Instead, the King abdicated and moved away from Farcliff. Charlie, Damon, and Gabriel mourned the death of their mother and invited the Raventhals back to the castle.
Damon, especially, took it hard.
It was a tough time. In a way, the Princes lost their mother all over again, and lost their father at the same time. Charlie was very serious and quiet during those days.
We were married in a quiet, closed ceremony. Charlie dug out my one pair of heels from the bottom drawer of his dresser, but I was too pregnant to wear them to the wedding. We had them framed instead.
I gave birth three days later to a healthy baby boy, and Charlie doted on his son all day, every day. Having a baby in the castle brightened everyone’s mood and distracted them from the tragedy of the Queen’s death and the sudden abdication of the King.
The love that Charlie and I had for one another, and for our baby, won over the people. They accepted me as their Queen more easily than I ever expected, and Charlie and I started ruling with the full support of both Farcliff and Grimdale.
I graduated from Farcliff University, but I didn’t have to worry about providing for the baby. I asked Dahlia to be the baby’s godmother, and she gleefully accepted—she had her own reasons for wanting to be at the castle, after all.
The Valencias refused to move to the castle with the Prince and me. Frank said he wouldn’t be able to run the shelter from Farcliff Castle. They did accept funding for the mobile spay and neuter units, though, and Frank became the face of animal shelters in Farcliff.
A year and a half after Charlie Jr. was born, I crawled into bed beside Charlie with a smile plastered over my face.
“What?” He asked, grinning.
I took his hand and placed it over my stomach. I stared at him, happiness overflowing in my heart.
“You’re…”
I nodded. “I’m pregnant. You ready to be a dad again?”
Charlie’s smile widened, and he crushed his lips against mine. He laughed and kissed me over and over, and my poor heart nearly exploded. I didn’t know it was possible to be that happy.
Now, ten years later, we have three wonderful children and my life is so full of love that I can hardly believe it. Dahlia is like a sister to me in more ways than one… but that’s her story, and I’ll let her tell it in her own words.
Charlie is beloved by the entire Kingdom of Farcliff, and he’s proven himself over and over to be a kind and just King. His mother’s memory lives on in him.
I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve this much love and happiness, but I’m grateful for it every day. My three children are tall, strong, and athletic, and I make sure they know that they’re beautiful just as they are.
In the evenings, Charlie wraps his arms around me and tells me he loves me. Even after a decade, I never tire of hearing it.
“My Queen,” he says, running his hands over my body. “Have I ever told you how wonderful you are?”
“Every day,” I smile, closing my eyes and enjoying his touch.
“I love you, Elle,” King Charlie sighs into my ear.
My heart flutters, just as it did the very first day. “I love you, too.” I kiss him tenderly, and he pulls me close.
And just like the very first night we had together. heat sparks between my thighs. I fall into his arms, and he claims me as his Queen.
The only difference is that now, I know we aren’t doomed. There’s no expiration date, no end, no fall from a great height. We have each other, forever—happily ever after.
* * *
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Psst.. keep reading for a preview of Book 2: Knocked Up by Prince Dashing!
Knocked Up by Prince Dashing
Knocked Up Royals: Book 2
Seize the moments of happiness, love and be loved! That is the only reality in the world, all else is folly.
—Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
* * *
1
Dahlia
I’m cursed.
Always have been, always will be—but I’ve learned to live with it.
The barista doesn’t know that, though. She just thinks that the milk steamer on her espresso machine stopped working as soon as I got to the counter.
“Sorry.” Her eyebrows arch. “It’s never done this before.” She glances at the door marked ‘Staff Only’ behind her, chewing her lip. I wonder if her manager is a hard ass.
I shake my head. “It’s fine. Forget about the lattes. I’ll just have two black coffees.”
“I’ll refund you.”
I smile. “Don’t worry about it.” I’m not going to punish her just because I’m perpetually unlucky.
Her shoulders relax a bit and she gives me a shy smile. “Okay, thanks.”
I take the two coffees to the table where my aunt Theresa is waiting. She nods her chin toward the machine, which has magically started working again for the next customer.
“What happened?”
“It’s the curse.”
Auntie T rolls her eyes. “Of course it is. You know there is no curse, right?”
“Try living a day in my shoes, and then tell me there’s no curse. This morning, I slipped on a banana peel in my kitchen. A banana peel! I don’t even eat bananas! Unless this is live-action Mario Kart, that shouldn’t happen to a regular person.”
“Maybe you’re just clumsy,” she grins. “And isn’t your roommate an athlete? Athletes eat bananas, don’t they?”
I huff, sinking down onto the chair across from her. The curse is real, and it sabotages me every day. Don’t even ask me about my love life—that’s in the Oxford English Dictionary under ‘disaster’.
My roommate Elle would tell you otherwise—but she thinks that just because I’m able to bring guys home with me at the end of the night, it means I’m good at dating. I’m not.
“How was the Prince’s Ball, honey?” My aunt asks, bringing her coffee cup to her lips. With an oversized leopard-print faux-fur jacket and long crimson nails, she doesn’t exactly look like she belongs in the campus cafe.
I can’t meet her eye. I suck at lying.
So, I just tell the truth. “I didn’t go.”
“What? But we received the thank you note from Farcliff Castle. They only send those out if you attend.”
I scrunch my napkin between my fingers and take a deep breath. “My roommate went instead of me.”
“Why would she do that?” Theresa’s painted nails fly to her chest and her bright, red lips drop open. She frowns, as if my roommate Elle stole my invitation from me.
Elle didn’t steal anything from me. I convinced her to take my place—and not very easily.
“I didn’t want to go, Auntie T. You know how I feel about castles and crowds.”
Theresa’s eyebrow arches and she looks me up and down. “First of all, you know I don’t like it when you call me Auntie. It ages me.”
My lips tug into a small smile.
Theresa continues. “Second of all, why would you pass up the chance to go to the Prince’s Ball? It only happens once every generation! Are you insane?”
“You know how I feel about castles.”
Theresa tuts, shaking her head. “I blame your mother for this. She scared you away from your own heritage. Why should a Raventhal daughter be afraid of meeting the royal family? It’s all this talk about a stupid curse. No one should put those thoughts into a young child’s head.”
“She’s right, though. It’s not safe up at the castle.”
Theresa pinches her lips and drums her fingernails on the table. She tilts her head, watching me. “If you’re so scared of the castle, why—of all places where you could study organic chemistry—why did you choose Farcliff University?”
“Microbiology.
”
“What?”
“I study microbiology, not organic chemistry.”
“I thought you said…”
“That was just one of my classes last year.”
She waves a hand. “Whatever. You’re avoiding the question. Why come here? With your grades, you could have studied anywhere. Yet you come to the one place that terrifies you.” My aunt purses her lips. “It doesn’t make sense for you to come here if you’re just going to avoid the royal family. You live in a dumpy house on the edge of Grimdale, and you pretend that your last name is Smith. You’re a Raventhal, Dahlia. You belong up at the castle with the rest of them, so why avoid it?”
I take a sip of coffee and avoid her eye again. She’s right. I live near the edge of the poorer end of the Kingdom called Grimdale. Not a typical place for a Raventhal to live, but it is an okay place for a girl called Smith to live while she studies at Farcliff University.
Growing up, I was hidden away in the forests of Colorado with my three aunts as guardians while my parents lived in exile. I wasn’t even told that I was from Farcliff until my sixteenth birthday. My parents would come visit me twice a year, and she’s the one who explained that I’d been cursed as a small baby.
My aunts would shake their heads and tell her to stop putting silly superstitions in my head.
I know how crazy it sounds—but that kind of thing stays with you. Now, I’m supposed to be taking part in court life? As if none of that ever happened?
I sigh. “I don’t know. I feel like an imposter. This is where I was born, but I was shipped off away from here when I was a toddler. I never got to see the Raventhal home. Growing up with you, Aunt Helen and Aunt Margie was…” I trail off, lost in my own thoughts.
“It was what?” Theresa’s voice has an edge to it, and I take a deep breath.
“It was wonderful. I loved growing up in the wild. I loved being surrounded by nature and birds. It was peaceful. But… I don’t know who I am, Theresa. All of a sudden, when I turn sixteen, you tell me I’m a Raventhal and I belong in the Farcliff Court. I want—I don’t know what I want.” I sigh. “Whenever I see Mom, she always tells me they’re dangerous at the castle. And then you’re pushing me towards it and telling me it’s fine—which is it? Is it safe or not safe? Am I cursed or not cursed?”
Theresa puts her hand over mine. Her face softens and she squeezes my fingers gently. “Your mother has her own ideas. I’m just trying to encourage you to be the lady you were meant to be. I want you to reach your full potential, Dahlia.”
I take a deep breath. “I know Mom has always been paranoid about the Farcliff royal family. I don’t want to live in fear like she does.”
“So why are you running away from it? Why not go up to the castle when you’re invited?”
“It scares me. What happened with Mom…”
“What happened with your mother was unfortunate, but I don’t know that it was as bad as she thought.”
“You mean her exile.” I stare at my aunt and take a deep breath. “What exactly happened with her? All I know is that the Queen died, and she started saying that it was a murder and then she was sent away. Whenever I ask her about it, she clams up.”
Now, it’s Theresa’s turn to avoid my eye. She stares out the window at the stream of students walking toward their classes. “That’s more or less what happened,” she says.
“More or less? What does that mean?”
My aunt sighs. “It’s not for me to tell, munchkin.”
“Why not?”
“It was a long time ago, Dahlia. It doesn’t matter anymore.”
Frustration builds inside me until I feel like I’m going to explode. This happens every time I try to find out about the past. Whether I ask my aunts or my parents, I get the same answer. It’s in the past. I’m not old enough. It’s not for them to tell.
Well, whose story is it to tell? How am I supposed to know who to trust in Farcliff if I don’t know what happened, or why my mother was exiled? She used to be the Queen’s best friend!
Now, I can’t even ask anyone why that changed.
“The King’s sister was spearheading the campaign to have your mother exiled.” Theresa says with a sigh. She pinches her lips together and her lipstick creases. Her eyes tighten as she stares at me, and I hold my breath. No one has ever said anything about this.
“The King’s sister?”
“Lady Malerie.” Theresa says. She sighs. “She never liked your mother. I think Mal was insulted that the Queen asked your mother to be a bridesmaid and not her. Said she was the King’s sister, and Tabitha Raventhal was a nobody. Very easily offended, that woman.” Theresa tuts her lips and shakes her head. “Lots of drama surrounding her.”
“I never heard about this.”
“No,” Theresa answers without explanation.
“So… exiling Mom was payback for not being asked to be a bridesmaid?”
“The bridesmaid thing started it all… then there was Prince Charlie’s christening. Phew! Don’t get me started on that.” Theresa shakes her head.
My heart thumps. No one has ever been this open with me. I lean forward. “What happened at Charlie’s christening?”
My question seems to snap Theresa out of her own thoughts. She looks at me, wide-eyed, and inhales sharply. She claps her hands together and shakes her head. “What are we doing, talking about things that don’t matter! I’m here to take you out to lunch! We should be pampering ourselves, not talking about silly drama from the past.”
“What if I want to talk about silly drama?”
“Well, that may be, but we have some self-care to attend to. Come on, I didn’t come all the way from Colorado to see my darling niece just to sit in a cramped coffee shop. I have an appointment with Farcliff’s best hairdresser. Your colours need some refreshing, and I need a blowout.”
I run my hands through my multicoloured strands and grin. My hair is dyed a rainbow of pastel colours, and Theresa is right—it needs a refresh. Sighing, I give in. She’s told me something, at least. I can look into Lady Malerie, the King’s sister. Maybe that will give me some clues as to where I come from and why my family was thrown out of Farcliff—and where this whole idea of a curse came from.
My aunt Theresa throws her arm around my shoulder and leads me out of the cafe, just as my two other aunts, Helen and Margie, come screeching down the street in my orange Jeep. Helen has a bright blue headscarf on with oversized glasses, and Margie’s long mane of silver hair is wild around her head. They whoop and holler toward us as everyone on the street turn to stare.
Theresa tugs me to the Jeep and I let a smile slide over my lips. My aunts taught me to live a loud, happy, colourful life. They were the best guardians I could have asked for.
But I can’t keep shying away from the questions that plague me—and I can’t keep living in fear of a curse that might not exist. I need to know where I come from, and what happened with my family all those years ago.
2
Damon
My brother almost knocks my bedroom door down when he flies through it.
“I need your help.” His eyebrows are drawn together, his forehead creased. I’ve never seen him like this.
I tuck my pencil behind my ear and turn away from my notes and textbooks. Studying can wait—Charlie’s in trouble.
Charlie takes a deep breath. “Father thinks I’m dating Dahlia Raventhal.”
“Dahlia Raventhal?” I frown. I didn’t even know there was a Raventhal in Farcliff.
He nods. “Yeah.”
“The daughter of Tabitha Raventhal?”
“Uh-huh.”
“The woman who got thrown out of the kingdom after Mom died?”
“Yeah. That one.”
“And why does he think you’re dating her daughter?”
Charlie sighs, running his hand through his hair and making it stick up in all directions. He looks pale as he starts pacing up and down my room. “Well,” he starts. “I’ve sort of be
en dating her roommate.”
I fold my hands in my lap. “Okay. Who’s her roommate?”
Charlie grimaces. “You wouldn’t know her.”
“Try me.”
“No, I mean you actually wouldn’t know her. She’s from Grimdale. She goes to Farcliff University on a scholarship.”
“Ah.” I pinch the bridge of my nose. Who Charlie dates is a big deal—he’s the Crown Prince, and he needs to declare a wife within the next few months in order to be named the official heir. So, of course, his wife needs to be someone suitable.
Dahlia Raventhal is not suitable. Her mother was thrown out and disgraced after making wild accusations after our own mother’s death. Marrying her would understandably cause some controversy.
But marrying a nobody from Grimdale?
Completely out of the question—to Father, at least. I doubt anyone else would care.
I nod. “What do you need me to do?”
“Look, I just need you to pretend to be into Dahlia. Father saw me at their house, and if he thinks I was there because of you, it’ll give me enough time to think of a solution.”
It’s a stretch—I don’t know if my father would buy it. Charlie looks desperate, though, so I nod. “You really like this girl, huh?”
Charlie’s lips pinch and he looks at me, eyes wide. His chin dips down. “Yeah. I do.”
I take a deep breath. “All right.”
My brother blows a breath of air out of his mouth and closes his eyes. “Thanks, man.”
“What’s Dahlia like? Will Father buy that I’m into her?”
Charlie’s eyes flash and a tiny grin appears on his lips. “She’s… unique.”
Knocked Up by Prince Charming: Knocked Up Royals: Book 1 Page 20
