The Princess's Secret Longing
‘I would like a child… Will you agree to father it?’ Part of Princesses of the Alhambra: Princess Alba longs for a life away from her tyrannical Sultan father. She craves a happy family life of her own, away from the palace walls she’s been imprisoned in all her life. So when honourable Lord Inigo comes to her rescue she’s spellbound! The Spanish knight is betrothed to another, but could he be her only hope of realising her dream?
Читать The Princess's Secret Longing онлайн беплатно
“I would like a child...
Will you agree to father it?”
Part of Princesses of the Alhambra. Princess Alba longs for a life away from her tyrannical sultan father. She craves a happy family of her own, away from the palace walls she’s been imprisoned in all her life. So when honorable Lord Inigo comes to her rescue, she’s spellbound! The Spanish knight is betrothed to another, but could he be her only hope of realizing her dream?
CAROL TOWNEND was born in England and went to a convent school in the wilds of Yorkshire. Captivated by the medieval period, Carol read History at London University. She loves to travel, drawing inspiration for her novels from places as diverse as Winchester in England, Istanbul in Turkey and Troyes in France. A writer of both fiction and non-fiction, Carol lives in London with her husband and daughter. Visit her website at caroltownend.co.uk.
Knights of Champagne miniseries
Lady Isobel’s Champion
Unveiling Lady Clare
Lord Gawain’s Forbidden Mistress
Lady Rowena’s Ruin
Mistaken for a Lady
Princesses of the Alhambra miniseries
The Knight’s Forbidden Princess
The Princess’s Secret Longing
And look out for the next book coming soon
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk.
ISBN: 978-1-474-08953-1
THE PRINCESS’S SECRET LONGING
© 2019 Carol Townend
Published in Great Britain 2019
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.
® and ™ are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.
This ebook contains the following accessibility features which, if supported by your device, can be accessed via your ereader/accessibility settings:
Change of font size and line height
Change of background and font colours
Change of font
Change justification
Text to speech
To the RNA London Chapter.
Thank you for the many wonderful talks
and much writerly chat.
Contents
Note to Readers
1396—the Alhambra Palace in the Emirate of Granada
Princess Alba lay in the dark, an unfamiliar noise had dragged her from her dreams. She turned restlessly, unable to work out what had woken her. All she could hear was a trill of birdsong. In her mind’s eye, she saw birds flying over lawns and terraces and flitting in and out of shrubs in the wilderness beyond the palace wall. They sounded happy. Free!
A lantern glowed softly in a niche, casting a gentle light on the sleeping forms of Alba’s sisters, Princess Leonor and Princess Constanza. Their black hair was loosely tied back for sleep, just like hers, and their eyelashes lay like dark crescents against their cheeks. Princess Alba and her sisters were triplets, identical triplets.
Alba yawned and, as she looked at her sisters, she was gripped by an odd fancy. It was as though she was looking at other versions of herself, versions which had yet to waken. Irritated, she brushed the thought aside. Her sisters’ features might mirror hers, but their characters—oh, so very different.
The bedchamber shutters were closed, and it was so early that nothing was visible through the star-shaped patterns cut into the wood. The Princesses hadn’t been long in their father’s favourite palace—only a few days—but already Alba knew that in daytime the piercings in the shutters turned bright sunlight into starry splashes on the floor tiles.
