The Lost Princess [Hamliza Anastasia AU]

Chapter Thirteen: A Dream and A Realization

Tuesday, March 8, 1927. Georgetown, New York

Waves crashed on the shore, throwing up a salty spray into the air. Five year old Beth giggled and ran down the beach and into the water. The cold was shocking, but it didn't deter her. 

"Come now, we don't have time to swim anymore," the young girl turned to see a woman beckoning her. She was in a light summer dress, but a delicate golden tiara still rested atop her long brown curls, which hung loose today. Beth loved that tiara. Unfortunately, she knew she would never be allowed to wear it. 

"Come on Eliza. I'm hungwy," The little girl in yellow was the one who had said this. She still hadn't learned to pronounce her R's properly. 

"I don't want to," Beth pouted and crossed her arms, feet firmly planted on the sandy bottom. 

"Are you sure?" the woman coaxed. "If you come now, someone will take you to ride your horse after lunch."

Now that sounded like a good deal. Beth loved horseback riding. "Ok,'"She abandoned the water and went to join the woman, the little girl, and an older girl. Together they walked back up the path from the beach toward home. The path wound through the grounds, and Beth spotted servants tending some of the flowerbeds and bushes. They reached the door, but before going in, Beth looked up at the place where they lived. It's white towers sparkling against the bright blue sky.

---

Beth sat up in bed with a gasp. This dream had felt different from the others. More clear and real. No one had told her to "meet me in Philadelphia,", but that didn't matter. Her mother and sisters, for Beth was positive those were the identities of the woman and girls, had been there. The really odd part of the dream, though, was that her mother had been wearing a tiara. Could it have been the Queen's?

Quietly, she slid out of bed, which was really just an old sack of lentils filled with dry grass, and crept over to where Alex had left the history book. Picking it up, she went over to the window and opened the shutters just a crack. Silvery moonlight spilled in and onto the cover of the book. 

Beth opened the heavy volume and flipped through to a page that showed a painting of Queen Catherine Schuyler, last queen of New York. There were the same dark curls from her dream. The queen's hair was pulled up, but she could still see the waves. And nestled in among those curls was the most important thing of all. The golden tiara from Beth's dream. But if the woman in Beth's dream was her mother, then she must also be the queen. 

Beth's breath caught in her throat. Could it be? Could she really be the Princess Elizabeth? Up until now she had been skeptical, going along with their plan more because it would get her to Philadelphia that because she believed she was the princess, but now...

There had been two sisters in her dream, Beth remembered, one older and one younger. Princess Elizabeth had two sisters. Angelica, who had been older, and Margarita, who had been younger. 

Peggy, Beth thought, she liked to go by Peggy. Wait, where had that come from? Alexander hadn't taught it to her, which meant only one thing could have happened. She had remembered it!

Slow down, the sensible part of her mind said. Just because you remembered it doesn't mean you were Elizabeth. You could have just heard it somewhere. 

There had been one other detail of Beth's dream that she could check though, one more piece that might help her know whether or not she was a princess. She flipped through the book until she came to the page that described the Schuyler's summer palace. The one that had been on the southeast end of Long Island, near New York City. Well, they would have been near the ocean, so that part checked out. Then Beth flipped the page.

There, on the next page, was a full color illustration of the summer palace. Graceful white towers, expansive grounds and gardens filled with flowers, even a stable for horses, it was all there. Nearly every detail from Beth's dream, reproduced near-perfectly on paper. 

How was that possible? Beth had never touched the book herself until today. Alex had simply used it as his resource, pulling the valuable facts to have her memorize. There was no reason for her to have seen this picture, no reason for that scene to appear in her dreams. Other things, like her sister's nickname or the queen's appearance, she could have known, but this? There was no way she could have known what the grounds of the summer palace looked like. Even the servant's children wouldn't have caught more than fleeting glimpses, as they would have spent most of their time within the servant's quarters or outside the palace grounds. 

Beth wasn't positive she was Princess Elizabeth Schuyler, but she was pretty sure. It all added up so perfectly. Sure, there were some holes, like how she was alive, and how she had ended up in the snow by the side of a road in Buffalo, but everything else seemed to fit. 

For the first time, some real hope in this crazy plan began to blossom. Maybe, just maybe, Alex, John, and Aaron were right, and they were delivering her right into the arms of her real family. She just hoped the Dowager Countess Gertrude would know for sure. 

---

Only a few minutes after Beth had made her realization, John Andre was awoken by an officer pounding on his door. "We found her, sir," He said when Andre cracked the door to his apartment. "She made the mistake of leaving the window open while she enjoyed a bit of light reading."

"Perfect," Andre smiled, not tired anymore. "We'll bring her in first thing tomorrow."