Chapter 21

York, Great Britain. April 1068

Four days after the battle, Luke sat at his desk, reading the after-action reports with his feet up and a mug of ale at hand. The 1st division had been bloodied again but had been able to pull out a victory. It saddened Luke to read General Elivina had been killed in the fighting, but she had disregarded intelligence warnings about the coming uprising. The worst part of the report was how many troops had turned against Marion.

As he finished the last report, there was a knock at his door, and Marion stepped in before he could say anything. Gabriella closed and locked the door once she came through.

“What the hell happened, general?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why did so many of my soldiers join the rebels?!?!”

“Your majesty, by my estimates, only fifteen soldiers were bought off—fifteen out of a division of twelve thousand. Even in my time, soldiers were bought off, and all sides did it. I’m surprised even more soldiers were not bought off. Sweetheart, this may surprise you, but many people in this country still don’t like you, and it would make them very happy to see you disappear.” Seeing the surprise on Marion’s face. “What, sweetheart? You must know that many people in this country, especially the nobility and clergy, hate you.”

“How long have you been hiding that from me?!?!”

“I haven’t hidden anything from you, sweetheart. Remember, I work with the general population daily, and Bard gives me an excellent panoramic view of their opinions without them knowing. Alice knows, too, sweetheart; we have always known. That’s how things always are; most people don’t want to change and resent change being shoved down their throats.”

“LUKE!! You pushed me to make all these changes! Damn you!!”

“Marion, honey. I am sorry for getting you to make all those changes without fully informing you of the context, but if these charges are not made, humanity will follow the same horrid path it did in my past.”

Gabby came up behind Marion and put her hand on Marion’s shoulder to calm her down.

“My love,” Gabriella said softly, “the changes you have instituted at Luke’s insistence will help keep what happened to me and many of your subjects from ever happening again. I was destined for a life of sexual slavery until you and Luke came into my world and rescued me. You saved countless people from the same or worse fates when you rescued me.”

“Ya, maybe. But why should it be up to me to save people from themselves?”

“Marion, you are not saving people from themselves; you are saving them from being exploited by more powerful people.”

Finally, Marion’s temper started to recede, and Luke finished sharing what he had learned from the reports. Once he finished, Marion spoke up:

“Sounds like General Jeevika will be getting some medals.”

“I plan on giving her the 1st division and the Distinguished Service Cross. The division should be here within a week, and after they settle in, I’ll announce promotions and medals. The 1st division will have to be rebuilt quickly. Guiscard’s rebellion in France succeeded much quicker than any of us thought. With his fucked up views of the world, we will be next.”

“Luke, does it ever end?”

“Do you really want me to answer that question?”

Marion sighed, “No.”

Marion went to Luke and sat on his lap as she cried softly. Every time it seemed like she was making progress, something would happen that caused her to take a step backward. As she wept, Luke rubbed her back and whispered his love for her in her ear. Eventually, Marion fell asleep, allowing Gabriella and Luke to whisper. Gabriella would need to tighten her guard because Guiscard had captured the French Treasury. Now he could hire any assassin and send them across the channel to kill Marion. Gabriella was also worried about Luke, Alice, Bard, and Pollyanna being targets. At least Luke, Alice, and Pollyanna lived in the castle, leaving only Bard’s security to worry about.

Two hours later, Marion woke up, still in Luke’s lap but now having a blanket thrown over her. She was still sad but did feel better. With Luke at her side, the army wouldn’t rebel, eliminating one way her enemies could attack her. Alice provided the medical care while Gabriella handled security. As a whole, Marion was more secure than any other European ruler.

Gabriella knew she couldn’t rest, though. Just because Marion was more secure didn’t mean she was safe. There were still assassins that might strike when Marion left the castle, or they might attack through Marion’s food. Her enemies might even be able to turn an office employee or servant to provide insider information.

By the time Marion woke up, it was the end of the day, so the group headed back to the castle. Marion wanted to go to bed early because the first prisoners from the failed rebellion would arrive the next day.

As luck would have it, Rebecca and Tomas were cutting teeth, making them fussy and keeping everyone awake. Even putting wine on their gums didn’t help much, and they had to resort to distilled liquor to relieve their pain so everyone could sleep. Luke swore one of his next projects would be to develop an effective topical painkiller.

When Marion got to her office, she was tired and cranky. It would not be a good day for the rebel prisoners. Many of the nobles already had their possessions seized on orders from General Jeevika, and they protested furiously, citing various ancient laws. Marion didn’t care; they rebelled against her and would be punished. Beornwulf of Gloucester had survived the British counterattack but was sentenced to twenty years of hard labor for rebelling. The sentences for the other nobles were just as harsh, with the lightest sentence being ten years of hard labor. All the noble’s possessions and titles were to be seized for the crown, and their families would be forced to leave Britain. The only families not forced to leave were the ones who passed information to Marion about the rebellion. Those families were left alone, and many were able to grow in wealth, not having competing noble families nearby.

The captured mercenaries were dealt with similarly; their sentences were universally seven years. After their release, they were to leave Britain forever. Sentencing the captured rebels took Marion most of the day and left her highly irritable, so when she received a message at the end of the day that Luke wanted to see her, she told the messenger to fuck off and snagged a bottle of wine on the way back to her quarters. Even Gabby couldn’t calm Marion down as she started on the wine and didn’t stop until the bottle was dry. It had been an emotional week, and Marion was exhausted, falling asleep before Luke returned from the base. When Marion woke up, it took her all day to recover from her hangover, which was made worse by Luke and Gabriella’s constant teasing.

Three days after Marion’s drinking binge, the 1st division returned to York and was given a hero’s welcome. The entire city turned out to watch as the battered remains of the division paraded in front of their queen after the cavalry commander was awarded another star and promoted to the division commander. Standing next to General Jeevika as she was promoted was her young family. Her husband was speechless at meeting the queen, while her children were quite excited and greeted Queen Marion enthusiastically. Aside from the cavalry commander, many of the surviving officers and NCOs were promoted.

Watching the parade were Philip of France and his family. They had been able to complete their journey without too much trouble. The contrast between France and Britain was so startling to Philip that he still couldn’t understand it. The British had a stable government and had crushed their rebellion again while Philip was on the run after his army refused to fight the smaller French rebellion. While the ordinary French people lived simple lives with few luxuries, most British commoners had easy access to clean water, high-quality bread, and good drink. If there were any similarities between Britain and France, Philip was at a loss to find them.

Philip’s first stop would be to see Queen Marion. As the rightful king of France, Philip assumed he could walk right into her office. Five minutes into his visit, his thinking had been corrected when the guard on Marion’s door threatened to arrest Philip. His mother pulled him back to the sofa and helped calm him down as people entered and left Marion’s office.

Finally, Philip was called, and the guard let him and his mother in to see Marion. The first thing Philip noticed was that the rumors regarding Marion’s beauty were severely understated; she was far more beautiful than anyone Philip had ever seen. The first thing his mother noticed was the hard look in Marion’s eyes and correctly assumed this was not a woman she would want to tangle with.

“Hello, I’m Marion of York, Queen of Great Britain,” said the beautiful blonde.

“King Philip of the Franks,” answered a dazed Philip

“Anne of Kyiv,” responded Anne, in the same daze that affected Philip.

Neither noticed the other woman in the room hadn’t said a word but remained standing still behind Marion.

“I’m not sure what I can do for the two of you. Guiscard has not interfered with British trade, nor has he made any threats against me. The most I can do for you, Philip, is give you and your family sanctuary.”

“I appreciate the sanctuary, your majesty, but I have to request aid in recovering the throne of France.”

“Philip, I will be blunt, I do not have the extra strength at this time to send an army to France, nor do I have a casus belli for doing so. If I gain such casus belli in the future, we can talk about restoring your throne to you, but until then, I am afraid we have no further need for discussion.”

“I see,” Philip was furious. “So, you refuse to give my cause any aid?!?!”

“That is correct. Be fortunate you and your family have sanctuary.”

Anne seeing Philip was about to do something stupid, intervened. “We thank you for sanctuary and pray for your continued health. If the situation changes, may we call on you?”

“You may. Enjoy your stay here in Britain, but I must warn you, do not under any circumstances try to influence Guiscard or anyone else against me. If you wish to see what happens to rebels, you should visit the local mines.”

“Thank you, your majesty,” Anne said, pulling Philip out before he did something they would regret.

Marion called the guards and had Philip and Anne escorted out. Once the door was closed, she turned to Gabriella;

“What do you think?”

“If I were Philip, I would do everything in my power to get Guiscard to declare war on us.”

“My thoughts exactly. Tell your agents to keep a careful eye on him. He doesn’t seem too bright and is hotheaded. It won’t surprise me if we catch him trying to provoke Guiscard against us before Christmas.”

“Guiscard is going to have his hands full trying to control his nobles, and a war against us would be the perfect way to distract them. I’ll send additional agents to France.”

Marion nodded, and Gabriella left to send messages while Marion went back to her paperwork. An hour later, Gabby walked back in with an arm around Gretchen’s shoulder.

“Look who I found! Can we keep her? Please??”

Marion looked up with a smile, “You’ll have to house-train her first.”

“Hey!!” Gretchen protested with a giggle. “I know how to use the toilet.”

In the time since Gretchen had first stayed with Marion, she had become good friends with the British monarch and her family. Anytime Gretchen needed something, her first stop was Marion’s office for advice. This time Gretchen was down, and Marion noticed;

“What’s wrong, Gretchen?”

“I got a letter from Henry yesterday telling me he thought it would be better if I stayed in Britain as his representative after our child is born.”

“Ouch!” Gabriella exclaimed

“Ya. Henry said he would continue to support me in my efforts to help him modernize the Holy Roman Empire, but he doesn’t want me to return. Ever.”

“It looks like you have a choice ahead of you, Gretchen,” started Marion. “You can stay loyal to Henry even though he doesn’t return that loyalty, or you can look elsewhere.”

“You?” Gretchen asked, looking right into Marion’s eyes.

Marion didn’t say anything, but she nodded slightly. “I need someone to help Gabriella with intelligence, and I think you might be the perfect candidate for the job. You’re smart, loyal, and have a strong drive. Plus, you speak multiple languages.”

“Wow. I don’t know what to say. Can I think about things for a day or two?”

“Of course. When you are ready, come find us. Just remember, if you come to work for me, you will have to leave Henry’s service.”

Gretchen bowed and left. After the door closed, Gabby looked at Marion.

“So, I’m not good enough for you?!?!”

“Chill, Gabby. You have your hands full with your guard duties. Remember, if anything happens to me, everything else doesn’t matter. If she agrees, we will start her off with minor stuff before slowly introducing her to the real meat of the spook world.”

Gabriella took a deep breath, “I was given this on my way back. It’s a report from France saying Guiscard declared himself king, and Philip is considered an outlaw. Anyone giving aid or comfort will have all possessions seized and their entire family executed.”

“Damn.”

“That’s not all. Guiscard has banned all Jews from his kingdom and given them one month to leave. Any caught will either convert or be burned at the stake after that time.”

“Fuck! Send a message. All French Jews are welcome here as long as they swear allegiance to Great Britain. If they want to buy land, they can check the land registry. For those with special skills, introduce them to the relevant organization.”