The Bastard Princess

Prologue

My mother, Ophelia, she was an adventurous woman. My mother was also beautiful, the kind of beautiful that was difficult to ignore. Born to Baron and Baroness Leon and Daisy Brown, she was the fourth child. Her older brother was to become the Baron, her second brother would soon marry a loving girl of his own and take over his household, and her sister would marry a respectable man, and start her own family. That left my mother with a little more freedom than most noble ladies were able to receive. 

But freedom doesn't last forever.

As my mother came of age, she knew was next. Her mother began looking for a suitable match, and not before long did suitors start lining up at her door and tearoom. There were plenty of suitors willing to court the daughter of Baron Brown. Her beauty only made her more desirable to the noble families around her. She was expected to marry well, she was expected to choose a respectable man, have respectable children, and live a respectable life.

Of course, my mother had other plans.

She fell for the king. The King fell for her beauty.

At first, she denied herself the thought of being with the king. Then she thought it was harmless fun. A few conversations here and there. A glance across the ballroom. Perhaps a dance that lasted a little longer than it should have. But eventually those little moments became something more. 

At this time my mother was being courted by Lord Tatum. He was a respectable man, a suitable match, and exactly the kind of man her family was looking for her to marry. He was wise beyond his years for his age. Everyone respected him and majority of the ladies wanted his hand. Yet he chose my mother. Yet my mother was still secretly seeing the king. 

No one was supposed to know.

Perhaps for a while no one did. 

My mother continued to play her part in society. She played the noble lady everyone expected her to be, she attended gatherings, spoke with the right people, and allowed Lord Tatum to continue courting her as though nothing was wrong. 

On the day she was to wed Lord Tatum, plans changed. The King had an announce ment to make. 

He declared my mother his mistress. Her family was in shock. 

The marriage that had been planned for her was no longer going to happen. Whatever life my mother was expected to have disappeared in a single declaration. She was no longer simply Baron Brown's daughter, nor was she Lord Tatum's future wife.

She was the king's mistress.

Not long after the declaration, my mother discovered she was pregnant.

With the king's child.

There was no hiding it forever. A mistress carrying the king's child was not something the court could simply ignore, especially when that child would carry royal blood. My mother was brought further into the royal court, and with her pregnancy came even more attention than she had received before.

And that was how my story began.

Not with a marriage.

Not with a crown.

But with my mother becoming the king's mistress and carrying the child that would eventually become me.