Page 56 of Royal Agenda

Grace blinked back the tears. Impulsively, she threw her arms around Grandma’s neck and hugged her. “I want to know what you did with my grandma, you alien.”

Grandma laughed and hugged her back. “Would it make you feel better if I told you to clean this up and wipe the table down with lemon cleaner?”

“In a way.” Grace sat back in her chair, amazed by the changes in her grandma. “I also like that you’re interested in all this.” She waved her hand over the table. “It’s nice to share what I do with you.”

“Well, let’s get going. There’s a little girl who needs her family.” She pulled down her reading glasses from the top of her head, picked up several papers, and glanced over them, then went back and looked closer, comparing dates.

Grace worked the computer, clicking through Ancestry, FindMyPast, and other websites. She’d opened up one of the English Historical Society pages to search their private records when Grandma tapped her arm. “I think you made a mistake here, dear.”

“I did?”

Grandma pointed to the birth record for Mary. “You have her born in 1667 but on this record over here it says she was born in 1669.”

Grace grabbed the sheets and compared the dates. She clicked the tabs checking and double-checking everything. “That’s her!” She drummed the table and threw her hands in the air. “You found her.”

“What are you talking about?” Grandma removed her glasses.

Opening the family pedigree, Grace added Mary born in 1669 to the page and then pointed. “Back in those days, if a child died, they would name another one after her or him as a memorial.”

“How odd.”

“It seems odd to us because we’re all about individuality and we have pictures and other ways to remember someone who passes on. But back then, it was an honor and a tribute—a way to remember.” She hugged Grandma. “There were two Marys in the family. If this one died before the other Mary was born, that means she was under two years old.”

“That’s so sad.”

Grace stared at her.

Grandma looked down and brushed off her shirt. “What?”

“It’s just—she’s been dead for over four-hundred years. Yet you feel for her passing.” She gulped. “I get that.”

Grandma paused and thought about it. “They are real people. They lived lives. They loved and lost. Speaking of love,” her eyebrows rose and Grace sensed the shift in the conversation from work to personal, “How come you are in here with dead people when there is a living man who wants to spend time with you?”

“Pft.” Grace popped out of her seat and went to the sink to refill her water cup. “He’s not answering my texts. I think he’s ghosting me.” She took a sip of water to hide the pain on her face. It wasn’t a long relationship. The truth was, Grace hadn’t told another man–ever–that she loved him. That word–that word was sacred. At least to her. It wasn’t something she wanted to give to someone until she knew he was the one. And Ryker? He was all the things she never thought she’d find and then some. It was impossible not to hurt after he’d taken her so high and then dropped her flat.

Grandma narrowed her eyes. “Why? Did you have a fight?”

“No.” She sat down in her chair again. “I don’t know why he won’t talk to me.” Unfortunately, she’d spent a lot of time thinking this over when she should have been sleeping. “My guess is–and remember I’m spitballing here.” Grandma made a face at the term spitballing. “He’s an orphan and he never talks about his family or his past. Which is so hard for me to understand because this is what I do.” She motioned to the mess on the table. “If anyone would understand a broken family, family secrets, or whatever, it would be me, right?”

“Right!” Grandma nodded emphatically.

“He doesn’t trust me with his private information—maybe that should have been a sign, but we haven’t been seeing each other that long, so I wasn’t pushing him.”

“That’s smart.”

“But then, I invited him to meet Elizabeth and Chad, and he ran off. I was impulsive and didn’t think about how it might affect him to be thrust into my family. We’re not perfect, but we’re pretty amazing, and we’re all close.” She ran her finger around the edge of the cup.

“Maybe it’s for the best. If he can’t open up to me about where he came from then what hope do we have for a future together?” She took a long drink of cold water but couldn’t get the sour taste out of her mouth that those words left behind. They were wrong, and a part of her knew that. She just didn’t know what to do about it.

Grandma frowned. “You like him?”

“I love him.”

Grandma gasped.

“I know! It’s big, right?!” Her shoulders caved in as if they could protect her heart. “He’s funny, charming as every woman at The Palms knows, a gentleman.” She stared into her drink, thinking about their first date and the stars that winked as they held hands and searched for a moonstone.

Grandma smacked the table, making Grace jump. “What’s wrong with that man?”

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