princesses, must always have a handkerchief hidden somewhere on their persons?”

  “I am not a Princess.” Mariana sniffled. “I don’t believe the protocol secretaries anticipated the kind of situation where a Progenna has her heart broken.”

  Ramone sat down next to her. She shifted her position so she had her back against the armrest of the small sofa.

  “He’s not worth crying over.” He laid her legs across his lap and pulled her into his arms as he had done many times when she was a child.

  “I’m not crying over him.” Mariana knew the words rang false, but in reality, not all the tears were about Darius.

  “Then what is it?”

  Mariana sighed. “It’s more what he said to me.”

  Ramone brushed some of her hair off her forehead. “What could he have said to make you so sad?”

  She closed her eyes. How could she repeat the horrible words?

  When she didn’t respond instantly, Ramone said, “Fredrick said he tried to keep you from going out to the balcony.”

  “I wish I’d listened to him.” The tears started running down her cheeks again. “Did he know what Darius thought of me, truly? Does Darius laugh about me when he’s with the other Presumptives?”

  Ramone cleared his throat. “I can’t answer those questions. Frederick and Darius don’t socialize with the same crowd, Mari. Frederick’s father is a Sahdeer, and Darius’s is a Margrave.”

  Her brother obsessed over the order of peerages, not only for Valborough, but all the countries they had dealings with, such as Poole and Heyton. All the royal children had learned the basics of rank among the royalty and nobility. However, Ramone went beyond what Lady Maria and Pir Oliver had taught them in the protocol classes.

  The Cognate Prince often corrected the Queen’s social secretary about seating arrangements at royal banquets. Mariana thought her brother would be an excellent diplomat when he became King.

  On the other hand, because it didn’t affect her life as much, Mariana hadn’t paid as much attention to those things. She knew she ranked higher than any of the men she could date but was not eligible for the throne. It did put her in a strange and sometimes awkward position.

  She met Ramone’s eyes and saw the instant he knew she didn’t understand what he’d meant. With a sigh, he said, “It may not be the same for girls, but both Frederick and Darius will one day inherit their fathers’ lands and titles. It would not do for them to form any sort of friendship now. Frederick will always be above Darius, socially. They could never be equals.”

  Her brother often sounded like a tutor himself, and right now, the last thing she wanted was a lesson in social standing, considering she wasn’t even sure she had one.

  She shook her head. “None of that matters, Ram. He told me I am not a Princess.”

  Ramone scowled. “Frederick would never…”

  “Not Frederick. Darius. He said he had to think about his Abilities and his responsibilities to his father’s holdings.”

  Suddenly, understanding lit her brother’s gray eyes. “You have no magic, and Darius…” His voice trailed off, and his eyes darkened to the color of slate paving stones. “He said you weren’t good enough for him, didn’t he?”

  The tears began to flow again, and she did nothing to stop them.

  “Did he question the Queen’s virtue?”

  Mariana sniffled. “He said I was a commoner, and that I’m not Father’s daughter by blood.”

  Ramone sighed and shook his head. “Gossip only. Not even worthy of the servants, and for it to come out of the mouth of a Rieravo and a Presumptive…I am surprised he would suggest that out loud to you.”

  She adjusted herself so she was off her brother’s lap and faced him. “Ramone, what if what Darius said is right? What if Father isn’t…my father? No nobleman will ever want to marry me if that’s true.”

  “First of all, it’s not true, and second, even if it were, Father has claimed you as his daughter. He will take care of you.”

  It didn’t make her feel any better.

  “You mean he’ll force someone into marrying me.” She got off the loveseat and went over to sit at her mother’s writing desk. Picking up one of the quills, she glanced at her brother in the mirror.

  “It might not be like that,” he said after a moment of silence. “There must be some man who doesn’t care about bonding. Someone who will be content with having only his own magic.”

  She spun around to stare at him. “Name one person you have ever heard of, male or female, who was willing to throw away the potential power of their Sensitivities to bond to someone with nothing. What do your history and peerage books say about that?”

  He said nothing, but he didn’t meet her eyes.

  Mariana nodded. “Just as I thought. I was stupid to think being a Proge…the daughter of the King would be enough. No one with any Sensitivities wants to wed someone they can’t bond with. I wish Mother and Father would have prepared me for this.”

  “What could they have done, Mariana?” He walked over to her and, taking her hands, brought her to her feet. “You are special, one of a kind. You are my beautiful baby sister.”

  “But I’m not like the rest of you. Father and Mother are strong Sensitives. By definition, Father is the strongest in the kingdom. You, Liliana, and Ursula have sensitivities in three areas.. Me? You know what the Abilities Master said when I finished my testing.”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  “Do you remember? Father came out of his meeting with Kylan and said, ‘It is as we thought.’ Mother cried.”

  He took her in his arms. “She loves you. She was crying because she knew your life would be harder because of this.”

  “Was that it?” she asked. “Did Mother cry because I don’t have any Sensitivities or because Father found out about my true parentage? I have to know if I am a Princess in tr
uth or just the result of some mistake Mother made.”

  Ramone stared at her, taking off his glasses and absently wiping them on his shirt. “You can’t believe that.”

  “Of course I don’t want to believe it, but what other explanation could there be? No one of noble birth in all of Valborough is ever going to want to marry me. Father will arrange something with a minor noble who owes him a lot of money or a commoner who performed some service for the crown. Not the fairy tale ending Princesses are supposed to have. Although, I guess since I’m not a Princess, I shouldn’t have expected one.”

  “Mariana, listen to me.” Ramone took her into his arms. “You are a beautiful young woman and have a lot to offer even without magical potential. Someone wonderful is going to fall in love with you one day, and your…problem won’t matter to him.”

  “I wish that were true.”

  ****

  Three days after the Queen’s birthday celebration, the royal family left the palace at Aldlake, the capital city of Valborough, for their annual trip to the smaller Byspell Palace near the village of Talla.

  The Autumn Holidays were approaching, and the Queen always wanted to spend them in the country, all the family together. This migration was an annual event.

  In the past, Mariana had always been eager for this trip. The summer months in Aldlake were generally too hot and sticky to leave the palace. Her father spent most of the time closeted with diplomats and members of his council, so social events were not scheduled.

  The Queen’s birthday party marked the end of the long, boring summer and the beginning of the Autumn Season, a time when noble families all moved to the Southern Region and held balls and parties to introduce daughters who were now old enough to find husbands.

  At nineteen years old, Mariana had already been presented officially to the nobility, but as the King’s daughter, her ball last year had been a mere formality. Everyone in the kingdom knew of her, just as they also knew she was an Insensitive.

  This year, while she and her sisters would be invited to most of the balls, it wouldn’t be the same. She would be doomed to sit on the sidelines with the other girls who had already been presented, waiting for some single nobleman to ask them to dance.

  As the Progenna, she would have a higher position among the older girls, but her stomach clenched at the thought of the string of rejections she would have to face this Season.

  Ursula, two years older, was in a similar position, but her Air, Water, and Flora Sensitivities made her a prize for a single nobleman, not to mention she was, for the time being, third in line for the throne.

  As the massive caravan left sight of the Aldlake Palace, Mariana stared out of the carriage at the trees with their colored leaves. This Autumn Season promised to be a long one.

  “Will we arrive in Talla in time for the Fall Market?” Ursula asked from across the carriage. “I want to order a gown in the colors of the season for Lettice’s sister’s Presentation Ball. Lettice said Emma will be wearing pink and lavender because of her Flora Sensitivity.”

  “And you want to look like a matron next to her in dark greens, reds, and browns?” Mariana didn’t turn to her sister when she spoke, nor did she care about the edge in her voice.

  The Queen gasped. “Mariana! What a thing to say. Your sister will not look like a matron. Those colors will bring out her eyes.”

  Mariana shrugged. “Perhaps I should dress in dark tones and sit with the widows and pregnant women. I doubt if anyone will notice me, anyway.”

  Ursula’s velvet skirt rustled as she fidgeted. “I’m sure…someone will dance with you.”

  “Why are you sure?” Now Mariana shifted in her seat to look at her sister. “I know you’ve heard what happened with Darius.”

  The older Princess silently appealed to the Queen, something near panic in her green eyes, and Mariana shook her head.

  “I’m sorry. Never mind. I’m sure you will look stunning in whatever gown you choose to wear to Emma’s ball.” She moved across the carriage to embrace her sister.

  When she returned to her seat, the Queen shifted to be closer to Mariana. “What’s wrong, Mari? Surely, you’re not still hurting from Darius’s leaving?”

  Not wanting to expose herself to more humiliation, Mariana had told the family he had broken their relationship because his responsibilities with his father’s land holdings required more attention than he’d originally assumed.

  Darius, his father, and his siblings had left the Aldlake Palace the day after the Queen’s birthday celebration. Mariana suspected the Cognate Prince had a hand in their rapid exodus, but she hadn’t asked Ramone about it.

  “I will admit I am sad about that,” she told her mother, “but I think I am beginning to understand what it means to be an Insensitive.”

  Her mother flinched. “I wish you wouldn’t use that word. It sounds so…common.”

  Mariana stared at her mother’s eyes, which were the same color as Ursula’s but revealed less. Her sister’s eyes showed every emotion. Her mother’s eyes were more like walls of green glass. Mariana knew something was behind that wall, but she didn’t know what it was.

  “I am an Insensitive, Mother,” Mariana said, looking away. “There’s nothing common about it if it describes me perfectly.” Then her heart began to pound. “Unless there is something common about me.”

  Ursula gasped, and Mariana knew the rumors about her origins had reached every part of the palace. Why had she been the last one to know?

  Queen Alexandria straightened her spine and instantly took on the pose of an aristocrat viewing those beneath her. “I am going to pretend you didn’t insinuate something so foul. I am Queen of Valborough by my marriage to the Virtuous King, Jonathan the First, Strongest of His Kind.” The last sentence was an echo of what was said when Mariana’s parents became King and Queen.

  She had been a child at the time, but she remembered the beautiful Queen standing so tall and proud when the crown had been placed on her head.

  “Yes, Mother,” Mariana said, but she, too, could adopt a royal bearing. “No one questions your origins. All of the kingdom knows you are the eldest daughter of King Ethelbert of Poole, wed to the former Cognate Prince and Heir Presumptive of Valborough.” She repeated other words from the coronation, then lifted her chin. “My own origins are in question.”

  Queen Alexandria slapped her youngest daughter across the face.

  Ursula cried out as though she were the one hit, but Mariana didn’t make a sound. She stared at her mother as her left cheek began to sting. The Queen had never slapped any of her children before.

  A flicker of some indefinable emotion escaped from behind the green glass wall of the Queen’s eyes. For an instant, Mariana thought her mother seemed almost frightened, as though she herself had overstepped some boundary.

  The silence in the carriage seemed oppressive, even though the sound of the horses’ hooves and the rattling of the bridles drifted in through the carriage windows. The elite guards who traveled with the royal caravan chatted and laughed outside, their words indistinguishable.

  These were the sounds Mariana was used to, having made this trip and the return one every year of her life. Today, however, they seemed mocking and harsh, reminding her life had become anything but normal.

  “Mother?” Ursula’s voice was barely above a whisper, and she reached a hand toward her sister.

  The Queen’s face took on the same flat, cold expression she wore whenever anyone disappointed her, but for the first time in her life, Mariana felt no rush to apologize. Something fundamental had changed in their relationship, but Mariana wasn’t sure what it was.

  This was not the first time she’d spoken back to the Queen, nor was it the first time any of the children had said something the Queen considered low or common.

  Liliana had often spoken that way a few years ago, when Mariana was still sleeping in the nursery near the Queen’s bedchamber. The Royal Princess had been presented to society, but she w
anted to be a rebel.

  Instead of accepting invitations from the noble sons who expressed interest in courting her, she’d spent a lot of time with stable boys and young men who dug waste pits. Many nights, dinner would end abruptly when Liliana repeated the vulgarities she’d learned from these men or talked about subjects that were considered beneath contempt.

  Never, though, had either the King or the Queen raised a hand to her. She’d been merely forbidden to attend a party or forced to retreat to her room without finishing the meal.

  Mariana’s stomach roiled, and she gazed out at the horizon, hoping that would ease the nausea. She hadn’t gotten carriage sick since she was four years old.

  The silent impasse between Mariana and the Queen ended when a scream came from the front of the convoy, and the women were thrown from their seats as the carriage stopped abruptly.

  “Was that Victoria?” The Queen grabbed the handle of the door. “I need to get to her.”

  “No, Your Majesty.” A black-hooded figure appeared in the door window, and the Queen fell back in her seat. All that was visible were his brown eyes above the cloth he had tied over his face. A chain of white stones hung around his neck and glowed as he leaned in through the carriage window.

  “Just sit still, ladies. We don’t want to have to hurt anyone.” His voice was soft, but with the authority of someone used to having his commands obeyed.

  “Can’t you do something?” Ursula said, laying a hand on her mother’s arm. “Use your magic?”

  “Chaos Stones,” the Queen said, glancing at Ursula. “Nulls the effect of Sensitivities.” She scrutinized the man. “I assume that’s how you got through my daughter’s veil.”

  “Maybe,” the man replied. “Or maybe not everyone in the palace is as loyal to the King as he, or you, believe. Either way, we’re here now, and you’d do well to sit back and relax. This will all be over soon and no one will get hurt. Unless you give me reason to hurt you.”

  “What do you want?” the Queen demanded.

  The man laughed. It wasn’t an unpleasant sound, suggestive of someone who enjoyed laughing and did it often. Unexpectedly, Mariana found herself wondering what his face looked like.