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Back Princess at Heart
Chapters (49)
  1. Cover
  2. About the Author
  3. The Rosewood Chronicles
  4. Dedication
  5. Prologue
  6. Part One
  7. 1
  8. 2
  9. 3
  10. 4
  11. 5
  12. 6
  13. 7
  14. 8
  15. 9
  16. 10
  17. 11
  18. 12
  19. 13
  20. 14
  21. 15
  22. Part Two
  23. 16
  24. 17
  25. 18
  26. 19
  27. 20
  28. 21
  29. 22
  30. 23
  31. 24
  32. 25
  33. 26
  34. 27
  35. 28
  36. Part Three
  37. 29
  38. 30
  39. 31
  40. 32
  41. 33
  42. 34
  43. 35
  44. 36
  45. 37
  46. 38
  47. Author’s Note
  48. The Rosewood Houses
  49. THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING

Ellie followed her gaze. At the far end of the hall, the fire danced, caught in a powerful wind that had howled down the chimney. Flames contorted like a misshapen body until suddenly the fire blew out completely. A dark cloud of ash spluttered out like the whole palace were coughing up dirt, as if the very building itself was sick. The ash settled in a long black line right up to the steps of the throne platform, like a filthy shadow.

No one said a word. With the one source of warmth in the room gone, the breath in Ellie’s lungs turned icy. Above, looking down at them in judgement, the painting of the Wolfson family had darkened, all the soft light upon it extinguished completely.

It was Ellie’s mother who spoke first.

‘Wasn’t that strange?’ Queen Matilde laughed, an odd sound that was more like a panicked bird. ‘Thank you, Lottie, that’s very useful; we will discuss it privately.’ She rubbed her forehead, causing a tendril of hair to fall out of its carefully arranged chignon. On either side of her, King Alexander and Willemena were staring at the empty fireplace like they’d seen a ghost. Ellie had never seen her family behave like this; it was as if the Wolfsons were crumbling in front of her. ‘I’m afraid there’s nothing we can share with you right now but hopefully we will be able to build on it soon. Now I think it’s time you were getting ready to head back to Rosewood.’

They were being dismissed.

Lottie nodded, and Ellie found she did not want to stay in the cold dark room with her family behaving so oddly. In fact, she wanted to get herself and Lottie as far away from them as possible.

3

The purpose of a Partizan was to protect. They didn’t ask questions or get upset about orders. The only thing they concerned themselves with was keeping their master safe – whether their master liked it or not. Jamie had repeated this to himself over and over again while trying to read in his room. Usually he could rely on Louisa May Alcott for an easy distraction, and yet he’d not been able to absorb a single word. Instead he’d spent the last hour trying to understand what possible reason there was for him to be excluded from this meeting. And not just him, but Nikolay and Simien also. Surely if he was to protect Ellie and Lottie, he should know about any danger?