Jacinda's Challenge (Imperial 3) by M. K. Eidem Read Free Book Online Page A

smiled at the memory. “Of course it was usually in retaliation for me short-sheeting her and my sister’s bed, but still…”
    “I’ve never heard this before.”
    “Yes, well we mothers have a certain reputation we must uphold, you know, and letting our children know we once did things we’ve told them not to…” Jacinda just shrugged her shoulders, but her smile never dimmed. “She also liked to take visuals when you weren’t looking your best.”
    “She what?” Barek couldn’t hide his shock.
    “Oh nothing terrible,” she quickly reassured him. “I remember one time I was trying out a new beauty treatment.” She missed Barek’s shocked look. “I was trying one of those Goryn-green mud packs,” Jacinda shook her head remembering. “I had my hair wrapped in a black oil treatment and she snapped a visual. It cost me 100 credits to get it back from her.”
    “She blackmailed you?!!” Barek couldn’t believe it.
    “Of course she did. And all the while she had the sweetest smile on her face. Your mother knew how to handle herself, Prince Barek. Did you ever really doubt it?” She gave him a curious look. “She did graduate the top of her class at the Academy, you know. She might have looked sweet and innocent, but she was a strong, smart woman.”
    “There is just so much I don’t know about her.” The words seemed to escape out of his mouth on their own. “I always thought…”
    “What?” Jacinda asked tipping her head to the side.
    “That because of my father…”
    “That it had all just been given to her?” Jacinda found she was suddenly angry at how little Barek actually knew about his mother. “Was it just given to you , Prince Barek? Are you just a figurehead or are you actually High Consul for the Coalition?”
    Barek stiffened at the insult. “I have earned every position I have assumed, Madame Michelakakis,” his voice as cold, as hard, as royal as she’d ever heard the King’s.
    “Yet you doubt that your mother had to… before she was Queen… before she was considered ‘Royal’? When she was just someone Prince Jotham had taken an interest in?”
    “I… I never considered…”
    “That she might have struggled more than you had to, not because she was a Royal, but because she wasn’t one? Your mother, at a very young age, handled all that pressure with no assistance from the Palace with a natural grace that I still envy. When she was suddenly thrust into the role of the Queen… I never once saw her be anything but kind and graceful, a real Queen.” Jacinda’s eyes turned sad as she remembered her friend. “Not only have I, but the House of Protection has greatly missed her gentle influence since her untimely death.”
    Barek was silent for several moments, finding his throat had tightened at Jacinda’s heartfelt words. He had never given any thought to what it must have been like for his mother to be suddenly thrust into a role he’d been training his entire life for. And he still wasn’t sure he was ready for. She had been so young.
    “Just eighteen. Newly graduated from the Academy and ready to join the Coalition.” As Jacinda spoke, Barek realized he’d said the last words aloud.
    “I can’t picture it. There is so much about her I don’t know, don’t remember.” Barek couldn’t believe he just said that to her, someone he really didn’t know.
    “What about her albums of visuals?”
    “What albums?” he demanded.
    “Lata had albums full of visuals of her trips with her family and of her time at the Academy. She always seemed to be taking visuals of your father and then there were the ones of you.”
    “Of me?”
    “Of course. Oh, there were the ‘official’ visuals of you, but Lata had her own album of the ones she’d taken. She showed them to me once when she visited. There were ones of you in the bath. Of you sleeping in your crib. She even had one of you running around the King’s garden, butt-naked.” Jacinda laughed at his