The Rogue Lady

Chapter Forty Nine

Story time!! My exams are almost over; only two orals to go and then my first year at Uni will be over. Yay for me.

**

I dropped my head, shaking it slowly. "No, that's okay; Svana will do. Besides, I lost that title when I got lock in the dungeons."

"And yet Rowan didn't?"

I looked briefly up at my brother, who was still resting a hand on his throat. He was looking at me but didn't say anything, knowing that this was my story to tell. Maybe he had guessed somewhere along the way that I had never told them anything about me; or maybe I was just that predictable to him. Either way, he wouldn't help me with this nor did I want him do; it was my mess, and I would clean it up.

"Well, he did but because the Queen needed him, and the Kingdom knows about him, she couldn't exactly take it all away from him," I explained but William looked completely lost. "Don't worry, it is complicated, no one will hold it against you if you don't understand."

"But if he is the Prince," he started, looking at Rowan before back at me, "that really makes you the Princess. How come nobody knows this Kingdom has one?"

"Not everybody is oblivious to me; the King's men know, which is why they listen to me and why the guards wanted to protect me from you at Woodfall. And Sir Wooden, knows; look at that look of recognition on his face." I pointed at the knight still standing behind the rebel leader. "But the reason that nobody but a select circle knows about me is that I was never presented to the Court when I turned fifteen, as is the tradition."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"When a Prince turns ten, he gets presented to the Court and from there a missive gets send to every part of the Kingdom reminding them that there is indeed a next generation of royals, we will have a King next. When a Princess turns fifteen the same happens for her. Except by the time it was my turn, the Queen had already taken over. In her mind, if she didn't present me to the Court, less people would know about me, and the less people knew about me the less trouble I would cause."

William arched an unbelieving eyebrow, silently asking me if I was serious. Rowan answered that silent question, "Our dearest mother-in-law might be smart about a lot of things but she had no idea back then, and still has no idea now, about how to handle Svana."

"Eric, do you mind putting the table back?"

And in a second the table was there again with the chairs. William dropped in his seat with a sigh and then gestured for Rowan and me to both take a seat, which we did. I waited for Eric to take his usual seat opposite me but he never did. When my eyes went to him, I found his eyes piercing into me with a mixture of anger and betrayal. I couldn't say that it was completely unsuspected. What did surprise me, and probably everybody else in the tent, was that, without a word, he turned around and left the tent. The only thing he left behind was the bitter taste of anger in the air around us. I felt it and it hurt. I pushed myself up, ready to go after him but Rowan beat me to it.

"You stay and tell your story, I'll go after him. Maybe I can even get him to blow of some of that anger," he told me with a reassuring look. Had it been anybody else, I would have hesitated, insisting that it was my mess to clean up; but this was Rowan, this was my twin. I nodded and dropped back down.

As the knights took a seat, my archers even lingered around as well. Although Tom had already figured out my royal status when we were still in Roseacre, they didn't really know much about me and I could understand that they were curious. Dragon, Roseacre seemed so long ago, so much longer than three months. Back then I had still wanted to get back to Silverley as quick as possible, and I had only just begun to hide my secrets. Now, however, it was time to come clean; the secrecy had last long enough.