“I’m sure you and your father will have gaudy monuments towering over Père Lachaise for all eternity.”

Evangeline rolled her eyes, then slowed to a stop when they reached a metal gate blocking off one path. “What do you suppose is behind this?”

Simone pretended to think long and hard before answering, “Bones?”

Evangeline giggled and squeezed her hand. “You’re hopeless. Come on. Help me with this lock.”

“What?” Simone whisper-hissed, but Evangeline was already tugging at it.

“If they’ve locked it off, it must be because there’s something good on the other side.” In an instant, she produced a hairpin from her bun. “Watch. I used to practice this on Papa’s desk drawers.”

Simone bit back another disbelieving cry. All she could do was watch while Evangeline worked the pin in the gate’s lock and toss anxious glances over her shoulder. Maybe for Evangeline this was all fun and games, but Simone knew the way the gendarmes and Goutte d’Or informants looked at her and her family—they’d never get the harmless chuckle a politician’s angelic-faced daughter always would.

Evangeline must have sensed something of this in Simone’s silence, because once the lock popped, she glanced at Simone shyly—guiltily. “I’m sorry. You probably think I’m a dreadful brat.”

She could be a dreadful brat, but that wasn’t the point. “I envy the freedom you have, that’s all.”

Evangeline looked away, blinking rapidly as she eased the lock and chain loose from around the gate’s bars. “I didn’t choose to be who I am.”

“Neither did I,” Simone said, more tartly than she intended. There was that temper, boiling over again.

Evangeline sniffed—were those tears gathering at her lower lashes? Simone’s stomach dropped out from under her. This wasn’t at all how she’d wanted this excursion to go. Not that she had any illusions how it might go, only that she didn’t want this—

The gate screeched open, and they stepped through.

“I know as fates go, mine could be far, far worse. But that doesn’t mean I want it. I don’t want to be his heir. Some pawn my father can shove into whatever marriage looks most convenient at the time. I want—”

“Hey! What are you doing—”

They both froze as a shout ricocheted across the bones.

Then, once more Evangeline seized her wrist, and they ran.