Royal Ransom by Eric Walters Read Free Book Online

about being watched. Try living in a village of two hundred people where everybody not only knows everybody but is related to you one way or another. I can’t even sneeze without everybody asking me if I’m coming down with a cold.”
    She laughed. “Exactly. The worst part for me, though, is the smiling.”
    â€œSmiling?”
    â€œYes, smiling and waving. I’m expected to be perpetually happy, friendly and polite no matter how nasty or rude the people I’m dealing with are being.”
    â€œThat would be hard,” I admitted.
    â€œSometimes I’d like to just tell them to take a flying leap!”
    â€œWhy don’t you?” I asked.
    â€œBecause the next day it would reported in every newspaper in the world: ‘Princess Victoria is royally spoiled ,’ or something like that.”
    â€œWith me it’s just everybody in the village. I guess that would be difficult.”
    â€œBelieve me, it is. That was perhaps the biggest reason I was looking forward to coming here. I simply wanted to be left alone, to be away from the spotlight.”
    â€œIt’s okay if you don’t want to talk,” I said.
    â€œNo, no, I’m enjoying our talk. I’m enjoying all of this.”
    â€œUm … it sounds like your brother doesn’t feel the same way. He doesn’t seem to like the idea of being up here.”
    â€œMy brother does not exactly like any idea. He’s quite the little pain, you know. Do you have any little brothers?”
    â€œNope, just me.”
    â€œLucky you. The only thing worse than having a little brother is having a little brother who is going to be the king of England some day. He can be such a little brat, and everybody lets him get away with it. Sometimes he angers me so much, I want to throttle him.”
    â€œDo you mean like smack him around?” I asked, not entirely sure what she meant by “throttle.”
    â€œOh, I would truly like to give him a good slap.”
    â€œHit him upside his head.”
    â€œI’d love to do that, just once,” she said gleefully.
    â€œYou mean you’ve never hit him, not even once?” I asked in disbelief. They’d looked like they were going to come to blows a couple of times already.
    â€œI cannot very well hit the first in line to the throne, now can I?” she asked.
    â€œWhy not? You’re a princess. If anybody should be able to take a shot at him it should be you.”
    She laughed. “I enjoy the way your mind works.”
    â€œThanks, I guess.”
    â€œHe might like this experience more if he understood what an adventure this will be. Unfortunately he just does not know about the north the way I do.”
    â€œI didn’t know you’d been up here before.”
    â€œWell, I haven’t. But I have read books, and seen movies and researched websites and heard stories and everything!”
    â€œBut you’ve never been up in the bush?”
    â€œNot really the bush, but I have been in northern England. We have a large estate in the north. It’s pretty remote. In places there are no towns for dozens and dozens of kilometres.”
    I tried to contain it but a laugh popped out. She looked hurt. I hadn’t meant to hurt her feelings.
    â€œIt’s okay, I don’t know anything about cities. The biggest place I’ve ever been is Edmonton, and it scared me.”
    â€œAre you implying that I am afraid of the bush?” she asked indignantly.
    â€œI’m not implying anything. I know that I’m nervous in cities and—”
    â€œYou said ‘scared.’ That is significantly worse than simply being a little nervous,” she snapped.
    â€œEither way, anybody who doesn’t know the bush would be plain stupid not to be really, really scared.”
    â€œI’m neither stupid nor scared. I have sufficient information and knowledge to get us through any situation that we might confront.