Invasion: A Sequel to The Last Princess Read Online Free PDF Page A

be
my
maid of honor, I thought, and the realization made me blush.
    “Thank you all for coming this evening,” Eoghan began, his voice gruff. “I’m the luckiest man in the world, to get to marry the world’s most incredible woman. Please, enjoy tonight!” He smiled and sat back down, and then the first course was served.
    I hadn’t been at a dinner like this since the Roses Ball, the night my father was killed. I had been worried that tonight would bring back those memories, make me nervous and fidgety and ruin the night for Mary—but seeing Mary and Eoghan smiling at each other across the forty-foot table swept all those fears away. This was a happy occasion.
    “Remember when we used to go to dinners like this all the time, when we were little?” I turned to Mary as servers dressed in crisp black and white uniforms set the first course, a mushroom bisque, in front of us.
    “When we were the dessert princesses?” Mary asked, smiling. “You hated that!”
    Our parents used to have state dinners at least once a week, before the Seventeen Days. Though Mary and I were certainly not old enough to attend, we were often summoned near the end of the meal to make an appearance in matching tartan dresses. We would smile and curtsy as the guests were enjoying their dessert, give our parents a kiss, and then our governesses would usher us back upstairs to the nursery for bed. “We’re the dessert princesses!” Mary would call us with a giggle, while I sulked, bored with the whole thing.
    “I wasn’t always the best behaved,” I said sheepishly, taking a spoonful of my soup. It was delicious.
    “How are you doing?” Wesley whispered across the table to me, when there was a break in the conversation. “This is more people we’ve seen in one place in a long time.”
    “I do miss the cabin,” I admitted. “But you have to admit, this is amazing.”
    “Agreed,” Wesley said with a grin. “Enjoy it. We’ll be home soon enough, forced to eat our own bad cooking.”
    “Hey!” I said, kicking him playfully under the table. “We’re not so bad!”
    He held up a forkful of truffle beef Wellington, eyebrows raised. It couldn’t be more different from the simple meals we’d grown accustomed to cooking for ourselves. “I wouldn’t mind if we learned to make
this
,” he said, reaching across the table for my hand. “I miss it too, though. Don’t worry, we’ll be back there soon enough.”
    Finally, General Wallace stood up, tapping his glass with a knife for silence. The toasts were beginning.
    “Friends,” he began. “Let me take this moment to honor Her Royal Highness Mary Windsor, queen of England, and Mr. Eoghan Burns.
    “I have had the distinct honor to know Queen Mary since she was a little girl. And in a mere twenty years, she has managed to accomplish more than most people have in a lifetime. She saved our great country from a dictator and led the most extensive rebuilding efforts the world has yet seen. Someday, children in history class will report on Mary as the greatest queen in British history.” I glanced over to Mary, whose eyes were brimming with tears. “Please join me in congratulating her on this exciting new chapter in her life!”
    Applause filled the room, and Mary stood up to begin a speech of her own. “Dear guests,” she began.
    The room fell instantly silent. All motion stopped as though a spell had been cast, freezing everyone in place.
    “I am so very grateful to all of you for being here to celebrate this happy occasion with me this evening. For those of you concerned this soon-to-be new bride will shirk on her duties …” She paused for the laughter coming from her guests. Not a single one of them were concerned about that at all. “Allow me to put your minds at ease.”
    She raised her glass. “My first priority will always be to serve and rebuild my country. Nothing will stop me from fulfilling my duty. Not even you, Eoghan.”
    Again the crowd laughed.
    Eoghan and