THE FÜHRER'S DAUGHTER

THE FÜHRER'S DAUGHTER (Episode 1) - Chapters 2 & 3

CHAPTER TWO

WHO WOULD LEAVE ME A NOTE? Pulse quickening, Grace tore open the envelope. The enclosed slip of paper read:

If it's the truth you seek, then go to the place where you should not speak.

"Where I should not speak?" What kind of riddle was this?

She stood and returned to the palace. Drifting from room to room, she pondered the note's meaning.

Nothing in any of the downstairs rooms besides Father smoking Cuban cigars and playing cards with his guests.

On the second floor, she found Mother talking with one of the palace servants in the hallway.

"Are you looking for something, Grace?" Mother said.

"If someone told you to go to 'a place where you shouldn't speak,' where would you go?"

"A library, of course. But what are you-?"

"You're as clever as you are beautiful." Grace kissed her on the cheek. "I love you!" She darted down the hall toward the palace library.

As soon as she entered the library, she turned the light on and scanned the room. To her delight, she found another envelope, also address to her. This time, the note read:

This room is full of make believe.

But in another, the truth you shall receive.

She growled in delighted frustration.

In another? We've only got one-

The palace actually contained not one, but two libraries-one full of fiction at her full disposal, and the other locked and off limits up on the fourth floor, hidden from the usual palace traffic.

Full of anticipation, she bounded up the remaining two flights of stairs.

As soon as she reached the top, she bumped face first into a soldier in uniform.

"What are you doing up here?" Freidrich said, holding her shoulders, then pushing back.

Her face flushed, ears burned. "I...I could ask you the same."

"Making my rounds. But I'm under orders to report to my commander if anyone besides your father comes up here."

"Yes, yes. I've heard that my whole life: The fourth floor is off limits. One of Father's foundational truths."

Friedrich squinted and furrowed his brow.

"Never mind," she said. "It's just one of his idiosyncrasies. So, are you going to report me?"

"Do I need to?"

"I hope not, I've got some important business around here."

"Around where, exactly?"

"The library at the end of the hall." She grabbed Friedrich's arm and pulled him close. "And you're coming with me."

He didn't budge. "I'm sorry, but I can't let you go in there, much less enter myself. It's forbidden. In fact, I'm supposed to shoot unauthorized intruders."

"Sounds positively scandalous." She released his hand but took a step closer. "Doesn't it just make you want to find out what's inside, all the more?"

"No." He took a step back.

"You wouldn't actually shoot me, would you?"

"Well...I..."

She pulled him along and started for the library. "Then come on, let's go."