She is someone who might have answers.

“Tell me,” I demand.

Ann smiles. I suppose very few people ever make demands of princesses. “Tell you what, Grace?”

“Tell me everything. About the Society. And the treasure. And your other friend — my friend Alexei’s mother. Do you know what happened to her? Why did someone want my mother to die?”

Ann stands. “We found out when we were about your age, I suppose. Your grandmother had passed away, but one day Ms. Chancellor and my mother came to us. Caroline and I had always been friends, but when we learned that we were descended from the daughters of the founders … when we learned we had that in common — that in that way we were more like sisters than friends — then we became much, much closer. I suppose you might even say we grew obsessed.”

“With the Society?” I ask.

Slowly, Ann shakes her head. “With history.”

It’s such a strange response it takes me a moment to truly hear it.

“What did she find? Why did someone want her dead?”

“Grace —”

“Don’t deny it!” I stand too, unable to sit corralled inside some fancy chair. “I know she was obsessed with something.”

At last, Ann looks surprised. “You do?”

“Was it the treasure the Society smuggled out of the palace the night of the coup? Was it something else? Did she find it? Is that why they tried to kill her?”

I watch Princess Ann’s brown eyes, wait for her to carefully word her denial. But the denial doesn’t come.

“Oh, Grace,” Ann says instead. “Your mother loved antiques, and she loved secrets. I think perhaps she did find … something. But I don’t know what.”

“What was she working on?”

“You have to understand, your mother and I hadn’t been truly close in years. When I married, it was difficult to maintain ties to my old life — my life before this.” She gestures at the palace and all its trappings, but also its loneliness. It feels like we must be the only people here.

“But you know she was still looking for it, don’t you? You know about the treasure.”

I’m deadly serious, but Princess Ann almost laughs. “The treasure, if you want to call it that, disappeared two centuries ago. It won’t be found now. When we were girls we thought it exciting and fanciful. It was our own little adventure. But we grew up, Grace.”

“I know you got together as grown-ups. I know you were still looking after Jamie was born.”

“After Jamie was born we would get together as friends.”

“What happened to Alexei’s mother?”

“I don’t know,” Ann says. “Karina was always a bit … wild. She had an unhappy marriage. When she went away, Caroline and I did not ask too many questions.”

“You think she abandoned her child?”

“We didn’t know what to think. But a part of me did wonder. I saw less and less of my friends in those days. I was desperate to have my own child, and I was selfish. I forgot about my friends. But after Karina disappeared, your mother told me she still searched for the treasure — that that had become her job within the Society — and I grew worried. I told your mother to forget it. To be honest, I thought she had.”

Slowly, the princess turns to me, a sad smile on her face. “Oh, how I wish she had.” Princess Ann is one of the most beautiful women in the world, but right now she looks like she wants to cry. I know the feeling. There is nothing worse than remembering.

“Now, Grace. I need you to tell me the truth: Are you here with your grandfather’s permission?”

“Yes.” The lie is automatic now.

“Grace.” Princess Ann’s voice is a warning. She sounds just like … a mother. “If your grandfather is at the embassy right now, worrying about where you might be —”

“He’s not.” This much, at least, is true. “He’s not worried. I promise. I told someone where I was going.” If Princess Ann doubts my lie she doesn’t say so.

“Forgive me,” she says. “Motherhood has this effect on a person. I worry about my son every day.”

“Oh. Yeah. I’m sure you do.”

“Your mother said that someday we would make the two of you get married and then we’d truly be family. Did she tell you?”

I choke on my tea, and Ann laughs.

“Don’t worry, darling. We never actually signed the betrothal contracts.”

The look on my face makes her laugh even harder.

“Oh, Grace. I am so glad you called.”

It’s funny how, until this summer, I’d never really realized that my mother was a girl once. Sure, I always knew that she’d grown up in Valancia, that the embassy was her childhood home, and yet I’d never thought about the fact that my mother had once been a child.

Like me.

No wonder someone tried to kill her.

“Excuse me, Your Highness.” I turn and see a man in full livery standing by the doors. “I am sorry to interrupt, but the young lady’s escort is here to return her to the embassy.”

“I don’t have an escort,” I say, but then Dominic appears over the footman’s shoulder.

“Please excuse the interruption, Your Highness, but the ambassador has asked me to bring Grace home,” the Scarred Man says. “It is no night for her to be out alone.”