Page 15 of Royal Reluctance

“She’s our daughter.”

6

Bo

When I was seventeen,I spent a summer working on a fishing boat. We all did, even Lyra. I remember this one time when we were out collecting the catch, somewhere between Laandia and the west coast of Scotland, and trying to make it back to the harbour before a storm hit.

I had been on deck, watching the dark storm clouds chasing us into land. The waves had already been so big that I couldn’t keep my balance. Stumbling side to side, I kept trying to grab something to steady myself because the deck just wouldn’t stop moving and the storm wouldn’t stop knocking me down.

This moment feels like that. A lot like that.

I can only stare at Hettie, willing myself to understand what she just told me. “What did you just say?”

Hettie draws in a shaky breath and then another. She’s on the verge of tears again.

For once, I don’t care.

“I had a baby,” she whispers.

Do I hear her correctly? Did she really say baby? As in…

I glance at the screen in my hand. She’s—

She’s Lyra when she waslittle.

Whoever that child is, she’s a mixture of Lyra and Mabel and Hettie, and I think that’s my nose. She’s…

Mine?

Things start to spin. If I hadn’t set down the cup after I burnt myself—there’s a red patch on my wrist from the hot water—I’d have to now because I don’t trust myself to hold anything at this moment. “Why?”

“Why did I have our child?” Hettie asks with confusion.

Ourchild. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Hettie stiffens, and Kody raises his head. I didn’t mean to shout—or maybe I did because this deserves a shout. This deserves a roar.

Hettie jumps to her feet. We rarely argued, but I can still tell when someone is on the defensive.

There better be a good reason for her to try and defend herself.

“You sent me away.”

That’s not a good reason. “You left,” I correct.

“Only because I had no choice. You might have married me, Bo, but you never wanted me to be a part of your life. You made me a part of your family that you hated being a part of.”

“I don’t hate my family.”

“You hate being a prince. You told me that so many times. And yet you made me a part of your life, then pushed me away because you were afraid.”

“I didn’t want you to get hurt.”

“Butyouhurt me. You destroyed me, Bo. You cracked open my heart—you made me love you even though I had no intention of letting myself fall for you—and then youstompedon it. You let me leave.”

I flinch at the pain in her voice before I manage to steel myself. “She’s a princess,” I remind her with another glance at the picture.

“No, she’s not.”

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