The Last Princess Read Online Free

will be perfect with your eyes.”
    “Thank you, Mary,” I said softly.
    “It was Mum’s, so it’ll look good on you.”
    I said nothing, just watched the careful movement of Mary’s needle along the seam. Once upon a time we had a whole staff of royal seamstresses, but Mary had learned to do a lot since the Seventeen Days. “I found them in the storage wardrobe. Remember how she used tolet us play dress-up in there? This was the dress she was wearing the night she met Dad.”
    I thought of the room in Buckingham Palace filled with dresses belonging to past princesses and queens. The magnificent white wedding gowns worn by Princess Diana and Princess Kate, the fur-lined cloak Queen Elizabeth wore the day of her coronation. But I couldn’t remember the story behind the peach dress.
    I made myself smile, but inside I ached. Mary had so much more of our mother than I would ever have, and Jamie, none at all.
    He looked up from his notebook, his wide blue eyes shifting anxiously from Mary to me. “Do you think Dad will be happy to see us?”
    “Of course he will,” Mary scolded. “Why would you even ask that?”
    Jamie shrugged. “Because he never came this summer. He’s been gone sinceJune.”
    Mary gently brushed his hair away from his forehead. “He’s been very busy with work this summer. He had to meet with the prime minister almost every day,” she explained.
    “Did he ever say why exactly?” I asked.
    Mary shook her head, but I had the feeling she knew more than she was saying. “The rebuilding projects, I guess.” Strands of her thick blonde hair fell loose from her ponytailand down the shoulders of her cream-coloredblouse. Our mother always said Mary had roses in her cheeks, but I couldn’t help noticing how very pale she looked these days.
    Silence fell as we ate the sandwiches Clara had packed for us and shared the jar of well water. It tasted cool and fresh. Like the gasoline, the well was guarded day and night. Clean water was so hard to find now, a treasuredcommodity.
    I turned to the train window as we passed through the outskirts of an abandoned coastal city called Callington. The buildings had collapsed like a pile of toy blocks. Pieces of debris floated like dead flies on the water. A peeling, faded billboard was scrawled in black paint with the words THE NEW GUARD IS RISING .
    I shivered at the menacing words, uncertain what they meant. “Mary,what is that?” I asked.
    “What, Eliza?” But by the time she turned to look, we had already passed it.
    The train rocked rhythmically over the rails and soon Jamie lay asleep between us. I covered him with the blanket and tucked it under his chin.
    “He looks so peaceful when he sleeps,” I whispered.
    Mary nodded, placing her hand on his cheek. “It’s the only time he’s not in pain.”
    I held my breath.I wondered if she suspected what had happened this afternoon. I wanted so badly to tell her, but she had enough to worry about.
    “I’m getting sleepy too.” Mary unfolded another plaid woolen blanket and covered herself with it. I turned down the coal lamp and laid my head on the pillow.
    “Eliza?” Mary whispered, and my heart skipped a beat. I was certain she would ask me about what happened. “Doyou think the red dress is too dark for my skin?”
    I stared up at the dark ceiling, fighting a strange urge to laugh. Why were we holding a ball while bands of criminals stalked our lands? Roses didn’t even grow anymore. But I knew that the Roses Ball was one last thread of tradition that Parliament could cling to. Like the thread in Mary’s needle, desperately trying to repair the holes.
    “Mary,you know you’d look beautiful in a potato sack.”
    I was about to close my eyes when a burst of orange flame came cascading through the sky, leaving smaller trails of fire in its wake. I sat up, watching it anxiously to see where it would land. A flash of heat passed the train window, then disappeared in an instant. The sky went black