Allegiance Read Online Free PDF Page A

other, making it difficult for me to keep up. My head whipped from one to the other of them.
    ‘The king gave us leave to come,’ Faun told me as Melody bounced beside her. ‘To visit with you, Granddaughter! For two full weeks! Is that not wonderful?’ Her sweet round face shone with joy as she took my hand.
    ‘Your betrothed arranged it,’ Leander added before I had time to respond.
    ‘Prince Leif organised…’ Melody said, before hesitating and turning to her husband. ‘Oh, what is it called Leander, that enormous place we are borrowing?’
    ‘A unit, my love,’ Leander answered, smiling at his wife.
    ‘Oh yes, the prince organised a unit for us, Marla,’ Melody said, her voice reminding me of the wind chimes hanging in the windows of her little river home. ‘He is completely magnificent and to think, betrothed to my granddaughter!’ She gripped my free hand in hers and couldn’t have looked more proud if I’d just scored full marks on my final exams.
    ‘The unit is directly beneath yours,’ Asher added. ‘Is that not convenient, Granddaughter?’
    I opened my mouth to answer but Leander interrupted, ‘Prince Leif sent the owners on a cruise. He mentioned something about being in their debt.’
    ‘We came to Earth this morning,’ Asher added. ‘The moment we were given leave. Of course we went to you directly, Marla, but you were not there. The female at your door said you were at school.’
    ‘So we thought we might join you,’ Faun added. ‘To experience life here on Earth. Your principal… Is that the word? Yes. Your principal directed us to the market. It was closed but the woman inside allowed us entry. She gave us these school uniforms. Was that not kind of her, Marla?’
    I knew Faun used the words ‘allowed’ and ‘gave’ loosely. ‘Confused’ and ‘took’ would be two more apt words, the words ‘deceived’ and ‘stole’ not really being in my grandparents’ vocabulary. The Fae had no concept of stealing. If they needed something they thanked the producer of the item and took it. I kept all these observations to myself and just agreed it was indeed very kind.
    ‘But, my granddaughter, how do you stand to wear them?’ Melody complained, wriggling uncomfortably. ‘They are quite intolerable!’
    ‘It’s a problem,’ Peter said, stepping forward from my group of friends, all of whom had followed me and Jack. He was captivated by my grandmother’s struggles. ‘Maybe you should take it off?’
    Abby gave him a shove. Melody looked at him and blinked, not paying the slightest attention to Hilary’s explanation that the uniforms would be much more comfortable after they’d been washed.
    ‘I hope you don’t mind us coming to your school, Marla. We thought it might be a nice way to spend time with you,’ Leander said.
    ‘Of course I don’t mind, but I don’t think you’re going to like it.’
    ‘I am taking it off,’ Melody declared suddenly. Then before I could stop her, she pulled the shirt over her head and flung it to the breeze. ‘And this harness, it is too burdensome,’ she added, reaching behind her as Hilary and I simultaneously dove for the shirt, bashing our heads together in the process. ‘Faun, I do not know why that woman insisted we should wear them,’ Melody continued.
    ‘ Stop! ’ I cried waving my grandmother’s shirt about with one hand while rubbing the sore spot on my head with the other. Her bra was undone now. Peter and Jack were entranced—as was a fast gathering crowd. Kyle was pretending not to be interested. ‘You can’t take your clothes off here!’
    ‘But that boy said…’ she started, looking towards Peter and stopping just as she was about to peel the bra away.
    ‘He was joking,’ I said, glaring at Peter.
    Peter gave me a look that said he hadn’t been joking at all.
    ‘Why can I not take my clothes off?’
    Every one of my grandparents waited for my response.
    ‘You just can’t!’ I pushed the shirt back into