Gossip Girl (Book Six)

Seven

I stepped off the elevator to Chuck's penthouse with my laptop in my hands. "Besides, I have much more pressing business to attend to, like finding Lady Alexander, whoever and wherever she may be." I heard Chuck say from the living room.

"Which I have worked very hard on." I stated, walking into the room.

"Good luck." Nate said, grabbing his jacket.

"He doesn't need luck. He has me." I smirked and Nate chuckled, walking towards the elevator.

Chuck walked over to me, kissing me. "I couldn't agree more." He stated.

We went over to the couch, sitting down and opening my laptop to show everything I left open. "Now, I've gone through the peerage registries of all the royals in Western Europe, and the closest I could find was a Lady Alexandria of Lisbon, but she died 50 years ago in a Portuguese mental hospital." I stated.

"I am starting to think my father had his bodyguard feed us bad intel."

"That is in Bart's playbook, but I had one of those psychic hunches I get, like when I predicted Tom and Katie wouldn't last."

"You didn't have to be psychic to call that one."

"Not the point. My mother has a friend called Lady Vaughn, only Lady isn't her title. It's her name. She literally changed it to sound more important so she could sit on the boards of all the big museums, and it worked. Maybe Lady Alexander did the same. That's how I found this. Lady Alexander. But it says she's not on the board. It's a portrait in a private showing. By the artist Brian Batt."

"I know him!" Chuck said and I know I looked at him kind of shocked. I didn't think he would know. "I mean, I know his work. He has a studio downtown." Chuck paused for a moment before smiling at me. "I always wanted to commission a portrait of you."

We left the penthouse, heading downtown. The studio was one that you would expect. "I love how you combine the classic portraiture with pop culture, but we really came to see your portrait of Lady Alexander. Friends of ours saw it in your private show at the MET, and they suggest we mimic the style. I wanna do the exact same pose." I explained.

"I think you've got the wrong guy. I don't do that sort of thing." Brain stated.

"Obviously, we wouldn't want to compromise your artistic integrity by recreating someone else's pose. Unless it's okay with her. And we tripled your fee. I don't mind calling Lady Alexander myself. See, I generally don't take no for an answer. So if you'd simply provide a phone number."

Brian chuckled, walking over to the table. "I really hope we're not talking about the same Lady Alexander." He opened a black book, showing us a photo. "Here she is." It was a horse. Yeah, that didn't work.

We left the studio, standing by the side of Chuck's limo. "Assuming that Lady Alexander isn't related to Mr. Ed, it appears we've hit another dead end."

I shook my head, pulling out my phone. "Well, not exactly. Thoroughbred registries have all the important info on every sale, such as prices and previous owners. It's like M.L.S. for horses."

"So find the horse, find the owner."

I nodded, scrolling through the different horses until I found her. "Here she is Lady Alexander. It says she was bought four years ago by Bartholomew Bass."

"What else does it say?"

"Well, not much except she was just under $1 million."

"Is that a lot of money?"

"For regular people, yes."

Chuck sighed. "I meant for a horse."

I looked through all the horses that were bought by Bart. "I didn't realize your father was such a horse enthusiast."