Read Online Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George - Free Book Online Page A

was why those princes and all their guards and servants had stayed on following the memorial. The Council had also sent invitations to other nations and to every noble in Sleyne as well.
    “So the only people who didn’t know I would be king by the end of the week were you two and me!” Rolf picked up one of Lilah’s pillows and threw it at the wall.
    “It’s an insult,” Lilah agreed. “But there’s precious little we can do about it.”
    “But I’m supposed to be the king!” Another pillow smacked into the wall.
    “Under a regency, that won’t mean much,” Lilah said.
    “Lilah!” Celie found herself on the verge of tears. “Don’t be mean!”
    She picked up one of the fallen pillows and hugged it to her chest, huddling into a window seat and making herself as small as possible. The news that Rolf was to be a king under the thumb of a regency had been nearly as shocking and upsetting as the news of their parents’ mishap, as Rolf had called it. To make it worse, Rolf had been livid for days, and he and Lilah had been arguing the entire time as well, Lilah trying to make Rolf stop complaining and accept matters, and Rolf snapping back at her and threatening to fight the Council over everything.
    Lilah went to sit beside her in the window seat. “I’m not trying to be mean, dear, I’m trying to be practical. The regency will happen, and the more Rolf fights them, the more they will treat him like a child.”
    “So you think that I should just agree with everything they say?” Rolf picked up a pillow and looked at it like he wanted to murder it, not just toss it at the wall.
    “No, I didn’t say that,” Lilah said. “I only mean that you should show that you are willing to work with the Council, to listen to what they have to say. It will make things a lot easier on all of us.”
    “I don’t want things to be easy; I want them to be right!” Rolf said.
    “When Pogue returns with his news,” Celie began, “the Council will see that—” She stopped as Lilah and Rolf exchanged a look. “What? What’s happened to Pogue?” Celie asked as her stomach dipped and lurched.
    “Nothing, nothing, dear,” Lilah soothed. “Or at least, nothing that we know of. But the Council sent a runner this morning to bring him back. There isn’t to be any more searching for Mother and Father and Bran.”
    “What?” Now Celie took the pillow she’d been holding and threw it against the wall as hard as she could. It was very satisfying. “How could they? Isn’t that … treason … or something?”
    “I’m afraid not,” Rolf told her. “As the Royal Council of Sleyne, they have the right to declare Mother and Father dead. Apparently.” He swallowed, looking like he’d eaten something nasty. “There really is no reason, now that we’ve had a memorial ceremony, to spend the time and expense looking for their bodies.” He held up his hands in defense as Celie gave him a murderous look. “That’s what they are saying, not me.”
    “But—but we can’t just give up on Mother and Father and Bran!”
    “We haven’t,” Rolf said. He crowded into the window seat with Celie and Lilah. “I promise that we haven’t. I slipped a note for Pogue to the runner, along with the official letter from the Council. I told him what has happened, with the regency and everything, and asked him to stay as long as he dared, and do as much as he can. He can say he’s decided to stay in the city and visit some relatives.”
    “He does have cousins near the College of Wizardry,” Lilah said. “If he’s there now, he’s probably staying with them anyway.”
    “You see? It will all work out just fine,” Rolf said, pasting a false-looking smile on his face. “Pogue will keep going until he finds something, then he’ll come back and report directly to me.”
    Celie knew that they were just trying to reassure her; it was clear that even Lilah and Rolf no longer believed their parents would return. But she still