Page 3 of Royal Rising

A herd of black-and-white cows munch placidly on the other side.

“What did you yell for?” Kalle demands, both hands now clutching the wheel.

“There was a turtle. I just pointed it out.”

“You made it sound like I was going to hit it.” He bangs his forehead against the steering wheel. “Jesus. My parents are never going to let me drive again.”

“It’s not that bad.”

“I almost killed a cow. And a turtle. And you.”

It’s the “And you” that melts something inside me, something I never even knew was meltable.

“You didn’t kill anything,” I soothe. “It’s not a big deal.”

Still leaning his forehead on the steering wheel, Kalle looks over at me with his really blue eyes. I can’t help but notice his lashes are long and thick and there’s a tiny pimple on his chin.

Why have I never let myself realize how cute Prince Kalle is? Of course, Iknew—all the princes are attractive, even ten-year-old Gunnar with his white-blond hair and mischievous smile—but it's only now that I've let myselfsee.

Not the best timing, Edie.

“It feels like a big deal,” he grumbles. “I drove us into a ditch. There’s no way I can get out of this.”

“But I can. Switch spots,” I tell him. “I’ll get us out and it’ll be like nothing happened.”

I managed to back the truck out without any more damage, except for the small dent from a shrub that was more the size of a small tree, and get us back on the road. Kalle is even persuaded to carry the turtle across the road—luckily it isn’t a snapping turtle.

It also takes a bit of convincing, but Kalle finally agrees to drive back. Get right back on the horse, my father always says. But I can tell he’s worried about what his parents, and my father, will say.

It’s an easy decision to make. “I’ll say I was driving,” I announce as we pull up to the castle. “That I was trying to see what the turtle was and hit the shoulder.”

“I’m not letting you do that.”

“You don’t have a choice. It’s my father’s truck, and he’ll believe me. No one will ever know, and you won’t have to worry about the king not letting you drive.”

Kalle is still arguing when we get out of the truck, but keeps his mouth shut when I confess, except to praise me on how I got the truck out of the ditch.

That afternoon, Kalle stops by Mr. Frosty’s with a group of friends and takes me aside to thank me.

The next time I help Dad in the garden, I stop in to say hi.

1

Edie

It feels like I’vebeen hit in the stomach with a taser.

And I know what a taser feels like, thanks to my father’s insistence that I take a self-defence/security course when I started working at The King’s Hat pub. He set it up with my younger sisters, Enid and Eloise, because both had recently been the recipient of bad breakups and Dad thought knowing how to take a man down would be beneficial for all. One of the lessons involved using a taser on each other, to Enid’s everlasting joy, and I can still remember the jittery, nervous sensation with exact clarity.

I feel the same way as I get ready for this date.

It’s just a date. I shouldn’t be this nervous. And it’s not like I haven’t been on dates—I’m thirty-two. I’vebeenondates.

But this one is different.

“Iam dating a prince.”

I speak the words aloud to my reflection to make it more believable.

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