Chapter 1
When I first heard the news it came from Tristen, my little brother. “Scarlett!” he had shouted to me. “King Timmy is dead!”
This wasn’t the way I had expected to hear it, although when I did hear it I wasn’t surprised. King Timmy had a genetic disease that was common in my family called Boschers. His son Marvin also got it although the poor kid died at the age of three. Those who had the disease would suddenly overheat at any moment in time, and usually quite often. Sometimes though their body would get so hot that they would go into a coma and die. It is the most deadly genetic disease in the kingdom.
Anyway, my mother died after giving birth to my brother nine years ago. My dad had followed shortly after because of Boschers like my uncle but died eight years ago. I didn’t have to worry about Boscher though because only men could get it and pass it on. I was worried about Tristen, but he hadn’t shown any signs of it yet. I was hoping that it skipped him.
King Timmy was my dad’s older brother, and although his people called him “King Nane the Third” my family just called him King Timmy. When he became King, he gave my dad a bunch of money as well as a small castle which was on the other side of the kingdom. They had always gotten along well. That’s where my brother and I grew up, in this place we call Southside Manor because it is south of the King’s castle at the edge of the Kingdom of Marknam.
Southside Manor is huge and would be mine someday unless I was able to claim the throne in which it would be Tristen’s. Since King Timmy’s son had died he was no longer able to inherit the throne and his wife had passed away because of sickness a year after Marvin was born. Because of this, I was probably going to inherit the throne now.
I wasn’t really sure if I wanted the throne, and all the responsibility that came with it but if I was allowed to step up and didn’t then it would be claimed by someone on the other side of the family which we called our “lost” family.
I didn’t know much about our lost family, except that it had become so when my grandparents eldest daughter Mia had been beaten in a competition for the throne. Her brother who is King Timmy had made a bet with her and had won by cheating, which made her have a huge grudge against him. Eventually, when she wasn’t able to find any way to get the throne back she tried to kill him in his sleep but got caught by a room maid. This got her banished from the kingdom she so desperately loved. No one had heard from her since.
So they weren’t much of a worry to me, assuming that she had gotten married and had children.
“Is he really dead?” I asked Tristen, who stood before me in my sitting room. He must have forgotten my rule about no boys in my living quarters again. Or he just didn’t care.
“Yup. Does that mean you get to be King?” he asked me.
I laughed and patted him on the head. “You mean Queen, right?”
He shook his head. “King and Queen are the same things.”
I laughed again before telling him to get out because otherwise Mistress Lainey would be looking all over for him and he would get in trouble. Again. He reluctantly left, leaving me to the book laid out in front of me. Mistress Lainey was the head of the household until I turned fifteen in three months. Then I would be old enough to claim ownership over all of my parent’s property.
I sighed, wondering if this was going to be one of the last moments I would get to myself. Surely there would soon be an announcement and the royal funeral carriage would ride through the kingdom, to finalize the king’s death. Either way, I would probably need to go to the castle soon.
Sighing I got up and put my book away on my chair and walked into my bedroom, which was attached to my sitting room. If I did have to go to the castle I might as well go now, because if there was a royal funeral carriage coming it wouldn’t be here for at least a week.
I started to pack some things like clothing, even though there would certainly be clothing there for me. I packed some dresses and decided to put on a dark blue travel dress as well as some nice leather boots. Then I called a servant who was walking through the hallway outside of my room with laundry to take my bags and call for someone to saddle my horse.
She quickly scurried away with my things and I walked through the long hallways until I came to my brother’s quarters where he was taking his lessons. He looked up from a book that he was reading aloud to his teacher and then asked me why I was dressed for travel.
“I am going to the castle to see if what you told me is true,” I replied.
His eyes instantly lit up at this and he asked if he could come. I shook my head. “I am planning on riding there instead of taking a carriage so you can’t come.
“I can ride pretty well,” he told me, a pleading look on his face. “Please let me come. You can bring along some servants and if I get tired, which I won’t, then they will take me back.”
I sighed and told him to start packing, turning around to leave. “Be downstairs in fifteen minutes for an early lunch,” I told him. Then I walked the hallways until I found another servant who I ordered to prepare a small carriage to be led by my horse and Tristen’s.
Then I made my way down to the private dining room where lunch preparations were already underway, and because of our trip to the Markham Castle, they were being sped up. Soon Tristen and I sat at the table that could fit up to ten people with three courses being given to us.
Finally, after we had finished the meal we went outside to the carriage that awaited us with a driver already prepared to leave. I was a bit surprised at first when I saw it since it was our nicest carriage. It made sense though since I may become the new queen of Markham.
