Fated

By Abby Farnsworth

“For a long time, all I wanted to do was make my father happy. I used to think he would protect me. Now I knew that wasn’t true, and things were different.”
Rose, the innocent princess of Greyland, has been sheltered her whole life. Her father, a heartless king, controls each and every aspect of her day-to-day activities. However, shortly after turning eighteen, Rose experiences a terrible assault that leaves her feeling helpless and alone. In response, her father plans to marry her off to an old earl in order to save both his reputation and hers. Refusing to accept this, she runs away from the palace. Rose will have to endure the pain following her attack, as well as the difficulties of being a runaway princess. She will have to rise above her former status and claim what is rightfully hers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: World Castle Publishing, LLC
• Release date: Aug 14, 2023
• ISBN: 9798891260214

Abby Farnsworth

Abby Farnsworth is a teen author who enjoys sharing her creative energies with others through writing, singing, and acting. Her love of escaping into the fictional world of books led her to begin writing her own stories targeted at young adult and middle grade audiences. She enjoys traveling, cooking, yoga, British history, and sipping a cup of hot tea. Abby lives in WV with her parents, two sisters, and one brother. You can connect with Abby on Facebook at www.facebook.com/AbbyFarnsworth.Writer.Poet where she shares updates on her current and upcoming projects.

Book preview

1.png

Fated

by

Abby Farnsworth

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

WCP Logo 7

World Castle Publishing, LLC

Pensacola, Florida

Copyright © 2023 Abby Farnsworth

Smashwords Edition

Paperback ISBN: 9798891260207

eBook ISBN: 9798891260214

First Edition World Castle Publishing, LLC, August 14, 2023

http://www.worldcastlepublishing.com

Smashwords Licensing Notes

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews.

Cover: Cover Designs by Karen

https://www.cover-designs-by-karen.com

Editor: Karen Fuller

Dedication

To my younger self. I’m so proud of you.

Acknowledgments

As always, thank you so much to Karen Fuller and World Castle Publishing! I couldn’t do this without you! Thank you to my family and friends, as well as the community, for being so supportive. Also, thank you to all of the local businesses and members of the press who’ve supported my career. I truly appreciate your help. Of course, a huge thank you to my readers! I hope you find Fated as enjoyable as all of my other work! Your positive comments and reviews are more valuable than you know.

"Come live with me and be my love,

And we will all the pleasures prove

That hills and valleys, dale and field,

And all the craggy mountains yield.

There will we sit upon the rocks,

And see the shepherds feed their flocks,

By shallow rivers to whose falls

Melodious birds sing madrigals.

There I will make thee beds of roses

And a thousand fragrant posies,

A cap of flowers, and a kirtle

Embroider’d all with leaves of myrtle;

A gown made of the finest wool

Which from our pretty lambs we pull;

Fair linèd slippers for the cold,

With buckles of the purest gold;

A belt of straw and ivy buds,

With coral clasps and amber studs;

And if these pleasures may thee move,

Come live with me, and be my love."

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love by Christopher Marlowe

Prologue

It was dark, so very dark. And cold, with no embers left in the empty fireplace. I shivered underneath the blankets, unable to keep the chill away. My room was pitch black — so ebony that the midnight sky outside looked brighter. The small window in the corner of the room was my only source of fresh air. The rest of the space felt suffocating. I wanted to crawl out of the window, into the shadows, and fly away past the stars. That was the dream that drifted across my mind as I fell in and out of sleep. It was a fantasy that belonged to no one other than me. That made it special because it could not be taken away.

June was supposed to feed the fire every hour, but tonight was different. It was the tenth anniversary of my mother’s death, and my father was celebrating. I had only been eight when she died, but I knew from gossip that they had liked each other. Royal marriages were rarely ever based upon love. My parent’s marriage had been nothing but a political union; my existence was justified by a treaty signed by two dead kings over three decades ago. No one, even my father, saw me as anything but a ribbon wrapped around that dreaded agreement. I was a princess, yet still only a daughter. In the eyes of everyone who mattered, that made me worthless. I was Rose, princess of Greyland, and the disappointment of the king.

Shadows crept across the hall and closer to my door. I pulled the fur blankets tightly around me. My bed was large and warm, with soft, feather pillows and piles of blankets. I tried to fall into the plush mattress, but the cool breeze continued drifting in from the window as the night grew darker. I could taste the salt air from the frigid, gray sea. It mixed with the smell of wax from the extinguished candle beside my bed. Everything was so cold, so emotionless. The door slowly creaked open, allowing the shadows to slip into the room. I closed my eyes, not wanting to watch as they drew nearer. Maybe it was a ghost, like in the stories my wetnurse used to tell when I couldn’t fall asleep. In those versions, the ghosts had been kind. But in the other stories, the ones the warriors talked about when they had too much to drink, the spirits could be cruel and vengeful. Footsteps creaked against the wooden floor, then padded across the bearskin carpet. My heart pounded against the softness of my pale chest. I squeezed my hands tightly around the fur that draped my body. Still, there was a chill inside me that seemed to creep up from my toes all the way to the corners of my chapped lips.

First, I felt the gentle shift of the bed. Terror rushed through my heart in a wave of panic. My body had stopped moving. I couldn’t even breathe. All of my muscles were frozen as if they had been coated in a layer of ice. Even my eyelids wouldn’t open up. Not two seconds later, my mouth was covered by a heavy, foul-smelling cloth. It had the worst odor I had ever experienced. I tried to push it away, but the hand over my face was too strong. There was pressure everywhere, as if I was being squeezed by a giant snake. It wasn’t a ghost that oppressed men, but a man. I was entirely sure of that bone-chilling reality. The screams that my lungs wanted to expel became stuck in my throat. Finally, my body seemed to realize what was happening. I kicked over and over again, but my legs were pinned to the bed. My soft form wasn’t nearly strong enough to fight against him; I had always been a gentle girl, too weak for physical exertion. Pain erupted inside me as tears began to stream down my face. Slowly, my head started to spin, and the world seemed to turn upside down. I had never felt anything so painful. My whole body started to shut down again as if it had totally given up. I couldn’t bring myself to continue fighting. There was simply pain, fear, and nothing more. It was a type of terror I had never known. One that consumed, enveloped, and devoured all light in the world. It was hatred incarnate, in the most pure and agonizing sense of the word. And in that moment, I truly wanted to die. Sadly, I didn’t.

In the morning, I woke up surrounded by blood. My thighs were stained crimson. There were bruises all up and down my arms and scratch marks stretching across my cheeks. My nightgown was ripped and stained scarlet as if I’d gone through a battle. As I slowly opened my eyes, I wished I’d never woken up. The light was streaming into the still-freezing room, a cool ocean breeze surrounding me. It was a bright, life-filled day over the gray sea. But the world had never seemed so black. My body was foreign to me, as if it had never been mine. I looked down at it strangely, wondering how I was supposed to live in it for the rest of