Chapter 34

Chapter Thirty-Four

S he'd known the moment she walked into the room that she'd been there before, but at the same time, she thought the wainscoting might have been painted and the furniture replaced. But the art…several pieces were oh, so familiar.

Old friends, even.

All at once, she remembered a hidden door. Not perfectly hidden, but disguised by the chair rail moulding and the lines of the wallpaper. She turned for the section of wall and spotted it. Her fingers found the moulding that capped the wainscoting four feet above the floor, remembering how it felt to reach up to touch the hidden latch above her head.

She pressed the release and the door opened, swinging toward her.

"Whoa." Rand stood just behind her.

She pulled the panel wide and stepped forward, but Rand stayed her with a hand on her hip. "I go first."

He pulled his gun from the holster at the small of his back and entered, keeping the barrel pointed at the floor. Cautious, but not aggressive.

Although pulling a gun when one was a guest in an oligarch's home and entering a hidden corridor would probably be considered aggressive.

She followed on his heels, unwilling to wait for him to clear the corridor first. They'd agreed they'd stick together, no matter what. That included entering secret chambers. Or, in this instance, secret hallways.

It connected several rooms on this floor and was a shortcut to the veranda and swimming pool. There was also a back staircase to the bedrooms on the upper floor, bypassing the grand staircase in the entryway. Kira remembered how fun it was to use this corridor to sneak around the house.

The hall was lined with painting after painting, and her throat squeezed as she recognized at least one artist's style. Her heart pounded as she approached the large portrait at the end of the corridor. Almost life-sized, a woman stood with a child at her side. It was achingly familiar. The ornate background, which she'd always thought was a Gilded Age mansion, was the large formal living room of this very house.

She remembered it all now.

As she drew closer to her mother's painting, the differences between this one and the one in her basement in Virginia became alarmingly clear. The child at her side was not herself. She studied the boy, probably aged five or six.

There was a baby in the cradle.

Rand gasped when he saw the portrait. "You look exactly like her."

"Yes. My mother. She painted it."

She considered the déjà vu feeling that had settled in as they approached the house. How the house looked like a child's princess fantasy house. But now she knew it wasn't just any childhood princess fantasy, but her childhood princess fantasy.

Except it hadn't been fantasy. Those vague childhood dreams, the glimpse and scent of paradise, they had been all too real.

She had lived in this palace. She'd worn pretty, colorful princess dresses and had a dog named…she couldn't remember the name, but it was on the edge of her brain as memories piled upon memories. The dog had been her second-best friend.

Her very best friend had been her older brother. Oh, how she'd worshipped him. She would follow him everywhere throughout the house. He would hide from her, and she would seek, using this corridor.

But it was the reverse game that was even better. She was so small. Five years younger than her brother, she could fit in the tightest hiding places. She was so good at hiding, so patient because she wanted to impress him with her skills, sometimes she'd wait for the longest time.

An eternity.

And her brother wasn't the only child she'd played with. There were others she hid from in these corridors. She was better at hide-and-seek than all of them. Sometimes she was never found.

At least once, she'd fallen asleep as she hid in their mother's bedroom. She woke to the sound of her mother and father talking. The German language, not the Russian one.

Her mother kissed her father, and she saw them through the slats of the cupboard. They kissed and kissed, and Kira no longer wanted to be there hiding. She was tired of waiting. Her brother hadn't found her. She'd won the game.

She emerged from her hiding place, declaring victory, and saw the man her mother kissed wasn't her father.

But also…he was. She knew his face from when he taught her to ride a bike and cheered for her after she gave her valedictorian speech at her high school graduation.

But it was wrong to see him here. He shouldn't be kissing Mama. He was surprised and looked like she'd felt when she broke Papa's glasses.

Was he angry that she'd won the game? It wasn't a game for him. It was for princesses and princes. Not for mamas or daddies or papas.

She ran for the door to escape Mama's room. But her mother's sharp voice made her stop. Mama scolded her for hiding. Told her she knew better than to hide in private quarters. And she mustn't tell anyone about Mama's friend.

It was a secret. Mama would trust her, but she must be a good girl and keep the secret. If she did, she'd get ice cream. Chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry all in one bowl, just like she liked it.

She loved ice cream more than anything. She promised. She wouldn't tell anyone, not even her older brother, Reuben.