Born to Rule Read Online Free PDF Page B

scowled.
    Alicia and Gundersnap looked at each other and began to giggle.
    Gilly herself suppressed a smile, but she knew she simply could not laugh in front of the princesses. It would be grounds for dismissal if she were discovered laughing at the expense of one of the counselors, especially the Duchess of Bagglesnort, who was a very mean-spirited lady. If Gilly were to laugh and it got back to the duchess, she would not be acting like a proper lady’s maid and would have to pack her belongings and hit the road.
    “Well, it’s time for your nightly prayers and then to bed, miladies,” she said. “Tomorrow is going to be an exciting day at camp. You’ll need all your energy.”
    “For makeup?” Kristen muttered under her breath.
    “For swimming?” Alicia said anxiously.
    “Well, possibly for chasing after songbirds in the Forest of Chimes—if it is an autumn day,” Gilly told them.
    Each princess bade the others good night and then knelt in prayer by her bedside.
    Kristen prayed for an iceboat, “especially, dear Lord, if winter stays.”
    Alicia prayed that it would continue to be winter for just a little while, so she would not have to take her swim test. “Oh, dear Lord. I’m a little bit homesick. I miss Mum and Pop so much, and I really don’t want to swim in a moat. It sounds so…so…icky.”
    And Gundersnap prayed for a dwarf and a pony. “Please, dear God, make Gortle’s headaches go away and his poor bent legs not pain him. And make Mummy not call on him to dance and tumble for the amusement of the court. Watch out for dear Gortle, God, and for my dear pony, Menschmik.” And then she had another thought. “Oh, and P.S., dear Lord, may I not drown in the moat.”
    As the last candle was snuffed out, a lovely sound swelled through the castle. It was the Royal Camp Choir accompanied by their songbirds. As the third-year girls made their way through the long corridors and twisting passages of Camp Princess, they sang the sweet and slightly mournful song known as “The Princess Taps.”
“Day is done, gone the sun
From the hills, from the lake,
From the sky
And towers high.
The stars in heaven’s gown
Bright as jewels in thy crown.
But rest ye now, Princesses royal.
Dream of thrones
But keep ye loyal
To your people
And your kingdoms ,
Safe they keep
While you sleep .”
    Alicia couldn’t fall asleep, so she decided to read another letter or two from Love Letters of a Forgotten Princess . Yes, these were the letters of an aching heart, she thought as she lit her special reading candle. Would anybody ever ache for her as the princess ached for her true love? Or would she ever feel such a yearning for a true love?
    Her own parents had a very happy marriage, but it wasn’t this romantic, Alicia thought wistfully. She didn’t wish her mum and pop pain, but just a little achy romance would be awfully interesting. Not heartbreak-achy, not like the poor needlepoint counselor who died of a broken heart before the tapestry was finished. That would be like so, well, over the top.
    She remembered that she wanted to put on her thinking tiara and figure out what was with this tapestry. She scrambled out of bed and got the tiara from its velvet box. Then she climbed back under the covers and, with her thinking tiara firmly in place, Alicia thought about where the ancient tapestry might be hidden. She wracked her brain, but nothing came. Instead, the open page of her book caught her eye. It was one of her favorite letters.
…and so, My True Love, evil cannot part us, neither the Blood Guard nor the treacherous queen. We shall meet in another world, a better world. A world that has neither kings, nor queens, nor princes or princesses. A world without crowns, but one where we shall be clad only in the light of the stars that shine through us .
    This was the part that always confused Alicia. Was the forgotten princess talking about being dead? Dead and stark naked in heaven? That is what it sounded like to