Deon: Son of Rapunzel (Kingdom of Fairytales Boxset Book 4) by J.A. Armitage & Emma Savant

Author:J.A. Armitage & Emma Savant [Armitage, J.A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Enchanted Quill Press
Published: 2021-03-24T22:00:00+00:00

2

9th April

The morning before the festival dawned clear and cool. I saw it happen because I had already been up for hours, supervising the last crates of bulbs and seeds that were being taken over to the festival grounds.

I heaved a wooden crate of bulbs onto the back of the wagon. Reed loaded another, and I called to the driver to go ahead. The cart rolled forward, and the next one, just arrived from the grounds, pulled up to take its place.

“We must have a few seeds left if it’s taking this many loads to get everything over there,” Reed said.

I acknowledged his optimism with a smile but didn’t explain that it was because I’d held almost all the seeds, bulbs, and seedlings back at the palace until the last possible moment. With the blight frightening everyone in the kingdom, theft was a real concern.

I could have always pulled a few palace guards to keep an eye on everything over at the festival grounds, of course, but I didn’t dare. Too many of the guards the duke had brought in were loyal only to him. I didn’t trust them not to destroy the crates themselves just to spite me or win points with their boss.

“Do you think we’ll have a festival next year?” Reed asked.

The way he quickly glanced away told me it had taken a lot of courage to ask the question--courage and fear. I smiled ruefully.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I think, yes. Even if we have to import all the flowers from elsewhere.”

I didn’t add that it might not be up to me. Lilian would try to stop him, but the duke had warned me I’d be fired as soon as the festival was over and he was married. The alliance would solidify his powers, and there was little I could do to stop him.

Lilian was the princess of Floris and would inherit the crown from her father. But the Florian custom had always been almost total equality between the monarchs and their spouses. In Floris, a king was a king and a queen was a queen, no matter who had married into the family.

Duke Remington was a born and bred Florian, and he would know this better than anyone. He wanted the power of the throne, and he would use it.

I was as good as gone.

“I’ll admit, a festival full of flowers from The Forge would be impressive,” Reed said. He’d taken my comment as a joke, and I was glad. “All those wild blooms with their zany colors.”

“We’d be in danger for our lives,” I said. The Forge was home to an impressive variety of venomous and carnivorous plants. Hedley hadn’t allowed me near the ones in our greenhouse until I was thirteen for fear I’d lose a finger. “I wouldn’t mind it if Skyla provided most of the flowers, either. We’d have to hire hot air balloons just so people could keep up with all the flying blossoms.”

“Come to think of it, I’m not hating this idea.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.