CHILDREN OF TIME (2025 Edition) by Michel Poulin - HTML preview

CHAPTER 16 – THE KING IS DEAD! LONG LIVE THE QUEEN!

 

15:38 (London Time)

Thursday, August 21, 1947 ‘B’

Ballroom, Buckingham Palace

London, England

Princess Margaret again forced herself to smile as she greeted another guest to her birthday party, an old aristocrat whose sole distinction was to be born of so-called noble blood. At least, some of the previous aging male guests could claim to have fought and earned honors on the battlefield, contrary to this one.

‘’Thank you for coming to my party, Lord Ascot.’’

‘’It is always a pleasure to be in your presence, Your Highness. Happy birthday to you, Your Highness!’’

‘’Thank you again, Lord Ascot.’’ replied Margaret, bowing her head politely. She let the old man walk away towards the punch table set in a corner of the palace ballroom, then watched who would show up next for her seventeenth birthday. Her father the King had insisted on making her birthday party a public affair, claiming rightly that such occasions were part of the duties of the royal family. Margaret was however tired already of having her life treated as a public commodity to be managed by a bunch of dreary, conservative royal courtiers. She didn’t mind participating in charity work or anything else that could help the people of the Empire, but she certainly minded when those courtiers told her what was or was not proper to do in her own private life. The catch was of course that, as the heir to the throne, she had next to no real private life to speak of. Her mother, Queen Elizabeth, came to her at that time and discreetly whispered to her.

‘’This is your birthday, yet you distinctly look unhappy, Margaret.’’

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‘’Does it show that much, Mother?’’

‘’For trained eyes like mine, yes! What is it?’’

‘’What is it?’’ replied Margaret, containing her frustration with difficulty. ‘’Mother, I am approaching adulthood, yet I know next to nothing of real life except for what I am permitted to do by those damn courtiers! What have these old decrepit men done to deserve the right to dictate my private life in the minutest details?’’

‘’They have served loyally the Empire and the royal family, that’s what, Margaret.’’

‘’Have they really, or have they in reality served their own ambitions and outdated preconceptions of what is right and wrong, Mother? Look at what they have done to Nancy Laplante! That woman saved our country and has brought peace to the Middle East, apart from personally saving my life, yet those courtiers allied themselves with the Church to smear her name and call her a blasphemer. They even called my own sister Elizabeth a heretic, for God’s sake! Yet, those old bastards are still employed by the palace and telling me what to do every day.’’

Queen Elizabeth waited until a new couple of guests had arrived and had introduced themselves to Margaret before answering her daughter.

‘’y dear Margaret, you will have to understand that even your father the King has little say in those political matters.’’

‘’Then what is the real worth of all our titles if they are only an empty façade used by courtiers, churchmen and politicians, Mother?’’ hissed Margaret, getting really fired up by now. ‘’You saw like me and Father the video documentary on the life of Jesus Christ published a couple of years ago by the Time Patrol. Are you saying, like those old hypocrites, that this documentary was a tissue of fabrications amounting to blasphemy, or do you like me believe it to be showing the truth?’’

Queen Elizabeth bowed her head in embarrassment then: due to her young age and fiercely independent personality, Margaret was obviously much more ready to buck the accepted official views than her.

‘’ believe it personally to be the truth, but don’t forget that your father the King is also the temporal head of the Church of England. That Time Patrol documentary has created a storm of public controversy and has shaken the doctrine of the Church to the core. The government is right now still deciding on how to react to that controversy. Until an official position is taken, we have no choice but to stay away from the debate and let the politicians do their jobs.’’

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‘’Yeah, the same politicians who listen to those old courtiers and churchmen. How balanced do you expect their eventual position to be, Mother? Are we as persons going to shun away both my own sister and a woman I admire above anyone else just because old men tell us so?’’

‘’As persons, no! As members of the royal family, we may have to do just that. We are bound to support the position of the British government and of the Church of England. Doing otherwise would disqualify us from claiming the throne. Elizabeth and Nancy Laplante will be able to attend your private party later on tonight. That was the best your father the King could arrange.’’

‘’Such hypocrisy! ”said Margaret a bit too loudly before storming away, creating confusion and dismay around the ballroom. Her mother hurried after her, catching her by one arm before she could leave the ballroom and talking in a low but severe tone to her.

‘’Where do you think that you are going, Margaret? This is an official reception in your honor. You leave now and you will not only bring scandal to your name but also to your father the King as well.’’

Caught in an intense debate of conscience but unable to willingly hurt her parents, Margaret broke up in tears, prompting her mother in hugging her.

‘’Come, my dear Margaret. You have to show some mettle now.’’

‘’Is our name really worth more than our personal convictions, Mother?’’

‘’Our names and titles belong to England, Margaret, not to us. Wipe your tears now: you have to take back your proper place.’’

Margaret didn’t tell her mother then how she was coming to hate her so-called proper place, instead drying her tears as best she could before putting up a neutral façade and going back to her previous spot near the main entrance of the ballroom.

She spent the next half hour greeting a collection of government officials, foreign diplomats and British aristocrats, including Prime Minister Attlee. Knowing very well that what she was doing was against all royal etiquette, Margaret however couldn’t stop herself from whispering an urgent question to the Prime Minister after he presented himself with his wife.

‘’Sir, please tell me if your government has taken a position yet concerning the accusations of blasphemy against my sister Elizabeth and Nancy Laplante.’’ Attlee hesitated, looked around him, then whispered back to Margaret.

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‘’The official cabinet position will be announced publicly tomorrow, Your Highness. Your father the King will however be informed privately of it by me this afternoon.’’

‘’Please, can you tell me what the position is, sir?’’

‘’I am sorry, Your Highness, but telling you before your father would be most incorrect on my part. Be patient and you shall know by supper time.’’ The Prime Minister then walked away a bit too fast to Margaret’s taste. The teenager, accustomed by now to the silent body language of officials, could only take it as an indication that she was not going to like the government’s position once she would be told of it. Now frustrated to near blowout point, she barely managed to stay civil with her official guests, throwing without realizing it a sheet of cold water over the atmosphere in the ballroom and prompting countless whispered comments and rumors around her.

As the party proper was about to begin, a royal valet brought to Margaret an envelope on a silver platter. She was about to thank the man after taking the envelope when she froze, anger flashing in her mind: the envelope bore the wax seal of the Overseer of Palestine but that seal had been broken. Signaling the valet to stay where he was, she examined more carefully the envelope and the seal. The envelope clearly was addressed to her in her name, while the seal had been broken deliberately. She threw a furious look at the valet, who stiffened.

‘’Who brought that letter, sir?’’

‘’A young boy, Your Highness. He showed up without warning at the main entrance half an hour ago and said that it was a letter from the Overseer of Palestine for you.’’

‘’The envelope was clearly addressed to me, yet the wax seal on it was broken. Who opened it?’’

‘’Uh, the King’s Principal Private Secretary, Sir Alan Lascelles, Your Highness.’’

‘’AND DOES HIS POSITION GIVE HIM THE RIGHT TO OPEN MY PRIVATE MAIL? TELL SIR LASCELLES THAT HE IS NOT TO ATTEND MY BIRTHDAY PARTY!’’

‘’Uh, yes, Your Highness.’’ said quickly the valet before retreating at a near run. Ignoring the guests now staring at her, Margaret opened the envelope and extracted a single sheet of folded paper. The text on it was written in the clear, precise handwriting of Nancy Laplante.

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Dear Princess Margaret.

I have learned about the position of the British government concerning

me which will be made public tomorrow. You may or may not have been told

about it at the time that you will read this letter but I wish that you be as prepared

for the coming events as possible. I am to be stripped of my title of Grand Dame

of the Order of the British Empire and be called publicly a blasphemer, while your

sister Elizabeth is to be branded a heretic and written off the Civil List, on top of

losing any royal title she had. While I value your friendship greatly, I cannot

attend even privately your birthday party without possibly smearing your name as

well with the same paintbrush of intolerance and ignorance that is going to do so

much damage to the relations between Great Britain and Palestine. This will be

the second time that Great Britain will disavow me after I repeatedly risked my

life for it and I cannot let this pass without reacting strongly to it. I fervently wish

that our friendship will endure despite this incoming crisis.

Your friend truly

Nancy Laplante

VC and two bars, GBE, DSO and two bars, MC, DFC

Chosen of The One

Overseer of the Holy Land of Palestine

Operations Officer of the Time Patrol

P.S. A similar letter will have been hand-delivered directly into the hands of your

father, King Georges VI, informing him as well of the expected delivery of the

letter to you. The state of my confidence in British officials has sunk to such low

depths that I am forced to use such means to communicate with you. Please

forgive me for using such methods.

Margaret’s hands started shaking with a mix of rage and sorrow, then tears came to her eyes and she started to cry openly while surrounded by her guests. Her mother, who had been attracted by the raucous with the valet, immediately rushed to her.

‘’Margaret, what’s wrong?’’

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Unable to speak, Margaret could only present her Nancy’s letter. She regained her voice as the Queen was nearly finished reading it.

‘’Sir Alan Lascelles had the gall to open it before me, Mother.’’

‘’Dear God!’’ exclaimed the Queen as she finished reading. ‘’Come! We will go see your father right away with this.’’

Both of them didn’t have to go far, as the King was himself going towards them with an alarmed expression on his face. The trio met in the Paintings Gallery, just outside of the ballroom. Margaret was about to speak when her father signaled her to hold on.

‘’Not here, Margaret! Let’s go to the Blue Lounge, where we will be able to speak in private.’’

Going to the nearby room and expelling a maid who was dusting off the furniture there, the King closed the doors carefully before facing his wife and daughter.

‘’I just received and read a letter from Nancy Laplante, delivered to me in my private office by her adopted son, Heracles. Did you get your own letter, Margaret?’’

‘’Half an hour late and already opened by Sir Lascelles, Father. Did he tell you about it already?’’

‘’No, but that won’t matter anymore: I’m firing him as of this afternoon. As for the decision of the cabinet, I still can’t believe that they reached such a stupid decision. God! My Lilibeth, to be declared a heretic!’’

‘’And what are we going to do about all this, Father?’’ asked Margaret, her voice still half choked up. The King shook his head in discouragement.

‘’I don’t know yet. I will have to talk with Prime Minister Attlee before I can take any serious decision. I am afraid however that our options are strictly limited, my poor Margaret: the parliament could vote an act calling for my beheading and I would technically be obliged to sign it.’’

‘’Well, I do have an option left to me personally.’’ said Margaret, her anger turning into resolve. ‘’I can renounce my right of succession as heir to the throne. Then let those old idiots deal with that!’’

Both of her parents stared at her with unmitigated horror.

‘’But,’’ objected the King, ‘’you are my only remaining heir, Margaret. If you renounce your right to the succession, I will be left with nobody to succeed me on the throne. It would be the end of the House of Windsor. You can’t quit!’’

‘’What about Elizabeth, Father? Are you ready to have her dragged in the mud while doing nothing?’’

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‘’No, of course not, Margaret. Let me talk to the government and the church first. In the meantime, I guess that this birthday party is quite ruined by now. Elizabeth, could you break the news gently to our guests and send them home? I am not sure that I can trust Margaret about being diplomatic with this.’’

‘’Smart move, Father!’’ replied Margaret, feeling very much a rebel right then.

 

16:53 (London Time)

Buckingham Palace

London, England

Normally, the Queen and Princess Margaret would be helping the King fill some official duty or other in or around the palace today. The times were however anything but normal. Resolved to deal with the theological controversy that was smearing his eldest daughter’s name, the King had gone to Westminster Abbey to try to reason with the leaders of the Anglican Church, leaving his wife and Margaret in Buckingham Palace. The latter two were thus reduced to waiting anxiously for the return of the King, to see if common sense had prevailed or not. The Queen was especially worried by this whole affair: the often acrimonious and highly emotional controversy was taking a heavy toll on the King, who had to defend the family name while torn by the gap between his old religious beliefs and the recent facts presented by the Time Patrol, facts which basically rendered many of those beliefs meaningless. The Queen, trying to read a book while sitting in her dressing room, looked up when someone knocked urgently on her door.

‘’Come in!’’

She was immediately alarmed by the expression of the royal valet who then entered: the man’s face was ashen. The valet then spoke with difficulty, his voice half strangled.

‘’Your Majesty, the King’s equerry just called from St-Thomas Hospital: the…the King has died of an apparent heart attack.’’

The valet then had to hurry to the Queen, who had suddenly become dizzy, having been overwhelmed by the awful news. Helping her sit back straight in her chair, he then held and patted gently her hands.

‘’Will you be alright, Your Majesty? Do you wish for me to call the palace doctor?’’

‘’N…no, no need. How did the King die?’’

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‘’He was apparently overtaken by a stroke while in the middle of a heated argument in Westminster Abbey. He was immediately rushed to St-Thomas Hospital but his death could only be confirmed on arrival there, Your Majesty.’’ Quiet sobs then overcame the Queen. She however regained control of herself after a minute or so and looked back at the valet.

‘’Does Princess Margaret know yet?’’

‘’No, Your Majesty. In fact, I came directly to you after taking the call and have not had time yet to warn anyone else of this.’’

‘’Then, go discreetly but quickly fetch Princess Margaret and escort her to here, then tell our driver to be ready to drive us.’’

‘’Right away, Your Majesty.’’

The Queen took the next few minutes to cry her grief while left alone in her dressing room. By the time that Margaret came in, her mother had mostly dried her tears. Margaret was alarmed when she saw the Queen’s eyes, red and puffy, and hurried to her.

‘’Mother, is something wrong?’’

‘’I’m afraid so, my dear Margaret. You better sit down.’’

‘’Mother, you are scaring me.’’ said the teenager while taking a chair a few paces from the Queen.

‘’Margaret, I just got some awful news: your father the King is dead. He apparently died of a heart attack while in Westminster Abbey. We are going to see his body now at St-Thomas Hospital.’’

At first, Margaret simply sat and stared at her mother, stunned by the news. Tears were next as she bowed her head and sobbed, her shoulders shaking. The Queen got up and went to her, bending down and hugging her.

‘’Come, Margaret. You will have to be brave.’’

After a couple of minutes, the young princess had calmed down somewhat and was able to accompany her mother downstairs to the main entrance, where a palace’s Rolls Royce was waiting. Still dressed in simple, informal dresses, the Queen and the Princess got in the big car, with a royal footman opening the rear left door for them. The footman then joined the driver on the front bench seat as the Queen gave a terse order.

‘’To St-Thomas Hospital!’’

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‘’Yes, Your Majesty!’’ replied the driver, not realizing yet that the Queen was now effectively the reigning monarch of England, and that until Princess Margaret would have reached 21, the age of majority.

The driver rolled out of the palace’s inner courtyard, then drove expertly through Whitehall District and across the Thames River over Westminster Bridge, escorted by a car full of royal bodyguards. The car then turned right on Embankment Road and parked right in front of St-Thomas’ main entrance, only to be set upon immediately by a small crowd of reporters and photographers.

‘’Damn!’’ exclaimed Margaret, shocked by the sight of the media men pressing around the car. ‘’How could they know already?’’

‘’If it’s bad news, these people will always know immediately, my dear Margaret.’’ replied the Queen sarcastically. She waited until half a dozen policemen had rushed in to somewhat control the crowd of reporters, then stepped out of the car after the footman had opened her door. Followed closely by Margaret and with four bodyguards as close escort, the Queen entered the hospital at a hurried step, ignoring the shouted questions from the reporters. They were met inside by the hospital’s chief administrator and by Group Captain Peter Townsend, the King’s Equerry. The Queen only gave a short order to Townsend, cutting him off.

‘’Just lead me to the King, Mister Townsend. We will talk later.’’

‘’Yes, Your Majesty. This way, please.’’

The staff and visitors they met in the hallways all bowed respectfully on the passage of the Queen and of the Princess. While keeping a closed expression, the Queen returned the bows with nods of her head, always careful to show courtesy to her subjects. Townsend finally pushed open the door of an examination room which was guarded by two government security services men in suits.

‘’The King’s body is on the examination table, Your Majesty. Do you wish to be alone for this, Your Majesty, or do you prefer that I be present?’’

‘’I will go alone with Princess Margaret. I don’t want anyone else inside until I come out.’’

‘’Understood, Your Majesty.’’

The Queen had to gently nudge Margaret to get her to move inside the room, where a human shape lay under a sheet on an examination table. She then closed the door behind her. The two women slowly approached the table, stopping a step from its side,

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near the head. The Queen steeled herself, then carefully pulled away the sheet, uncovering the head of her dead husband. Despite her self-control, she couldn’t stop tears from coming to her eyes, while Margaret started crying nearly at once. They stayed near the body for long minutes, contemplating the white face of the King. The noise of soft footsteps in their back made the Queen turn around angrily, ready to blast at the intruder. Her harsh words stuck inside her throat when she saw that the intruder was none other than her eldest daughter, Elizabeth. The young woman was wearing a gray Time Patrol uniform, with a black armband around her upper left arm. She also wore a gun belt with two pistols and an assortment of knives.

‘’Elizabeth! Thank God that you could come this fast!’’

The Queen, followed by Margaret, then hugged Elizabeth tearfully. The latter then spoke with difficulty, her voice strangled by emotion.

‘’Nancy will send tomorrow a message to our main base, informing me of Father’s death as soon as the news got to her. I then jumped space-time and came straight here to wait for you. I have been here for ten minutes already.’’ Margaret stared gravely at her older sister.

‘’Does that mean that you could have come earlier and prevent the death of our father?’’

‘’Not without splitting the timelines again, Margaret.’’ replied Elizabeth, shaking her head with deep regret. ‘’Our father was too much of a historically important figure: changing his destiny would have gravely affected this timeline.’’

‘’That’s not important now.’’ cut in the Queen. ‘’The important thing is that we are now reunited as a family to grieve our beloved King.’’

The three women were silent then, their attention back on the King’s body. The Queen finally approached the table and gave a last kiss on the King’s forehead.

‘’Goodbye, Bertie! You will be sorely missed.’’

Elizabeth also kissed the King’s forehead, with Margaret following after a short hesitation. The Queen then covered back the King’s head and headed for the door of the examination room, her two daughters behind her.

The two security service men and Group Captain Townsend nearly jumped to the ceiling when they saw Elizabeth come out with the Queen and Margaret. The Queen put a hand up, stopping their questions.

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‘’How Elizabeth got here is not important. Tell me now, Mister Townsend: how did the King die?’’

‘’Uh, I was not present when he suffered his stroke, Your Majesty. The King was discussing with the bishops of the Church of England inside the chapel of Henry VII, with the doors closed. I was waiting in the nave of Westminster Abbey, along with the King’s bodyguards. One of the bishops then came at a run, shouting that the King was ill. When we rushed in, the King was already lying on the floor and was not breathing. We tried to revive him but without success. We then called an ambulance and continued CPR until it arrived and the medics took over. The King unfortunately never came back to life.’’

‘’How long was it between the time the King collapsed and the time you rushed in, Group Captain?’’ asked Elizabeth, getting a frustrated expression from Townsend.

‘’That I can’t say for sure, as those bishops were quite panicky and did little but stand around the King. Maybe two or three minutes went by, maybe more. The bishop that alerted us didn’t run very fast.’’

‘’And did any of those bishops attempt CPR before you came in?’’

‘’No! As I said, they seemed at a loss about what to do and simply stood around, with the exception of the archbishop, who was holding the King’s hand.’’

‘’That was a big help!’’ replied Elizabeth sarcastically, obviously fuming. ‘’Father was thus very possibly brain-dead already by the time you were alerted and rushed in. You could not realistically have done better, Group Captain. There is only one thing to be done now.’’

Elizabeth then faced her mother and put one knee on the ground while bowing her head, surprising the Queen.

‘’Your Majesty, I pledge my allegiance to you. The King is dead. Long live the Queen!’’

Townsend, the security men and Margaret then imitated Elizabeth, moving the Queen deeply.

‘’Please rise, all of you! Our first and most important task now is to make sure that the King’s body is properly taken care of. Mister Townsend, could you arrange for a royal vigil to be put in place here?’’

‘’I will get on it right away, Your Majesty.’’

As the equerry walked away, the Queen looked at the senior bodyguard.

‘’Mister Harding, has the Prime Minister been informed of the King’s death?’’

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‘’Yes, Your Majesty! Group Captain Townsend called the Prime Minister after calling the palace. The Prime Minister should be on his way to here now.’’

‘’Then I will wait for his arrival here with my daughters.’’

The bodyguard nodded, then took back his post by the door of the examination room with his colleague. The Queen, on her part, invited her two daughters to sit on a visitor’s bench a little further down the hallway. She eyed quietly her two young daughters for a moment, both beautiful but so different from each other. Margaret was a small and frail but very beautiful and sensuous girl, with a thin waist, dark brown hair, lavender eyes and exquisite complexion. Her youngest daughter had always been somewhat of a rebel and a bohemian, with very real talent for music, particularly the piano. In contrast, Elizabeth, four years older than her sister, was taller and physically fit and had always been more serious and solemn about life. She would also have been dead for four years now, along with her dressing lady, following a German missile strike that had hit directly her room in Buckingham Palace in 1941. Only the secret intervention of Nancy Laplante had saved her life and that of Margaret MacDonald. The price to pay for that rescue had been Elizabeth’s exile in time, in order to preserve preordained history. Only the Imperium ‘B’ raid on Buckingham Palace in 1942 had forced the Time Patrol to reveal itself to the Great Britain of the time. Elizabeth had then reappeared a very changed teenager from the one her mother had known. Apart from being even more fit physically and being stronger, Elizabeth was by then highly educated, with advanced degrees and competences in sciences and applied technologies which contrasted with the rudimentary and very basic education she had received at the palace in her youth. She was also by then a crewmember of one of the Time Patrol fantastic scoutships and had proceeded to gain war combat experience against both the Germans, the Japanese and the Imperium ‘B’. The biggest change that the Queen had noted was however about Elizabeth’s personality. She, like other field agents of the Time Patrol, had her mind opened by Nancy Laplante to the souvenirs of her past incarnations. Elizabeth was now a young woman with over 12,000 years of accumulated life experiences to draw on, including many lives as a man. Her depth of knowledge and experience was now staggering and had only reinforced the serious, dutiful outlook to life that Elizabeth always possessed. She was also by now sexually active, something that had surprised and somewhat scandalized her mother at first. Lastly, she had become a deadly fighter, being a master archer and a swordswoman with the skill and cold-bloodedness of Diego de Monterey, the 16th Century Spanish court assassin and spy she had once been. The

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Queen looked at both her daughters as she started speaking in a low voice, so that the security services men could not hear her.

‘’My dear daughters, while the death of your father is an immense tragedy, it also leaves our family to cope with a number of pressing problems. Because you, Margaret, are only seventeen, I will legally have to act as Regent until you attain the age of majority. In a way that is a benediction, as you give me the distinct impression that you don’t want the throne of England anymore.’’

Margaret lowered her head, a sour expression on her face.

‘’How could I wish for a position I believe will force me to live a lie, Mother? To be the Queen, I will have to accept publicly the Church’s position on Jesus Christ, a position I and Father knew to be flawed. You know how religious I was before, Mother. Yet, I am intelligent and independent enough to come to the right conclusions after watching the Time Patrol documentary on the life and death of Jesus: he was a very gifted man and a Chosen but not the son of God. The Church’s intransigence on this has just cost the King his life. I am not about to reward their intolerance by parroting their lines. Besides, you should have realized by now that their position is motivated as much by their fear of seeing their revenues go down as by religious beliefs.’’

‘’What are you talking about, Margaret?’’ asked the Queen, shocked by those words. Her younger daughter answered in a resolute voice, looking her squarely in the eyes.

‘’It doesn’t take much sense of observation to see that, Mother. Church attendance has fallen sharply since the publication of the Time Patrol documentary on Jesus. So has its revenues. If that trend continues and if we as the royal family disavow their official theological position, then it could very well become irrelevant in England and eventually disappear.’’

“But, what do you expect them to do?”

‘’The Church could adopt a revised theology as suggested by Nancy Laplante, Mother.’’ answered Elizabeth firmly, cutting in. ‘’Yeshua of Nazareth’s teachings, as Nancy repeatedly said, are still valid and worthy of following. The Church could emphasize the influence and power of God through Yeshua instead of insisting on the divinity of Yeshua. It is the Church that has painted itself in a corner because of its intransigence and intolerance, not the Time Patrol or Nancy. Are you really ready to parrot the Church’s line without discussion in order to keep the throne, Mother?’’

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‘’Now, you listen up, Elizabeth…’’ started the Queen. To her surprise and that of Margaret, Elizabeth cut her off firmly and without hesitation.

‘’No, Mother! You will listen! Father just died while trying to bring some common sense to those old religious hypocrites. Are you ready to disavow him now? I certainly will not! If Margaret decides that she doesn’t want to live a lie, then I say good show to her! The England of today is based on the presumption of the separation between the Church and the State. Let’s complete that separation and abolish the rule about the monarch having to be also the secular head of the Anglican Church. We are not in the Middle Ages anymore and being called a heretic in the 20th Century reminds me too much of the damn Inquisition.’’

The Queen, shaken to the core by Elizabeth’s vehemence, gave a nearly pleading look at Margaret.

‘’And you, Margaret? Are you going to cling to that position as well?’’

‘’I will, Mother! I am not ready to blindly follow the Church’s theological position, especially not after what just happened to Father. Let the Church adapt to modern times, not the other way around.’’

The Queen was silent for a long moment, trying to think of an honorable way out of this mess. However, as much as her strict upbringing had taught her to obey and follow the established rules, she could not deny the truth in her daughters’ arguments. Realistically, there were only two options left to her right now.

The arrival of Prime Minister Clement Attlee caught the Queen as she was still pondering her position. Attlee, surrounded by security services bodyguards, saw the Queen and the two princesses and walked to them at once. He stopped near the Queen, who had got up from her bench on seeing him, and bowed to her respectfully.

‘’I am truly saddened about the death of the King, Your Majesty. May I present to you and to your two daughters my most heartfelt condolences?’’

‘’You may, Mister Prime Minister. Thank you for coming so quickly.’’

‘’It was the least I could do, Your Majesty. If you may excuse me, I would like to pay my homage to the King. I would like to speak to you afterwards, if you don’t mind, Your Majesty.’’

‘’We will wait for you, Mister Prime Minister.’’

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The Queen, along with her two daughters, didn’t miss the quick, reprobate glance Attlee gave to Elizabeth before entering the examination room. The three women then sat back, waiting for Attlee to come out.

Attlee came out four minutes later, visibly troubled, and walked to the Queen again. The Queen and her daughters rose again to greet him.

‘’Your Majesty, the death of the King and the young age of Princess Margaret dictates that you should assume temporarily the throne of England as Queen Regent until the majority of your daughter. Do you accept this heavy responsibility, Your Majesty?’’

Attlee, who was expecting only one possible answer from the Queen, was thus shocked by her answer.

‘’On one condition, Mister Prime Minister: that the government prepares quickly and puts to a vote in the Commons a constitutional amendment abolishing all links between the Throne of England and the Church of England. The death of the King should be proof enough that such an amendment is now most pertinent in the England of today.’’

‘’A…a constitutional amendment, Your Majesty? But the crown is founded on the basis of belief in the Anglican Church.’’

‘’It has been for four centuries, but it was not always so. Before, the monarch owed allegiance to the Catholic Church. Before even that, it owed no allegiance to a particular church. England has shown that it can adapt to the times. Now, it will be time for the Church to adapt.’’

‘’But…what if such an amendment cannot be passed?’’

‘’Then the government will quickly find itself with a constitutional crisis on its hands. Princess Margaret, the heir to the throne, is unwilling to accept the intransigence of the Church concerning the dispute on the true nature of Jesus Christ, a dispute that has already resulted in my daughter Elizabeth being branded a heretic. As for me, I will act as Queen Regent as long as a true effort is made to pass such a constitutional amendment and as long as I am not forced to blindly accept the words of the Anglican Church. If not, then I will abdicate as Queen and you will find the throne of England empty.’’

The Prime Minister was nearly knocked down by those words. From the expression of both the Queen and of Princess Margaret, he could see that they were dead serious

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about this. While a handful of other royals had the necessary blood line to take the throne in the place of Queen Elizabeth, he was not sure putting them on the throne would be a very popular move. Besides, the scandal that this family abdication would cause would rock the very foundations of the British Empire.

‘’But…why? Why this now?’’

‘’Why?’’ exclaimed the Queen, anger showing in her voice. ‘’Your government stripped my eldest daughter of her titles and let her be branded a heretic by the Church. It also stripped our biggest war heroine of her GBE and, now, my husband the King lies dead after trying to defend his daughter’s name. You brought this crisis on you by blindly kowtowing to the Church’s intransigence, Prime Minister Attlee!’’

‘’But your daughter and Miss Laplante have openly committed blasphemy by claiming that Jesus is not the son of God! They left no choice to the Church, Your Majesty!’’

‘’Have you even considered the possibility that what the Time Patrol is saying was true? Have you even watched the documentary produced by the Time Patrol on the life of Jesus or are you simply going on the simple assumption that everything written in the Bible is sacred and true and can never be disputed? How could you dismiss so easily a woman like Nancy Laplante after all that she has done and with all the powers she demonstrated in the last five years?’’

Attlee stiffened as the Queen rebuked him. Not having any ready reply to her arguments and questions, he bowed to her after she was finished.

‘’I will take your arguments and your request into consideration, Your Majesty. As well, I will give the necessary directives to make sure that the King’s funeral be properly arranged. Have a good evening, Your Majesty.’’

‘’Good evening to you as well, Mister Prime Minister.’’ replied the Queen in a neutral voice. She then watched Attlee leave with his bodyguards before turning to face her daughters.

‘’We won’t get firm answers from the government or the Church for at least a day or two. We might as well go to the palace now and have supper. You are coming I hope, Elizabeth?’’

‘’I will be honored to, Mother. Thank you for standing with me and Margaret on this.’’

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‘’I would have been a poor mother to let you out to dry on your own, my dear Elizabeth. Besides, I do believe that those churchmen are in need of a lesson in humility.’’

09:50 (London Time)

Saturday, August 23, 1947 ‘B’

Cardiff Castle, Wales, United Kingdom

King Stan ‘B’ longingly kissed his First Mistress Miri Goshenk and hugged his eldest son Len, both of whom had just arrived at the castle in a Time Patrol time scooter. Both however wore civilian clothes rather than their gray Time Patrol uniforms.

‘’It is nice to see you two today. You are right in time to help explain to me what this whole business about religion and the Throne of England is. I am afraid that I just can’t understand this religion nonsense.’’

‘’That’s because there is nothing to understand about religion: it’s all a bunch of lies and superstitions, Father.’’ said Len, who was by now a true expert historian, thanks to his position as Assistant Chief Historian of the Time Patrol. Miri, who had been the Chief Psychologist of the Time Patrol for five years now and who, like Len, split her time between working at the Time Patrol’s main base and living with Stan at Cardiff Castle, nodded in agreement to Len’s declaration.

‘’Len is right about that, Stan. The years spent working with the Time Patrol clearly showed me that all religions, and not only Christianity, are based on lies, myths and often pure inventions, all done by men in order to gain power, money, influence or all of those combined. Just comparing what those so-called ‘sacred books’ say with what science shows us of the Universe should be enough to disillusion any impartial person about religions. The one good thing our Imperium had for it was that it did not believe in any religion. Unfortunately, we cannot say the same about today’s Great Britain, or about most countries in the World.’’

‘’So, what is going to happen to the British Royalty now?’’ asked Stan to his son Len. ‘’Is it true that Nancy Laplante and Elizabeth Windsor could be censored by the British government because of their stance about the true nature of this Yeshua of Nazareth?’’

‘’It is, Dad. Both are officially considered blasphemers by the Church of England, while Elizabeth Windsor has the added stigma of being a heretic and apostate, since she

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was a member of the Anglican Church before. Since the sovereign of England is also the secular head of the Anglican Church, the government had little choice but to support the position of the Church on this. It is however paying an increasingly high price for this, with many in the British press and public asking how the Church could stop a young woman from attending the funeral of her own father. The British opposition, led by ex-Prime Minister Churchill, is also using this crisis to best advantage to attack the Labor Party government of Prime Minister Attlee. Another aspect of this is the threat of a constitutional crisis in England, with the widow and youngest daughter of King George threatening to abdicate over the treatment of Elizabeth Windsor by the Church. The only realistic alternative to the throne in case of a double abdication is Duke Henry of Gloucester, a brother of the deceased King, who is married and has two young sons. A remote secondary option is Princess Mary, a sister of King George, but she would clearly be a last option. The problem for the government is that Queen Elizabeth is extremely popular with the British public, which adores her for the devotion she showed to the welfare of the people during the recent war. Going against her stated wishes and humiliating her has brought much criticism on the government and on Prime Minister Attlee. You may get yourself a feeling for that as you read the British newspapers.’’

‘’I certainly will read a few of them, Son. Well, don’t worry if me and Miri are not back with you until quite late: I fully intend to use this time to enjoy myself in town with Miri.’’

‘’Well, as long as I don’t have to fish you out of the police drunk tank in the morning…’’

‘’Don’t worry, Son!’’ replied Stan, grinning. ‘’If I am to be picked up by the local police, it will be for something more serious, say aggravated assault and battery. This said, see you tomorrow, Son.’’

‘’Have fun, Dad! You too, Mother!’’

‘’Thanks, Len!’’ said Miri, kissing him on the cheek before leaving the entrance hall with her husband and climbing the main staircase towards the upper floor suites.

08:41 (Paris Time)

Sunday, September 07, 1947 ‘B’

Downtown London, England

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The air car carrying Stan, Miri and Len, arriving from Cardiff, came to a smooth, rolling landing on St-Margaret Street behind the Palace of Westminster and stopping in front of the St-Stephen’s Porch. Ex-Colonel Xitak, riding in the front passenger seat, quickly jumped out to open the door for Stan and Miri, while Len opened his own door and stepped out of the vehicle. A British protocol officer wearing a black frock coat and top hat hurried to them with a list in his hands and bowed respectfully in front of Stan, who officially wore the title of ‘Marquess of Cardiff’, to then calling him by his ex-title of ‘King’.

‘’Welcome to this royal funeral procession, Your Majesty. If you will follow me, I will show you your place in the procession.’’

Stan didn’t say a word then, simply following the British official up the lineup of carriages parked along the rear façade of the Palace of Westminster while exchanging salutes and courtesies with the dignitaries they passed in front of. The official soon stopped besides an open horse carriage made of polished wood and brass.

‘’This is the carriage reserved for you and your family, Your Majesty. You are right behind the French delegation. The coffin of our poor King will be carried out of Westminster Hall at nine thirty precisely. It will then be pulled on a Royal Navy gun carriage to Paddington Railway Station, where it will be put on a special train to Eton Railway Station, along with you and the other dignitaries. More carriages will be waiting for you in Eton, to bring you to the St-Georges Chapel of Windsor Castle, where King George the Sixth will be buried. Do you have any questions about the ceremony, Your Majesty?’’

‘’I have one, my good man. I see that there are places for four in this carriage and that we are only three. I would like to invite another head of state to ride with me during the procession.’’

The British protocol officer paled as if Stan had proffered a blasphemy.

‘’But, Your Majesty, that would throw the order of precedence in disarray. Who did you have in mind, Your Majesty?’’

‘’The Overseer of the Holy Land of Palestine.’’ said Stan calmly, making the British recoil and hesitate.

‘’Your Majesty, that is impossible! Miss Laplante is too far down the precedence list to allow such a change. She in fact had been banned from attending this procession until yesterday, after the Queen insisted on having her allowed to participate, along with ex-Princess Elizabeth.’’

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‘’Then, contact the chief protocol officer right now, because I intend to have her beside me during the procession. If she can’t ride in my carriage, then I will want to ride in her carriage.’’

‘’I…I will see what can be done, Your Majesty.’’ said the official, near panic, before hurrying away. Stan looked with little sympathy at the man, then faced his son Len.

‘’I’m going to find Nancy Laplante and talk with her. If that man comes back in the meantime, direct him towards me, Len. Will you come with me, Miri?’’

‘’Of course, my dear Stan!’’ replied Miri, smiling, before taking the arm offered by her husband and walking slowly down the line of carriages. They soon found Nancy Laplante talking with a small group of foreign dignitaries near the end of the line. She wore her silvery Time Patrol parade uniform, along with a wide silver sash passed over her right shoulder which supported both her numerous medals and a sword in its silver scabbard. She also wore a gold tiara on her head and a large, gold necklace that looked like an official jewel. Nancy smiled with happiness when she saw Stan and Miri and hugged both of them.

‘’I have to say that you and Miri are truly resplendent this morning, my dear Stan.’’

‘’And you look impressive yourself, Nancy.’’

‘’Thank you, Your Majesty. May I present you General De Gaulle, President of France, Prime Minister Jawal Nehru of India, King Abdullah of Transjordan and Prince Franz Josef II of Liechtenstein.’’

Stan had to stop himself from asking where and what the hell was Liechtenstein. Instead, he shook hands with the four men around Nancy, while Miri kissed them on the cheek. Nancy went on as Stan was shaking hands with Prince Franz Josef, a relatively young aristocrat in frock coat and top hat.

‘’I actually am assigned to ride in the same carriage as Prince Franz Josef.’’

‘’Maybe, maybe not.’’ said Stan seriously. ‘’I just asked a British protocol officer to change your position so that you could ride in my carriage.’’ Nancy gave him a surprised look, then smiled to Stan.

‘’That is a gesture I greatly appreciate, Stan. I will be honored to ride with you…if the British let me.’’

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‘’The British government acted foolishly in this, Nancy.’’ cut in General De Gaulle, visibly irritated by the subject. ‘’To show such pettiness on such a sad and solemn occasion…’’

‘’I agree with you, General.’’ seconded Jawal Nehru. ‘’The Overseer has been acting as peace mediator in a number of present conflicts, including the one concerning the Kashmir. She should be recognized like the World-class peacemaker she is instead of being snubbed like today.’’

‘’May I ask what the conflict in this…Kashmir is about, Prime Minister?’’ asked Miri out of pure curiosity. Nehru smiled good-naturedly while discreetly admiring the statuesque First Mistress.

‘’Since my country is a protagonist in that conflict, Miss Laplante may be a less biased person to tell you about it. Nancy?’’

‘’With pleasure, Prime Minister.’’ replied Nancy, then looking at Stan and Miri. ‘’To make a long story short, India has won two years ago its official independence from Great Britain after close to 150 years of British rule. That however immediately sparked horrible ethnic and religious riots between the Hindus and Muslims in India. The Muslims insisted on having their own state, even if that meant the mass relocation of millions of people from both faiths. That state, which is known as Pakistan, is now at war with the Indian Union over the territory of Kashmir. I have been trying for months now to bring peace back to the Indian sub-continent, unfortunately with little success. The depth of hatred and distrust between the Muslims and the Hindus is very great and dates back from many centuries. I am however still hoping to make a difference.’’

‘’You have already made quite a difference, miss.’’ protested Nehru. ‘’Don’t sell yourself short on this.’’

‘’How bad is that conflict?’’ asked Miri after a hesitation. Nancy sighed in apparent sorrow and discouragement.

‘’Over 300,000 people have died already in the ethnic clashes and in the fighting around the Kashmir. Many more will die before things can cool down. The main problem I hit there is the same as here: religious intolerance.’’

‘’Religion...again!’’ said Stan with a gesture of irritation. ‘’Up to now, I have heard little to commend it to me.’’

Len then approached them, leading a British official dressed in a uniform seemingly covered with gold braid.

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‘’Father, this is the Lord Earl Marshal, who is responsible for the protocol during this funeral.’’

The gray-haired man saluted Stan, who saluted back, then cleared his voice.

‘’Your Majesty, I was just informed of your desire to have the Overseer of Palestine travel in your carriage instead of in the one originally allotted to her. I however am afraid that this is not possible, as it would disturb gravely the order of precedence of the funeral procession. The Overseer will have to ride in the last carriage, Your Majesty.’’

Stan gave the man a dark look. He never had been fond of protocol but adding political hypocrisy to it only made it worst in his eyes. His voice was frosty and cut like a blade then.

‘’Lord Earl Marshal, could you tell me how you could justify on protocol grounds putting dead last a head of state who is more powerful and controls more population than half of the guests preceding her? How could you put a queen behind countesses and even ladies-in-waiting in a procession? I, along with my First Mistress and my son, share the Overseer’s beliefs concerning Jesus Christ. Does that mean that I could be snubbed as well and relegated to the tail of the procession? The Overseer and I came here to pay our respects to a worthy monarch, not to be used like political pawns by your Church. Either she moves to my carriage or I will ride in her carriage, sir.’’ The Earl Marshal, completely taken aback by Stan’s firmness, could only pale and stutter as he tried to find a polite answer to Stan’s challenge.

‘’But, Your Majesty, that carriage is too small for all of you!’’ Stan’s glare then hardened noticeably in a way that Len knew meant that he had just taken an irrevocable decision.

‘’Then I and my First Mistress will walk behind that carriage with the Overseer, Lord Earl Marshal! Tell your Prime Minister that this display of pettiness has

disappointed me greatly. Don’t bother changing the procession order now: I have chosen my definitive place for this event. Be assured that this reflects in no way on my deep respect for the memory of King George the Sixth.’’

General De Gaulle then stepped forward as the Earl Marshal, suddenly sweating, was about to turn around and walk away.

‘’I will walk with the Overseer and King Stan as well, Lord Earl Marshal.’’

‘’I will do the same as well.’’ added King Abdullah of Transjordan, closely followed by Prime Minister Nehru. Now nearly apoplectic, the Earl Marshal all but ran

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away, entering the Palace of Westminster by the St-Stephen’s Porch. Nancy looked around at the others close to her, gratefulness in her eyes.

‘’I must thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support, my friends. I will never forget this.’’

‘’You helped all of us in our respective times of need, Nancy.’’ replied softly De Gaulle. ‘’It is only just that we pay you back the favor.’’

‘’Still, thank you again, all of you.’’

‘’Now that this is taken care of, how about telling us more about this conflict in Kashmir?’’ said casually Stan while smiling. ‘’I am afraid that I need a quick lesson in the politics of this time period.’’

‘’I will be pleased to help you in that, Your Majesty.’’ replied Nancy, also smiling.

Nancy then spent the next forty minutes discussing the international political situation with Stan as they waited for the funeral ceremony to start. During that time, no less than eleven other heads of states or monarchs came one by one to her, both to pledge their support to her and to walk with her. Stan watched all this unfold while listening to Nancy, who truly impressed him with her vast political knowledge and wisdom. Most of the newcomers to their group were from countries which owed her either their freedom from German or Japanese occupation, or their independence from the old European colonial powers. Stan saw from the corner of one eye the Earl Marshal watching their growing group with increasing dismay. That man however didn’t come to them to try to restore order to his now severely disturbed precious list of precedence. The journalists and photographers present around the Palace of

Westminster were however quick enough to smell a juicy story in the making and took copious pictures of the group assembled around Nancy. More pictures were taken when Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret, accompanied by the former Princess Elizabeth, briefly came to Nancy and her group to thank her for coming, then returned to the head of the procession. A bit after nine O’clock, the dignitaries and the military escort were lined up on both sides of St-Stephen’s Porch by the Earl Marshal. At nine thirty, the casket of King George the Sixth was carried out of Westminster Hall at a slow, solemn step, with a military band playing the royal anthem and the dignitaries and soldiers either saluting or presenting arms or swords. It was then put on top of the Royal Navy gun carriage which would transport it to Paddington Railway Station. All the dignitaries got in their carriages at that point, all except for Nancy and her supporters, who lined up on

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foot behind the last carriage. Forming up in a frontage of five persons, with Nancy in the center of the front rank, the group of dignitaries on foot started following at a slow march the procession of carriages. Behind Nancy’s group was a large crowd of people on foot which represented the lower British classes of guests to the funeral. There was also an army of photographers following the funeral procession, with most of them concentrating on taking pictures of Nancy and of her allies and followers. Others took pictures of the empty carriages which had been meant to carry those now walking with Nancy. While the media coverage of the funerals kept a very respectful tone about the dead King George VI, the same could not be said about the opinions expressed around the World about the pettiness and vindictiveness shown that day by the British government and the Church of England.

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