Chapter 211


    At once, Nichs and I scrambled to our feet. Nichs blocked Julian’s view as I readjusted myself,


    fixing my bra. When I was put together enough, Nichs checked me over once before standing aside.


    Out lips were red from kissing. Our clothes were wrinkled, and our hair disheveled. But there was


    nothing to be done for that now.


    Julian looked between us, a devilish look in his eyes. “Did you find anything of interest in the closet?”


    I blushed fiercely. Even my neck and chest burned.


    I’m also curious why your lips are so red,” Julian continued. His teasing, it seemed, would be relentless.


    Yet under those joking questions, his voice held the tiniest bit of edge.


    My initial thought was that it could be jealousy. With Julian, however, there was no way. Disapproval,


    then? That seemed unlikely too. 4


    Either way, I needed to redirect his focus before I died of embarrassment.


    I searched for some way to change the subject. I found it when I noticed the rolled up papers Julian


    was


    carrying under his arm.


    “What’s that?” I asked.


    Julian nced down at the papers as if he had forgotten he was holding them. “Should we return to


    your room? I’ll exin there.”


    Nodding, we all walked back to my room. Nichs stayed at my side, but a foot or so of distance


    separated us now. It felt like he was miles away,


    Back in my room, Julian began speaking again.


    “I heard about the appearance of your twin,” Julian said.


    “Jane,” I said.


    “Jane,” he repeated.


    “How did you find out that Charlotte saw her?” Nichs asked. He looked at Mark. “Did you tell him?”


    “No, Sir,” Mark said at once.


    Julian rolled his eyes. “I have ears everywhere.” He paused. “Also, Brian saw her too.”


    “What?” We all straightened in rm.


    “Where did he see her?” Nichs asked.


    “On the south stairwell,” Julian replied. “He suspected her at once and subtly followed her. But when he


    seemed to have her cornered, she suddenly disappeared.”


    N?velDrama.Org content.


    “That’s the same as what happened to me,” Charlotte said.


    Julian considered her. “I thought as much.” To me, he added, “I worried for you, Piper, of course. But


    when I happened to nce Nichs storming away from jilted Lilliana, I knew he had heard of a


    sighting, as well. So while I left Nichs to… protect you, I searched for something we could use.”


    My face burned again. Julian enunciated protect in such a way that he clearly meant something


    different.


    I cleared my throat. “What did you find?”


    He lifted the rolls of paper from under his arm. “Blueprints.”


    Mark and Charlotte cleared away the swatches of fabrics that still covered the tables we’d arranged in


    the center of the room to sew. Then Julian ced down one of the papers and unrolled it. It wasrge


    and meticulously drawn with a fine pen.


    It all looked like lines and boxes to me.


    “What are we looking at?” I asked.


    “This,” Julian waved his hand.across it, “is the first floor of the pce. And if you’ll notice.” He tapped at


    one small box that was to indicate a room. “This blueprint includes some of the locations of the more


    secret passageways.”


    Nichs quickly leaned over the blueprints to look.


    “They aren’t all indicated here,” Julian said. “But there are enough that maybe we can figure out where


    Jane is hiding. At the very least, if we know her escape routes, we can more effectively chase her.”


    Nichs leaned back. He crossed his arms. “Aren’t these blueprints locked away in the vault? How did


    you ess them?”


    Julian cast him a sharp nce, his smile mocking. “You sure you want to know that, brother? You never


    seem to fully appreciate my more daring adventures.”


    “Was it something illegal?” I guessed. It generally was, with Julian. He liked to see how far he could


    push the rules.


    Julian looked at me and his eyes sparkled, That was answer enough.


    “It’s illegal for these to be out of the vault,” Nichs said.


    Julian’s attention returned to his brother. He sighed. “I’ll take them back when we’re done, but while we


    have them, we might as well look. Unless, perhaps, you don’t actually wish to catch Jane and help


    Piper?”


    Nichs frowned hard but stayed silent.


    “That’s what I thought.”


    Together, we peered over the blueprints. Julian would point out a secret passage way, and then trace


    the line of where it connected to another room.


    “So the passage in the corner here, where Brian lost sight of Jane, leads down into the kitchens,” Julian


    said.


    “That’s where I saw her,” Charlotte added. “Then I chased her down into the cers, and she


    disappeared.”


    We looked to where the kitchens were and found the stairs leading down to the cers. The basement


    was on a separate roll of paper.


    “Just a moment,” Julian said as he peeked into the rolls, trying to find the correct one. “Third floor, no.


    Second floor. The ballroom has its own? Oh, here it is.”


    He unrolled the map for the sublevel, and immediately we noticed a secret passage leading out of the


    cer.


    “Where does it go?” I asked.


    Unlike the other passages, that had lines leading to where they connected, this passageway lead


    straight off the page.


    “Huh,” Julian said, sounding puzzled..


    Nichs kneeled down to read the fine print. “Nothing says where it goes.”


    A sinking feeling opened up in my stomach. Could this be the answer to how Jane had gotten in and


    out


    of the pce so easily? If we weren’t sure where the passage led, though, we couldn’t be fully sure.


    If the blueprints didn’t tell us, there was really only one thing to do.


    “We have to get into that tunnel, follow it, and see where it goes,” I said.


    “Hell, yes,” Julian said.


    “Absolutely not,” Nichs said, almost at the same time. (1)


    Julian ignored him. “We should go in the night, when everyone is asleep, so that our absence goes


    unnoticed.”


    Julian tended to disappear a lot, so I wasn’t sure his absence would be all that noticeable. Although,


    with the King likely angry at him for his previous disappearance, maybe he was actually under a more


    watchful eye.


    “Midnight, then,” I suggested.


    He nodded.


    “Now wait a minute,” Nichs said. “I don’t approve of any of this.”


    “So you are fine with Piper’s sister walking around, impersonating her,” Julian asked him. “You don’t


    care at all how that could possibly reflect on her, or on Elva, or on any of us, once word gets out we let


    the underground organization do whatever they want right under our noses.”


    “Of course not,” Nichs said, his voice low with disapproval. “But we have no idea where this tunnel


    leads. I cannot allow Piper to take that kind of risk-”


    “Me? You two are actual princes. I am just amoner,” I said. “Maybe I should go alone -”


    “No,” Nichs said at once. He looked at me, his eyes hard and his mouth in a hard firm line.


    “Okay, great.” Julian pped his hands. “So it’s agreed. Nichs, Piper, and I will go through the


    tunnels at midnight, and see where our little doppelganger has been disappearing to.”


    My nervousness brewed, but I was also pleased to finally have a n.


    I was finally ready to learn the truth about Jane.