SNEAK PEEK YOUR NEXT BOOK BINGE STARTS HERE American Royals...............................................3 The Babysitters Coven ..................................38 Dear Martin ......................................................72 Gravemaidens ................................................103 Blood Heir .......................................................156 YOUR NEXT BOOK BINGE STARTS HERE SNEAK PEEK This is a work of fiction. All incidents and dialogue, and all characters with the exception of some well- known historical and public figures, are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Where real- life historical or public figures appear, the situations, incidents, and dialogues concerning those persons are fictional and are not intended to depict actual events or to change the fictional nature of the work. In all other respects, any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental. Text copyright © 2019 by Katharine McGee and Alloy Entertainment Jacket art copyright © 2019 by Carolina Melis All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York. AMERICAN Random House and the colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC. Visit us on the Web! GetUnderlined.com Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at RHTeachersLibrarians.com ROYALS Produced by Alloy Entertainment alloyentertainment.com Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Names: McGee, Katharine, author. Title: American royals / Katharine McGee. Description: First edition. | New York: Random House, [2019] Summary: In an alternate America, princesses Beatrice and Samantha Washington and the two girls wooing their brother, Prince Jefferson, become KATHARINE Mc GEE embroiled in high drama in the most glorious court in the world. Identifiers: LCCN 2018060242 | ISBN 978-1- 9848-3017- 3 (hardcover) | ISBN 978-1- 9848-3019- 7 (hardcover library binding) | ISBN 978-0-593-12391-1 (international) | ISBN 978-1- 9848-3018- 0 (ebook) Subjects: | CYAC: Princesses— Fiction. | Princes—Fiction. | Courts and courtiers— Fiction. Classification: LCC PZ7.1.M43513 Ame 2019 | DDC [Fic]—dc23 Interior design by Jaclyn Whalen Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 First Edition Random House New York Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read. FREE SAMPLE COPY—NOT FOR RESALE KEEP READING FOR A SNEAK PEEK . McGe_9781984830173_4p_all_r1.indd 4 6/10/19 11:11 McGe_9781984830173_3p_all_r1.indd 3 5/21/19 09:36 This is a work of fiction. All incidents and dialogue, and all characters with the exception of some well- known historical and public figures, are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Where real- life historical or public figures appear, the situations, incidents, and dialogues concerning those persons are fictional and are not intended to depict actual events or to change the fictional nature of the work. In all other respects, any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental. Text copyright © 2019 by Katharine McGee and Alloy Entertainment Jacket art copyright © 2019 by Carolina Melis All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York. AMERICAN Random House and the colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC. Visit us on the Web! GetUnderlined.com Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at RHTeachersLibrarians.com ROYALS Produced by Alloy Entertainment alloyentertainment.com Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Names: McGee, Katharine, author. Title: American royals / Katharine McGee. Description: First edition. | New York: Random House, [2019] Summary: In an alternate America, princesses Beatrice and Samantha Washington and the two girls wooing their brother, Prince Jefferson, become KATHARINE Mc GEE embroiled in high drama in the most glorious court in the world. Identifiers: LCCN 2018060242 | ISBN 978-1- 9848-3017- 3 (hardcover) | ISBN 978-1- 9848-3019- 7 (hardcover library binding) | ISBN 978-0-593-12391-1 (international) | ISBN 978-1- 9848-3018- 0 (ebook) Subjects: | CYAC: Princesses— Fiction. | Princes—Fiction. | Courts and courtiers— Fiction. Classification: LCC PZ7.1.M43513 Ame 2019 | DDC [Fic]—dc23 Interior design by Jaclyn Whalen Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 First Edition Random House New York Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read. FREE SAMPLE COPY—NOT FOR RESALE KEEP READING FOR A SNEAK PEEK . KEEP READING FOR A SNEAK PEEK. McGe_9781984830173_4p_all_r1.indd 4 6/10/19 11:11 McGe_9781984830173_3p_all_r1.indd 3 5/21/19 09:36 But we all know that never happened. And you didn’t come here for a made- up story. You came here for the story of what happens next. What America looks like two hundred and fifty years later, when the descendants of George I are still on the throne. It is a story of soaring ballrooms and backstairs corridors. PROLOGUE Of secrets and scandal, of love and heartbreak. It is the story of the most famous family in the world, who play out their family dramas on the greatest stage of all. This is the story of the American royals. You already know the story of the American Revolution, and the birth of the American monarchy. You might know it from the picture books you read as a child. From your elementary school performances— when you longed to play the role of King George I or Queen Martha, and instead were cast as a cherry tree. You know it from songs and movies and history textbooks, from that sum- mer you visited the capital and went on the official Washing- ton Palace tour. You’ve heard the story so many times that you could tell it yourself: how, after the Battle of Yorktown, Colonel Lewis Nicola fell to his knees before General George Washington, and begged him on behalf of the entire nation to become America’s first king. Of course, the general said yes. Historians love to debate whether, in another world, things might have gone differently. What if General Wash- ington had refused to be king, and asked to be an elected rep- resentative instead? A prime minister— or perhaps he would have made up an entirely new name for that office, like presi- dent. Maybe, inspired by America’s example, other nations— France and Russia and Prussia, Austria- Hungary and China and Greece— would eventually abolish their own monarchies, giving rise to a new democratic age. 61 2 McGe_9781984830173_3p_all_r1.indd 1 5/21/19 09:36McGe_9781984830173_3p_all_r1.indd 2 5/21/19 09:36 But we all know that never happened. And you didn’t come here for a made- up story. You came here for the story of what happens next. What America looks like two hundred and fifty years later, when the descendants of George I are still on the throne. It is a story of soaring ballrooms and backstairs corridors. PROLOGUE Of secrets and scandal, of love and heartbreak. It is the story of the most famous family in the world, who play out their family dramas on the greatest stage of all. This is the story of the American royals. You already know the story of the American Revolution, and the birth of the American monarchy. You might know it from the picture books you read as a child. From your elementary school performances— when you longed to play the role of King George I or Queen Martha, and instead were cast as a cherry tree. You know it from songs and movies and history textbooks, from that sum- mer you visited the capital and went on the official Washing- ton Palace tour. You’ve heard the story so many times that you could tell it yourself: how, after the Battle of Yorktown, Colonel Lewis Nicola fell to his knees before General George Washington, and begged him on behalf of the entire nation to become America’s first king. Of course, the general said yes. Historians love to debate whether, in another world, things might have gone differently. What if General Wash- ington had refused to be king, and asked to be an elected rep- resentative instead? A prime minister— or perhaps he would have made up an entirely new name for that office, like presi- dent. Maybe, inspired by America’s example, other nations— France and Russia and Prussia, Austria- Hungary and China and Greece— would eventually abolish their own monarchies, giving rise to a new democratic age. 1 27 McGe_9781984830173_3p_all_r1.indd 1 5/21/19 09:36McGe_9781984830173_3p_all_r1.indd 2 5/21/19 09:36 And the rules were especially stringent for Beatrice, because she was not only a princess: she was also the first woman who 1 would ever inherit the American throne. The first woman who would be queen in her own right: not a queen consort, married to a king, but a true queen regnant. If she’d been born twenty years earlier, the succession would BEATRICE have jumped over her and skipped to Jeff. But her grandfather had famously abolished that centuries- old law, dictating that Present Day in all subsequent generations, the throne would pass to the oldest child, not the oldest boy. Beatrice could trace her ancestry back to the tenth century. Beatrice let her gaze drift over the conference table before It was really only through Queen Martha’s side, though her. It was littered with papers and scattered cups of coffee that most people refrained from mentioning that. After all, King had long since gone cold. Today’s was the last Cabinet session George I had been nothing but an upstart planter from Vir- until January, which meant it had been filled with year- end ginia until he married well and then fought even better.