As he walked back into the hot street he wondered if some royal bastard did indeed lurk in her family tree.

The Skill was not taught to royal bastards, even if they had the aptitude for it.

Then again, maybe he was only what Alaire was pretending to be; a royal bastard.

"I suggested we start a new organization in which you had to prove you were a royal bastard," he said.

When Victoria became queen, she banned royal bastards from court as "ghosts best forgotten."

One royal bastard in particular, who's been paying off your father for years.

My God, the royal bastard is stupider than I thought!

But Hap was not the son of a king, nor even a royal bastard.

Of course, it was not impossible that he was a royal bastard.

In actual fact the royal bastard's heavy hand sent an arrow of pain down the side of my face.