Page 10 of His Princess Brat
“The king is preparing a celebration to welcome a special guest to our great country.”
It must have been a truly special guest too, because everyone looked to be here at the palace. I recognized a few dignitaries, royal entourages from neighboring kingdoms, and even chiefs from many of the areas agricultural tribes. I saw Tamar, the son of a wealthy Middle Eastern family. I’d played with him once when I was seven, back before our two families had a bit of a falling out. I remember him as being nice and every bit as fascinated with horses as I had been as a child, and then just as we reached the second floor, we passed Bethany Van Roijen, the incredibly beautiful and even more spoiled daughter of a Dutch ambassador. Bethany turned her head to say something to her escorting father, just so, I’m certain, she wouldn’t have to acknowledge me.
Which was fine. I couldn’t stand her. She’d always had a fawning infatuation with my brother, but hadn’t even cared enough to send her condolences after Jabari died.
“We’ve put you in the White Room, if that’s all right with your horse,” Jax said over his shoulder, coming to a door.
I almost smiled at that. “My horse and I are sure that will be fine.”
As I entered ahead of him, I took stock of the luxurious suite, finding it smaller than my room at home, but more than adequate in this situation. Especially since it was temporary.
“Shall I tell your cousin to expect you at the party?” Jax inquired as I glanced from the sitting room to the bed, before wandering to the balcony to look outside.
“Will there be single men there?” I tried not to sound grumpy about it, but I couldn’t help it. The sooner I got down to the business of ruining my personal life, then the faster I could get home so the rest could be screwed up as well.
“A few, I’m sure,” Jax answered wryly.
That depressed me, even though it was ultimately what I needed. “I’ll be there.”
Sinking onto the settee, I waited for Jax to leave and my bags to arrive, and tried to gather my thoughts.
Maybe I was looking at this the wrong way. Heaven knows I wasn’t the only princess in the world not being allowed to marry, as I’d always dreamed I would, for love. Surely somewhere in this place full of courtiers and blue bloods, there had to be a man who wouldn’t mind being married to a future queen. One who admittedly was a bit tomboyish and a lot better with horses than she ever was with people. I mean seriously, what were the odds of there being this many people here and none of them being acceptable?
Sadly, I hadn’t just lived with royalty all my life, I’d lived with my mother. The odds were depressingly good.
My bags arrived, and as badly as I wanted to throw all my newfound responsibilities to the wind, at some point I was going to have to focus on finding a husband. Just get it over with, I thought. Like ripping off a Band-Aid, it’ll hurt less if I just do it fast. The mental image of me in my bridal dress, standing next to a prim and pompous groom, screaming in pain, was both weird and weirdly appropriate. Hopefully after tonight, I would have a face to put on that pompous groom.
Unpacking my trunks, I smothered both my grimace and my sigh, and picked out which dress I would wear to my cousin’s ‘welcome to Osei’ dinner. The midnight blue and brilliant orange were my favorite color combinations, and the off the shoulder mermaid cut showed off both my boobs and my figure in a way even I figured could only be beneficial for husband hunting.
For all that girls liked to bitch about not having the right kind of boobs, I was a girl with two brothers. True, one was gay, but when it came to the opposite gender, my older brother had more than made up for it. Not only was he the reason why I know what butt bongo, chesticles, and motor-boating are, but he’s why I knew—big or small, round or pointy, perky or not, it didn’t matter what kind a girl was endowed with. So long as she had boobs, guys didn’t care. That dress would definitely show off mine.
Already uncomfortable in my traveling gown, I changed into a white and tan riding outfit and headed for the stables.
The trailer and car were gone by the time I got there. Adofo was already in his assigned stable, munching on a supper of oats and cool water, with fresh clean straw under his feet. It was a nice building, very clean and well maintained, although the only other occupied stall gave me a moment’s pause. It was the one right next to my stallion, but it didn’t have a horse in it. It had a stuffed animal, a stuffed toy elephant sitting in the middle with appropriately sized riding gear hanging on the wall just behind it. A grand plaque hung over the top of the stall door, giving it the name Pachysaurus Rex.
My brow furrowing, I stared at the plaque trying to figure out the meaning of the elaborate joke. My cousin did have a son, but while I’m bad about keeping track of this sort of thing, I was almost positive he was still too young to enjoy either the joke or even the elephant.
That was weird, but whatever. I went on to Adofo, giving him a good brushing so we both could unwind from the stress of the journey. I don’t know what my mother was complaining about. I liked his horsey smell and the soft nuzzling of his velvet nose as he searched my pockets for treats.
“It’ll all work out for the best,” I told him, brushing and braiding his mane. “It’ll especially be worth it if I can land you a girlfriend.”
Then we’d both be getting screwed on a regular basis. I quickly banished that thought right out of my head. I just... I just couldn’t face it. I needed to get out of here. I needed to go for a ride, clear my head, stop these soft flutters of panic that were trying to overwhelm me, now that I was here and it was all starting to become so... so real.
I didn’t need help saddling Adofo; I’d been doing it on my own now for years. So as soon as he was ready, I hopped up on his back and out we went, out of the stable and into the pasture beyond.
Acres and acres of green and gold grass stretched on ahead of me. Monsoon season brought out the green in everything here and it was lovely, especially when the sun was out and as bright as it was right now.
I gave Adofo all the head he wanted and, as my stallion so loved to do, he put his all into the run, racing across the fields as fast as he could go until the fence rising up at the edge of the property put a stop to both our fun. We stood before it, Adofo breathing hard and me staring out into the world beyond the chain link, unable to think anything except the most obvious. No matter how free we each thought we could be, there would always be a fence holding us back.
I might be a princess, I realized, but I was no better than a horse, to be kept and corralled, and bred to someone of champion lineage in the hopes of producing champion heirs. I was still sitting there, lost in my thoughts when a shadow passed over the top of me, blocking out the sun. I looked up just as the rain-heavy monsoon cloud unleashed its next torrential downpour.
It figured. In seconds, I was soaked. When the rains came like this, the bursts could be short and sharp or they could last forever. This wasn’t stopping and by the time I got Adofo back to the stables, we were both drenched.
The stable hands took over his care, leaving me nothing to do but run back to the palace through the pelting weather. Unfamiliar as I was with the grounds, I ducked my head and headed for the first well-lit door I saw. The fact that I could hear music and laughter didn’t register until I burst through the door. Dripping from head to toe and hardly able to see where I was going, I promptly slammed into a warm wall of muscle and spicy aftershave scent. I almost knocked us both over. Fortunately, the wall grabbed me, holding us both steady amidst the gasps and startled cries of those around us.
“Oh, crap,” I gasped, at first frozen in place. Cold, wet, dripping all over him, me, and the floor, I parted the stringy curtain of my soaked braids, long strands of which had already fallen out of my customary up-do, first because of the wind and my galloping ride, and then because of the rain. I stared in dismay up into the startled, concerned, gorgeous brown eyes of one of the most handsome men I’d ever laid eyes on.
“Oh, wow,” he said, looking down at me.
