THE UNLIKELY ADVENTURES OF RANULF THE UNREADY: Book Two

Near the end of the first year of WWI a woman presented herself to the American Embassy at Sofija, the Americans still neutrals, then doing the routine diplomatic duties of the warring nations. She was short and blonde and would have been a beauty except for a raw scar across her forehead and down on to her cheek and the ravages to be expected from far advanced pregnancy in a starving, war time country. She insisted she was Xenia, Princess of Illyria and heir to the throne. She had escaped from the Communist massacre of her family while at their summer villa on the Black Sea and traveled across country to Bulgravia. If true she was then also the second cousin of both the British King and the Russian Czar. Disbelieved she conceived her own proofs. She wrote out a series of questions about the Royals of Victoria's far-flung progeny. Then she wrote out the answers and promptly disappeared. In time it was determined that both questions and answers revealed a very detailed and intimate knowledge of the Royals. A knowledge that could only be known by a highly placed member of the family. In this the second of the series Ranulf who knew Xenia as a child is assigned to locate her and vet her as to her identity. The Lady Audra is sent along to fend off any extraneous perils such languorous Balkan spies or whatever ogres might be conjured up by Rannie's exuberant imagination and adventuresome spirit. They meet several of each.