Past, Present and Passion

Princess Possibilities

Kelsey had never been more anxious to get to work. She arrived 15 minutes early, she just couldn’t help it. She had a feeling that today was going to be the day. Today she would find something about Princess Lizette. She just knew it.

The parlor took another hour to finish. Every piece had been rare and valuable. Eventually she hoped to go over each piece with Mr. Scottsfield, if she ever got to meet the guy. She took one last loop around the room to make sure everything was tagged and then she excitedly headed towards the library. Ms. Smith had told her it was down the hall, 3 doors on the right. “Here we go” she said quietly to herself.

Kelsey stood outside the library door staring at it. Even the door was gorgeous. Dark wood, with ornate carvings of fruit and flowers. The other doors weren’t like this one. She reached out and turned the knob and walked through. She couldn’t help but gasp.

The room was everything she had hoped. Exactly as you would imagine a library to be. Three of the walls were covered from top to bottom in shelving and books. There were three large windows over looking the lawn, with light, breezy curtains that hung around them, giving the room a lightness that it needed against all the dark wood and heavy books. There were chairs and couches scattered around the room to sit and read in, plus a gorgeous antique writing desk at the far end. There were ladders that rolled along the tops of the shelves and the wall without books was covered in art. In between the books on the shelves were randomly placed Knick knacks and baubles, all Kelsey knew were going to be expensive and rare, just as the last room.

She stood for several moments. Just taking it all in. For the first time, she felt slightly overwhelmed. There were a lot of books to go through. She knew a lot about books, but it wasn’t her specialty. Thankfully their firm had a book expert on staff that she could send pictures to. Regardless, she had better get to work or she was never leaving this place!

After picking a starting point, she started going through the books. All were old, some first edition, and in great condition. Whoever was the book lover did a great job in taking care of the books. A couple hours in, Kelsey picked up a small green book. It was a book of poetry, by a famous poet from hundreds of years ago. The book was in good shape, but she could tell it had been read over and over. She flipped open the cover and gasped, nearly dropping the book. There was a handwritten inscription. The first one she had found. But what it said was even more important.

“To my love Liz on her 25th birthday. Read these poems and think of me. I’ll love you forever. -T”

Kelsey could barely breath. Liz?? Could this be Princess Lizette’s book? She googled the author quickly and the timeline was right. But who was T? Her husband had been named Edward but he died when she was just 20 or 21. Kelsey knew that she was remarried to a Duke, but his name was Franklin. Who was T?! Did Lizette have a lover? Of course this wasn’t unheard of at the time. Most royals had multiple lovers, more so the men than the women, but it was still common. Wait, could this be why her children born after her husband’s death weren’t given titles of Prince and Princess? Perhaps she didn’t know who the father was. Her lover or her husband. Maybe the royal family refused titles for illegitimate children. That also wasn’t unheard of.

Kelsey was shook. She had been waiting for years to find something like this. Now she had, and it just raised more questions. She had to find out who T was. She was reinvigorated to look through the books. She knew she would find more. She put the book of poems in a special spot. She would come back to it later.

The rest of the day was filled with more books. Unfortunately, she didn’t find any more with an inscription to the princess. There were some to other family members through the years, but nothing that helped her in her quest to know more about Lizette. But she was not discouraged. She had made a huge discovery today in her eyes and it would hold her over until the next one. There would be another. She was sure of it.

She decided to hurry back home after work and do some more googling about the author of the book. She took several pictures and was determined to figure out as much as she could. But she was hungry, so she changed her mind half way home and stopped at the pub to grab some food. Besides, she liked to see Eric’s smile.

He was there of course, laughing with some guys at the bar. He spotted her as she walked in and gave a big wave.

“Kelsey! Didn’t see ya yesterday. Hope you managed to eat some dinner.”

Kelsey smiled back “I did. I do know how to prepare my own meals thank you very much. Though yours are better, hence I am back today. Surprise me!”

“Can do!” Eric put her down a pint of beer and headed it the kitchen. Kelsey shook her head and smiled. He was just such a breath of fresh air.

She pulled out her phone and sent Meredith pictures from the day. She wavered on telling her about what she found on Lizette but decided not to. Meredith didn’t share her passion about the princess and probably wouldn’t find it that interesting. She was more interested in how much money we would make.

Eric brought her out a plate of bangers and mash, it smelled delicious. “Thank you Eric! Been busy today?”

“Oh yeah, it’s pretty much always busy during the summer. Tourists you know.”

“Oh yes, I live in New York City. I know all about tourists.” She dove into her food. It tasted as good as it smelled.

When she was finished, she thanked Eric again and paid him, then headed out to her lovely walk home. It was a beautiful evening. She felt her phone ringing and quickly pulled it out of her purse. It was Charles. Not a FaceTime this time she noted.

“Hello!”

“Hey Kelsey. It’s Charles.”

“Yes I know”, Kelsey laughed.

They spent the next hour on the phone. Kelsey was so excited to tell him about her discovery at the estate today. He had shown some interest before when she told him about the princess, so it was nice to talk it out with somebody.

“Wow, that’s a great find.” Charles seemed thoughtful. “Wonder what else you will discover?”

Kelsey wondered the same thing. “I don’t know, but I just feel like I’m about to find something big, something important about Lizette. It may not be important to other people, but it means a lot to me.”

“Well, I believe you will find something too. I can’t wait to hear about it. Your excitement is palpable. I love it.”

Kelsey smiled. No man she had ever dated had given much attention to her work. It seemed boring to them. She appreciated that he was at least acting interested. But she was worried, Charles seemed too good to be true. There had to be something about him. She brushed off the worrisome feeling. Whatever, she wasn’t marrying the man. They were casual. But she decided she would google him too, which made her realize, she didn’t know his last name!

“Charles, um, can you tell me your last name? I know that’s weird to ask maybe, but I don’t know why I don’t know what it is.”

Charles paused, for a bit too long in Kelsey’s opinion. “Yeah yeah of course. Not sure why I haven’t told you before. It’s Smith. Pretty common boring name, I know.”

Kelsey shrugged off the weird vibe and thanked him, then quickly changed the subject back to flirting and giggling. She would worry about it later.