Chapter 1

London, England. December 1066

“I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU QUEEN MARION THE FIRST, QUEEN OF ENGLAND. LONG LIVE THE QUEEN!!”

On Christmas Day 1066 AD General Luke MacDougall stood in Westminster Abby wearing a new black dress uniform, watching his wife, Marion of York, crowned Queen of England. Standing next to him was Marion’s lover Colonel Gabriella Smiten who was pregnant and the commander of Marion’s bodyguard unit, now named the Household Guard. Dr. Alice Kensley stood at his other side. She was the head doctor in Marion’s court and Luke’s lover. All four shared the same bed every night, and the three ladies shared Luke even though Gabriella didn’t take as much advantage of him. Then there was Colonel Pollyanna Hall. She was one of Luke’s closest friends, an outstanding engineer, and commanded a regiment of army engineers while her husband, Matthew Hall, was at her side every step of the way. They met after he ran her over with his horse when he had been working for Marion’s sister Cecilia, and now he ran basic army training. The last person in the group was the youngest, Luke, and Marion’s daughter Mackenzie Lynn MacDougall. Marion had named her Mackenzie in honor of Luke’s American sister. Even though Mackenzie would only be a year old in a couple of months, she was already showing signs that she would be brilliant, very stubborn, and exceptionally beautiful. Marion was pregnant with their second child, and Gabriella was getting close to having hers. Luke was her child’s father and determined to be as much of a dad to it as he was to Mackenzie.

Marion had caused a stir when she showed up for her coronation wearing her formal evening gown, high-heeled sandals, and golden hair piled on her head. The members of the nobility in attendance were not used to a woman showing so much skin in public, and more than a few made lewd comments about the amount of skin, cleavage, and hair Marion was showing. Luke’s problem with Marion’s dress was keeping Little Luke from coming to attention, especially when he thought about the stockings she wore under the dress. The high-society women were also jealous of Marion’s jewelry. She was wearing her wedding ring and necklace Luke had made for her the year before. This year Luke had made her a pair of matching earrings. He also made earrings for Alice, Gabriella, and Pollyanna. Alice’s earrings had emeralds for the stones, as was her matching necklace. Gabriella’s earrings had rubies, just like her necklace, and Pollyanna’s earrings and necklace had diamonds. Mackenzie wouldn’t get any jewelry until she got older. Luke had made some for her but kept them in his safe. Luke had made jewelry for Pollyanna because Matt had asked him to. Matt didn’t want Pollyanna to feel left out and liked how Marion’s jewelry made her shine. Luke understood Matt’s reasoning, so he made earrings and a matching necklace for Matt to give to Pollyanna. She was thrilled to death with her present, and the day after she had gotten them, Matt was in no shape for anything that required much brain or muscle power but was smiling like an idiot, which brought him some good-natured ribbing from everyone around him.

Marion might have caused one hell of a disturbance, but she didn’t give a shit what the other people in attendance thought. The rest of the group caused as much of a stir, with half of her bodyguards being women. Her lover, Gabriella, and husband, Luke, were right by her side. People wouldn’t have been so shocked if her lover had been a man, but Marion’s lover was another woman. The presence of Marion’s bodyguards kept the talk to a minimum. Nobody in their right mind would piss one of them off; all the women in Marion’s guards wore pants just like the men, carried weapons, and knew how to use them. They were all trained in martial arts, making them the most dangerous women in the world. The entire army had been trained to MCMAP standards from Luke’s Marine days. Marion’s guards were trained in several other martial arts types that Luke had picked up during his time in the twenty-first century, so they knew how to defend themselves with a knife or bare hands.

None of the nobility had ever seen soldiers like these. When called to attention, they all moved as one and continued as one person until the “at ease” order was issued. The guards wore polished black shoes, black pants with red trim, and black jackets sporting shiny brass buttons and red trim. On their left shoulder was the flag of St. George with ENGLAND written under it in white, while their right shoulder had their unit insignia. In the case of this unit, it was the insignia for the Household Guard regiment, a Spartan shield. Their medals and ribbons were worn proudly on the left side of their chest, while on the right was their name tag. Like officer hats from Luke’s old universe, their hats were bright white with a polished black visor. All the officers in the guard unit had gold braid on their shoulders and swords clipped on their left hip. The higher the officer, the more braid they wore. All the enlisted had chevrons on their left sleeve where they stood out because they were yellow and were armed with a service rifle, bayonet, and knife. Officers also carried a revolver under their jackets. All the weapons were highly polished, meaning the bayonets and swords sent beams of colored light throughout the room.

Everyone managed to behave themselves during the ceremony even though everyone could see that Archbishop Ealdred didn’t want to perform the ceremony. He had been the one who had signed off on the witch-hunting expedition that Marion had so thoroughly humiliated earlier in the month. They had just returned to London a couple of days before Marion’s army, and three of the four had infections where Luke had shot them. The lead man was the only one who didn’t have an infection, but he had been thoroughly humiliated by Marion when she forced him to swallow Luke’s cum after it had dripped out of her pussy. To rub it in further, Marion had forced him to watch as she was crowned queen. The priest fumed the whole time and swore to do everything possible to eliminate Marion and her inner circle. It was no longer about religion but revenge.

The church hadn’t wanted to crown Marion as queen, but she didn’t give them much choice in the matter. It was either crown her queen, or she would kick them out of Britain and crown herself. Another factor that helped her was that the English bishops could thumb their noses at Pope Alexander II by crowning her queen. He had approved William’s failed invasion of England partly because he wanted more control over the English Church. Luke had wiped William’s entire army off the face of the Earth. Now the pope wouldn’t get any English money for his projects and was seen as a failure. Just what he didn’t need with the Normans in Southern Italy and Sicily. When the young Kaiser of the Holy Roman Empire was added to the mix, the pope had a mess on his hands and was in a very tight spot.

Luke watched his wife accept the crown with a sense of relief and awe. Never having seen a coronation ceremony before, the pageantry on display was breathtaking; although Marion was more spectacular, Luke’s view might have been slightly biased in that view. They were much safer now than when she was a local noble. Granted, she had been the most powerful noble in the north by the time she brought her army south, but by being queen, she could now spread her laws over all of England and most of Scotland. Additionally, Luke planned to bring the rest of Scotland under Marion’s control, hopefully by the summer.

They all enjoyed the ceremony, and it was gratifying for the group to watch their best friend and leader become queen. They had been working toward it over the last year and a half. What none of them enjoyed was the primitive conditions in London. They had been spoiled by the improved conditions in York and wanted to return home as soon as possible. When Marion finally walked out from being coronated, her officers, led by Luke, Alice, and Gabriella, formed an arch with their swords for her to walk under as she walked out of Westminster Abby. The swords reflected gold and silver in the late afternoon sunlight and were truly an impressive sight to behold.

After the ceremony, there was a party that Luke paid for and held in a temporary wood building because no building in London was large enough. Without a doubt, Luke was the wealthiest person in Britain. However, almost nobody knew that, and he wanted to keep it that way, having made his money from the rapid industrialization in Marion’s northern lands. After his businesses were up and running, he never took the spoils of war after battles but gave them to the deceased soldiers’ families. This helped Marion’s popularity because the spoils were always shared in her name, not Luke’s.

For the party, Luke had ordered several barrels of high-strength alcohol be brought down, along with wagons of ale and several barrels of wine bought from French and Flemish merchants. One of the things that Luke had done was run a simple chemical analysis of the wine before he bought them, and he was glad he did when several barrels were found to have high levels of lead. The merchants selling those barrels were permanently banned from selling anything in Marion’s territory. One thing Luke truly missed was a good whiskey; it was one of Luke’s side projects that would take time to bear fruit.

The party was a massive success, with bountiful alcohol and food to help lubricate the social skids. The music was spectacular, played by the band Marion had used for the party she threw for her soldiers. Marion was looking at hiring them to be part of a national orchestra. The first piece played had never been heard before; Luke had provided the band with the music and lyrics to “ God Save the Queen.” The cheering after the piece ended rattled the building and embarrassed Marion. At least she had learned how to control her blush for the most part, so her red cheeks were not very visible. Those close to her noticed her blush and the daggers in her eyes when she looked at Luke. Seeing her eyes, he just shrugged. She hated being embarrassed as much as he liked embarrassing her.

After everyone calmed down, the regular music started, and Marion danced around three-quarters of the songs with Luke and most of the rest with Gabriella. The few dances that she didn’t dance with Gabriella or Luke, she danced with some of the more important nobles in attendance. Marion’s dancing with Gabriella had caused the nobles in the hall to stop and look at her in shock and horror. When they saw that the guards were not reacting and Luke watching the couple dance with a warm smile, the nobles decided, without discussing it, to do nothing even though Marion caused a major scandal by dancing with Gabriella. Luke silently chuckled, knowing how scandalized the nobles would be if they saw what Gabriella and Marion did together in bed. Thinking of that caused Little Luke to start coming to attention, and Luke had to think of something fast or be in an awkward and possibly embarrassing position.

The party lasted until well into the morning, so when Luke, Marion, Gabriella, and Alice returned to the room they were staying in, they collapsed into each other’s arms. Gabriella was exhausted since her kid drained all her extra energy. Marion, Alice, and Luke were tired but not too tired yet. Since Alice would be heading back to York soon, Luke started the nightly dancing with her while Marion laid around and played with herself as she watched.

When they started sleeping together, Alice hadn’t allowed Marion to watch her and Luke make love. However, over time, Alice loosened up with her sexual views and allowed Marion to watch. This was something that Marion loved to do but was always respectful of Alice’s views. It had always made her so horny watching Luke and Gabriella, but with Gabriella being pregnant, she wasn’t in the mood for sex. She felt ugly and worthless because of her expanding belly. It didn’t matter what Luke or Marion told her; Gabriella wasn’t in the mood for sex with Luke. She still would make love to Marion, but she wasn’t nearly as energetic as she used to be.

Tonight, Alice was horny as hell. Some was the alcohol she consumed during the evening, and some was the sense of accomplishment that went along with Marion being crowned queen. Once they were in bed, Alice pinned Luke to the bed and rode him hard as she moaned. Due to the smaller bed, Marion was lying next to Luke and Alice as they did the horizontal tango. As Alice rode Luke, she looked down at Marion playing with herself and felt something wash over her. She reached down and put her hand under Marion’s to play with her clit. This surprised Marion, and as soon as she got over her shock, she reached up and started tweaking one of Alice’s rubbery pink nipples. No sooner did Marion start playing with Alice’s nipple than she let out a feral growl and started shaking as her orgasm hit. As she was cumming, her vaginal muscles tightened even more on Luke, causing him to lose his load deep inside her. He had hoped to last longer, but the visual of his wife and lover playing with each other and Alice’s hot tunnel tightening was too much for him or any mortal man. Alice collapsed on Luke’s chest, panting, but Marion wasn’t done with her yet. She moved around to where she was looking at Alice’s swollen cream-filled pussy and pulled Luke’s cock out. As Luke’s cream flowed out of Alice, Marion’s pink tongue licked it up, causing Alice to squeal before she started moaning again. Marion kept lashing Alice with her tongue as Alice began to climb higher once again. To push Alice even higher, Marion took hold of Luke’s cock and rubbed it on Alice’s clit. This did what Marion wanted, but it worked better than she thought. Alice exploded into another orgasm that knocked her out. Marion cleaned Luke’s cock off with her tongue, but she couldn’t get it inside her pussy because Alice was in the way, so she moved to where Luke’s fingers could work on her. Within minutes, Marion had her first orgasm as queen and could relax. She pulled the covers over them and fell asleep with Gabriella’s head on her shoulder and her hand cupping Gabby’s expanding breast.

When Luke and Marion woke up the following day, they were the first awake, which wasn’t unusual. Luke had to move Alice off him because she hadn’t moved all night. She groaned but quickly curled up to Gabriella and fell back to sleep. Alice slept in when she could, and Gabriella had been sleeping in recently and taking naps during the day. She couldn’t wait until after she gave birth to get back to being a bodyguard. Once they were out of the bedroom, Marion asked Luke:

“Well, how does it feel now that your wife is Queen of England?”

“Much better than if William was king. If that had happened, we would have been kicked out of England. Other than that, darling, I’m so happy for you. But to be serious, what’s going to be the first move? All this royalty stuff is new to me.”

“First thing I must do is enforce my will among the nobles, let them know I mean business, and none of their shit will be tolerated. I’m hoping our treatment of the nobles up north will convince the southern nobles to take me seriously and not argue, but I doubt they will fall in line. I figure my support from the lower classes is guaranteed, at least for now.” Luke nodded, showing his agreement. “Next, I expect to be attacked from Wales. Gabby gave me some spy reports yesterday stating that some of the nobles in Wales are looking to cause trouble. They figure that with a big part of my army up in Scotland; they will be able to take English lands. We will have to prove them wrong. Also, with the minerals in Wales, we need that land anyway. I figure Scotland will remain a thorn in my side for a while, but as you said, it’s far better to take care of them now than to let the problem fester. Especially since I have the lands, King Hardrada signed over as part of our peace treaty with him. Another thing that must happen is that this idiotic tax system must be reformed to be fair and hard to avoid. How about you? What are your plans, honey?”

“First thing is the army needs to be expanded. Remember sweetheart, Si vis pacem, para bellum; If you want peace, prepare for war. I want to finish filling in the 2 nd division and activate a 3 rd division. After that, we will have to halt army expansion. We already have the Scottish problem, and now according to your spies, we will have a Welsh problem before too long. Also, I expect some challenges from the continent, particularly the French, but also the pope, which could bring forces from the Holy Roman Empire into play. We also can’t forget about the nobles here at home. I’m willing to bet that at least some of them will rebel, and it wouldn’t surprise me to see Brittany, France, and Flanders support and encourage them. In my history, France tended to be allied with Scotland, and all indications are that France will try to ally with Scotland in this universe. Well, that is unless we can get rid of Scotland.

Next, we need to give serious thought to the navy. Since we are surrounded by water, we WILL need a strong navy to protect our shores and trade. That’s how Britain from my world came to rule the world; they controlled the sea. The fleet will need many small to medium-sized ships for patrol work instead of a few large prestige vessels, which are resource sinks. Another class of ship we’ll need is supply ships. A navy can’t project power without supplies. I would love to make marine diesel engines for the navy, but we don’t have access to many of the materials that would be needed, like rubber for the fuel lines.

All of my commercial farms will start growing rapeseed; not only will this help improve the soil during the crop rotation, but rapeseed is very high in oil content. The oil can be cooked with, used in diesel engines when they become available, or used as a machine lubricant. Instead of diesel engines, I’m going to look into building coal-fired steam engines for the ships so they can still maneuver without relying on the wind. With vessels like these, we won’t need as many to do the same job. We should build at least one shipyard near York, and building additional yards in Portsmouth, Plymouth, and London would be a good idea. By having more than one shipyard, we won’t be putting all of our eggs in one basket.

On the economic front, we need many more miles of train tracks laid and the telegraph cables strung. That means we will need a considerable amount of steel and copper. We need more steel to build the necessary tools to get the raw materials for more steel. Farmers will need planters and reapers, although the reapers can wait. Mines will need steam engines to pump the water out to expand. They will also need advanced explosives like ANFO and drills to make the holes. At least the coal gas plant in York is making several tons of ammonium nitrate a week. It’s not nearly enough, but it’s a start. I plan on using biodiesel for the fuel oil part, and while it might not be as good, it’ll work.”

“So, it’s a chicken and egg thing with the steel,” injected Marion.

“Yep,” agreed Luke before continuing. “Alice has talked about expanding her medical school, but that will take time to train more doctors. She will be increasing medicine and antibiotic production, and we will need both things with all these new people. Pollyanna wants to expand her printshop, and her company representatives are going to the monasteries and asking to borrow all their books to make copies. The originals will then be returned. Bard has settled very nicely into his CEO role, and I couldn’t be happier with him in that role. I don’t think he’s happy with his performance, but I’ll fix that later. With him running my companies, I can focus more on the military and being the best dad and husband possible.”

Since Marion had been with Luke for almost two years, she knew all about ANFO, CEOs, and everything else Luke was talking about. One of the things that she had been pushing for was more ammonium nitrate production so the farmers and mines could increase their production. Here again, the lack of steel was slowing things down. At least now, Marion didn’t have much direct military pressure on her, so more steel could go to the economy instead of the military.

Later that day, Alice, Gabriella, Pollyanna, Matt, and Mackenzie left with an escort to return to York. Alice kept a close eye on Gabriella since she was seven months pregnant. Mackenzie also required extra care because she wasn’t a year old, but her governess was with her. Pollyanna was still in a state of shock because Marion’s first official act as queen was to promote her to brigadier general and place her in charge of all the army engineers. Pollyanna Hall was now one of the few female generals in the world and, without a doubt, the best one. Formerly, Luke had been in command of the military engineers. While Pollyanna was in shock, Matt and Alice teased her about her promotion. While everyone knew Pollyanna would do an excellent job, they also knew she hadn’t wanted the promotion. Marion had some advice for Pollyanna when she promoted her, and Pollyanna complained:

“Don’t you know no good deed goes unpunished?”

Watching her friends leave, Marion felt empty. This would be the first time in a long time she would be away from Gabriella and Mackenzie, two of her favorite people in the world. At least she still had her favorite person with her; Luke. He wouldn’t leave London until she did, and they stood together to watch the group disappear into the distance. Only then did they return to the city. Standing on the banks of the Thames, Marion looked around in disgust at how filthy everything was while Luke had his arms around her.