When that time would come was anyone's guess. Maybewhen she got married? But that wasn't on the horizon any time soon. She kind of understood why many of the ancient queens didn't marry - like Queen Elizabeth I, at least outside of aDoctor Whoepisode. How exactly did a queen go on a date? Or start a relationship with someone? How would a boyfriend get his hands on a family heirloom to propose with if she controlled all of them?
They would have worried about their husbands taking over the realms, but Catherine wouldn't have that problem, so she was one up on them in that regard.
"Let's go, Kins." Issy held her hand out. "Come down to the archives with us. You can get us in while Mum finishes with the youngers."
Catherine let herself be pulled to her feet. Jake and Issy talked the whole way down about this artifact or that document. When they arrived at the double doors, she opened a hidden panel, entered her code and used her palm to open the doors. She entered the code for the doors to lock behind them. They'd be able to get out, but no one could get in without authorization.
Catherine found the history of their country intriguing, but these two and Mum were on a whole different level.
Time to see what they wanted to look at - and hope she found it interesting, too.
Where was the queen?
When he'd arrived at the palace Jake hadn't expected to have dinner with the First Family, as it were, much less have a chance to explore the archives like this.
He certainly hadn’t thought he’d actually meet the queen, but it did seem odd she hadn’t been at thefamily dinner.
Issy, as the youngest full sibling told him to call her, was giving him a much more in-depth tour than Madeleine had earlier in the day. They spent a fair bit of time looking at the portraits in the main gallery with Issy telling him stories about the ancient kings and a queen or two. Kinsey jumped in to clarify or add additional color to the stories from time to time, but for the most part she let Issy take the lead. Did she not know as much or did she just hang back because it was Issy's thing?
When they reached the last queen, Issy stared at the portrait for a long moment before saying anything.
Kinsey remained a bit further back than she had the previous ones.
"That's Mum," Issy said, her voice softer than it had been previously. "She was queen for six-and-a-half years before..." Her breath caught in her throat. "I don't remember much of it. I was only four. I do know it was a surprise to everyone, that she'd only been sick for a few days." She seemed to shake herself out of it. "I remember the first time Madeleine came over. She read me a book. I have very vague recollections of their wedding. I remember being sad, and I remember being happy to have someone else to read me books, but that's about all I remember."
"She was kind." Kinsey's wistful voice made him turn. "She was kind and compassionate and the people loved her."
"That's what I've heard. My father knew her. Not incredibly well, but well enough. They worked together some when he was here, but I know he worked with your grandfather quite a bit before he passed. He has always spoken very highly of both of them." Jake looked more closely at the painting. Something about the late queen seemed familiar in a different kind of way than he would have expected. He'd seen pictures of her from time to time, but living outside of the country, he hadn't kept up with modern royal family as much as he had been looking at theancient history of both his adopted country, Northern Santiero, and the land of his birth.
He remembered seeing photos of the new, young queen not long after her mother's passing, like the portrait from her first birthday on the throne, but nothing recent.
Before he could ask anything about the current queen, Issy moved on to one of the back rooms. "This is where Mumeleine and her staff work on new projects or restoration projects or further examinations of things we already have."
"Mumeleine?" He'd heard them use the name a couple of times throughout the evening but couldn't quite figure out where it came from.
"Madeleine isn't our biological mum," Kinsey explained from her spot leaning against the door. "But in most ways that count, she is. She's been our mum, taken care of us like a mum, loved us like a mum, and everything else like a mum. We started calling her Mummy Madeleine at one point, but eventually, it shortened to Mumeleine."
"Makes sense." Wasn't it called aportemanteauwhen you mixed two words together?
"We don't use it in public," Issy went on. "She's Madeleine to me and my older siblings. The younger ones call her Mum of course, and so do we sometimes, but she and Papa are very clear they don't want anyone to think we're trying to erase Mum from our memory or the country's memory. That's the last thing Mumeleine would want to do." She pulled a book carefully from a protective case. "This is a more recent find. It's from 1701, but we've only had it for about fifteen years. They've gone through it a lot and copied it and studied the copies, but Mum asked me to look through it carefully to see if I see or learn anything else."
She stepped back as he put the gloves on and reached under the protective shield. Carefully opening the cover, he felt a wave of awe come over him. "This is incredible." He skimmed through the table of contents. "Absolutely incredible.My dream would be to find something like this and be the first one to look through it."
"Make sure Mumeleine knows that. If they find one, she could let you help." Issy pulled her phone out of her back pocket. As she read it, she tried to hide a smile.
Jake wondered if her sister noticed and what it was all about.
"I gotta go." Issy put it back in her pocket. "Kins can help you get back where you need to go."
He turned and smiled his appreciation. "She already helped me once today. I'd be happy to accept her assistance again."
"And I'd be happy to provide assistance." She looked straight at him and smiled. "It would be a privilege."
"You say that about everything, Kinsey," Issy called over her shoulder as walked away.
"I mean it about everything," Kinesey called back, looking over her shoulder as well, her smile changing as she watched her sister walk away then turned back to him. "She loves this stuff." She pushed off her spot by the door frame and came to stand next to him, hands clasped behind her back. "I haven't read much of this one, just the bits about the different King Gileads and how all of that worked so Papa could be regent."
Jake flipped to the table of contents and skimmed until he found them in the 1600s. "Gilead I wasn't king very long," he mused. "He was young, too."
