“Where is the maid? Brechtje!” Anna’s mother called, giving up on soothing her husband. And when the girl they’d brought with them ran from the back, Mevrouw Dirk gestured to her hair. “You must fix this frightful mess. I can’t walk into the lunch room looking like a…”

“Sea monster?” Anna’s father suggested.

“Arnold!”

I turned back to the window, so they wouldn’t see my smile. The four American girls were still frolicking in the North Sea. They were undaunted by the occasional wave that knocked them over.

Everyone else kept safely to the beach.

Mevrouw Dirk passed by me on her way to her dressing table and glanced out. “How foolish.”

How free. How brave.

“You should go to Paris,” Anna said quietly, then walked to her room to see to her own appearance.

She was right. I had no time machine to reclaim the miserable months I spent at Utrecht. I had to move forward. I would go to France. I would brave the trip.

And if I was thrust into Theo van Gogh’s company while I was there… I would cross that particular footbridge on that specific canal when I came to it.

Chapter Five

Emsley

A soft sound whispered through the line, the air rushing out of Violet’s lungs. “Let’s talk about this after you’ve gone through the whole box,” she said instead of addressing my question about our family’s connection to Vincent van Gogh. Does she sound distressed? Why would she sound distressed? While I worried, she said, “You have a great event tonight. I hope it brings you new contracts.”

“I hope you win at strip poker.”

“You do strip poker right, and there are no losers.”

How could I not laugh? “I love you.”

“Love you more. How many guests are you expecting?”

I stepped outside into the balmy, honeysuckle-scented evening. “About two dozen A-list celebrities, along with as many politicians and a hundred of their wealthiest supporters. Not that I’m nervous.”

I had to make tonight a resounding success. If I didn’t, all would be lost. I kept that to myself. I didn’t want my grandmother to know how desperate the situation was, how close I stood to the abyss of utter failure.

“You let your smile shine from your soul.” Violet’s love-laden voice wrapped around me. “You let courage beam from your heart. The night is yours, honey. You drive this auction like it’s a Lamborghini.

Drive it like a Lamborghini. Drive it like a Lamborghini. Right.

Nobody must suspect that my company was falling apart.

Under no circumstances could I allow any stress to show on my face. To be successful, I had to radiate success. I had to focus on nothing but the positive.

I elbowed Diya. “Arthur Zigler is here with his mistress.”