A loud, angry voice sliced right through the moment and I turned to see Andrew Jergens and his curly blond hair struggling against the safety bar of the Ferris wheel, his fedora askew.

‘Don’t you move!’

‘Let’s get out of here,’ I said, looking back at Evan as Andrew attempted to stand up in his seat. ‘I can’t watch this.’

‘Really?’ Evan replied. ‘Because there’s a good chance he might fall out if he keeps this up.’

‘We should go back inside.’ I nodded towards the hotel. ‘There must be more to do in there.’

‘A million things,’ he confirmed. ‘But what about the bear?’

I looked at the gargantuan stuffed toy and sighed. ‘I think it would be cruel to make him live in captivity,’ I decided. ‘He’s clearly a wild animal who wants to roam free.’

‘He’s wearing a top hat and a monocle,’ Evan pointed out.

‘A very suave, sophisticated wild animal.’

A few feet away and several more up, Andrew was still rattling the safety bar on his seat and wailing at the top of his voice, and I tensed when I saw several security guards making their way over to intervene.

‘Come on,’ I said, yanking Evan’s arm. ‘I’m ready for the next part of my adventure.’

And, I thought as we started back towards the hotel, ready to get as far away as possible from the security guards, Andrew and his questions about who invited me to the ball.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

‘Your surprise is a fortune teller?’

‘A tarot card reader,’ Evan corrected as we arrived at our destination. ‘She’s supposed to be amazing.’

‘I don’t know. I don’t believe in this stuff,’ I said, hanging back in the doorway as he bounded into the tiny dark room, lit only by several golden orbs that swung in mid-air, hanging from invisible wires fastened to the ceiling. ‘I’ve never done it before.’

‘No big deal, I’ll go first,’ he said as he took a seat at an empty round table. ‘If she’s good, you go next. If she sucks, you don’t have to do it at all. Anyway, we don’t know enough about each other to know whether or not she’s telling the truth. For all I know, you’re the mysterious princess everyone’s been talking about.’

‘A mysterious princess who was running around the harbour this morning trying to buy orange San Pellegrino?’

‘I’ve never met a princess before, I don’t know what they do,’ he said with a shrug. ‘No, wait, I guess I have. Does it still count if I met her before she was a princess?’

I arched one eyebrow. ‘Depends on what you mean by “met”.’