But Michael took her in—standing with confidence in this room of leaders, dressed in black slacks and jacket with a pink top, her hair in a loose weave.Her presence seemed to fill his senses.Since that day at the chapel where Emmanuel touched him, he knew he was changed.But how much?
Dad spoke his name, so Michael tuned in to the conversation.“—scoured the chapel archives, then together we combed through those in the Royal Records Muniment Room.In our best summation, Lord Midlands wanted to be acknowledged by the House of Blue as a descendant of King Magnus through his daughter, Wenthelen, who was never officially recognized by the Church or government, as she was born out of wedlock.Though in the documents found in the Wenthelen Chapel, she was recognized by the king as his daughter and sealed by the standing bishop of the day.”
“But never by the Crown.”PM Goodwill was studying the archives set out on the long, square-legged table.“Let me recount.In 1549, a Caspas Fickle married the illegitimate daughter of King Magnus the Third and became a nobleman.He prospered.His wife, Wenthelen, daughter of the king, had many children.The Midlands flourished.Over time, the Crown fretted over their success, and thus imposed a tax.Then descendent Bane Fickle picked a fight with the Crown, citing his own bloodline was of the Blues.”Hands locked behind his back, he returned to the rest of the circled council.“Why was the land taken in 1821?”
“He didn’t merely pick a fight.He fought back.The Midlands were being taxed an exorbitant amount,” Michael said.“You’ll see in the government tax records.The duchy drew all sorts of tradesmen and artisans, weavers, tailors and haberdashers, milliners.”Michael retrieved the first map of Ribbons Avenue from the table.“The shops were along here.Manufacturing grew north into the farmlands.”
“The records Michael uncovered,” Dad said, “showed that eighteenth century Midlands’ wealth far outweighed the rest of Lauchtenland’s GNP.High taxes were the government’s way of getting what they considered their share.They couldn’t annex any of the land because King Magnus the Third’s charter had strict and irrevocable provisions.”
“Magnus had to know how this gift and title would be perceived by the peers of his court,” the queen said.“Bestowing land and title to poor, no name, albeit industrious, Caspas Fickle, invariably put a target on his back.The charter had to be irrevocable.Such lavish gifts were typically rewarded to victors in battle or those devout to the Crown.So why grant such a thing to Caspas?Because the man married his no-name, commoner daughter.”
“Magnus gave Caspas a kingdom within the kingdom.”Indeed.The prime minister got the sum of it.
“No, Elias,” Edric said.“He gave hisdaughtera kingdom within a kingdom because she couldn’t be recognized for who she was, for who Magnus wanted her to be.”
Michael was impressed.The king consort so deftly summed up the first chapter of their story.As Finn loved to say,Mike drop.
“Yet by the late seventeenth century,” Scottie said, “Wenthelen had been blotted from the House of Blue history.”
“Save for the chapel named after her.”The queen retreated to her chair with the aid of her husband.“Get to the bottom line.Why were the Midlands confiscated?”She glanced to Michael’s father.“Antone, please ensure these letters and journals and records are added to the Muniment Room.”
Dad nodded for Michael to answer Her Majesty’s question.“The Lord Midlands’ efforts to provoke the Crown into a conversation about their Blue blood, his pamphlets, and stump speeches got him labeled as a rebel.In 1821.”Michael presented the tender document revoking the Fickles’ right to the Midlands.“King Louis the Fourth claimed Lord Midlands was treasonous and inciting sedition.The parliament and courts sided with him, thus allowing him to revoke the irrevocable charter.”
“In modern terms,” Dad added, “the Crown staged a hostile takeover.”
“So we created our own enemy, which now exhibits in MP Hamish Fickle.How much does he know?”
“Nothing, really,” Michael said.“Only that land and titles were taken, causing severe hardship, making the Fickles outcasts, and sending them into poverty.As previously stated, any documents they’d collected burned in a fire.”
The queen accepted a cup of tea from her husband.“Do we win points for the irony of making his case for him?”
“The question now is what shall we do?”This contemplative inquiry came from the prime minister.
“We fix it, of course,” the queen said, in all of her majesty.“We restore his title and hope that little popinjay can bear it with dignity.We restore the fortune stolen.Calculate the taxes levied at the higher percentage and—”
“In modern money?”Edric demanded.“It could be hundreds of millions of dollars, Catherine.”
“I’m not sure Hamish Fickle could handle that sort of windfall.”Prince John entered the conversation.“He’d go mad.”
“I’m inclined to agree with His Royal Highness.”MP Julian Dalgaard weighed in with his south Port Fressa accent.“His whole identity is wrapped up in the common man, the chap fighting for a better life, pulling himself from poverty to achievement.No, no, MP Fickle identifies as one who has worked hard and beaten the ruling class.An influx of riches will… Well, we’ve no idea what it will do to him.”
“There’s a bigger concern.He’s not earned it,” Dad said.“Her Majesty said it best when she reminded us land and titles were always given to warriors and leaders.To men of valor who served the Crown faithfully.Loyally.We cannot say those things about MP Fickle.”
“Besides marrying Magnus’s daughter, what did Caspas Fickle ever do that was noble?”The prime minister raised his teacup in expectation of an answer.
“Nothing.”The Solicitor General chimed in with his summary of the case.
“He loved Wenthelen.”Scottie’s voice was a silk thread slipping between the coarse twine of the men.“For King Magnus the Third, the man who loved his daughter was a hero.He didn’t care about her illegitimate status or that the Church and the Crown didn’t acknowledge her existence.Can you imagine not being recognized by your own people as living and breathing?Caspas brought her out of the shadows, doing what the Crown, the government, and the Church could not or would not do.He married her.He gave herhisname.Which her own father could not.He made her legitimate.Based on all I’ve learned, I believe Wenthelen lived a grand life with a man who loved her, with her many children and grandchildren.For crying out loud, they named a chapel after her.”
“There’s the document with the signature of Bishop Cross.Don’t cast stones at the Church on this one.”Lord Andrew True, senior lord for the House of Lords, injected his piece.But Scottie interrupted.
“They didn’t recognize her officially.That piece of paper is a sidebar perhaps meant for us to find all these centuries later.Look around.We’re standing in the palace with the head of every government body, talking abouther.I can only hope someone will remember me five years, ten years after I’m gone.Let alone five hundred.Wenthelen achieved something greater than what she was owed as the daughter of a king.She had her father’s love.Her husband’s love.She earned respect and a good name.If you ask me, those are the things MP Fickle is searching for—he just doesn’t know it.”
Michael grinned as Scottie’s humble passion silenced the room.As she silenced his own angst regarding his mother.
“Gentlemen, my daughter has spoken.”Queen Catherine handed Edric her cup and saucer, then rose to her feet.“We shall deal with MP Fickle in a manner worthy of Wenthelen and of this royal family.With gratitude and love.”The queen reached for the telephone on next to her chair.“Mason, please arrange a meeting for MP Fickle at his earliest convenience.Tomorrow if possible.”
* * *
