Page 38 of A Valiant Prince

“What?” I ask.

She turns her head toward me and purses her lips. “I have a theory,” she says.

“Which is?” I ask.

“Which is, what if we were separated for a reason other than our safety?” she asks.

“What reason would that be?” I ask.

“Exactly,” she says.

“I’m not following,” I say to her.

She turns her chair so she’s facing me. “Before, we were all together. We changed the plans. And then we weren’t where we said we’d be; thus we weren’t in the plane when it blew up,” she notes.

“What about the palace?” I ask her.

“Well.” She taps her lips. “If I hadn’t gone to your room, then I would have been in mine which is down the hall from the blast. Auggie was supposed to have been on that side of the palace if he hadn’t have stopped to get cookies and play video games in the game room, and Chris said he had been heading to a meeting with Mia in the drawing room where I’d been earlier which is right below where the blast was. So, all of us could have been there, but for various reasons, ended up not being there. Our dads were both in the blast as well as Auntie Lara.” She stops when she says her aunt’s name.

“Any word on her?” I ask her. I haven’t mentioned it since we’ve gotten here three days ago now.

She shakes her head. “There are no updates, which I guess is better than bad news,” she says, looking away.

I place my hands on hers. “I’m sorry, Anna. I hope she makes a full recovery,” I say to her.

“Me too,” she whispers. She shakes her head and clears her throat, squaring her shoulders. “So…anyhow, I…where was I. Right, we were together all those times. What if, whoever is behind this, thinks it would be easier to take us down if we were separated?” she hypothesizes.

I consider her theory. “Divide and conquer?” I muse.

She nods. “Divide and conquer,” she repeats.

“But, we’re together,” I point out.

“True, but maybe that’s part of the plan,” I point out.

“You think this is a plan?” I ask.

“Yes, I do,” she says.

“So, why come here then?” I ask her.

“Because, I think if we are going to take down whoever is behind all of this, we need to go along with their plan for a bit. Plus, it buys us time to figure things out, and then, we pounce,” she says.

“I don’t know, Anna. This is…” I trail off because I honestly don’t know what to say.

She gets a look on her face, and I know she’s just come up with an idea.

“What?” I ask, almost afraid to hear her answer.

“My dad mentioned a name…” She pauses and turns to her computer and begins typing. A minute later, she pulls up what looks like a phone number pad on her screen, and she places a call…through some secured audio chat on her computer. I shake my head at this amazing woman.

“Is this Jack Ross?” she says when a deep Scottish accented voice answers on the other line.

“Who’s speaking?” he says gruffly.

“Mr. Ross, this is Princess Susanna of Norddale. I need to speak with you, privately,” she says.

“How did you obtain this number?” he questions.

---