Peas and Princesses Read online

  Contents

  Peas and Princesses

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  About the Author

  Peas and Princesses

  Aleese Hughes

  Copyright Ⓒ 2019 Aleese Hughes

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN: 9781076490490

  Dedication

  To my incredible husband, who supports me 24/7, 365 days a year. Thank you for your love and for being my best friend.

  Chapter 1

  King Leopold held the ledgers under the candlelight. The papers scratched against his callused hands, callused from years as an experienced swordsman. His frustration built more by each second. The kingdom’s financial setbacks scared him more than anything else. The always impending threats from the neighboring kingdom of Polart were draining his funds— he was constantly sending out troops to secure the borders and throwing frivolous parties to ease the minds of his subjects. He couldn’t let anyone think he was weak. There was only one thing left to try in order to bring peace for Mardasia, and his daughter was a key part of that plan.

  Leopold reclined back in his chair and moved his gaze to the crown that rested atop his desk. He stared at his reflection in the gold, admiring the strength and power evident in his eyes, regardless of the problems he faced. If anyone could succeed, it was him.

  A light knock sounded on his study door, and he hurriedly tucked the ledgers away.

  “Enter,” he bellowed.

  A wide-eyed, frail woman stepped in, staring at the mess of maps and books strewn across the room.

  “Speak!” Leopold snapped.

  She paled. “Sire…”

  “Good gracious, woman! Tell me!”

  She cowered a little smaller. “The princess is—is gone.”

  King Leopold groaned and covered his face in his hands. He heard the rustling of papers as she kicked them away, slowly trying to approach him among the mess.

  “Sire?”

  Leopold grabbed the closest, hardest book he could find and threw it at the woman, who fortunately dodged it just in time.

  “She has ruined everything!” The king paused, accentuating the dangerous atmosphere. The nervous woman shifted from foot to foot. The king then shifted his gaze to his visitor. “You are her maid, are you not?”

  Trembling, she nodded.

  He let out a short chuckle. “Are you not supposed to know of her whereabouts every moment of every day?”

  The short woman whimpered, inching closer to the door. “S—s—sire! I—I…”

  Leopold rose from his large, pillowed chair and stepped towards her, red robes flowing behind him like a raging fire. Their faces were close, the king’s brown eyes piercing into her gray. The sound of his strike across her cheek echoed loudly in the room. She fell to the floor, tears falling down her face.

  “You will be the cause of this kingdom’s downfall,” Leopold spat.

  King Leopold slid a long sword from the sheath at his waist, grinning as it glinted from the glowing candlesticks scattered across the study. The weapon felt familiar in his grip, giving him the delightful eagerness he always felt when wielding it. The woman wrapped her arms around herself and wailed hysterically, unable to control herself, rocking back and forth on her knees.

  “No!” she cried between sobs. “I have a family! Please, Sire! I’ll do anything.”

  Leopold shrugged as he stroked his blade. Then, without batting an eye, he ran the sword through the woman’s chest. She slumped to the floor, the look of terror frozen on her white face. He smiled as he slid the weapon out from the corpse.

  “Guard!” King Leopold said as he held the blood-stained sword away from his clothes.

  A large man with a crooked nose quickly opened the study door and bowed to the King. The body at his feet didn’t even phase him.

  “Your Majesty?”

  Leopold handed the sword to the man. “Clean my sword and dispose of that.” He gestured to the lifeless woman dirtying his carpets with her blood.

  Chapter 2

  A sharp rapping on the door woke me in the dead of night.

  What now, I thought.

  Groaning, I pulled my warm blankets off and shivered in the cold, night air. I blindly stumbled around the cabin to look for our last candlestick. We were always running dangerously low on everything, including candles.

  The knocking sounded again.

  “I’m coming!”

  I hissed as I lit the wick on the pathetic stub of wax, nearly burning myself. Light in hand, I tiptoed across the wooden floor, careful not to wake my older sister Janice resting on the other side of the room.

  “Who would come knocking at this hour?” I muttered under my breath.

  Not knowing what to expect, I pulled the door open, ready to reprimand our untimely visitor. A hooded figure stood before me, face hidden from the shadows. Before I could say anything, the visitor pushed past me and into the room.

  “Hey!” I shouted, slamming the door. “What do you think you’re doing, barging into someone’s home like that?”

  Janice shot up from her mattress, eyes wide in fear, and her mousy-brown hair sticking up in messy tangles. “Milly, what’s wrong?” Her eyes shifted to the mysterious person standing right in front of her. “Who are you?”

  I folded my arms, trying to make my tiny, feminine body look intimidating. “That’s what I’d like to know!”

  The figure pulled away the hood in one quick motion. I gasped as the long, blonde curls fell around her shoulders and recognized the face immediately. I had only seen her once before, while in the capital Capthar, and it was at a significant distance, but it was definitely her.

  “Your Highness!” I shouted as I fell to my knees.

  “Hush!” Princess Amelia hissed at me. “I can’t be found!” She pulled me to my feet. “And there’s no need for kneeling— not anymore, anyway.” She ran to the windows, hurriedly shutting the drapes, then followed with locking the front and back doors.

  “Princess?” Janice said. My sister was a very reserved person and had never actually left our little town of Marviton before, so she wouldn’t know what the Princess looked like. And beyond that, the royal family didn’t make many appearances, especially not in peasant towns like ours.

  I nodded to my sister and watched curiously as the Princess paced our cabin. Why was she here?

  “Um, Princess?” I said.

  “Please don’t call me that!” she snapped.

  Janice and I exchanged glances. “Um… Amelia… why are you here?”

  Amelia rubbed her porcelain face with her hands. She seemed exhausted. “I need your help,” she choked. She caught herself before her watered eyes spilled over and straightened her back. Clearing her throat, she continued, “There are search parties after me, and your…” She paused, looking around our cabin with a hint of disgust, “...home, as you called it,
is the furthest from the castle. I’ve been running all night— I need provisions and a horse, if you have one. I can pay you right now for it.” She walked over to our small table, pulled out a purse hidden under her dark cloak and poured out a few handfuls of gold pieces.

  I couldn’t help but laugh. “What?”

  “I need to sit down,” my sister said as she moved to the fireplace.

  “Please,” the Princess pleaded. “They’ll catch up to me any minute.”

  I shook my head. “Your Highness, I—”

  “Amelia.”

  I sighed. “Amelia, what is going on?”

  She stared at me with her pretty brown eyes, tears starting to appear again. I recognized the desperation in her gaze and all of a sudden, she seemed helpless. I found myself wanting to help her.

  I nodded. “I’ll start putting together some food for you. Hey, Jan? Will you saddle up Tuff?”

  Janice nodded and ran to unlock the back door.

  “Tuff is our only horse,” I said, hurriedly throwing some apples and dried meat into a sack.

  Amelia nodded. “The money should cover it.”

  I handed her the food and led her out back. The Princess’s eyes darted back and forth, searching our small garden and squinting past the little wagon we had. She shifted her gaze to Janice as she untied our horse from the splintered post.

  “This is Tuff,” I said as Janice handed the reins to the Princess.

  Amelia stroked his brown coat, whispering things to him I could not hear. The Princess swung her leg over him with ease. A sudden sadness rushed over me as I watched Tuff whinny happily for the chance of a ride— we’d been through a lot with that horse. Amelia pulled the reins in her hand and turned her head to us. “Thank you. I will never forget this.”

  She dug her heels into the sides of the horse, and he bolted away. We watched as her cloak billowed behind her, and the dust Tuff kicked up from the dirt road began to obscure our view as the Princess rode further away.

  “Wow,” Janice whispered under her breath. “That was… interesting.”

  Shivering, I nodded.

  Chapter 3

  It had been two days since my encounter with the Princess Amelia, and it was very hard to forget it. Thoughts kept spinning in my head about why she had run away, why we hadn’t seen anyone looking for her. It was actually rather mysterious.

  I turned my attention to my surroundings, breathing in deeply through my nose. Marviton was beautiful in the fall, with the deep red and orange leaves decorating the trees along my path. The scenery on the way to Bart’s store was breathtaking. I smiled as the sun’s warmth spread across my tan face.

  Looking ahead, I saw the old man sweeping the porch front of his store. Bart’s was Marviton’s one place to buy all types of odds and ends things. Like food, furniture, and the thing I needed: a new horse.

  “Hey, Bart!”

  Bart halted mid-sweep. “Milly, what a pleasant surprise!” he shouted back at me as I ran up to him.

  I smiled at the round man. He had always been like an uncle to Janice and me, having been a good friend of our mother’s, and watching over us since her death.

  “How’s business, Barty?”

  He put his broom down. “It’s been slow today. I’ve actually had time to sweep my porch, as you can see.” He gestured to the broom against the wall. “Hey, you should see something I found during my most recent travels!”

  When Bart wasn’t tending to his store, he was always exploring other kingdoms and picking up new souvenirs to show off and sell to his customers. I always enjoyed hearing his stories.

  “I’d love to.” I smiled, excited to see what he had.

  Bart gestured for me to follow him inside, bouncing up and down eagerly. I did, and breathed in the sweet aroma of things like wood and chocolate. The walls were aligned with intriguing carvings, sacks of food, and exotic spices. It was chaotic and unorganized, but it was always such a thrilling atmosphere. I grinned at the jade figurine of a mermaid resting on a counter next to me. He got it from a distant kingdom named Wilaldan maybe three or four years ago. He had stopped all passersby that year to animatedly tell them of Wilaldan’s sparkling blue oceans and swore he had seen the tail of a mermaid before the creature was startled and swam away from him. No one ever believed his tales, but they were always fun to hear.

  “Milly, come here,” he whispered.

  I walked away from the beautiful figurine and found Bart in the corner edge of the room staring at a small, tattered book. The leather cover was falling off of its binding, and the golden lettering on the front had all but faded away.

  “The Book of Mag?” I questioned, trying to read the cover.

  “Magic,” Bart said.

  I cocked my head, trying not to laugh. “What? Magic’s not real, Barty.”

  His brown eyes sparkled with a determined intensity. He grinned, licking his lips.

  “I saw it, Milly.” He tenderly opened the book and ran his finger down the inside. Foreign symbols and drawings covered the pages.

  I raised an eyebrow at a particular image of an old man with a long beard holding a bird over a deep cauldron. Magic was the sort of thing that only existed in children’s stories.

  “I saw this warlock in the Edristan Kingdom not far north of the Polart Kingdom. He healed a little boy’s broken leg right before my eyes! And then he told my future.” Bart stood up straighter, seemingly proud of himself. “He told me that within the next two years, I would meet and marry the most beautiful woman I would ever set eyes on.”

  I snorted, trying to hold in another laugh. He eyed me, annoyed. Bart was a great, wonderful man, but everybody in Marviton knew he wasn’t the marrying type. It might have had a little to do with the odor…

  “It could happen!” he snapped.

  I nodded, the corners of my lips twitching. “Of course.”

  Bart huffed for a few seconds, then shrugged it off. “Hey, did you hear the rumor?”

  Leave it to old Barty to have all the gossip. “What rumor?”

  “The one that says the Princess went missing a couple days ago!”

  Trying to seem surprised, I replied, “Where’d you hear that?”

  “It’s all over town! I’m surprised you haven’t heard it yourself!”

  “I’ve been at home the past few days harvesting the crop I need to sell in Capthar,” I said nonchalantly.

  Bart shrugged. “Well, I thought you’d like to hear what’s been happenin’. Some versions of the story say she ran away with a servant boy.”

  That one surprised me. “Really?”

  He chuckled. “Pretty scandalous stuff, eh?”

  Servant boy, I thought. I didn’t see anyone with her… Was she trying to meet him somewhere?

  “The royals are pretty strange, though… No one ever really sees King Leopold and the Princess, unless you’re a noble at one of their ridiculous parties.” Bart clenched his fists in a sudden anger. “That’s a waste of money, in my opinion.”

  The royals did seem more frivolous than they should be. I was under the impression that they were just throwing all their money away on unimportant things like parties and their own comfort— never concerning themselves with the lives of the commoners.

  “So, what brings you to my place today?” Bart said, pulling me out of my reverie.

  “Well, like I said, I need to go into Capthar, but I am lacking a horse.”

  Bart raised an eyebrow. “What happened to Tuff? I sold him to you not even three months ago!”

  I brushed his accusations away. “He must’ve run away. He wasn’t tied securely enough to our post, I guess.”

  Bart put his chubby fists on his hips sternly, cheeks turning red. “Mildred Wallander! You know better than to be losin’ your horse like that! I hope you have the money to pay for a new one!”

  “Of course I do,” I shot back at him. “Jan and I have been saving.” My cheeks turned red from the lie. It was more like we’d been given money by
a runaway princess.

  He let out a big puff of air. “Fine. Let’s go to the back.”

  Bart led me to the stables, muttering profanities under his breath. “Losing a horse,” he huffed. “Your father would’ve never done such a thing.”

  I stopped in my tracks and thought of my wretched father. Bart noticed I had stopped and turned to me, face softening.

  “I’m sorry, Milly. I wasn’t thinking.”

  I un-clenched my fists. Father… I actually hadn’t thought of him in days. All this princess business had taken my mind off of a lot of things.

  Bart gestured towards all the horses standing behind their gates, neighing and clopping their hooves with excitement. “Any specific horse you’re looking for?”

  “Which is your best?”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Think you can afford something so expensive?”

  “Like I said, we’ve been saving.”

  Bart looked at me suspiciously, then led me to the last gate in the small stable. “This is Borden,” he said. “Young and firey, but loyal, strong, and fast.”

  Borden was a beautiful horse— dark as night, and his strong muscles pulsed under his shiny coat.

  I nodded. “How much?”

  He hesitated. “Ten gold pieces and three silver.”

  “Hmm… ” I said. “I think you can do better than that.”

  Barty raised an eyebrow. “You were always quite the negotiator.” He stroked the scruff on his chin, feigning an inner turmoil. “I’ll do ten gold even, but that’s as low as I’ll go.”

  I smirked. “Nine.”

  Bart chuckled. “Deal.”

  I rummaged through my ragged side purse, careful not to let Barty see all the money that was in there. I counted out nine gold coins and held them out to the man.

  “Wow, you weren’t kidding about your savings,” he said as he snatched the money from my hand. “He’s all yours.”

  Janice walked up to me and watched as I tied the new horse to our post. She stroked his nose gently. “Hey there, buddy,” she whispered, brown hair falling in front of her face.