Heart of a Royal (Daughters of Peverell Book 1) by Hannah Currie

Author:Hannah Currie
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: young adult, Christian, royal, contemporary, romance, royalty, inspirational, princess
Publisher: WhiteSpark Publishing
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

16

My mouth dropped open. I quickly closed it, my mind reeling. Of all the things I’d been expecting Ashe to say, that hadn’t even been considered. “Jade’s a Rebel?” My eyes narrowed, as if somehow that might give me better sight to test the sincerity of his words. I couldn’t believe it. Not Jade. She was too good to be a Rebel. But then, Nicola had been too, and why would Ashe lie about something so serious?

“That’s what the king calls them, but they have no desire to usurp the throne in any way. The ruler they serve is—”

“How do you know this?” He still might be wrong. The rumor mill often was. Anyone could have started a story like that in an effort to besmirch Jade’s good name, though what anyone would have to gain by having Jade exiled was beyond me. She’d only recently returned as it was.

“I…spent time with her family.”

It was the hesitance in his voice which gave me pause. There was more to the story. Ashe was hiding something, something more dangerous than that which he’d already revealed. He didn’t look away as I expected of liars but— “You’re one of them too.”

His gaze didn’t waver, even for an instant. “I am.”

No wonder he’d sworn me to secrecy.

I picked at some grass, twirling it between my fingers, pondering the calm I felt at his declaration. It should have sent me running back to my house in terror, if not straight to the palace to report him. My whole life I’d lived in fear of meeting a Rebel face to face, and yet here I was sitting with one, no one else in sight, completely at his mercy, playing with grass. It didn’t say much for my judgement that the one person I’d trusted outside the palace was the one person I shouldn’t have.

But Jade did. And, for some strange reason, I did too.

“Your father doesn’t approve of you marrying a Rebel.”

“No.”

“But you could marry her anyway, assuming her father approves. You’re old enough. You don’t require your father’s permission.”

“No, but I want it. No matter what my father believes, he is my father and that position demands respect.”

“What if he never changes his mind?”

Ashe shrugged, smiling wryly. “Why do you think I’m pacing the hills?”

“It’s complicated.” He’d said that. I hadn’t realized how complicated.

“Yeah.”

We lapsed into silence, both lost in our thoughts. For my part, I was realizing how little I knew of these two people I thought I knew. How many times had I seen Ashe in the palace and thought him simply another pretentious friend of Ben’s? But here he was, a self-proclaimed Rebel. One who’d put his own desires aside out of respect for his father. Any man who would do that was no threat to the kingdom.

And Jade. I’d known her all my life. Spent time in her house as a child. She was kind, compassionate, loved her family, and used to have a toy unicorn sitting on her bed. All

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