5
“Interesting place you have here, Grand Duchess.” Manny made it conversational when it became clear she wasn’t going to say anything more.
She looked at him strangely when he called her that. Too far gone last night to remember naming herself as the youngest of the old Czar’s children.
Once he’d been sure that she wasn’t feigning sleep, he’d stripped her outer clothes, tied her to the bed, and tucked her in. Then he’d investigated the house.
The interior dimensions hadn’t matched the exterior and it hadn’t taken him long to figure out why. First and second floor each had hidden rooms, subtle ones, not easy to notice. Except he’d been trained by the very best instructors the US Army had on room clearing techniques—including identifying and opening hidden spaces. One space was packed w
