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The intensity in his eyes speared warmth into her chest. ‘Of course.’

She opted to go to the museum first. Once she was in her room she’d have to choose an outfit for tonight. Frankly she wanted to delay that dilemma.

‘Princess Tilly!’ Kara beamed when she spotted her. ‘Congratulations.’

‘I’m sorry I abandoned you without notice,’ Tilly muttered awkwardly. ‘Has it been busy?’

‘We’ve had so many bookings it’ll be at least five years before we clear the waiting list. I don’t suppose you’re going to come back to help us.’

‘I’m not sure yet,’ Tilly fudged. ‘But I did come up with a display plan for a ceramics exhibition.’ She pulled her design from her pocket. ‘You don’t have to use it.’

Kara took the design and immediately scanned the pages. ‘This is amazing—of course I’ll use it.’

Flushing, Tilly went to the staff noticeboard, where a palace floor-plan was pinned showing where guides and guards were to be positioned. She studied the layout—that flippant comment of Alex’s had nagged her for days.

He’ll toss you in the dungeon. Feed you to the dragon.

There isn’t a dungeon—

—that you know of.

‘Were there ever dungeons in the palace?’

‘No need,’ Kara said. ‘For centuries they didn’t keep prisoners, they just executed them. In the last hundred years some prisoners were banished to the Zaffira fortress to suffer the torture of seeing Montaurella but never being allowed to return. Prince Alex has now flipped that though—invitations to Zaffira are highly coveted.’

‘So there’s no secret basement? No tunnel to a cave on the coast or anything? No emergency escape—everything that’s there is on this map?’

‘Aside from the vault where the Crown Jewels are kept, the only thing that’s unmarked on the map is the crypt.’

‘There’s a crypt?’ Tilly swung to face Kara. ‘Where?’

‘Beneath the chapel—the royal family are buried there.’

‘They’re not in the cathedral?’ How had she never known this?

The state funerals were held in the cathedral. Her mother’s funeral had been—a semi-state affair to mask her mother’s treachery and protect Tilly from ‘judgement’, as Domenico had said. But it had protected him from humiliation too. Elisa’s casket had been entombed in a recess down the Northern aisle. Tilly had assumed the rest of the Royals were there too.

‘No, they have a private crypt.’ Kara looked apologetic.

‘Of course,’ Tilly murmured.

She’d been in the palace chapel many times but never seen anything that could be a possible entrance to a crypt. Now she remembered the iciness between Alex and the chaplain, Luca. The unseemly haste with which Alex had got them out of there as soon as their wedding ceremony was complete. Perhaps the memories of his mother’s resting place were too painful.

Did he ever hit you?

She shifted, discomfort rippling from deep within her gut. The chapel was in the heart of the main palace—right next to the throne room. She darted along the back corridors, barely acknowledging the guards. She needed to be quick and unseen. Once in the chapel, she slowly searched—there was no obvious door, no floor stone that looked as if it could be lifted. Maybe the entrance was through the chaplain’s chamber.

‘Can I help you, Princess?’ Luca looked up when she appeared in his doorway.

‘I’d like to go into the crypt.’

He stiffened. ‘Does Prince Alex know you’re here?’

Why did that matter? Why had the man just turned grey? ‘His mother is interred there, isn’t she?’

‘All his ancestors are.’

‘Can you show me?’