“To a damp, cold cellar?”Kate said, reaching for her reading glasses.“Who would approve such a thing?”
“King Louis the Fourth.”
Scottie took up the story.“Michael has spent three days with his dad digging into historical records, documenting a claim made by MP Fickle.Did the House of Blue steal from the Fickles?”
Kate peered at Scottie, then Michael, over the rim of her eyeglasses.“Out with it, Cross.What did you discover?”
“The House of Blue revoked the Midlands from the Fickles.But they were given the duchy with all rights and corresponding titles.”
“Impossible.”Kate sat back, hands folded on her lap, her queenly nature emerging.“How has MP Fickle convinced you of this web of lies?”
“It’s true, Kate.”From her rucksack, Scottie produced the portrait of Wenthelen.“Let’s start here.”
“Wenthelen.Stars above, where did you find this?”Kate carefully held the frame in her hands.
“In the chapel cellar.Tucked behind some large leather-bound books.”
“She’s so beautiful.I’ve only seen a pencil sketching of her in history books.She was beloved for her charity and kindness.”Kate dusted lint from the corner of the frame.“We must put this in the Royal Art Museum.Who is the artist?”
“We don’t know,” Michael said.“But we think it was painted in the early sixteen hundreds.The style is a mix of rococo and early Baroque.”
“What does Wenthelen have to do with the claim of the Fickles?And don’t look at each other like you’re afraid to tell me.”
“We don’t have to recap the history of Magnus the Third’s political marriage to Margarite, Princess of Denmark.”
“We do not.”Kate regarded Michael then Scottie.“My father reminded me of this story when he refused to let me marry your father.Magnus the Third was a great and beloved king, he said, and if he could find happiness, then so could I.”She motioned for Michael to pass over another book.“Magnus built the chapel for her before he died.She was an example to us all of Christian piety and love for others.I know she married, but there’s where the story ends.”
Michael directed Kate to the marriage decree.“Look at the names, ma’am, and the endowed gift from Magnus.”
“The rocky land of the Midlands,” Kate said, leaning closer to the documents.“She married a Fickle?Why is none of this known in the royal records?”
“It was,” Michael said.“Before the lands were taken.Then the records were moved.”
“Well.”Kate sighed and slowly pushed to her feet.“I’m not sure what to think or believe but I feel as if I’ve known this my whole life.If not my whole life, since Hamish Fickle arrived on the scene.So a Blue ancestor married a Fickle?What was his name?”
“Caspas, styled as the Duke of Midlands.”Michael pointed to the spot on the decree where Magnus conferred the title, but Kate was not looking.
“Go on,” she said.
“Between the marriage and gift of land to the family, they prospered.The land had minerals and gemstones.They became farmers and experts in textiles from access to natural resources and the port.In the late seventeen hundreds, King Titus the Tenth imposed heavy taxes on the Midlands near the end of his reign, sort of an in-country tariff.”He handed Kate a delicately preserved newspaper.“The Fickles became vocal about taxes and the monarchy for fifty years, all the way to King Louis the Fourth.He tried to broker a trade deal with Germany, but the Lord Midlands, a Bane Fickle, undercut him by negotiating a private and better deal for his own ducal territory, the Midlands.King Louis declared the act to be treason and took the land by royal decree in 1821.”
Michael produced several more documents.“My father and I tracked down these documents.”
“These were all in the chapel cellar?”In Scottie’s eyes, Kate seemed to wither a bit.
“Most, yes, ma’am.From what we can tell,” Michael said.“The Midlands were prospering, and the duke took a bold step.”He produced his phone with a snapshot of another preserved newspaper page.“This was too fragile to bring, but you can see the Lord Midlands, in 1820, pronounced himself part of the Crown through his great-great-grandmother, Wenthelen.”
“An illegitimate child would’ve never been in line to the throne.Even now.”Kate glanced at Scottie, then quickly away.
If she’d been born from a legal marriage, she’d be the crown princess, the heir to the Lauchtenland throne instead of O’Shay Shirts.But they never talked about it.
“That’s true, ma’am, but the law for succession from a legal marriage was not enacted until 1588.Wenthelen was born in 1530.”
“Then if Magnus wanted her to be his heir—”
“It seems my ancestor”—Michael swiped to another photo—“Wilhelm Cross was the presiding priest over the argument for the rights and sacrament of marriage, and that all legal heirs to the throne must come from a wedded union.”
“Goodness.I feel as if I’m following a spy movie.Does MP Fickle know all of this?”Kate sat, clearly weary, handing back Michael’s phone, then taking up the white cloth to turn the pages of the record book.
