Queen Liliuokalani: Royal Prisoner by Ann Hood Read Free Book Online Page A

grew more and more certain as time passed that it had sunk to the bottom of the ocean. Without it, he and Maisie were surely stuck here for good. Even though Felix had wanted to escape his father and Agatha the Great, he didn’t want to escape
forever.
He had to find the crown.
    But
how
? Felix asked himself over and over as he walked beneath the tamarind tree in the courtyard or sat beside his sleeping sister’s bed.

    A trip for the children to go bowling was planned for the afternoon. There were seven royal children ranging in age from thirteen to seventeen. They called themselves
ali‘i
, which meant “royalty.” All of them had lived together at the Chiefs’ School and learned English there. Now they lived here at the palace. Felix had a hard time keeping straight whowas really brother and sister and who was
hanai
. But it didn’t seem to matter to them. “Only westerners find this important,” Lot had told him when Felix tried to write it down one day.
    Felix was hesitant to leave his sister’s side, but Lydia’s
hanai
mother, Konia, convinced him that Maisie was being well cared for. Certainly their home, Haleakala, was a lovely place to get better. There were big wraparound porches on both stories, and trees and flowers bloomed everywhere on the grounds. The air inside and out was fragrant.
    As they left for the bowling alley, the oldest girl, Bernice, pointed to one of the trees, which had dense green leaves and brown pods hanging from the branches. Unlike Lydia, who was plain-looking and quiet, Bernice was one of the most beautiful girls Felix had ever seen. When she smiled, two deep dimples appeared in her cheeks. Felix was glad that she smiled often.
    “That tamarind tree was planted to commemorate my birth,” Bernice said proudly.
    “So Paki and Konia are your
hanai
parents, too?” Felix asked her.
    “No,” Bernice explained, “I am their only birth daughter.”
    “Her mother, Konia, is the granddaughter of King Kamehameha the First,” Lot said.
    “Which means Bernice could be queen someday,” Lydia said.
    When she said that, Felix’s stomach dropped. Bernice couldn’t be queen without a crown, could she? And besides, that crown was meant for someone named Liliu, not for Bernice. Of that Felix was certain.
    “If the Americans leave us alone,” Lot was saying.
    Suddenly, Felix got an idea. It was the kind of idea he would normally run past Maisie first. But since he couldn’t, he plunged ahead.
    “I guess every king is named Kame…hame…ha,” Felix said haltingly.
    This sent everyone into a round of laughter.
    Lydia patted Felix’s arm. “Kamehameha the Great united our islands,” she told him. “His son—”
    “I get it,” Felix said, blushing. “Each king’s son is named Kamehameha. But could someone else become queen? Other than Bernice?”
    “Unlikely,” Lot said.
    “For example, Lydia is a high chiefess,” Bernice told Felix. “Her lineage goes all the way back to highchiefs under Kamehameha the Great. Still, too many things would have to happen before she would ever become queen.”
    By now they had reached the busy streets of Honolulu. Felix was surprised by how changed they were from his viewpoint in the time funnel. What he had seen then were mostly thatched huts with just a few western-looking buildings, many bare-chested Hawaiians, lots of sailors, and stern-faced missionaries dressed in black. Now, all the grass huts were gone, and in their place stood houses and businesses that looked very much like the ones on the streets of Newport. There were no more native Hawaiians in their traditional clothes. Instead, they wore western clothes, although theirs had patterns of palm trees and flowers.
    On Punchbowl Street, Kawaiaha‘o Church rose above all the other buildings.
    “That sits on top of an ancient spring,” Lot said, glaring at the church. “Our people dove for that coral at a reef, then dragged the rocks here to build a church. Some of them weighed