Summary

In Chapter 26, Bert returned to the portrait gallery. She found Leopold’s portrait. She was able to see distinct differences between Leopold and his son, Vittorio. Vittorio had the pale skin, blue eyes, and white hair of the Icemen. Bert turned her attention to the leather notebook that Vita had given her. It contained a short braid of white hair and was written in French. She recognized Leopold’s signature and realized she was holding his field notes.

Bert immediately went in search of Basil. Basil read the missing pages from Eleanor’s memoirs and said they explained some things, but he wondered if the account could be trusted. He located an article written by Justine Jeanneau, the woman who had held Bert prisoner in Nevenero. Basil pointed out that according to the article, Ludwig had believed that the Icemen were “a missing...