“I don’t understand.We’re back to this Emmanuel character.”Scottie sipped from her pint, roaming her attention from Ernst to Michael, who seemed as close to her as their kiss in the secret doorway.
She could still feel his arms around her.Still taste the sweetness of his lips.
Ernst patted Michael’s shoulder.“Chapel.Find.Maybe?”Off he went toward the kitchen, stopping at every table along the way, delivering one-word greetings.
“Okay, Mick, interpretation please,” Scottie said.“What’s he talking about?What’s this Hand of God?What chapel?”
“You know Lauchtenland has three unique phenomena, right?Surely the queen has informed you.One is the eight cathedrals in Port Fressa that, when lit, form a very distinct shape of a heart.”
“Yeah, the Heart of God,” Scottie said.“I’ve seen it.Gemma showed me from the top of the palace my first Christmas.She experienced the lights firsthand when she married John.It really moved her.”
“People make pilgrimages to Port Fressa to stand in the light of the Heart of God.There’s also the Hand of God, which is here, in County Northton, at the Northton Cliffs.Centuries ago, shipwrecked sailors climbed to a carved-out hand in the sheer rock when their vessel shattered on the channel rocks during a storm.Miraculously, they survived the sea, scaled the rough rock face, and found shelter.‘The Hand of God saved us,’ they claimed.When you’re out in the channel, you can see a large, distinct hand with four fingers and a thumb.”
“Have you seen it?Can you climb up to it?”
“I have seen it though I’ve not climbed up.I believe Prince Gus and Princess Daffodil climbed the step pathway to the cleft in the rock.But does the Hand of God actually rescue people?I cannot say.Ernst believes the real Emmanuel’s hands held onto you that night.”
“How does he know?Did he see Him?”
“Ernst knows.He and Emmanuel are connected.He referenced the chapel, in the Highcrest Mountains.Maybe we’ll find Him there.”
“What chapel?Can we go?”
“The Wenthelen Chapel was built almost five hundred years ago by King Magnus the Third for his illegitimate daughter Wenthelen.It holds our third phenomenon.A filigree and glass spire called the Eye of God.”
“Am I to seek Emmanuel at this chapel named for an illegitimate daughter like me?”
“You’re not illegitimate, Scottie.”
“Only that my parents weren’t married and my mother, an unwed crown princess, could not recognize me.”
“You’re recognized now.Wenthelen has all but faded from our history.We know she was born in 1530 to Magnus and a woman named Crystobell,” Michael said.“History tells us Magnus loved her, but for political reasons, had to marry a Danish princess.Wenthelen was excluded from Family and Crown succession.Magnus had three sons and secured the House of Blue throne.”
Scottie felt a sudden warmth toward this woman from centuries past.“How has she faded from history?You don’t know what happened to her?”
“Only that she married in 1549 and had a passel of children.”
“How can you not know more about the child of a Blue king?”
“No records.If there were any, they might have been destroyed or burned in a fire.Fires were not uncommon in days of open fireplaces, thatched roofs, and wood shingle siding.Fickle’s claim that they lost records in a fire is very plausible.”
“Kate told me how the Midlands fire started.”
“Lauchtenland experienced quite a few blazes over the centuries.Hadsby’s had a couple of fires.Even Perrigwynn, but none that affected the fireproof Archive Room.”
“So she had no title?No royal life?”
“None that we know.”
“Like me?”
“Like you, well, until now.”
“Why is the spire called the Eye of God?”
“Legend says that at some moment known only to Emmanuel, the spire will light up and beam down onto a simple altar where fresh bread and wine are set out daily.The beam will illuminate the Highcrest Mountains all the way down to Hadsby.After a spire lighting, the churches and cathedrals overflow on Sunday mornings for months, even years.The Eye of God has not appeared in decades.Possibly no one alive in Lauchtenland has seen the Eye of God.”
Scottie sat back to absorb it all.“So, let’s visit this chapel.”She reached for a chip, but she was hungrier for Michael’s answer.
