The Decoy Princess by Dawn Cook Read Free Book Online Page A

Rathkey’s proposal? They must need something, living way up in the mountains like that. Metal, maybe, or wool. I don’t mind waiting until their son gets a little older.”
    “Tess, hush,” my mother pleaded. “This isn’t anything to do with Garrett or the marriage arrangements.”
    My next outburst died. Suddenly I wasn’t so sure I knew what was going on.
    “We do love you,” she said, her thin hand looking pale atop my sun-darkened one, “and please don’t take this the wrong way, but…” She hesitated and took a deep breath. “You aren’t the crown princess.”
    Three
    What do you mean, I’m not the princess?” I said, almost laughing. That was ridiculous.
    My mother’s eyes were sad, and her face drawn. “Dear,” she said, her nervous gaze darting over my shoulder to the two men. “Not so loud. I know this is awkward—”
    “How can I not be the princess?” I exclaimed, pulling away. Mystified, I glanced to my father and Garrett. It was obvious they had heard me. The prince was red with anger, and my father wore a look of pained determination.
    Garrett stood with his hand upon his sword hilt. “You dare play my family as fools?” he said indignantly. “We offered you immeasurable tracts of land, and you give us insult? Using lies to null a signed agreement is craven. Wars have started for less, sir!”
    My father’s face darkened. “We do nothing of the kind. We fully intend to honor our agreement. We have a crown princess.” He glanced at me with that same tinge of guilt. “She just isn’t Tess, here.”
    Confounded, I stared blankly at my father. What, by the three rivers, is going on ?
    My father turned his back upon Prince Garrett and came to the table. I jumped as he cupped my chin, meeting my eyes with a sorrowful expression. “I’m sorry, Tess. If it was up to me, I’d let you be queen. You’d have made a good one.”
    He looked at Garrett standing by the beautiful statue. “Prince Garrett,” he said, his voice carrying a weary weight. “Allow me to explain. There’s been no breach of contract. I introduced Tess as my daughter, nothing more. Any judgments you came to are unfortunate.”
    “I am so the princess,” I said, looking from my mother’s pinched face to my father. A bad feeling settled over me. No one was laughing.
    “No, sweetness,” my mother said. “But you are our daughter. We love you very much. Please don’t make that face.”
    Garrett hadn’t moved. His eyes were fixed on me. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking. “If she’s not the Red Moon Princess, who is she?” he asked tersely.
    My father winced. “Ah—we aren’t entirely sure.”
    My eyes widened and I stared, not believing this was happening. “But I’m the princess!”
    “It was troubled times, Tess, when your sister was born,” my father said persuasively. “The assassination attempts began the week we found the prophesy painted on the wall, and we had to do something. There had been a lunar eclipse the fall before your sister was born, and it seemed she was the royal child of prophesy. We sent Kavenlow to find an infant to confuse the assassins, and after the first two babies perished, we sent your sister into hiding.”
    “I’m a decoy ?” I exclaimed, feeling my face warm. “A moving target?” I looked at them as my disbelief whirled into outrage. “You’re not even my parents?”
    “Of course we’re your parents,” my mother protested. “We bought you honestly.”
    My breath seemed to freeze, and a wave of nausea swept me. I held my hands to my middle. Why hadn’t Kavenlow told me? He had known, and never told me. I was a foundling? I was one of three, lucky enough to survive a prophesy that wasn’t even mine to bear?
    “We assumed the situation would ease, and we could bring her back and raise you together as proper sisters,” my mother pleaded. “But things only worsened. Even to finding assassins among her suitors. We thought it prudent to wait until she