Read Online The Thirteenth Princess by Diane Zahler - Free Book Online

Startled, they fluttered their wings and jumped off the nests, and I picked out the eggs more easily than usual.
    That Sunday night I found myself in the unusual position of having to keep a secret from my sisters. I never had done so before, partly because I knew no secrets of consequence, and partly because any little secrets I did know—which maid loved which servant, whether the underbutler and Chiara were feuding—I presented to my sisters as the price of entry to their bedchamber. They loved to hear my little scandals, sequestered as they were by their position as royal princesses. Nothing ever happened to them, they complained, and so they were thrilled to hear about lovers’ triangles and arguments and petty thefts. And when I had met Breckin and got to know him, I’d told them all. In fact, my stories of my rambles with the stableboy were the highlight of the evening, most Sundays, my sisters hanging breathlessly on my descriptions of our treks through the forest and our conversations. But I did not tell them about the witch. I felt guilty, keeping such a big and juicy secret. Still, it was my very own to keep. I did not wish to share it with anyone.
    My sisters gathered around to hear about my outing with Breckin for truffles, but I left out the discovery of the cottage and what was inside. To make up formy secrecy, I repeated as much of our discussions as I could recall, and they listened avidly. As I described the way Breckin’s funny freckles danced on his face when he smiled, I heard a sigh and saw Asmita looking dreamily at the fire.
    â€œDo you think he will kiss you?” she asked.
    I was shocked. “Kiss me! I should think not!” In fact, it had never dawned on me that he might. It was a very peculiar thought and made me feel quite warm and uncomfortable.
    â€œOf course he will kiss you,” Aurelia said. Her voice was low and unhappy. “You will be kissed before I ever am, though you are not even half my age.”
    I jumped down off Anisa’s bed and ran to Aurelia, where she sat on the edge of her mattress. “I won’t do it, I promise,” I said to her earnestly, holding both her hands in mine. “You shall be kissed first of all of us. It’s only fair!”
    Aurelia smiled at me, but the little crease between her eyebrows remained, and I realized that it was there all the time now. I reached up to smooth it with my fingers but caught myself and pulled back. I looked at my other older sisters—Alanna, Ariadne, Althea—and I could see a worry and a discontent on each of their brows. They had been waiting for so long. I shook my head, angry all at once at my poor sisters’ fate. I meantwhat I said. I would not be kissed first. If they could not, I would not.
    At the end of that week, my father tried once more to introduce suitors to his daughters. We all watched at a third-floor window as the princes Bazyli and Ade, brothers from Tem, rode up to the palace on very fine steeds, though the princes themselves were, my sisters felt, of the second tier. Bazyli was rather plump—“But he has a kind face!” Althea was quick to point out. And Ade’s complexion was quite bad. We all tried to think of something nice to say about his pockmarked cheeks, but the best we could do was Anisa’s “Well, he must have been very brave, suffering through the pox.”
    The five eldest girls—Adena was now permitted to attend—were to dine with the princes. “You must speak!” I urged them, adjusting their trains and straightening their tiaras. “Don’t be shy.”
    â€œIt isn’t shyness,” Althea said disconsolately. “It’s just—I don’t know. When they talk to me, I feel that my tongue will not work. It almost seems to swell in my mouth and keep the words from coming. I want to speak, but I just cannot.”
    â€œNor I,” said Alanna. “But I will surely