Read Online His Princess (A Royal Romance) by Abigail Graham - Free Book Online Page A

as I sit. He looms over my shoulder, and I catch a whiff of a musky cologne with a hint of berries. He touches my bare shoulder lightly and I flinch, looking up at him. He offers me a hint of a smile and a lingering look. I squirm beneath my elaborate dress, tingling at the idea of him undressing me with his eyes.
    He’s already seen it all, I realize. I was almost naked the first time he saw me. I shrink into the chair.
    After I sit he walks to the far end of the enormous table and sits down. He draws the white gloves off his hands as a pair of servants enter carrying trays covered in silver domes. The servant who delivers mine lifts the lid off before I get the chance to touch it, while a third man pours water into a heavy pewter chalice.
    I stare down at my plate and feel my stomach rumble. On the plate are two deviled eggs, but the whites are purple, like they’ve been pickled. Along with that is a steaming sausage on a bed of fried onions, some kind of hard black bread, and three small fish, grilled whole. On a separate plate, cut in half, is a pomegranate.
    The Prince is eating the same thing.
    “Um, do I have to wait for you or something?”
    “I know you’re hungry.”
    One of his servants gives him an iPad.
    A fucking iPad. He twirls his fork in his left hand while he peruses whatever he’s looking at on the tablet.
    Are you serious?
    “Um,” I say.
    “Eat, Persephone.”
    “My name is Penny.”
    “ Eat .”
    I stare at the pomegranate and swallow, hard.
    “Are you trying to tell me something? With the fruit.”
    He quirks an eyebrow. “Tell you something?”
    “I know the story.”
    He looks up. “Story?”
    “Of Persephone. In Greek mythology, Persephone is the queen of Hell. Hades, the brother of Zeus, ruled in the Underworld.”
    “Correct, but the Greek Underworld is not Hell only. A common misconception. Tartarus is Hell, but the Underworld also contained Elysium, a realm of beauty and solace. Do you know the rest of the story?”
    He’s not a year older than I am, but I feel like I’m staring down a professor, testing me with questions he already knows the answers to. For some reason my bare shoulders make me feel naked. Possibly because his eyes rake over my skin. It’s a shivery feeling, and oddly pleasant. I shift in my seat.
    “Yes. Hades was a melancholy god, and kept himself from the affairs of the mortal world. He wasn’t lusty like his brothers Zeus and Poseidon. He didn’t abduct nymphs or father heroes on mortal women, like Hercules and Perseus. He remained in his kingdom, judging the dead.”
    “Some say Minos, father of the Minotaur, judged the dead.”
    “Yes, there’s different versions. Anyway, Hades saw Persephone and was smitten with her, so he kidnapped her away and took her back to Hell, but Persephone was the daughter of Demeter, the goddess of agriculture and the harvest.”
    “Go on,” he says.
    I poke the pomegranate with my fork.
    “Demeter’s wrath was terrible, and she made the whole of nature die. People began to starve and they begged Zeus to intervene, but he couldn’t, because by ancient agreement he had no power in Hades’ realm.”
    The prince nods. “Do you know how it ends?”
    “Sometimes with a treaty, but sometimes with a trick. Some say another god interceded and convinced Hades to let Persephone spend half the year with her mother and half in Hell with him. During the time of year when Persephone stayed with Demeter, the world bloomed and spring and summer came. Then when Persephone went to join Hades in Hell for six months, Demeter’s sorrow brought fall and winter, and then her return gave the world spring again.”
    “What about the pomegranate?”
    “In some versions of the story, Persephone is tricked. Hades promises her that she can go home, but there was a law in hell that anyone who ate the food there would have to stay. Even Hades himself could not break that law. Persephone knew about it, but she became so hungry while Zeus