Chapter Eight
Prologue
“Oh, Annie, I can’t believe you’re going! Are you sure this is the right thing to do? Quitting your job and just taking off for Europe this way?”
Annie Barimer looked at her friend, Joy Simon, who worked in the admissions office at Pendleton School for Girls. Annie, until this very moment, had been the school librarian there for five years. “I’m sure, Joy,” she said, without a trace of the melancholy Joy had etched all over her face. “Besides, I’m not just ‘taking off for Europe’, as you well know. I’m going to travel for one short week.” It was hard to contain her glee. France! Germany! She was finally going to the places she’d wanted to see for so long. The week would pass very fast. “Then I go to Kublenstein and start my new job.”
“For strangers.” Joy sniffed dramatically and took another piece of the sheet cake the staff had bought for Annie’s farewell party. She scooped some soupy ice cream onto the paper plate. “Who knows what they’re like? They may be a family of psycho killers.”
“They are the daughters of Marie de la Fuenza,” Annie corrected.
“Right. And what do we know about her?”
“We know that twenty years ago she attended Pendleton for the full four years and that her mother also attended. Plus her family virtually paid for the library.” She raised an eyebrow at Joy. “I think we can trust them.”
Joy wasn’t convinced. “You’ve got to admit they’ve been a little cryptic about the job. It’s always the daughters of Marie de la Fuenza. What’s her married name? What are the daughters’ names? Why is everything addressed through the embassy in Kublenstein instead of a home address? Where is Kublenstein anyway?”
“It’s in the Alps,” Annie answered, refusing to be troubled by Joy’s other admittedly good points. “And her husband is an important figure in the government there or something, so everything is being arranged very carefully.”
Joy shrugged. “Well, I still don’t see what’s wrong with staying right here at Pendleton.”
“I’ve been wanting to go to Europe all my life but this is the first chance I’ve ever gotten to actually go live there for awhile and get paid for it.” Pictures of the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, the Parthenon, the Colosseum and a million other grand European landmarks danced in her head. The dreary little town of Pendleborough couldn’t compare on any level. “I wouldn’t miss this for anything.”
“Somehow I knew you’d say that.”
Annie laughed and pulled back a tendril of coffee-colored hair that had escaped from her braid and kept tickling her cheek. “I’ve only said it a thousand times.” A couple of teachers from the math department walked past, patted her shoulder and wished her luck. She thanked them and turned back to Joy and the conversation at hand. “Look, this is a dream come true. Be happy for me.”
Joy raised her hands in front of her. “All right, all right. To be honest, I’m not worried about you in Europe at all, I’m worried about me, here. I’m going to be bored out of my mind when you’re gone.”
“I’ll write,” Annie told her sincerely. She imagined herself printing the Pendleton address on an envelope from thousands of miles away. The idea made her feel giddy, even though Joy would prefer the immediacy of e-mail. “I promise.”
Joy put a piece of cake into her mouth and nodded. “That’s what you say now.” She held up a finger, swallowed, then added, “But what happens when you find your Prince Charming over there and get so wrapped up in a romance that you forget about writing, hmm?”
“So that’s where Prince Charming is,” Annie said, with mock surprise. “Stupid me, I’ve been kissing frogs on the wrong side of the Atlantic for twenty-five years.”
Joy raised an eyebrow. “Laugh if you want to, but I have a feeling you’re going to meet someone there. Someone romantically significant. You might never come back!”
Annie was sure Joy couldn’t have been further off the mark. She couldn’t even imagine meeting the man of her dreams overseas and never coming back…though the idea had some appeal as a fantasy. “You’re right that I’ll be meeting someone. Actually, two someones. Marie de la Fuenza’s daughters. I hate to disillusion you, but I’m going to have no time for any kind of social life at all.” It was true. Even if she was the extroverted type who’d go out and meet people to party with, she wasn’t going to have time for it with this job.
“Remember that tarot card reading I did for you?” Joy asked. “It said you were going to meet a very important and powerful man. That card was in the love position.”
Annie thought about it, then recalled what her friend was talking about. “Joy, that was just a prank for the school fair. Surely you don’t believe in any of that stuff. For heaven’s sake, you were reading it right out of a book.”
“That doesn’t mean it wasn’t true. Besides, my psychic feelings have been right before,” Joy said, hurt.
“When?”
“I told you Judy Gallagher was pregnant.”
It was on the tip of Annie’s tongue to point out that everyone had realized Judy was pregnant as soon as she started bolting from her first period Social Studies class for the bathroom every morning. Instead, Annie gave a concessionary nod. “That’s true, you did.”
“And I’m right about this, too. You mark my words.”
“Duly marked.”
“Besides, you need to meet a guy. You need to have someone to support you in a year when your job tutoring English ends and you’re out of work.”
“It’s not always that easy to find someone.”
Joy sighed. “So…what are you wearing on the plane?”
Annie laughed. Joy’s greatest pleasure in life, next to food, was fashion. And she was quite good at it, too, if not exactly a willowy fashion plate herself.
“I’m wearing this,” Annie answered, indicating the comfy cotton sweater and leggings she was wearing.
“Honestly, you have this great figure and you never do anything to emphasize it. It’s so unfair. Maybe you should take me along to advise you.”
“I’m sure I should.”
There was a faint honking outside the door. Annie moved to look out the window. A yellow cab had pulled up in the courtyard in front of the library building.
“Cab’s here,” someone called, just
