Royals and Rebels 2: Love and War

Thirty-Five: Penelope Peters

Chapter Thirty-Five

Penelope Peters

Going back to Hay-on-wye felt different. This time, it was to bury my mother. Not that there was anything left to bury. The body was gone, and the school was complete ash. The house would get sold, and items packed away. I was staying at school, and my uncle had taken care of everything.

“It’s not right,” he said to me over the phone, “yer my sister’s girl. I should be able to take care of you.”

No one, in the midst of it all, had even considered my uncle as a guardian. I was too high risk. But the alternative to me locked away for treason until I was eighteen was being raised by the crown. Made to see the error of my ways by learning from the

“It’s alright, uncle,” I said, “I understand. They need someone to blame. I’ll take the blame.”

We talked over the phone. They worried about my “safety” they told me and I was being held in a safe house somewhere in Owain. They weren’t telling me anything.

“You be careful, alright?” he said. “They’ve sent the guard here and they’re swarming like vultures.”

“How are Rose and Apollo?” I asked.

There was a pause.

“Uncle?”

“No one has seen them,” he confessed, “they went missing shortly after the attack. There were also rumors.”

“What kind of rumors?”

“Rumors that Orion Spires got seen lurking around town.”

“Apollo’s brother?” I said. “That’s impossible. He’s dead.”

“There was never any confirmation,” he said. "No body was ever found, and the hanging that he should have died at ended in an attack from The Guillotine.”

“Well, they’re wrong,” I said, “and Rose and Apollo will turn up soon. I’m sure.”

“Sure,” he said, “anything in particular you want to keep?”

I paused. “Get rid of it all. After what happened, I can’t stomach looking at it.”

“Alright, Caru. We’ll see you at the funeral. Annie will be there, and Seamus. Have they told you who you’ll be living with?”

“At the moment, it appears to be Lord Crowe,” I said, “but that could change.”

“Do you think that a wise choice?” he said. “I’ve heard rumblings about that man. They say that he’s spy, that his background is questionable. You could be in a dangerous situation.”

“I’m in love with the future King,” I told him, “I’m already in a dangerous situation.”

There was a pause. “You know, Seamus still talks about you. He would take you back in a heartbeat if you wanted him.”

“I know what I want,” I said, “and I know what I’m doing.”

“Then,” he said, “be careful. I’ll see you for the funeral.”

“Of course. Tell Annie I said hi.”

“I will. She sends her love.”

I ended the phone call. I couldn’t tell him anything about where I was. Or how I would be arriving. After I woke up from the fainting spell I’d had, I got whisked away to the Tower of Owain.

It was where all traitors got kept, since the very beginning of Wales. Of course, they weren’t calling me a traitor. I was there because they worried that there might be another attack on my life. But I could tell from the looks of the guards and from what was being printed in the papers.

I had said what I said.

I wrote that I believed.  I would stand by that. No matter what they did, I wouldn’t stop writing what I felt was true.

There was a knock on the door. I opened it, and found Jasper waiting for me. He’d gotten assigned to guard duty. Whether he’d chosen it or it had gotten forced upon him by Cadoc, I didn’t know. But I did know that I wanted him there.

That I needed him, if I was going to survive what was coming.

“You ready?” he said.

“No,” I admitted, “but I don’t think anyone is ever ready for a funeral.”

He gave me a small smile. “No. I suppose not.”

I shouldered my bag, and I followed him out to the car. The Tower attached to the palace, and it was high up, far away from everything. It was where the most dangerous of criminals got kept. People that had to be watched by the crown, and no one else. One small newspaper article on a student newspaper had made this much trouble.

But something horrible had happened. People were hurting. Innocents had died. They needed someone to blame, and I would rather it have been me then Rose and Apollo. They were the last two people on earth who wanted power. All they needed was each other and I wasn’t going to let anyone interfere with that.

So I was okay with being the villain if I meant that they got to stay with each other. I wish people knew where they had gone.

“Jasper,” I said as I got into the car.

“Yes?” he asked.

“Have you heard anything about Rose and Apollo since the incident?”

There was a pause. “I’m not allowed to share anything about that.”

“Jasper,” I begged, “come on.”

“Penelope, I care about you, which is why I’m not going to tell you any information. You’ve already gotten held for treason. I’m not telling you anything more that could put you in more danger.”

I coughed. “So, you do know something?”

He shook his head. “I wouldn’t tell you anything even if I did.”

I frowned, and then I took out my cell phone. I put in my ear pods, and I played music. I leaned back in my seat, closed my eyes, and slept.

As I slept, I dreamed.

I saw myself in a ballroom with Cadoc. We were dancing together in the palace, celebrating, and then----

Then a man came through the crowd. He wore red military dress clothes, making him look like a Russian Tsar. He was tall, with slicked back brown hair, and deep, chocolate brown eyes. He was one of the most handsome men that I had ever seen. There was rage in his eyes, a gun in his hand, and he aimed it at Cadoc.

I stepped in front of him, and the bullet hit me. I fell to the floor, clutching my stomach, blood spilling out. I jolted awake to find Jasper shaking me.

“Pen,” he said, “Pen are you alright?”

I shook my head, still overwhelmed by the awful things that had danced in my head. “There’s something coming, Jasper. And it’s going to be awful.”

He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me in. Then I got out of the car, and I was home. But it no longer felt like home anymore. It felt like a war zone.