The Fake Prince Jake by Robin Knight

Author:Robin Knight [Knight, Robin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Squid INQ Press
Published: 2021-07-20T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 10

Jace’s room was indeed the biggest as my mother, Audrey and I all compared notes on our own rooms the moment we stepped into Jace’s royal suite an hour or so later.

“Mine doesn’t have a view like this,” Audrey said looking out the doors to the terrace and the snow-capped mountains beyond. “All I can see is the stone wall of another part of the castle.”

“Mine doesn’t have a bed like this,” I said, sitting on the quilt that puffed all around like a cloud. “All I have is a single bed that squeaks like a rusty old gate blowing in the wind.”

“Mine doesn’t have a lovely claw-foot bath like this,” Mum said, pointing to the beautiful antique tub beneath a window overlooking the view, with towels, a jug and wash bowl on a table beside it. “All I have is a tin potty under the bed and a hessian rag to powder my nose with.” She turned to me and added, “Reminds me of the time your father and I went to Leeds to see your Uncle Basil before he died. We ended up staying in a bed-and-breakfast that had the gall to give itself three stars. I’m still undecided as to whether the crusty stain on the pillow came from someone’s weeping head sore or just a nasty case of conjunctivitis.”

“Oh God, please swap rooms with me, Judy,” Jace offered, still carrying off his British accent. “You’ll be much more comfortable in here.”

“She can’t,” I quickly intervened. “Sorry Mum, but we need to keep up appearances. Jace needs to sleep in the room he’s been given… and so do we. We’re here for three nights by the looks of it, so we just need to focus on the task at hand and make certain no cracks appear in Jace’s impersonation of Prince Jacob.” I turned to Jace and threw in, “You’re doing a bang up job so far, by the way.”

“Indeed,” my mother agreed. “You’re a natural at it. Anyone would think you’ve been studying at Oxford for years.”

“Maybe I’ve got a knack for pretending to be someone I’m not,” Jace said, slipping back into that good old Kansas farm boy accent. “It’s kinda fun, I gotta admit.”

“And I’ve got to admit I’m rather nervous about whether or not the sceptre is actually in that crate,” said Audrey.

“Whaddaya mean?” Jace asked.

“I mean, that crate has been nailed shut since before we boarded the jet. None of us has actually checked to make sure the relic is in there. What if they gave us the wrong crate? What if someone stole the sceptre and gave us an empty box? I know it sounds paranoid but stranger things have happened.”

“Audrey’s right,” I said. “We were all so distracted about getting Jace on the plane without suspicion that we didn’t ask for verification on the goods we were shipping.”

“Normally I cross every T and dot every I,” said Audrey, clearly getting flustered. “I never let things slip. I can’t believe I didn’t request a visual on the sceptre.

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.