A/N: Would have put this up yesterday like I normally do on Mondays...but F . F. Net was all screwy...Anyway, hope you enjoy...but come on! I know more than two people are reading this story! Yeah that's right...only two people reviewed chapter eight. You guys can do better than that...

Meanwhile, I haven't been religiously following Monk as I should, but I believe the Captain is getting divorced from Karen still correct? That's what I heard and that's what I based one part of this chapter on...hope it's right.

Don't forget to enter my fanart contest! Deadline is August 14th...Come on...there has to be some talented artist wanting to paint Mignonette's portrait, the coat of arms, or Mr. Monk and Mia. Please?

peace, love and lipgloss,

Mlle.Fox

Julie Teeger was watching TV in her and her mother's suite at the Renaldi palace. Apparently, the royal family had access to various channels and stations from around the world. She was in the middle of laughing at the antics of three Irish priests when her mother came in the room and sighed her greeting,

"Hey Sweetie."

"Hey Mom. How'd the investigation go?" Julie asked as her mother bent over to kiss her on the forehead. Natalie sighed shrugging off her jean jacket,

"Well…we have plenty of clues…" Julie's eyes then widened and she asked quietly,

"Mom…is that blood on your shirt?"

"What?" Natalie asked looking down at her fitted tee. Sure enough, a dried brown patch of blood stained Natalie's side.

"Crap…" whispered Natalie to herself before answering her daughter, "Yes…yes it is blood. You're probably going to hear about this anyway, but you can't say a word outside of this room to anyone understand?"

"Yes Mom." Julie nodded as Natalie sat beside her on the settee. Natalie began, hesitating in hopes to spare her daughter the gruesome details,

"Julie, today a man died at the seaside palace. Now Mr. Monk hopes that if we find the thieves who broke into Queen's Mia's offices…we'll find out who killed this man and why."

"You were there when he died?" Julie asked. Natalie released a shuttering breath,

"Yes I was."

"Does this mean I have to stay inside all day?" asked Julie.

"What do you mean?" Natalie asked.

"Well…whoever killed this man probably knows Mr. Monk will try to find him. Doesn't that mean Mr. Monk and whoever is helping him in danger too?" Julie asked. Natalie was stunned at her daughter's question. The reality of this case settled on her. Natalie had risked Julie's life coming here. Would her child be surprised to learn how many times Natalie had come close to having a murderer kill her during Mr. Monk's investigations? But then the thought that not having Julie close was a danger too. Anyone could take Julie in San Francisco while Natalie was in Genovia. Even Captain Stottlemeyer had taken the precaution of assigning a twenty four hour watch on his family to make sure they were safe while he was away. Natalie told her,

"That's always a possibility…but we are safe! We are surrounded by professional royal guards and security experts. I promise. Nothing is gonna happen to me, Mr. Monk, the Captain or Randy…and I will make double sure nothing happens to you! Understand?"

"I understand." Julie said giving her mom a hug. It suddenly occurred to Natalie that Mignonette had once reassured her baby sister of the same thing. And by the time Natalie had finished reading the passage where Mignonette had blacked out during the pirate attack, they had arrived at the palace and made a promise to pick it up in the morning. Natalie could only guess that the princess had felt pure terror at the thought of not seeing her sister again. She knew because pure terror would be what Natalie would feel if something happened to Julie.

"Hello?"

"Karen? It's me, Lee." the Captain said in to the phone as he rinsed off his toothbrush in the sink.

"Oh...hello Leland... How's Genovia?" his wife Karen asked coolly on the other end.

"Great…Great…you'd really like this place Karen. It's really beautiful." Stottlemeyer told her walking out of the bathroom.

"I know…my film professor at college had a château there. He used to show us his home movies. So…what's this I'm seeing on CNN about a murder at the Genovian summer palace?" Karen asked.

"Ah jeese…ya mean it's already on the news?" Captain Stottlemeyer groaned.

"Well Leland it is only one o'clock in the afternoon here. So what happened?" she asked.

"I can't talk about it…but I can tell you that only Monk will be able to solve this one." Stottlemeyer told her.

"That bad huh?"

"Karen…I don't know how I can help here. RANDY contributed more to the case than I have." he said.

"Randy?"

"Yeah he found a clue and interpreted some Latin." Stottlemeyer said.

"…He knows Latin?"

"High school Latin…" Stottlemeyer shrugged.

"Leland, you're Adrian's friend…I'm sure you've done a lot to help him…if not by just being there."

"Well I guess that's true. I did help the local police in their search of the palace and I helped Monk realize that solving this case could help him with the whole Trudy thing…And hey I did find one clue." he said.

"Well there you go then." Karen said. The Captain smiled,

"I love you, you know that?" There was a moments silence.

"We're still getting a divorce Leland." Karen said. Leland nodded accepting the harsh truth.

"I'll call tomorrow so I can talk to the boys." Captain Stottlemeyer told her.

"Okay…I'll talk to you tomorrow." She hung up leaving Leland to listen to the phone tone a while.

"Love you…bye." the Captain said before hanging up and just sitting on his bed for a while.

Adrian Monk brushed his teeth with the boiled water that the maids had brought up for him. His clothes were already unpacked and in the specific drawers just the way he liked it, again thanks to the maids. But one thing remained unpacked. Adrian finished brushing his teeth and then crossed his suite to one special suitcase. It was bright purple unlike the rest of Adrian's uniform black luggage. This was Trudy's suitcase. He unzipped the bag and lifted the lid to reveal a single pillow wrapped in plastic, perfectly preserved. This was Trudy's pillow. He carefully took the pillow out and pulled away the plastic. He brought the pillow up to his nose and breathed in the lingering smell of strawberries. Trudy's scent.

"It's beautiful here Adrian." said a soft feminine voice in Adrian's heart. Adrian looked to the window and imagined seeing his beautiful bride leaning against the French doors in her white nightgown. He spoke to the memory,

"I thought you'd like it." The blond vision smiled gently at him,

"What's wrong Adrian?"

"I'm not sure what I'm doing here Trudy. I know that if I solve this case, the money could help me solve your murder…not to mention help Natalie…but…I'm scared." He told her.

"Scared? Of what?" Trudy asked.

"Failing." he said softly. Trudy tilted her head to the side and approached Adrian. He could swear he actually feel her hands on his shoulders as her memory told him,

"Sweetheart, you are a brilliant detective. I believe in you."

"But this case…it's so confusing. I've never dealt with anything like this before." Adrian told her.

"No…but I know you can do this. Just follow your heart." Trudy said.

"Oh Trudy…" Adrian sighed leaning in to kiss her. But then reality kicked in and Trudy's vision faded away, leaving only the scent of strawberries behind.

Meanwhile, Randy received his late night snack from the butler at the door. Seeing the light green hue to the popcorn, he tentatively tried some and nodded in approval,

"Hmm…pears!"

The next morning, Monk and his associates met Mia in the Royal Library. Polished cherry wood shelves filled every wall floor to ceiling, rolling ladders the only way to go up and around. Five long cherry desks were in the room, a computer off to the side. Stacked high on the desks, were dozens and dozens of books. Adrian asked Mia in disbelief and dread,

"This is not…ALL information about Mignonette is it?"

"No…Those three tables are information about Mignonette…that one table is all about Chestivaldi…and that last table is miscellaneous info about pirates, Genovia and other Genovia nobility. The librarians said nothing about the Turners." Mia told him.

"Monk…you don't expect us to actually go through all of these books do you?" Stottlemeyer asked skeptically. Monk sighed,

"We have no choice…come on everybody." And with that resignation to their fate, they began to comb through all of the books. Page by page, cover to cover, noting anything of interest. After an hour, Mia stood from one of the Mignonette tables and stretched her legs over to Natalie at the Chestivaldi table.

"Find anything?" Mia asked the other woman.

"Not yet…Your Majesty? Why are you helping us comb through all this stuff?" Natalie asked. Mia sighed and sat down opposite Natalie,

"Because I'm tired of other people telling me the right way to do things. Besides, last night I couldn't help but think about Mignonette. She trusted too much in her advisers and she almost got killed for it. I want to be the kind of Queen who stays on top of things, who actually knows what is going on!"

"I know we haven't read much of the diary yet, but I think Mignonette learned that lesson too." Natalie told her.

"What do you mean?" asked Mia.

"Well would Mignonette be remembered as a Queen who made Genovia what it is today if she let everyone think for her?" Natalie suggested.

"That's true. Wow…pirates, princesses, secrets…sounds like something out of a Disney movie!" Mia observed.

"Or a TV show!" Natalie laughed.

"So how do you like Genovia?" Mia asked.

"Well, I'd enjoy it more if I weren't stuck in a library." Natalie told her.

"What about your daughter Julie?" asked Mia. Natalie sighed,

"The truth is your Majesty…"

"Mia…"

"Mia…"Natalie repeated feeling weird for calling a queen by her first name, "The truth is I don't have enough time to sightsee with her…and frankly I'm a little afraid to let her go anywhere by herself with a killer on the loose."

"Well I could assign a few bodyguards to her…let her look around and be safe." Mia offered.

"Thanks your…Mia…but Julie would have a lot of fun with me and not two goons shadowing her. Mia smiled with a plan forming,

"Don't be too sure…"

"Hey! I found something!" Randy called from the miscellaneous table. Everyone rushed over to his side and looked down at the book he was reading.

"Sir and Lady Turner in the flesh…so to speak!" he said holding up the book. There on the page, was a photograph of an oil painting. A tall, handsome youthful man in his mid thirties and dressed in tasteful blues and brocade stood behind his seated wife, a beautiful young woman in her early thirties. The man had shoulder length brown hair, neatly trimmed mustache and goatee, with light brown eyes. The woman was slim, with long golden brown curls piled high on her head, with light hazel eyes dressed in a light peach gown that complimented her sun kissed skin perfectly.

"Sir William and Lady Elizabeth Turner, knighted by Her Majesty Queen Mignonette on June 14th, 1679. Given the lands and holdings of…of Lord Richard Chestivaldi, who died tragically at sea when crossing to Jamaica. Chestivaldi had been thrown overboard in a storm, leaving no heirs to his vast fortune. So for valor and loyalty to the Genovian crown, Chestivaldi's lands were given to the Turners, including the vast estate of Château Dodici Quercie three miles outside of…outside of the small seaside town of Roseton." Monk read aloud.

"Roseton is the village outside of Windrose." Mia told them.

"Seems a bit too much of a coincidence that Chestivaldi died within a year of Mignonette's reign and his fortune was given to two pirates." Stottlemeyer said shaking his head. Meanwhile, a tall shadow came up to the library door and listened in as Monk said,

"I agree…we'll probably need to go to the chateau just to see if we can find out anything about the Turners. Natalie, did you bring the diary with you?" Natalie nodded walking over to the table where she had left it. She picked it up and returned saying,

"Yeah, it's right here."

"Okay, so you guys discovered Mignonette's ship was attacked and then she was rescued by the Black Pearl right?" Mia asked trying to remind herself of the story.

"Right…and we wanted to wait for you to read the next part. Natalie." Monk said indicating for her to begin. Natalie turned the pages to the right passage and began to read aloud,

"My world was foggy, my vision nothing but colors and shapeless forms. I heard voices, but none of them I knew by name, and only one, a rough, sound timber of a voice brought me any comfort and security in the dire position I was in…"