I spun around to look at them in horror. Boris just smirked at me and closed the door in my face, leaving me trapped in an L-shaped room that was partially lined with floor-to-ceiling bookcases filled with books that had never felt the touch of human hands. I stalked forward,making a mental note to ask my father if the boys had been joking, but the argument soon drove that thought away.
“Is not your niece I worry for,” Daddy was saying when I rounded the bend of the room and found them both standing at a massive oak desk. “Is others. You want her to go to Belarus? To Russia? She would be taken from me instantly.”
“Not if people didn’t know who she was, and there’s no reason to tell anyone her surname. She can use her mother’s name, after all.”
“Who can? Are you guys talking about me? Dad, you’re going to have a stroke if you don’t stop huffing and puffing like that. Your face is bright red.” I stopped at the desk, my interest piqued at the word “Russia.”
“You do not your mind about my face,” he snapped, but sat down with a grunt. “Your stepmama is crazy. Without brains at all. Is crazy idea.”
“It is not crazy. It is perfect. Paulie, dear, do you remember me telling you how my niece Mercy married an Englishman and went to live in England?”
“She wants me to visit her? I’ll do it!” I said, not caring about pesky things like details.
“No, it’s not that.” Angela smiled, and I was distracted enough by the genuine affection in her eyes to slip my arm through hers.
“Sorry I interrupted you, darling. You go ahead and tell me what it is you want me to do that Dad thinks is so crazy.”
“Is crazy.” Daddy waved his big hands around in the air, his eyes narrowing until he was squinting at us. “Will not happen. Too dangerous. Rostakov has too many enemies.”
She patted my arm. “It really is ideal, because you’d have people around you, you see, so your father couldn’tsay you weren’t protected. And Mercy’s brothers-in-law—two or three of them, I don’t remember exactly—would be there, too, and I just know they’d watch after you.”
“I don’t need watching after—” I started to object, but bit it off so she’d continue.
“And then of course there is the film crew. They’d be with you every step of the way, too.”
“You want me to be in a movie?” I asked, confused. “With your niece and her English family?”
“No, no, I’m not explaining myself well at all,” she said, a bit flustered now. “Let me tell it from the beginning.”
“Is no matter. Paulina is not go to Russia,” Daddy said darkly, slamming his fist down on the desk. “I am spoken.”
“Have spoken, dear,” Angela corrected automatically, then led me over to a red-and-yellow-striped love seat and sat down with me. “Mercy’s husband’s family is some sort of minor nobility. They had a television crew filming them at an archaeological dig two years ago, and now that same film crew wants to make a reality show about a race.”
“LikeThe Amazing RaceTV show, where people go all over the world and do weird things?” I frowned. “I really don’t want to eat bugs or repulsive parts of animals.”
“Not that sort of a reality show. Oh, let me show you Mercy’s e-mail.” Angela pulled out a piece of paper from her pocket and gave it to me.
I smoothed it out over my knee while my father rumbled objections and threats, both of which Angela and I ignored.
Relive one of the greatest races of all time![the promotional copy read]From the studio that brought youA Month in the Life of a Victorian Dukeand thewildly popularAinslie Castle Digcomes the re-creation to end all re-creations! Relive the thrilling 1908 New York City to Paris race that spawned legends!
“Wait a minute,” I said, pausing to look up at Angela. “Is this about that movie with Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis? The one where they race all over the place?”
“It’s all there,” Angela said, smiling and nodding at the paper.
Watch as participants don the clothing of a century ago and race across continents in authentic period cars! Thrill as they fight for superiority across dangerous lands! This one-month race will take its participants from the flat Midwest plains of the United States to the exotic locations of China, Russia, and Europe.
“Oooh,” I said, my blood seeming to come alight with the sense of adventure that fairly oozed off the paper. “Itislike that movie!”
“Is dangerous!” Daddy growled. “Too dangerous. Better you stay home with Papa and Mama.”
“I’ll do it,” I told Angela, not even bothering to read the rest of the information.
“But, dear, you don’t know what it will entail—”
“It doesn’t matter,” I said, standing up, my heart beating so fast I wanted to dance and sing and crow to the world that, at last, adventure was going to be mine! “I’ll do whatever job this production company wants. I’ll be a gofer. I’ll be a script girl. I’ll be a personal assistant. I don’t care—I just want to be a part of it.”
“They will want you to be in one of the cars,” Angela said in her placid voice. “I’m afraid you will need to dress up.”
