The Lost Princess [Hamliza Anastasia AU]

Chapter Nine: Dos And Don'ts Of Walking.

Tuesday, February 22, 1927. Georgetown, New York. 

"Beth," John asked. It was the day after their meeting in the theater, and they were in the main room of the boy's tiny first floor apartment. "Are you ready to become the Princess Elizabeth Schuyler?"

Beth swallowed, emotions bubbling up inside her. How could she possibly be Elizabeth Schuyler. "I'm ready to know who I am," she said quietly. "But I don't want to lie to do it." 

"You'll know you're her when the Dowager Countess recognizes you as her niece," The dark haired one, who's name she had learned was Aaron, reassured her. 

"I wish I had your confidence," Beth told them. Actually, she wished she had any confidence at all. But she was too desperate to be picky. These men were going to get her to Philadelphia, so even if they were wrong about her being Princess Elizabeth, she would be there, free to find her real family. 

"John, Aaron and I will get a small reward for our efforts and we'll all live happily ever after." Alex  (he had told her to call him that)  explained, as if that would put her fears to rest. 

"And if she doesn't? If she calls me an impostor like all the other Elizabeths?"

"Then it will have been a great adventure," John said, grinning widely. He clearly liked the idea of an adventure. 

"And it will get us out of New York, which we need to do rather quickly," Alex muttered under his breath. 

Beth opened her mouth to ask him why they had to get out so fast, but what came out instead was "How do you become someone you've forgotten you ever were?"

"Aaron and John," Alex explained, taking Beth by the arm and steering her to a chair. "Are going to take care of that?"

"How do you know anything about royalty?" She demanded, looking at Aaron and John. "From here, you look like forgers and conmen."

John gave her a look of mock outrage. "Forger? Me? Conman, yes, but I don't have neat enough handwriting for official documents. Nobody can sign the customs officer's signature like Alex. Anyway, my father was a rich man in the city before the revolution. He wasn't actually a member of the nobility, but we lived on the same street as some of them. I don't know much about court dances, but I'm your guy for fashion and day to day etiquette."

"Aaron here," Alex pointed to him. "Got wrapped up in his grandfather's scheme to get into the nobility when he was ten. Went to court more than a few times, so he knows what he's talking about, despite the fact that his grandfather was loony." 

"So the two of you are going to teach me everything I need to know?" Beth asked, still somewhat skeptical.

"Oh, Alex is going to help too." John said. "No one knows more history of the Schuyler family than him, except maybe the Schuyler family."

"Close your eyes and imagine another time," John said, plopping himself down on the floor beside her chair. 

"No John, that's cheesy." Aaron protested. "Let her study like a normal person." 

"But I always studied with my eyes closed."

"And that's why your grades were so bad that you dropped out of school," Alex told him, bringing forth a thick volume and setting it on the table. "A complete history of the Schuyler family." He proclaimed proudly, tapping the cover. "I stole it myself."

If Beth had never stolen anything herself, she would have protested this behavior. 

"Where should we start?" John asked, breaking off from his grumbling about how he had in fact been very bright, and that the Revolution and his father had merely disrupted his education.