The Itsy Bitsy Liar (Once Upon A Rhyme Book 1) by Abigail Manning

Author:Abigail Manning [Manning, Abigail]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-02-27T16:00:00+00:00

chapter fourteen

The next morning came with a painful blare of light through a crack in the curtains. After a long night of dancing, competing, and breaking the prince’s heart, I wasn’t feeling up to my normal early waking. Evie groaned in her bunk, showcasing the same amount of appreciation for the morning sun as I had.

Despite the late hour, Evie had been awake when I returned to the suite last night, though she hadn’t seemed too thrilled about it. She’d already heard through the grapevine of servants about the competition, so she was aware of my failed attempt at scoring poorly. By the time I had trudged back to the room, it was far past the midnight hour, so she had essentially helped me unlace my dress and then collapsed in her bed.

I rolled over with a groan, still wearing my petticoat and dress slip after being too tired to hunt down a nightgown. My feet throbbed from my elongated dance with Carlex, causing me to mentally thank him for gifting me shoes that hadn’t carved my feet into blisters. Memories of our dance haunted my mind like the mixture of a nightmare and a blissful fantasy.

He had wanted me to win... but now he knows I can’t.

A squeaky yawn emitted from the corner of the room as Evie stretched to life, her long dark lashes still clinging together with her slow blinks. “Good morning, Lace.” She yawned, smacking her lips indelicately.

I sat up the slightest amount, propping my tired body up against my mountain of pillows. “How did you sleep?” I yawned back, snuggling back into the pillows.

She sat up with another yawn, unveiling her wild hair that clung to her cheek in clumps. “Terribly,” she groaned. “I could hardly sleep because I couldn’t stop thinking about your scores from last night.”

She snagged her cotton blanket off the top of her bunk, wrapping it over her head like an over-sized shawl before climbing down to join me on my bed. I creaked off my pillows the slightest amount, wiggling over to make room for her swallowed form to vanish into the mattress beside me. She quickly cozied up against the pillows, adjusting her sleepy blue eyes to face me with a pondering look.

“I’ve been running the numbers,” she blinked sleepily, “and no matter how they divvied up the scores last night, I’m certain you’ll still be ranking first today. You’re the only person who scored in the first event and now you’ve claimed second place in round two. I hate to break it to you, Lace, but you might be too smart to avoid becoming queen.”

I sat up groggily, stretching my arms out to the bed’s canopy with a final yawn. In all my exhaustion, I hadn’t told Evie anything about my new arrangement with the prince.

“Don’t worry, Evie, I’ll definitely become queen at this rate.” I lifted my brow perceptively, watching slowly as her half-awake face blinked with understanding.

She propped her chin up on her palm, narrowing her eyes at me thoughtfully.

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.