The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince Read Online Free PDF

Lostler found her, and then that they had needed more time to discover their way home in the fog and gathering dusk.
    I quietly noticed that she did not limp from her fall, despite the mud upon her skirts. And that she was in as fair a temper as ever I had seen her, humming in her bath and going to bed early and sleeping deep and well.
    From that day forth, all noticed a change in the Queen-in-Waiting. There was a glow to her cheeks, and she took to riding out very early in the morning with only the Stablemaster in attendance upon her and me trailing along behind. The wrath of the king over this was as nothing to her. As always, they began their ride with a spirited gallop, at a pace my horse could not hope to sustain. But in those days, I did not catch up with them as easily as I once had. Often I did not see them again until they came riding back to find me. Then Queen-in-Waiting Caution would be pink-cheeked and laughing at my worries and saying they must put me on a fleeter mount the next day.
    But they never did.
    There was a morning when they had outpaced me deliberately, marooning me behind them on my placid mount while they rode out of my sight. I had no chance of finding where they had gone, nor could I return to the castle without inviting questions as to where my lady was. The day grew hot as I plodded along and, seeking relief from the sun, I turned from the trail and rode to the lip of a little dell shaded by beech trees. Caution had once more ignored her name, for in their eagerness she and the Stablemaster had not ridden far. The turf was deep, and the two of them were too engrossed in one another to be aware of me as I halted my mount and stared down on them. Her discarded dress was like a wilted blossom on the grassy sward. She was so pale, a moon of a woman spread wide on his night-blue cloak, her head thrown back in ecstasy. She shuddered with each of his thrusts; his eyes were closed and his teeth showed white in his tanned face. Nearby, her mare grazed, heedless of them. But the Spotted Stud watched them so avidly that even he was unaware of me and my horse. When Lostler fell forward atop her, head bowed in completion, she seized his face in both her hands and moved his mouth to hers to kiss him so passionately that I could not doubt her love for him.
    Cold with dismay, I turned my horse’s head and quietly withdrew. What I had seen sickened me. For I loved Queen-in-Waiting Caution and desired no harm or scandal to come her way. Had I not raised her, at the expense of my own childhood? Had I not stood at her side, shielded her from punishment and, as often as not, claimed her misdeeds as my own? Had I not offered her my own body for her pleasure, to help her to stay virginal for her wedding bed? If I had offered her my heart as well, then I had done so freely, knowing that she could never reciprocate what I felt. I had always accepted that in our relationship I must love her more than she loved me, for I was merely a servant, and she was a Farseer and would someday be queen of all the Six Duchies.
    But it was him she chose. She loved the Stablemaster, a man born a slave and a Chalcedean, not even an honest Buck-born servant like myself. To that common man she had given her heart and the body that I had cared for and cherished since she was born. Another might have felt jealousy, but I write the truth that Redbird bade me keep clear: I felt only fear for what might befall my darling.
    And yes, I feared for myself as well. I knew that if my knowledge became public, I would fall just as swiftly as the princess, for although no one had ever said I was her chaperone, I knew that was what they had expected of me.
    As soon as I was sure, I ran to my mother for advice, for she was at court in those days, nursemaid to Lady Everlon’s twin daughters. Busy as she was, she still made time for me, and found a quiet place where I could spill out my tale of scandal and fear.
    When I had told out my woe, my mother shook