Helga glanced frantically at the door behind Christoph. “Is he here in the chalet?”
Her fear of Poppie was obvious. Fear instead of hatred for the man who’d stolen her daughter? Alana wondered. She noticed that Christoph was frowning, too.
Alana quickly said, “I’m sure what happened all those years ago terrified you. It’s all right, you don’t ever have to meet him. Tell me about my father.”
Helga’s brown eyes came back to Alana, but the fear didn’t leave them, not all of it. “He was a good man. We weren’t even married a year before he died of fever, so he never got to see our baby.” As an afterthought Helga added, “He had black hair.”
Alana chuckled. “Finally a relative with black hair! That’s been such a bone of contention—with him.” She nodded toward Christoph.
“Why?”
“Because I tried to convince Captain Becker I was the princess, which is who my guardian thought I was. And the captain couldn’t tell me why he knew that wasn’t so. But because of the color of my hair, and your description of me that I was blond, too, like the princess, he didn’t once consider that I could be your daughter instead.”
“Perhaps the assassin lied to you and you aren’t my daughter,” Helga said.
That hurt. Helga had even said it bitterly. That could only mean one thing. Helga still had doubts, most likely, because she felt absolutely nothing for Alana. Alana couldn’t even blame her for it. Christoph had had the same thought, that Poppie had lied to her.
Christoph said as much, “I thought the same thing at first, but not anymore. If I still had doubts, I wouldn’t have brought her here to be reunited with you with the king’s permission, of course. Your reaction to her is, however, curious.”
“If you say she’s mine, then she’s mine!” Helga cried defensively. “I just don’t feel it yet, nor can you blame me for that. It was my baby that was taken from me. You bring me a full-grown woman who doesn’t even look like me!”
“Does she look like your husband?”
Helga scoffed. “There is nothing of a man in her.”
“No, there isn’t,” he agreed. “Perhaps you should just be pleased she turned out so beautiful?”
Helga gave him an odd look before she glanced at Alana again and gave her a weak smile. “You are very beautiful. Please don’t blame me for my feelings.”
“No, I don’t,” Alana said. “I completely understand. All my life, I thought my parents were dead. When I was told that wasn’t so, it was a shock to me, too. It took me a while to believe it. It helped to talk about it, though, and that might make this easier for you as well. Tell me about our family.”
Helga sighed. “They’re all gone now. Both my parents were still alive when I moved to the palace, but they were old. I came to them late in life. My father died the same year that I lost my baby. My mother moved here to the chalet to be with me, but she died two years ago. I’m sorry, there is only me—and you—left.”
“You don’t need to be sorry,” Alana said, then asked carefully, “Can you tell me why you did it, why you switched the babies?”
Helga immediately tensed. “I was warned never to speak of that.”
Christoph interjected, “When we realized who she is, the king gave me permission to tell her the truth and bring her here to you, so she already knows the secret you were to keep. You may speak freely to her.”
Helga started to cry again, but now Alana understood why. Helga wouldn’t be able to remember that awful time without feeling the anguish over losing her child. Alana thought about changing the subject. She didn’t really need to know what had prompted an action that had completely changed her own life. But maybe Helga was reluctant to discuss it because she thought Alana had suffered, being raised by an assassin.
“I’ve had a good life with no hardships whatsoever,” Alana assured her. “I was raised to be a lady in England. I had a fine education, servants, friends, a loving relative—at least that’s what I thought he was. I’ve never lacked for anything except a mother. So nothing horrible happened to me because of what you did. Truly, I bear you no resentment for anything.”
“I do,” Helga said abjectly.
“Then why did you do it?”
Christoph asked it this time, which could be why Helga answered immediately now. “I became nervous with the palace nearly empty, the king away too long in his grief, and no one even coming to visit the princess. The truth is the princess was neglected. Only three years had passed since the civil war when the palace had been attacked and King Ernest was killed. I wasn’t the only one who thought the Bruslans might try to regain the throne with more violence. There was speculation about it in the city even before King Frederick married.”
“Understandable, but the palace wasn’t left undefended,” Christoph said.
“You are correct, there were many guards in the ward, but there weren’t many inside the palace. The two guards assigned to the nursery would check it on their rounds only twice each night! They should have been stationed outside the doors, but they weren’t, and they barely even glanced in the royal bassinet when they did come in, always talking and joking with each other. But I didn’t switch the babies immediately. It was many weeks before my nervousness turned to fear. The princess was nearly three months old before I did it.”
“Were the servants aware of your ruse?” Christoph asked.
“What servants?” Helga scoffed. “There was just one old woman with failing eyesight who came to clean the rooms and bring me meals. The court physician came once a month to check that the princess was healthy and growing normally. But he was an arrogant man who seemed insulted to have been given the task of examining an infant. I caught the scent of liquor on his breath more than once. I begged one of the court officials for more guards and more help. He laughed and told me the palace was secure, but he did deign to hire another nursemaid to help me. But by the time she arrived, a couple of weeks before the abduction, I had already taken matters into my own hands and switched the babies. I was terrified of what would happen to me if anything happened to the princess.”
“Why didn’t you tell the new nursemaid that you’d switched the babies so she could be on guard as well?” Christoph asked.
