Page 49 of A Valiant Prince

“And how do you know this?” I ask.

“I just ran around while you were busying getting luggage,” she says with a laugh.

“Does Jack still live here?” I ask her.

She shakes her head. “No, he lives in Maryland, but he keeps this property. He and his brother are turning the area around the manor into a nature preserve or something like that, I guess it takes a while to get it legally resolved,” she notes.

“Interesting. So, this was his family’s property?” I ask.

“Yep,” she says as though every family has property like this. I want to laugh at her, but I also know that this is her world. She knows no different. It dawns on me in this moment just how very different we are.

“What’s wrong?” she asks from across the room as she sets her backpack down.

“Just realizing how different our childhoods were,” I admit.

She’s quiet for a moment. “Yeah, I suppose they were, huh?” she says.

“We should probably go grocery shopping and whatnot,” I point out. I’m about to say something else when there’s a commotion at the door.

I run down the hall to find Auggie, Chris, and Mia all standing at the bottom of the stairs.

“Well, they’ll just let any old riffraff in, huh?” Anna’s voice mocks from behind me.

Auggie flicks her off, and Chris rolls his eyes.

“I take it you already claimed a room,” Chris says to us. I look over at Anna who smiles sweetly at him.

Chris shakes his head and starts up the stairs. He drops his bag when he reaches Anna and picks her up in a giant bear hug.

“I missed you, Suzy Q,” he says.

“Missed you too, Lion,” she replies.

“What about me?” Auggie quips as he tosses his bag inside a nearby bedroom.

Chris releases Anna, and she jumps into Auggie’s arms, nearly knocking him to the ground. He laughs, and they squeeze each other before he sets her back down.

“So, you came up with a plan, huh?” Chris asks, his eyebrows raised.

Anna shrugs.

“You could have alerted us through security protocols,” he grumbles.

“Chris, I didn’t want to ruin the plan. If it looked like we were communicating and planning it, well, then that would make it too obvious. So, we needed intel out there from our trusted security folks,” she explains.

“You are scary, you know that, right?” Auggie says.

Anna laughs. “Thanks,” she says, her voice laced with sarcasm.

“So…what’s the game plan?” Mia pipes up from where she is still standing on the top stair.

“If you can all get settled, then meet me in the parlor, I’ll explain,” a voice comes from the bottom of the staircase, and we all whip our heads around to find Jack Ross standing there like he owns the place. Well, he does own the place.

“How the hell did you get here?” Anna asks.

Jack smirks and then gives her a wink. “I have my methods,” he says as he turns and walks away.

Chris shakes his head. “We are living in the Twilight Zone,” he says as he walks down the hall and steps into the room across from Auggie. I follow Anna as she walks downstairs and into what I suspect is the parlor.

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