First Kiss Read online

  He smiles, “That actually works. I have several friends in Norland, except of course that my parents will never believe an attack on my life occurred without their knowledge.”

  “Your scars?”

  He nods, “Right.”

  Sam shrugs, “We have better surgeons in Norland than you here. My people had finished fixing you when the attack on your life happened. We were about to go to your parents to show them the work of my doctors when the attack came.”

  “Why wouldn’t I tell my parents I was going to Norland to be healed?”

  Sam wrinkles his nose and then smiles, “You came there to be healed, secretly in case my doctors killed you by accident. I didn’t want to be liable for your death and you knew your parents would start a war over it. But the doctors’ work was a success, and it was then that someone recognized you and tried to kill you. We stayed hidden at my hunting lodge and tried to find the bad guys.”

  I laugh, “You’re starting to sound like us.” He gives me a grin. I roll my eyes, “Beyond feeling like I am on the set of a who done it murder mystery, that is pretty perfect.” I release Bastion’s arm and walk to the kitchen, “I’ll tell Cook we have guests. It’ll be a great test of my mad Baylor skills.” The kitchen is a steamy mess. Dinner is in full swing. Cook gives me a glare, “I’ve asked ya not to be in here, Miss Baylor. You always make the food taste bad.”

  I laugh, desperately excited to see her. I forgot about her and how much I loved being in this kitchen. She knew me better than anyone. I give her an evil smirk, “What about the girl who you secretly let sit under the counter and fed pies to?”

  Her eyes widen. She shakes her head, “It can’t be.” Her chubby, red face is coated in sweat and disbelief. I walk to her, taking her stock-covered hands in mine, “It is I.”

  She looks into my eyes and gasps, “Miss Lynnie?” She shakes her head again, “We feared you dead or worse. What magic is this? How are you a woman before my eyes?”

  I look down, “Baylor. She sent me away for ten years but only a year passed here. She has cursed me.”

  Cook nods, “Tell no one you are you. Your father dines with a company of men who have helped in the search of you and the young heir prince. Baylor has her hooks in the other prince; she has him convinced to take his brother’s throne at the coronation in a fortnight.”

  “Where is Baylor tonight?”

  Cook smiles grimly, “At the palace with the king and queen, dining. There is a wedding ball in three nights in honor of their arranging the dates for marriage. Baylor and the young prince are to wed the night of his coronation now. He will be crowned king and then wed to your evil sister.”

  I shake my head, “No, he won’t. I have with me the heir prince. He will dine at our table tonight, pretending to be Braden and I Baylor. We will tell Father that dinner with the king and queen is cancelled. The heir prince has arrived home safely. Tell the help to bring us in. We have a friend, a companion named Samuel. He is a duke from Norland. He has odd manners and strange speech, but he is great company and aligned with Bastion.”

  She nods, swallowing hard. “This frightens me. Going against Miss Baylor. I fear you should remain hidden, away from prying eyes and not announced. She has grown more evil than I ever imagined possible this last year.”

  I nod, “What have I missed this last year that I have been gone?”

  She shakes her head, “It’s been an entire year dedicated to forcing the king into naming Braden as the heir prince and agreeing Prince Bastion must be dead. They wanted to declare you all as dead. Baylor has spent the entire year planning the wedding. Well, that and she brought someone here she named as a cousin. Her name is Rosie. She is young, maybe three or four.”

  My eyes water, “Where is she?”

  “She’ll be asleep by now.”

  I swallow the hard lump in my throat, “She is the baby my mother was pregnant with when we vanished.”

  Cook gasps, “She went to the other place with you?”

  I nod, astonished how easily magic is explained here. “Is she all right?”

  Cook smiles, “Sweet and just like you were as a babe. Her nursery is across the hall from your room. Baylor dropped her off here but hasn’t paid much attention to her. The nanny is a kind girl though.”

  “Thank you.”

  She squeezes my hands, “What news is there of your mother?”

  I look down, “She is gone.”

  I see a silent tear trickle down Cook’s cheek. I kiss her other cheek, earning me odd looks from the other kitchen staff. Cook snarls, “Damn you. Stop patronizing me, young lady. You will not have it, no matter how much you beg. Now get.” She lowers her voice, “Be your sister, not yourself. No singing and dancing, and making everyone play games with you. Be hateful and entitled and impatient and annoyed, often for no reason.”

  “She is that bad now?”

  She nods once.

  I turn from the kitchen, looking like someone peed in my cereal. Baylor was always entitled, but she was never so awful as this. The power of her magic has ruined her. When I get back to the foyer, a man is speaking to Sam and Bastion. I would know his back anywhere. I have climbed it a hundred times and hid behind it. My heart stops and my mouth is dry instantly.

  I get close enough to hear his voice. It is like a song in my mind. I nearly tear up, but I remember to be her.

  “Father, when is dinner ready?”

  He spins, “My darling, I never knew you were coming. Lucky thing I told Cook to put on a feast. It was to be me and the search party for Erralynn.”

  Bastion’s gaze fixes upon me, “She might have been taken. We were just discussing that with your father.”

  My father stifles a yawn, “Come, let’s discuss it over a meal. I am spent from the day’s ride.”

  Bastion gives me a look, “Your father was unaware that Lance and Heidi were home from their year’s journey with my brother.”

  I nod, “That, and the heir prince is home, fully recovered.”

  My father gives me a sideways look, “It is troubling that Erralynn is still missing with your mother, and the others are home. I had always hoped they were with your mother. Now I fear she and Erralynn are dead.” He says it matter-of-factly, eyeing up Bastion and Sam.

  Bastion nods, “They were not with her from the start.”

  My father frowns, “And the heir prince, where was he?”

  Sam smiles and speaks completely wooden and unconvincingly, “After my doctors worked on him, he spent a few months hiding, while trying to reveal who was behind the assassination attempt on his life. We spent most of the time hunting. He brought his help to my hunting lodge in the hills.”

  “And yet you are here for dinner? The king and queen didn’t want you there?”

  Bastion slaps Sam on the shoulder, “My parents wanted my brother all to themselves tonight. They are quite excited, as you can imagine.”

  My father walks into the dining room, “The king and queen must be relieved at how quickly he has healed.”

  I give Bash a look, “I bet it didn’t feel quickly to him.”

  Bastion’s eyes narrow, “I don’t know, he is fond of hunting.”

  I nod, “Yes, all of you men do like a hunt.” I follow my father, “But that is why we are here for dinner. They are meeting with him, having him checked out with their doctors.”

  “So fortunate he is normal again.” My father rolls his eyes as we join a small party of men his age, “How easily you have been dismissed, my dear.”

  The way he says it makes my stomach ache instantly. He is aligned with Baylor for the throne. I can see it. I can sense it. He is disappointed that the heir prince is found and normal after a year, and he is barely bothered that Mother and I are missing.

  Bothered, but not desperate, as I would have imagined him.

  Desperate like I was, when I discovered Rosie was dead.

  Desperate like I was, when my mother hanged herself.

  Desperate like I was
, in the closet Mary locked me in, or when she beat me, or when every person I ever met looked at me like I was a freak. Apart from the two people standing next to me. Sam never did, and Bastion—well, he’s always known who I really was so he didn’t need to.

  I hate my father; it dawns on me when I watch him laugh with his friends as they introduce the duke, Sam. I can feel the emotions overwhelming me. My father loves his one daughter more than the other two. My already damaged heart breaks further.

  Sam takes my hand in his, behind my back and holds it for the briefest of seconds before taking theirs and laughing with them. His only saving grace is that he is actually very wealthy and his family is horrible. His father and mother don’t even live with him back home. When he decided to go to regular high school with us, his friends, instead of the academy his father had attended, they left him with a bunch of help. They visited every now and then. I realize now, how hard his life was. I look around and realize my father has not ever been much different than his.

  I am the only female in the room so I am instantly occupied by several of my father’s friends.

  “It’s almost as if you have matured even more since the last time I have seen you.”

  I nod at the man, forgetting his name but remembering the nose hair—yuck. “I swear, you have aged before my eyes.”

  I can feel it. The last time I saw him, he gave me a butterscotch candy and told me to go and play the harp for them all.

  Bastion gives me a soft smile, but I can see the concern in his eyes. “My darling, will you sit next to me, even if it is in poor taste?”

  I meet Bastion’s gaze and smile, “Certainly.”

  Father slaps Sam on the back, “You, young man, must sit next to me. I must hear of the game and sport in Norland. I have heard it is fine. We don’t ever go North, I would love a reason to.”

  Sam’s eyes are wide when he sits, “I would love for you to visit.”

  We sit as Cook’s help starts to pour into the dining room with bowls of soup for us all to start with.

  Father gives me a sideways glance, “You have any idea how the prince stayed hidden for so long from the people searching? The king sent out hordes.”

  I look up at Bastion and then my father and his friends. “No.” I don’t want to look at Sam and force him to answer but he does anyway, “The prince wasn’t attacked right away. He came and stayed with me so my doctors could work on his scars. We have advances in medicine that you do not. The scars are gone.”

  My father appears to be holding his breath. He glances at the other men at the table, “Fantastic news. However would you have accomplished that?”

  Sam winks at my father, “If I told you that, I would have to kill you.”

  The room is silent until my father starts to laugh. Then they erupt into chuckles and back slaps.

  I laugh nervously.

  The laughing settles and Sam nods, “But when someone recognized him after the surgeons fixed his face, he had to go into hiding. That attack came then, in the foothills around the kingdom. We were on our way back to his castle to tell his parents he was fine, and they came for him.”

  My father frowns, “Did anyone know who the attackers were?”

  Sam gives me a look and nods, “The prince did. I believe he is with the king now, discussing it. We went to my hunting lodge from there.”

  My father looks uncomfortable, horrendously uncomfortable.

  He smiles and I would know that smile anywhere—he is guilty.

  Bastion is taking it all in. I can see the look on his face. He smiles softly at Sam, “My brother is lucky to have a friend like you.”

  Sam scoffs, “Nonsense, I am the lucky one.”

  I can hardly believe the act he is pulling off. The men at the table all smile and give him an approving look.

  A man at the end of the table, with a beard and a head full of grey hair, starts to laugh and regale us with a story about his son’s first hunting trip. The men laugh and my father watches me.

  I can’t be Baylor. I won’t ever be her. He knows I am an imposter. I can sense it. I give Bastion a look. He nods, so subtly I can barely see it.

  My father watches us both, scrutinizing everything we do. I excuse myself, liking how every man stands as I leave the table.

  I hurry down the hallway to the powder room. Instead of going there, I dip into the kitchen. With Heidi gone, Cook is my only ally here. She is covered in sweat and red faced, but she smiles when she sees me. I hear her shout to the help as she leaves the kitchen, following me down the hallway. I duck into the parlor.

  When she comes in the door, I whisper, “My father is in on it.”

  Her eyes widen, “I know. He has a mistress. I do not know who she is, but we have seen her leaving in the early-morning hours. He has been at it since shortly after your mother and you left. She leaves in the morning, wearing a pale cloak that is much too long for her. Watching her hurry across the grounds with the cloak trailing behind her through the mist is positively frightening.”

  I scowl, “You think he made my sister get rid of me and my mother?”

  She shakes her head, “I think your mother and the heir prince were the targets; you, your infant sister, and the help, were casualties of that.”

  I sigh, “We are going to the castle tonight to tell the king and queen that Bastion is alive.”

  She nods, “Get as far away from here as you can.”

  “When I’m leaving, distract my dad, please.” I hug her and slip back down the hallway before I am missed. I catch my breath and saunter into the dining room. I walk to the dessert on the table and get a dish of the pudding I know she made for me. It is my favorite. As dessert and drinks are served, Bastion corners me, “We have to get out of here while we still can.”

  I nod, “We have to go see your parents. I’ll stay with you in case a change triggers. I can kiss it away.”

  He takes my hand in his, “I don’t want you to come. My family is going to be so angry with yours if Baylor outs you as her sister.”

  I glance at my father’s friends talking with him, “I’m not safe here. He knows I’m not Baylor. At your castle, we will name me as a Norlander. No matter what Baylor says, your word is final. She will look desperate and conniving.”

  Sam walks up to us and pats Bastion on the back, “Can we get the hell out of here before we get murdered or poisoned?”

  I laugh, “See? He sees it too.”

  Bastion bites his lip, “Okay. With Baylor there, they will know you are not her, and I will name you as Sam’s sister. It is impossible for you to be Lynnie; you should be eleven right now. So you can just be a random act of doppelgangers.”

  I look back at Sam. He shakes his head, “Bad idea. Not my sister. No.”

  Bastion slaps him on the arm, “Good idea. Let’s go. It’s a twenty-minute coach ride to my castle, and I have a horrid feeling we will be followed.”

  I smile sweetly, as if we are discussing something frivolous, “I’ll get the horses ready and we’ll ride across the field to the castle with the carriage as a decoy.”

  “You are very devious for such a sweet girl.” Bastion walks to my father, forcing his eye away from the hallway. Sam and I slip down the hall. I look back, “You shouldn’t be coming with me. It’s indecent.”

  He nods, “I know. It’s going to be worse when we are brother and sister. A little too much. Can we say cousins? Do cousins kiss and marry here?”

  I wrinkle my nose, “Yeah, I guess they do. Gross. I can be your cousin, but you still have to try not to kiss me.” I smile back at him.

  He laughs, “Now that the curse is broken, are you going to kiss everyone you see?”

  I laugh too, “No. Ewww. I’m still me.” The words are not confident like I would prefer them to be. I open the side door and run across the yard to the stable. The horses we rode are fed and watered. I look at Sam, “We riding together again?”

  He nods.

  I glance at the stableman, “Two hors
es, ready immediately. Also a coach out front.”

  He nods, “Yes, miss.”

  I turn and hurry back to the side door. When I am down the hallway, I see my father coming. He is speaking to one of the friends. I grab Sam and do exactly what my sister would have done. I drag him into a dark corner and pull his face down to mine.

  He doesn’t do a thing, or question what I am doing. He wraps his arms around my waist and kisses softly along my cheek. “I want you, Lynnie. I want to kiss you.”

  I nod into the kiss, “I want you too, but I can’t do this.”

  He kisses the other side of my face. I feel his tongue brush along the corner of my lips. My father’s voice gets louder. I moan slightly, letting them know someone is doing something they should not be. My father chuckles and soon his voice gets quieter again as he walks off.

  Sam brushes his thumb along my cheek, pulling the hair back. He drags it across my bottom lip, “I am going to come and find you tonight. In that castle.”

  I smile, feeling my heaving chest pressing against his abdomen, “You are going to be a gentleman in the castle.”

  “No, I won’t and then you will be mine, finally.”

  He takes my hand and pulls me from the corner. When we enter the dining room, I drop his hand and straighten my dress. Bastion rolls his eyes. My father smirks at me, and I almost wonder if he does believe I am Baylor now.

  I nod at him as he approaches, “We have been invited back to the castle tonight.”

  My father frowns, “I would like to accompany you.”

  I smile, “You have your friends here, and I really think I would like a moment to see what is happening there. See what my situation is.”

  He nods, “Who are you?” I guess he never bought the Baylor act. Not surprising. I can’t be like her.

  I smile at him, “I’m your daughter.” I look him in the eyes as intensely as I can.

  His eyes narrow, “My daughter?”

  The smile on my face could sweeten tea. I bat my lashes, “Yes. Your daughter. Your longgggggg, lost, daughter.”

  He swallows hard and I spin away from him, crossing the room to the men, “Have a lovely night, gentlemen. We have to get back to the castle.” I wave at my father, “Goodnight, Daddy.”