The Wrong Prince (formerly titled, The Promise) (PREVIEW ONLY)

Chapter 1

"I'll tell Papa you said a bad word!" Cassandra's face crumpled. "Papaaa!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. 

Allayne hastily pressed his hand firmly over her mouth and held her tight. "Stop this! Now!" he hissed in her ear. "If you don't, I'll chain your hands, and stuff your mouth with filthy rags—then, I'll lock you up in the attic! Do you understand me?" 

Cassandra nodded vigorously, her curly red pigtails bouncing, looking utterly petrified. 

Satisfied that he'd spooked his sister soundly enough, Allayne eased his palm off her mouth and released her. 

Cassandra took the chance to escape and instantly bolted, elbowing her way past him and Richard. 

"Damn it!" Allayne tried to grab her skirt but missed. 

"Papaa!" she heaved a high-pitched squeal as she dashed across the room. 

"Come back here, you little—" Allayne hit his shin on a chair and uttered an oath, hopping on one foot as he rounded the furniture. 

"Papaa!" Cassandra darted under a table, crawled and emerged on the other side.

 Allayne launched himself across the tabletop, plowing through his mother's collection of small brass horses and various decorative trinkets. 

 "Papaaa! Help!" Cassandra raced towards the door. "Allayne is trying to kill me!"

Someone grabbed her at the waist and hauled her backwards just as she reached for the doorknob. 

"Cassie!" Richard deposited her flailing and screaming onto a chair, securely holding her in place. "This behavior is not acceptable!" 

"But, you're leaving me!" Fat tears slid down her chubby, bright pink, freckled cheeks. "I'll never, ever see you again—I just know it!" 

 "Don't be silly!" Richard pulled a handkerchief from his coat pocket and wiped her sodden face. "I'm going to school, not to debtor's prison." 

"Oh, Richard, but I'll miss you so and I'm going to die if you leave me!" she exclaimed between hiccups. "What if you marry someone else?" 

Richard kneeled in front of her on the Aubusson carpet and chuckled. "Don't be absurd, Cassie. I'm fifteen and you're only eight. I have a long ways to go and so do you. A few more years from now, you will have young lads mooning over you and falling at your feet. You'll remember this ludicrous infatuation and wonder what you were thinking." 

"I don't want other lads—I want you!" Cassandra smacked her hand with a loud splat on the mahogany armrest and began to yowl again, prompting an argument between the three young men on how to keep her quiet. 

A knock interrupted the hubbub, and Morton, the Rose Hill butler, entered.

"Lord Sunderland, your carriage is ready," he addressed Richard by his honorary title of Marquess of Sunderland, in his usual formal manner, casting a sympathetic glance at Cassandra with a shake of his head, before bowing and retreating out the door. 

"Well, we better get going." Jeremy checked his pocket watch. 

Richard made a move to stand up, but Cassandra flung herself at him, clinging with her arms about his neck and her legs around his waist. 

"Cassie, you fool! Let go of him!" Allayne yelled, untangling her off Richard. She lost one shoe in the fracas and her left ponytail became undone. The collar of her yellow dress twisted shoddily askew. 

"Papaaa!" Cassandra grasped Richard's neckcloth and clung with all her might. 

"Cassie! Quit pulling on my cravat!" Richard made a choking sound, and peeled her fingers off, but she latched onto his thick blonde hair instead. Allayne pulled at her wrists.