THORNS TEN

A/N: Sweeet-as-Honey: A good point, so good that I'm going to use it to open this chapter with.

"Ethan?"

"What, darling?"

"What if I become pregnant before we can be married officially?"

"This is official enough for me, darling. Don't worry."

"But what if getting pregnant outside marriage is treason for a Princess and I'm imprisoned or beheaded?"

"You've forgotten who the ruler of Passionara is, silly! Prince Caleb would give you his special protection – if you needed that. But Princesses who have been caught out before have merely been disgraced, nothing worse. And maybe I shouldn't confide this but there are lots of little tricks that Royal Passionaran brides have used to keep a pregnancy from showing too soon."

"Ohhhh" said Sophie in relief.

"So can we resume what we were doing?"

"We can!"

Jac smiled. It had taken a long time to repair that balloon and she was aching with tiredness but she was sure it would work again. She knew she'd taken a risk not covering it but she'd almost crawled to bed in the room Sir Charles had allocated to Jack and herself. Then she saw something that unnerved her, to say the least. Somebody was in the balloon. She could tell from the way the basket was bumping around.

"I have a gun and I never miss" she lied with more confidence than she felt, "Come out with your hands raised."

Two pairs of hands appeared, followed by a half-dressed, guilty-looking Max and Zoe.

"They made love in my balloon! They could have ruined the mechanism, Sir Charles!"

"I do apologise. Captain Max is a good man and I'm sure he meant no harm."

"And that trollop with him?"

"That's actually his fiancée Zoe."

"Well!" was all Jac managed to gasp out.

"Do you want them punished?"

"I do! I want them torn apart by two fast horses, I want them burned alive, I want them boiled in oil… but I'll settle for a public apology."

"We're very sorry about your balloon."

"Well so you should be! If you're betrothed and you have an apartment at the Palace, as you claim, why should you need to take your pleasures in my balloon?"

"Fun?" Zoe offered.

Louis, hiding in his usual bushes, hoped that Jac would attack Zoe, or vice-versa, but both women just sighed and stalked off in opposite directions. Ah… this was better. Stupid Dylan, Sir stupid Charles, stupid Sebastian and a stupid carrier pigeon with a note in its collar.

Sir Charles had intercepted the note and was reading it.

"So you're a spy" he said, his voice cold, "And your father is wanting you to report Passionara, Morcara and Cardiff's weaknesses to him so that he can invade."

"I-I can't refuse him. He whips me if I talk back to him!" Sebastian said, his face pale.

Dylan glared at him.

"And I broke Ben's heart for you! Well, you little reptile, I'll leave you to Sir Charles's tender mercies and I'll go and try to win back the man I love."

He strode away. Sebastian shook like a leaf.

"What are you going to do to me?" he asked.

"Normally, you'd be tried and beheaded – it would be a very short trial, given all the evidence in this note – but under the circumstances, I think we'll keep you as a bargaining tool just in case your father tries anything."

"He'd just tell you to kill me" Sebastian groaned. Then he said anxiously:

"You're not going to hurt father's pigeon, are you?"

Sir Charles relented a little. At least the boy had some compassion in him.

"No, of course not, it's a harmless bird. We'll send it back empty-beaked, as it were. But you'll be under lock and key for a long time, lad. Get used to it. And don't expect the same food or comfort you've been having at this country's expense."

To complete Sebastian's humiliation he was put in a cell next to Mr Jacob, who was still bewailing his 'wrongful imprisonment' to all who would listen.

Dylan sought out Lofty, who was walking through the rose gardens in the palace. He was sad to see how Lofty's body language reflected his desolation. His step, normally agile, was slow, his head bowed.

"Ben."

"Please stay away from me, Dylan. I can't trust you any more."

"Ben, you have to listen-"

"I don't have to do anything you ask, Dylan. You cheated on me."

"It was a kiss, Ben, not full-on lovemaking! And there's something you need to know…"

"I saw the feeling you put into that kiss so please don't treat me as if I'm completely stupid."

"It was a physical attraction, Ben! And what I need to tell you is that the man's a spy. He wasn't thrown out by his father. He was sent over here to spy on Passionara and Morcara."

"So you put two countries, that have shown us nothing but hospitality and kindness, in danger because you couldn't control your – your crush? Please don't speak to me again, Dylan."

Ben began to stride away and Dylan let his anger get the better of him:

"Who are you anyway? A peasant that was stealing when I met you!"

"Thank you for putting me in my place. I'll not waste your time again, Dylan… sorry, Prince Dylan."

And with that, Ben was almost running across the garden. The next day he joined his seven friends and asked quietly if he could live with them in the cottage for a while. They were delighted to have his company again but sad that he'd been made a fool of, as Sneaky put it.

Dylan could have cursed his own sharp tongue, and realised that if he wanted to win Ben's love again he'd have to be patient and control his own temper. Right now, he thought, there was too much evil in the air to worry about a failed love affair.

"We're airborne! Jack, it's worked despite those two vandals! We're going home!"

Jaq wanted to get home as soon as she could, not just because her workshop was there, and the room she loved sharing with Jack, who definitely had hidden depths to him. She wanted to tell her father about the evil that had crept over Passionara and if he had any ideas how it could be stopped. Jac might argue with her father now and then but she did respect him for all that.

Jack was feeling uneasy. He hated it in the balloon and now he knew how easily it could crash, was positively terrified for his life and Jac's. So it didn't do him much good when the balloon suddenly lurched, the cavas ripped and it plummeted down to earth with a loud thud.

Jac lay there stunned. Her leg seemed to be missing. She realised with a groggy relief that it was there, just numb. As for poor Jack, he was quite unconscious. And like some irony they were back on the lawn in Passionara once more. They hadn't even made it that far.

They were, however, in a much better state than the man who lay dead in the wreckage beside them, the balloon having landed heavily on him and crushed him. Matteo Rossini, the assassin sent by Duke Grayling and Queen Constance to kill Prince Caleb, in revenge for the return of the pigeon without information, had failed spectacularly in his mission.