Falling Pomegranate Seeds: The Duty of Daughters (The Katherine of Aragon Story Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

morning. The girls had struggled for the last hour to complete their reading in the midst of what seemed the confusion of an overturned beehive. No wonder Catalina wished to escape from the hectic bustle of a court making ready to move once again.
    Putting down her quill, Beatriz gestured her defeat. Without any more discussion, Catalina pulled Maria in the direction of a far more secret door, hidden underneath a huge wall tapestry at the side of the room’s fireplace, with Beatriz following close behind. The secret door opened to a secret passage going from one wing of royal apartments to the other – not only to ease the way for the king to come to his wife, but also to aid a safe and quick escape for the royal family. For years now the prince had possessed his own establishment, practising the art of ruling within the security of his mother’s court. While the king was with the army, the prince occupied his father’s apartments.
    One guttering torch, set high in a blackened sconce, lit dimly the short passageway to the spiral staircase at the end of the corridor. First to bound over the last, shortened step upon the staircase, designed to trip and announce an unknowing assassin, Catalina pushed open the hidden door to the prince’s bedchamber.
    A sudden burst of light from a nearby window illuminated Princes Juan and Ahmed playing chess together. Ahmed, the nine-year-old son of Boabdil, Moor king of Granada, had been held as a hostage for his father’s freedom and good behaviour since the age of two. Lovingly called Infanticoby Queen Isabel, he was treated like a member of the royal family and raised as a Christian, and a loyal Castillan.
    Catalina called out her greeting and the two princes turned. Ahmed’s dark, huge eyes flashed in welcome, his smile stretching across his plump face. Only his thickly lashed, dark brown eyes showed his Moorish ancestry, for his skin was as pale as all of Queen Isabel’s family. Blond-haired like Prince Juan, the boys could have been mistaken for brothers. Prince Juan frowned. “Sister, pray tell me that you asked permission of our mother to visit me?” The prince coughed.
    Catalina coloured, biting her bottom lip. Her brother sighed. Rising from his stool, he paced over to his chamber’s door and opened it. He stuck his head into the next room. “Miguel,” he called. “Tell the queen the infanta Catalina is here with me.” Shutting the door he turned back to his sister. “Thank God, I hadn’t sent Miguel on another errand, and he was alone. He is one of the few who knows of the secret way between these chambers and our mother’s. Anyone else would have wondered how the three of you slipped by the guard.”
    Ahmed chuckled. “‘Twas the way I used today, too.”
    Prince Juan returned to the stool and grinned. “With my royal mother’s permission – something my small sister often forgets to seek in her eagerness to visit me.” Crossing long leg over long leg, his tapered fingers tugged at the sag of his red hose. Juan lifted his gaze to his sister. “Or have you come for another reason?”
    Beatriz curtseyed. “I beg your forgiveness, my prince. It was my place, not your sister’s, to ask the queen’s permission. I’m afraid all the disruptions today caused me to forget.”
    Catalina glanced around the room and almost skipped towards an unused stool. Sitting on it, she placed her hands before her, fingertips touching fingertips, studying her brother. She smiled her most enchanting smile. “We could not study, could we Latina? Even in the library we were made to feel in the way. Is it then wrong to want to see my brother?”
    Prince Juan laughed. “Moving court does not trouble me. My men refuse to let such trivial matters concern me.” He studied the unfinished chess game. “All I need to do is sit and play with Ahmed until I’m wanted again.”
    Ahmed pushed forward one of his pieces and picked up one of the prince’s pawns. “I’m winning this