My eyes widened a bit after she said the names were Alex and Alice.
“It can`t just be a coincidence,-” I started, but Alice interrupted me.
“When I read it the first time I was a bit suspicious, but then you told me your dream and everything fit together perfectly.” I looked at her with wide eyes, a little hesitant to ask.
“So, what does that mean?”
“It means that, most likely, we are the long lost prince and princess, that our mother and father are the king and queen, and that you would be next in line for the throne.”
“That`s a scary thought,” I chuckled.
She smiled, “Yeah, but I won`t believe it now, or when I see it, that my reckless older brother will be king.”
“So, would we just walk into the palace and…” my voice trailed off as I gave the painting a closer look.
“Hey, Alice isn’t that the necklace you always wear?”
I pointed to the necklace Queen Victoria was wearing. She pulled one out that was an exact replica; a gold chain with a small heart shaped ruby dangling from it.
“This could be our way back to her!”
In all my 15 years of being with her I had never seen or heard her so excited.

“Are you sure about this? You know that Miss Harriet isn’t the easiest person to convince.” Alice shot me the most intimidating glare I had ever seen.
“Yes, I`m sure! We could run away, but she would send someone after us and we would just end up back here.”
She raised a fist and gently knocked on the rough wooden door. A few seconds later Miss Harriet, the head of the orphanage, opened the door. She was a fairly pretty woman in her late twenties with long, curly, brown hair and chocolate colored eyes. She was average height, not too short or too tall, and all the boys fancied her. I had always wondered, out of all the jobs she could have, why she decided to run an orphanage. Miss Harriet didn’t hate her job, but she also didn’t love it. She treated everyone with care and kindness, yet was very strict when she needed to be. It was also very difficult to convince her to do anything, like take a walk outside, so I had a feeling it was going to be extremely hard to persuade her. Although she always made it seem like Alice was her favorite, so maybe it wouldn’t be that hard.
“You better have a good reason to waking me up in the middle of the night.”
“Yes, Miss, we do. You see we think we may have found who and where our mom is, and well...” Alice stopped afraid to ask the question.
“We were wondering if we could leave to go find her,” I continued for her. She glanced at us with an amused and knowing look.
“Who would your mother be? Where is she?”
“Well it would be easier if we could just show you, can we?” Alice said.
“Very well, lead the way.”
When we got back to the library, we started explaining everything we discovered.
“Let me get this straight. You think that your mother and father are the king and queen, and that you two are the prince and princess?” She raised an eyebrow and glanced at us again with that amused and knowing look.
“Well, I have something for you if you will follow me.” She stood up and started walking away with Alice and me not very far behind.
We followed Miss Harriet to her office. When we got there, she started looking everywhere for something. After she found it, she handed it to us; it was a letter. The envelope was clearly old from the way it looked; wrinkled and turning yellow. On the front of it were two names; our names, the letter was ours. Alice opened the letter and read it.
“Alright well, she says three things: 1.) that she never wanted to put us here, but she had to after dad passed 2.) the necklace is the way back to her and 3.) she and dad love us.” We looked at Miss Harriet and gave her a pleading look.
“We can go can`t we? Go and find her? Anything anyone here has ever wanted was to know who their parents are, and we know. Can we please go?” I asked.
“Well, of course you can go. I can`t keep you here with you knowing you could`ve had a chance at a happy life, besides knowing you two you would just run away.” Alice had the biggest smile on her face and ran to give her a hug.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
We rushed back to our room, gathered the few belongings we had and ran back to Miss Harriet. She gave each of us a hug.
“Be safe please,” she whispered.
“Don’t worry Miss H, we will,” I told her. Then we ran out the door and onto the street, of the now awakening town.

“Hey Alice, do you know how to get to the castle? Or even the general direction?” She stopped walking and looked at me sheepishly.
“No, but we can ask someone when we get to the market.”
We walked in a comfortable silence until we got to the market. There were food stalls, and jewelry stalls. I had never seen so many different kinds of food or so much jewelry before, but I needed to focus on the task at hand. I looked around at all the people trying to find a person that looked the friendliest. The first stall housed a short man that constantly looked like he was scowling, and the second stall we saw housed an old woman that didn’t look like she was very happy to be there, but the third stall housed a young looking man. He had a handsome face, with dirty blonde hair, very light blue eyes, and was quite tall. He constantly had a smile on his face that was warm and inviting, he would try to get people to buy the jewelry he was selling, and when people were at his stall he would engage them in a conversation. I pointed him out to Alice.
“What if we asked him for directions?” She looked at him and smiled.
“Yes, he looks like the perfect person to ask.” When the man noticed we were walking his way he gave us a grin and a friendly wave.
“How are you today? Could I interest either of you in a necklace or a bracelet? How about a lovely pair of diamond earrings?”
“We`re fine, thank you. Um, we aren’t interested in the jewelry, but could you give us some directions?” Alice asked. The man`s smile faded, then came right back.
“Of course, I`m not one to deny a pretty young lady. Where to?” While I was a little mad about what he said I could see a light blush appear on Alice`s face.
“We would like directions to the castle please,” Alice responded, still blushing.
“It`s pretty far from here; not exactly in walking distance.” He paused then looked like he got an idea.
“Hey, I know, I live fairly close to the castle. If you two stick around till the end of the day I could give you a ride, but if you don’t mind me asking. What business do you have at the castle?”
“We think our mother could be working there, you see, as a servant to the queen,” I said quickly thinking of a lie.
“Ah alright, well the offer still stands.”
“We would very much appreciate it, thank you,” Alice said.

At the end of the day the man, whose name we learned was Quinten, gave us a ride. We passed through town after town before we finally stopped. I had never realized it before, but the country is a lot bigger and more beautiful than I imagined. We stopped at a house that was in pretty good condition, considering some of the houses I had seen looked pretty worn down.
“Welcome to my home,” Quinten said proudly while walking up to the house, “seeing as it`s pretty late why don’t you sleep here then set out in the morning to the castle? I`m sure you`re hungry and tired.”
“I know I`ve said this a lot already, but thank you,” Alice said while following Quinten into his house. He chuckled and said,
“No problem, I`m always happy to help someone in need.”
The house was average sized; two bedrooms, one bathroom, and a kitchen. He gave us a quick tour of the house.
“You two can sleep in the extra bedroom; I hope you don’t mind sharing a bathroom. Now, why don’t you go wash up and settle in while I make dinner?”
Eventually he called us to dinner. It was a simple meal; some kind of meat, vegetables, and sliced bread. While eating I asked,
“If you live all the way out here then why set up shop out there?”
“I don’t usually sell there, but about once a month that’s where I set up. So you guys got lucky.” The rest of the meal went by in silence and we all went to bed.

The next morning when we got up Quinten gave us directions to the castle, we said thank you again, and said good bye. While we were walking we didn’t talk that much. We admired the scenery and thought about what life would`ve been like if we had been raised by our parents. When we finally saw the towers of the castle, we knew we were getting close. We sped up our pace excited and slightly nervous to see our mom.
As soon as we got to the castle gates we were stopped by the guards. They didn’t look all that friendly; dressed in their armor, swords strapped to their waists, and scowls on their faces.
“What`s your business here?”
“We request a meeting with the queen,” Alice said bravely. He told the other guard to alert the queen then opened the gate.
“Follow me.” We followed him through the massive court, up the stone steps, and to the doors of what I guessed to be the throne room. We stopped and the guard turned around.
“Stay here.” He went inside and I turned to Alice.
“How are you feeling?”
“Nervous, excited; what if she isn’t anything like we imagined?”
“I`m sure she`ll be all that and more,” I responded trying to comfort her.
The guard appeared shortly after.
“You may come in now.” We were led into the throne room and gasped; it was a massive room with windows and pillars on either side, a high ceiling, and a carpet that led up to the queen`s throne. There the queen sat, our mother, wearing a beautiful red dress, and her long blond hair done perfectly.
“What are your names?” Alice didn’t say anything, nor did I, she carefully unclasped her necklace and showed it to Queen Victoria. She gasped and with a wave of her hand all the guards disappeared leaving us alone. She stood up and slowly walked forward.
“Alex, Alice, is that really you?” We nodded our heads. She ran the rest of the way and engulfed us in a hug.
“Oh I missed you. You have no idea how hard it was to leave you two.” Even though we had never met her we had missed her terribly too.
“We missed you too,” we said simultaneously.

Over the next few months we had gotten to know our mom better, and she had gotten to know us. We were also starting to get accustomed to life in the castle and our daily routine. We had to learn history, horseback riding, swordplay, ballroom dancing, and dining etiquette. One day, while I was learning swordplay, a messenger came from the castle.
“Excuse me Your Highness, but I have good news and bad news. The good news is that you`re going to be king sooner than expected and the bad news, well why don’t you just follow me.” I followed him out of the courtyard and into the castle towards my mother`s chambers.
“What happened?”
“I am terribly sorry, no one could`ve stopped it.”
“What happened?” I repeated.
“She was poisoned during dinner, no one realized until this morning when she wouldn’t wake up.” I was worried before, but now I was panicking. We walked into my mother`s bedroom and I stopped dead in my tracks. My mother, the queen, was dead.