Chapter Ninety

When the going got tough, the tough -- went shopping. With her wedding less than a month away, Anastasia went to the trendiest boutique in town (a download from the exchange) after coming from Jenny Lho's. When she saw a dress through the fogged-up windows, she said to herself, "I wonder if they have that in my size."



She combed through the racks and racks of men's suit jackets, and thought, "Lucian might like this for the reception," while examining one of them.



"Six grand for this gown?" Anastasia wondered to herself. "And it's not even a designer label." Even with her deep pockets, she found the price tag a bit steep. Frustrated, she left the boutique empty-handed.



While Anastasia was wrapped up in preparations for her upcoming wedding, Alexandra was making preparations for something as well -- to make her first major speech in front of the cadets at Fort Starch Military Academy. It was the kind of speech usually reserved for heads of state, a speech which in the past had been made by her father and by her mother, so for obvious reasons she wanted to convey the right message and strike the right tone.



But she didn't have a clue what she wanted to say, or even why Crown Prince Sebastian had even chosen her to make the speech in the first place. Frustrated, she stared at a blank computer screen. Sports, she was good at. Science, she was good at. Writing, she was not so good at. Or, at least, she hadn't had that much experience with it, other than school papers. This is a head-of-state speech, Alexandra thought, and I'm definitely NOT the head of state.



Of course, Alexandra was not going to make her first major address without the assistance of her twin sister and partner in crime. "What do you want to say to the cadets? How do you want to begin the speech?" asked Anastasia. "You want to get their attention right away. Wake them up. And you have to keep their attention at least most of the way through it."
"Yeah," Alexandra agreed, "these things tend to get really dry, really fast."
"Hey, there ought to be some old addresses on the Fort Starch web site. Let's look there, maybe one of daddy's might be there."

Chapter Eighty-Nine

Keeping one of the biggest secrets in Hidden Springs history -- that the prince consort, presumed to be dead, had been brought back to life -- wasn't easy. Especially since his daughters had smiles on their faces that couldn't be wiped off.



Nevertheless, they had no choice but to try. As hard as it was, they even had to hide the truth from their brother, the soon to be King, when they met him for coffee at Han's Tavern and Café.
"Have you started writing your speech yet, Alexandra?" asked Crown Prince Sebastian. "I chose you to speak to the cadets for a reason."
Alexandra shook her head no.
Crown Prince Sebastian glared at Anastasia and snickered silently to himself. "You two...you two are up to something. I just know it."



Meanwhile, the next day it was business as usual. Anastasia went to work, this time carrying her notebook and her tape measure, to measure the dimensions of Jenny Lho's den. Ms. Lho worked at Vanderburg Hall and wanted some redecorating done.



So, Anastasia, being the perfectionist she was, took careful measurements and recorded them with precise accuracy.





"You want this shelf replaced too?" asked Anastasia. Jenny yelled in the affirmative from the next room.





This is what I went to school for, Anastasia thought to herself. With her wedding now in less than a month, she felt like she was in a good place in her life.

Chapter Eighty-Eight

With his two young daughters looking on, the prince stretched his arms out as far as he could so he could exit the metal box.





As he took his first cautious steps back out into living Simanity, he looked back at the time machine and wondered just what had happened. His astonished daughters watched the scene with awe.



"What did you do, Alex?" Anastasia asked her sister. "What did you do to that time machine?"
"I reset it to the day before dad died, and added some spring water to the interior of it."



The girls wrapped their father in a warm and tearful embrace. Their mother had no idea.