Once Upon A Tiara

“Form a wedge,” Wilhelm instructed. “We must move quickly.” Mrs. Grundy opened her satchel and removed a folding umbrella. With a snap, she opened it to full length, leaving the spokes and fabric furled. She dug the sharp tip into the ground, squared her shoulders and threaded an arm through the princess’s.

Simon took the other elbow. “Off we go, then,” he said cheerily. He was quite happy to be leaving the Tower behind, subject to interrogation, sans princess.

“No talking. No stopping.” Wilhelm took the lead position, parting the crowd like the prow of a ship. “No deterrence.”

“Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead,” Simon whispered to Lili as they quickly moved out from beneath the tent and across the tarmac road.

She tittered. “Grunberg doesn’t have a Navy. We’re landlocked.” The reporters closed in on them, but were no match for Lili’s bodyguard. Mrs. Grundy’s bulk effectively blocked the photographers from getting good angles on the princess. When they pressed too close, she jabbed at them with the umbrella. The quartet swept up the steps and into the museum.

Henry and the woman, who was apparently his prime suspect, arrived on their heels. After assuring the security guards that all was under control, Simon made introductions. “Princess Lili, this is Henry Russell, the main man in Blue Cloud’s police department. He’s in charge.”

“Pleased to meet you, Chief Russell.” Lili offered him her hand. “Even if it is under trying circumstances. Was there honestly a pickpocket loose among the guests?”

“It looks like it. We have two missing wallets and one ransacked purse. Possibly a stolen necklace. My officers will be searching the grounds thoroughly.”

Lili’s eyes widened. “Are the royal jewels safe?”

Henry and Simon exchanged a glance before the chief responded in an official tone. “I apologize, Your Highness, but I can’t give a one-hundred percent guarantee. In my estimation, today’s criminals are no more than petty thieves, out to take advantage of the holiday crowds. Only a sophisticated burglar could successfully lift the jewels.” He looked at Simon, who nodded in agreement. Henry relaxed—slightly. “Nothing for you to worry about, Princess.”

The chief’s suspect glowered at him from beneath a sheaf of dark, silky hair. A leaf clung to the disheveled tresses. Henry picked it off.

Tilting her head, Lili regarded the woman with interest. They were as opposite as Simon had assumed—one fair, the other dark; one well-dressed, polite and poised, the other brazen and belligerent in her flashy ornaments and cheap silks. And yet…there was that common bond. The moments of regal hauteur, ameliorated by an obvious zest for life.

Lili held out her hand. “Hello. I’m Princess Lili of Grunberg.”

“Oh, I know who you are.” The captive’s top lip lifted into the slightest of sneers as she swept her gaze up and down the blond princess. She clasped the royal hand, every inch the queen herself, despite her outer dishevelment. “I am Jana Vargas.”

Lili gasped. “Vargas?”

A nod.

“How peculiar, considering that the Brunner bridal tiara is set with the Vargas diamond! Have you ever been to Grunberg? Could you be related to someone who owned the diamond previous to my family?”

“No, I’ve never been to Grunberg. But some of my people were there…a long time ago.”

“Would I know of them?” the princess asked.

Jana dismissed the possibility with a small, ironic smile. “Not very likely. Romany folk don’t get invited to the castle for formal dress balls.”

Henry and Simon exchanged a second look. A confused one, for Simon’s part. Romany? Was Jana Vargas a true Gypsy, or simply playing the part for her own devices?

“Romany,” breathed Mrs. Grundy, under her breath. Her keen eyes clouded. For the first time, Simon saw her less than sure of herself. Perhaps even taken aback.

Lili must have noticed, too. “Amelia?” she asked. “Do you know how the Vargas diamond came by its name?” She looked at the others. “There’s quite a legend associated with the tiara, but I don’t recall why it’s called the Vargas diamond.”

Grundy’s expression closed. “I couldn’t say.”

“I could,” Jana Vargas said. She handed Lili the colored paper that had been crumpled in her left fist. “If you care to learn the truth…”

Lili glanced at the wrinkled flyer. Her face lighted. “A Gypsy carnival? Ooh, with fortune-telling!”

Grundy went pale.

Wilhelm put out a meaty hand, inserting it between the two young women. “Princess, I must insist.”

Grundy recovered. She moved deliberately in front of Jana, nudging the princess along after she’d snatched away the flyer. It fluttered to the floor. “Shall we go upstairs to regroup?” she said, a steely non-question. “Rodger, you may call for the car. We’ve had quite a day. It’s time we retired to our hotel. We shall send regrets to Madam Mayor.”

“Just when events were getting interesting,” Lili protested, although she allowed herself to be shepherded up the stairs.

“You may use the museum snack shop,” Simon told Henry as they followed, noticing that the chief had retrieved the paper and was examining it closely. “It’s empty and quiet. Three doors, but we’re keeping everything locked up tight, so they’re all inaccessible. Here’s the key.” He slipped a key from the ring he carried in his pocket. The same master key opened several doors in the working areas of the museum: storage, kitchen, supplies, lavatories. No state secrets there.

“I’ll get this back to you as soon as we’ve finished. I want to stash Ms. Vargas, here—” Henry still hadn’t let go of the woman’s arm “—while I oversee procedures outdoors.”

“Stash me?” Jana said. “I’m a human being, not a piece of luggage. You can’t detain me for no good reason.”

“I have reason. You may be a conspirator in the pick-pocketing scheme, which means it’s well within my bounds of authority to hold you for questioning. For the time being, consider yourself in police custody, Ms. Vargas. You will remain so until my suspicions are proved.”

“Or disproved,” she retorted with a double helping of sarcasm.

A troubled sympathy shone from Lili’s eyes when she looked back over her shoulder. Wilhelm and Grundy hustled her into the reception area of Simon’s office.

The princess was a soft touch, Simon deduced. He remembered the weight and curve of her breast. Very soft.

“I’m perfectly fine,” Lili was saying to Mrs. Grundy when he entered the inner sanctum of his office. She brushed aside the woman’s solicitations. “Please stop fussing. No one came near me.” Lili’s eyes sought Simon’s. They danced with a saucy, provocative humor. “Alas, as Simon would say,” she added, lifting her brows at him.

“Princess!” Grundy aimed a narrow look at Simon. “Really, my dear, you’ll give Mr. Tremayne the wrong impression.”

She laughed. “Oh, I do hope so.” She clapped her hands. “And now, I’d like to freshen up. Mr. Tremayne, sir, I hate to be a bother, but would you please unlock the ladies’ room for me—again?”

Simon bowed. “Your wish is my command. After you, Princess.”

Lili stopped the older pair from following her. “I’ll be quite all right. Simon will stand guard.”

He patted his pocket. “I gave the key to Henry. Just a moment.” He rummaged in his desk. “Here’s a spare.”

The princess whipped the key from his fingers when he held it up. “Thank you, kind sir.” She put her nose in the air and swept from the office, stepping along the corridor with a sassy rhythm to her shoulders and hips. He was amused, knowing she was putting on the grand lady act for his benefit.

“I’ll do it,” she said when he tried to take the key from her. She turned it in the lock, then palmed it. Watching his face, she pushed open the swinging door to the lavatory with her backside. “I can wipe my bottom by myself, too.”

He nearly choked, recovering only as the door was swinging shut. “There’s a limit to my servitude, Princess,” he called after her, hoping for her Tinkerbell laugh. She did not disappoint. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, making a small gesture of triumph with his clenched fists. He might not make her swoon, but at least he could make her laugh.

He cracked an eye open. Oops. At the other end of the hallway, Grundy and Wilhelm were peering from the office door. Simon shrugged somewhat sheepishly and thrust his hands in his pockets. The party was a disaster and the museum’s funds were at serious risk. Didn’t matter.

One laugh from the princess and he felt like a million bucks.

Unfortunately, Simon couldn’t quite sustain his exhilaration when Lili still hadn’t emerged thirteen minutes later—he knew the time exactly because he’d been checking his watch. He paced the width of the corridor, counting under his breath. Another three minutes went by, excruciatingly slowly. Neither Grundy nor Wilhelm had budged. In fact, they were beginning to glare, as if he’d done something to delay the princess.

He went to the door and knocked. “Princess?”

No answer.

He put his ear to it. Silence—not even running water. The princess’s attendants were coming toward him now, craning their necks to hear. “Princess Lili?” he called, pushing the door open an inch. “Are you doing okay?”

There came a thud, then a crash. A female grunt. “Fiddlesticks!”

“Lili?” Simon burst into the room, followed by Wilhelm and Grundy. His first shocking sight of the princess sent him skidding to a stop, with the other two piling up behind him.

Mrs. Grundy pushed by. “Princess, what have you done now?”

“I think my foot is stuck,” Lili said. She was sprawled on the tile floor with her tight skirt rucked up around her hips, showing a good portion of a rounded, wriggling, panty-clad backside. One foot was trapped in a swivel-lid trash can, which lay on its side, a number of crumpled tissues spewing from its maw.

“Shall I call an ambulance?” Wilhelm said.

“Heavens, no!” Lili stopped wriggling and lifted her head and shoulders off the floor, her hands splayed on the tiles. She looked up at them with big, dark, glistening eyes, like an innocent baby seal. “Nothing’s broken. Just help me pull my leg out of here, for pity’s sake.”

Mrs. Grundy knelt awkwardly and tugged Lili’s skirt down a few inches. “However did you…?”

“It was an accident.”

Wilhelm crouched, his big hands outspread, hesitating to place them on the exposed royal thigh. He went for the trash can instead, giving it a wrench. Lili winced, twisting partway onto her side. “Ooh! Ouch! Wait!” Her gaze rose to beseech Simon. “Would you? Please? The lid is pinching the back of my thigh.”

“All right,” he said, kneeling beside her. He examined the…uh, situation. Grundy huffed at the insult, hurriedly unbuttoning her jacket. She threw it across Lili’s lower half.

Simon put his hand on her leg—on top of the scratchy tweed covering. Somehow, the princess had managed to insert her leg all the way down inside the can, but they should be able to maneuver it out easily enough. “Another fine predicament you’ve gotten us into,” he murmured to distract them all as he slid his hand beneath the jacket. Lili tensed as he reached around her warm thigh, his fingers gently probing. He pushed his flattened hand between her thigh and the lid, easing its bite on her tender flesh.

She sighed with relief. “That’s better.”

He smiled at her. “Mrs. Grundy? Could you reach in here and push the lid down to make more room? I’m sure I’ll be able to help Lili pull her leg free if we have another inch of space.”

Grundy pinched her lips tight and reached down. While the bodyguard held the can steady, Simon gripped Lili’s leg and slowly eased it out, trying not to look as she parted her thighs even wider to squirm free.

Grundy let go and the lid snapped back in place. She and the bodyguard were immediately at the princess’s side, helping her to her feet. Simon saw that Lili had lost both shoes, so he set the can on end and fished inside. No shoes.

He spotted them on a ledge by the sink. Odd. He retrieved them, wondering why she’d taken them off in the first place. “Your slippers, Cinderella.”

Grundy snatched the shoes away. “Let me help you into them, Princess.” She knelt.

Lili murmured her thanks, balancing herself with one hand on Wilhelm’s arm as she lifted her feet for Grundy. She looked at Simon. She was blushing. “I apologize, Mr. Tremayne. I didn’t intend to destroy your washroom. I was—” Her eyes flitted. “Well, you see, I was…”

“No explanations necessary,” Simon put in. He’d seen the open window, high up on the wall. “My museum is your museum.”

“You’re very understanding.”

“I make special allowances for royalty.”

She had the grace to look abashed. “It seems that I demand plenty. I will try to be on my best behavior tomorrow.”

He inclined his head. “We’re happy to have you on any behavior, Your Serene Highness.”

Her eyes rolled. “Oh, please. We’re definitely past that stuck-up claptrap. If you can’t remember to call me Lili, I won’t be able to eat hot dogs with you.”

“Then it’s a date?” he said quickly, refraining from adding an “Again?”

Lili tilted her tousled head. “Why not?”

Grundy cleared her throat as she stood. “What about the schedule?”

“The shedjul will survive, Amelia.” Lili stamped her newly shod feet, intercepting Simon’s amused glance. “You may be a prince of a guy, Mr. Tremayne, but I’m not allowed to surrender my feet to just anyone.”

He chuckled. A prince? Impossible. He’d always been the frog.

Mrs. Grundy took Lili’s arm, not unlike the way Henry Russell had taken Jana Vargas’s. “Enough of that, Princess. We really must be on our way.”

“Yes, we must.” Lili cast a lingering parting glance at Simon. “See you soon?”

He swallowed. “Indubitably.”

She stopped, pulling the key from an inside pocket of her short pink jacket. “I almost forgot.”

He took it, surprised that she still possessed it. Maybe his suspicions were wrong?

Had she fallen into the trash on her way out the window, or on the way in? Either way, he’d better go and find the chief. Henry should be told immediately that it was very possible the princess of Grunberg had been conspiring with a pickpocketing suspect. Simon could think of no other reason for Lili to have deliberately taken her shoes off and climbed through the window. Since she still had the key, she must not have been able to successfully pass it to Jana Vargas, in the snack shop next door.

THE LIMO AWAITED.

Lili stopped short, preventing Wilhelm from opening the door for her. “I wonder if you’d mind…” This was going to be delicate. “It’s been such an eventful day. I’d like a few moments of…quiet time.” She smiled hopefully at Mrs. Grundy, cutting her eyes in the direction of the front seat.

The older woman maintained a stony face. “As you wish, Princess Lili.”

Lili knew she wasn’t fooling Amelia for a second. But that didn’t matter, as long as she wasn’t betrayed to the authorities. For all of the former nanny’s lectures and reprimands, Amelia put the princesses’ desires above any other concern. She could be trusted with the most precious of secrets.

“You can scold me later,” Lili said, as Amelia joined the driver in the front seat. Wilhelm insisted on opening the door, but Lili stepped inside quickly so he wouldn’t see much of the interior. Fortunately, the limo was commodious enough to hold a marching band.

Wilhelm and the driver boarded the vehicle, shutting the doors behind them. Thunk. Thunk. The solid black privacy panel was in place, giving Lili complete solitude.

The car pulled away from the museum, moving slowly past the disordered remains of the reception. As they rounded the bend, Lili turned to watch through the back window. Simon Tremayne was loping down the steps in his gangly, loose-limbed way, his ridiculous Egyptian tie flapping in the breeze.

Lili knew he’d figured it out. And that he would tell. But that was okay. He was too late for the police chief to stop their getaway.

“Well,” she said to her passenger as she settled in. “You made it.”

Considering that she was a fugitive taking a limo ride in the company of a princess, Jana Vargas looked remarkably at ease. “Yes,” she said. “Nothing to it.”

4

LILI AGREED. She’d done the most difficult part—hoisting herself up and stepping along the brick ledge between the windows. A crazy impulse. When she’d realized that the key to the ladies’ room could set Jana free, she hadn’t been able to resist offering the Romany woman a chance to get away from the handsome, but awfully stern, police chief. So she’d gone out the window, sidled along the ledge to the next window and passed the key to Jana in the snack shop, who’d unlocked her door and then given the key back.

Stepping into the trash can had worked marvelously as a distraction, although Lili certainly hadn’t planned it that way.

“How did you manage to get into the limo without my driver noticing?” she asked Jana.

The Gypsy snapped her fingers. “Nothing to it. He—and everyone else—was watching the pandemonium under the tent.”

“And none of the museum guards saw you?”

“I’m adroit. Besides, they’re not looking for a person stealing out of the museum.”

“Chief Russell?”

“Him.” Jana’s brows drew together. “He’s going to hunt me down first thing, you know. Our little escape means nothing.”

“I know.” Lili shrugged. “It won’t matter in the end, since you’re innocent.” She didn’t know why, but she believed Jana was honest. Mutual circumstances had created an immediate sisterhood between them. “At least you’re free for now.” She opened the limo’s small built-in refrigerated compartment. “Aha. Champagne?”

Jana sat silently while Lili poured them each a glass. Lili checked the windows—there wasn’t much time to spare before their arrival at the hotel—then clinked flutes. “To us, for putting one over on the men, however briefly. I love a good caper.”

Jana sipped, continuing to watch Lili warily. Finally she blurted, “Why did you do this? Why did you help me?”

“I don’t know. Sympathy, I suppose.”

“But I could be guilty as sin. I might even steal your jewelry, right here, right now.”

“Phooey.” Lili couldn’t pretend to be a perfect judge of character; after all, she’d nearly let Lars Krunkel sweep her off her feet when she was eighteen, and he’d turned out to be the biggest two-timer in Spitzenstein. She’d always been susceptible to a handsome face and a smooth line. “You’re innocent. Mrs. Grundy wouldn’t have let me get in the limo with you otherwise.”

One side of Jana’s mouth quirked into a reluctant smile. “How would Mrs. Grundy know?”

“That’s what my sisters and I often wonder! But she does. She always knows.” Lili shrugged. “It’s the strangest thing. There’s something almost…magical about her. Like a fairy godmother.” Lili laughed a little to show how silly that was. Even though it wasn’t, really.

Strangely, Jana seemed accepting of the absurdity. She nodded at the privacy panel. “If that’s the case, then she knows I’m back here right now. She might be arranging for the police chief to meet us at your hotel.”

“Don’t worry.” Lili pressed the switch that opened her side window. “Mrs. Grundy wouldn’t do that to either of us.”

Jana didn’t look convinced, but she let it go. “You haven’t answered my question.”

Lili emptied her champagne out the window. She took Jana’s flute and did the same. “Swill,” she said, raising the window.

“Sympathy isn’t reason enough.”

“Perhaps it was…freedom.” Lili lifted the empty glasses as if she meant to toss them out the window, but then returned them to their fitted niche instead. She gave a soft sigh. “You see? I’m too well trained. I have my moments, but in the end I’m always dutiful to my position. That’s why I envy your lack of responsibility. Your total freedom.”

“Oh, please.” Jana folded her arms, looking cynical, except for the sympathetic rapport that Lili had already discerned beneath the brunette’s brittle shell. Lili was certain that if they could forget their “stations” and apparent clashing family histories, they would be great friends.

“I know. Poor me, subjected to first-class luxury and limos on demand, albeit ones stocked with domestic swill.” She shrugged, aware that the car were slowing and turning as they made their way through the downtown area. The hotel was moments away—the mayor had proudly pointed it out earlier. “But it’s true, Jana. What I wouldn’t give to be you for the night, a Gypsy, free to go where I want, when I want. To dance, to sing, to travel…”

“To spend the night in Chief Russell’s jail cell.”

“But you’re innocent!”

“That means very little when you’re a Roma. Our reputation precedes us.”

Impulsively, Lili reached out and squeezed Jana’s hands. “What can I do?”

“Nothing. I will handle Chief Russell.”

Lili grinned. The police chief was one handsome hunk of man. “I’m sure.” She checked their progress. No time left, and she had so much to ask! “Can you tell me what you know about the Vargas diamond? I’m sensing there’s more to the story of the bridal tiara than I’ve been told.”

“My family’s side of it isn’t fit for the official version.” Jana regarded Lili steadily. “You’ve been protected….”

Lili made a face. “It shows?”

“Sometimes that’s a good thing.” Jana turned her face away. “You should probably ask Mrs. Grundy for the entire story. I’m sure she knows it.”

“But what if she won’t tell me!” The car had stopped at a traffic light in downtown Blue Cloud. “When can I see you again, Jana? I know. I’ll come to the carnival.”

“We’re camping outside of town,” Jana said. “You’re welcome anytime.” She hesitated. “At least by me.” Before Lili could respond, Jana whispered, “Thank you,” opened the door and slid out, as elusive as water trickling from a palm. Lili threw herself across the seat to catch the door, hoping for a last word, but the mysterious Gypsy was gone, moving swiftly away from the car, lost among the pedestrians.

After a long moment of inner struggle, Lili resisted the urge to follow. She pulled the door shut, resting her head against it. Oh, to succumb to the temptation of escaping her schedule, if only for one night!

The intercom telephone trilled. Lili bolted upright and picked it up.

“Princess?” said Rodger Wilhelm. “Are you still back there?”

“Yes, certainly, of course I am.” Where else? On cue, the limo accelerated through the intersection. Lili looked behind them with a sigh, searching for Jana Vargas, who didn’t know how lucky she was. Although Lili’s day had been full of misadventure, nothing had changed. Not really. She was still looking at life from behind a pane of glass.

AT TEN, Amelia Grundy appeared in Lili’s room at the hotel. She was in curlers and a white terry-cloth robe that belted tightly around her waist, making her middle section look like a marshmallow in a rubber band. A film of chunky oatmeal gook covered her face; she was quite proud of her English Rose complexion and maintained it rigorously.

Lili pulled the bed covers up to her chin. “I certainly hope you haven’t come to tuck me in.”

“Tch, tch, Princess. You’re too old for that.”

“One would think so,” Lili said darkly.

Mrs. Grundy’s brows arched, opening cracks in the stiffening oatmeal mask. “One should know so.”

Lili made a face. Amelia had a point, but…why shouldn’t she be allowed some fun before she settled into a lifetime of royal duty? Her father was such a traditionalist, he probably wouldn’t be happy until he’d married her off to a scion of one of the stuffy old Grunberg families who could trace their ancestors back to the Great Flood.

“I might be willing to listen to a bedtime story,” Lili said with a light laugh, looking hopefully at her former nanny. She’d asked Amelia about what she knew of the Vargas diamond and how it could possibly be connected to Jana’s Romany clan. Amelia had scoffed, claiming the name must be a coincidence. The diamond’s provenance had always been a mystery, she’d insisted, dismissing the subject. Lili knew she wasn’t getting the entire story. For some reason, Amelia wouldn’t reveal the truth—a rare occurence.