Emma smiled a bit. "Nice to meet you, Christine."

"Where am I?"

"At our camp."

"Camp?"

"Where we live. In the woods."

Christine gasped. "You're a bandit?"

"Well... to some people, yes. I'm a bandit."

"Mother used to say that bandits were bad."

"Used to?"

"She died last year", Christine said.

"Oh", Emma said. "I'm sorry." She was also confused. So at least one of those adults wasn't a parent of Christine. Who were they? "And what about your father?", she asked.

Christine shrugged. "I never met him. Mother said she wouldn't talk about him. One of our servants called it a fling."

Servants... so they were a well off family. "And who were the people you were with in the carriage?"

Christine made a face. "Stepfather and stepmother."

"Both?"

"Mother married stepfather when I was three, and about a month after she died he married stepmother."

"Only a month?"

"Well he never loved her."

"Then why did he marry her?"

"Because he wanted power."

So they had power too. "And how would marrying your mother give him power?"

"Well, she was a queen. So he became king."

"What? So you're a..."

"I'm a princess."

"Well, Christine, your stepparents are dead."

Her eyes widened. "What?"

"They died in a carriage accident. I managed to get you out."

"But that means... if they're dead... I'm finally queen!"