******Jack******
The moment she left the memory her thoughts came rushing in to bombard me from all sides. I rebuilt my walls as solidly as I could, knowing that the link she had created would still let her rushing thoughts trickle in.
“I understand your concern My Lord, but the queen was quite insistent in her last communique.” The youngest member of the Royal family said to me, returning me to the matter at hand. “Her Majesty, and the rest of the Chamber of Lords, has decided that it is time for the English to stop sitting on the sidelines and throw our full weight into the conflict at hand. The Queen has decided it is time to formally acknowledge your connection to the throne and be damned with the rest of the world. Your fight is ours, as it should have been all along. The UA has gone too far beyond the scope of the Geneva conventions to allow us to turn a blind eye to their criminal actions any more. This latest victory of yours clearly shows us what they think they can get away with and we are going to let them know we will stand for it no more.”
“Thank you Jasper, and please call me Jack, you know very well that the titles your family has heaped upon me have never sat well with me. I would appreciate it if you would convey my regards, and also my thanks, to your grandmother the next time you speak with her, but the Marine detachment you wish to foist upon me is as unnecessary as it is appreciated. My men can protect me just as well as the Royal Marines can.” I replied.
“She said you would say something like that. Which is why she has attached two of her elite guards to the Royal Marines stationed around the world with the rest of our family.” Jasper replied, emphasizing the word “our” to make his point clear. “She said if you won’t accept a full detachment as is your right, then you will accept two of her guards as is her right to show our support of you. And you can convey your regards yourself when she arrives in three hours.”
“She is coming here?” completely taken aback. “Who in their right mind thought it was a good idea to let her risk a trip like that at her age, let alone in this political climate? Please tell me that she hasn’t gone public with her decision to ally herself with us yet at least. The last thing I need on my conscience is to know that I was the cause of the death of the Queen.”
“Yes she will be arriving soon and you know very well that when she gets it in her mind to do something, no army on earth can make her change it. The alliance has yet to be made public and the decision has been kept eyes only until it could be finalized. We were only waiting on making contact with you to make it public. Once she is safely ensconced back in London, the announcement will be made and our forces will be mobilized. So, no comment on the two guards? Good, I knew you’d see reason Uncle Jack.” The little bugger finished smiling devilishly at me.
“No, no argument there, I know when to fold em. Now, great, great, great, grand nephew, my passenger has awoken and is surely wondering where I am. If you don’t mind, I would like to return to the hangar bay and let my people know we will be hanging around a bit longer than expected and check in on the prisoners.”
“Absolutely Uncle, and I do believe you forgot a few ‘greats’ in there. I also believe I would like to join you. I heard Michael was supposed to be on this mission of yours, and I am greatly looking forward to meeting the legend in person.”
“I’m afraid I may have to disappoint you there.” I said as I began retracing my steps to the hangar bay.
“Michael was in charge of the other plane we commandeered, and they were to make their way home by a different route.” I saw the look of disappoint flash briefly in the young man’s eyes. “There is however, someone else I think you would like to meet. Hopefully he is feeling well enough after his ordeal.”
The eight stony faced soldiers who fell into step behind us proudly bore the Royal Marine coat of arms, a crowned rampant guardant lion facing off against an unchained unicorn with a pair of crossed swords between. Two of them, I knew, would also have a variation of my own personal coat of arms: two couchant regardant lions in silhouette behind a single crowned rampant guardant lion. At one time, any piece of clothing I owned had this crest meticulously hand sewn into it by my personal servant, no matter how many times I told him not to. As I was dwelling on thoughts of my long dead servant, and his annoying habit of choosing which of my orders he would actually obey, another thought intruded.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
*Why did you need a coat of arms in the first place?* Sarah asked.
*I didn’t.* I replied sighing to myself, *I guess I’m going to have to get used to having no privacy in my thoughts until I can extricate you from them. I never wanted a coat of arms, but William insisted that if I were to be one of his noblemen, I needed to actually look the part. Coat of arms and all that nobility entailed.*
*A nobleman? How did you become a nobleman? I thought nobility was only conferred upon birth. And why did I never hear of a Lord Jack L’Ombres in my history books?*
*Typically you would be right, but William was in a new position of power and he needed to replace the nobles he had conquered with men he trusted. Who else but his shadow should he choose? He married me to one of his Earl’s widows. You’ve never read my name in any of your history books because it has been one of the most closely held secrets of the English monarchy for over 900 years. Every mention of it has been meticulously wiped out of existence not only by me but by every English king and queen since my benefactor, William I, passed my secret on to his successor. There were a few times in there I had to reacquaint myself with the ruling family to continue the tradition as the succession was not as easy as simply passing from mother or father to child. It was especially hairy there around the time of Henry VI.*
*You were married? To someone you’d never met before just because he told you to?* she asked me, dumbfounded.
*I just told you one of the biggest secrets of the western world from the past thousand years and all you got out of it was that I entered into an arranged marriage, which by the way, was the most common type of marriage in those days, because my king told me to? For your information, I had met her before he decided to tell me he was going to marry me to her. Granted he’d set me up to meet her, completely unbeknownst to me, before telling me his intentions.* An image of the beautiful bright eyed young Countess rose up in my memory and I took a moment to get lost in the memory of the first time I had met my first wife while I walked down the bare passageways of the carrier with Prince Jasper.
I knew Sarah was in the memory with me so I decided to give her a little background information as my younger self walked into the ballroom of the Chateau de Falaise a step behind and to the right of the newly crowned King of England. *We had just returned from England two weeks before, just a few short months after Williams’ lightning conquest of the country. William hosted a ball to thank his supporters for backing his claim to the throne. As the personal advisor and bodyguard to the new King of England and the Duke of Normandy, it was natural for him to assume I would be by his side all night. So he used his rank and my presence to work me into every conversation he had with every eligible woman of rank.* the memory moved on in fast forward as I sped through the myriad conversations we had that were utterly meaningless drivel and flattery.
*Where are you right now Jack? I mean on this ship.*
*On my way, reach out across the link a ways and you can see where I am too. Just don’t put a lot into it, you only need so much, everything else is wasted energy* I continued to walk through the ship with Jasper, my attention divided between my course and the memory I was sharing with Sarah.
The night in the memory wore on, people came and left, but one of the later arrivals had caught my/Jack’s attention as she entered. *It wasn’t because she was particularly beautiful, but the fact that she had arrived alone, unescorted in an extremely male dominated society, with her head high, facing every other person in the room with the pride and dignity of her position.* My memory wore on with my gaze returning to the woman all through the night until William made a beeline to her as if he had just realized she were in the room. *In hindsight that’s probably what happened. I have often believed that William hadn’t known she’d been there for hours. I mean, he was paying me handsomely to know who was who and keep them all from killing him, so he wouldn’t have to worry about those trifling details like when someone arrived at a gala.*
The sight of the king barreling through the crowd towards her made the men and women around her scatter to different tables. As a commoner, I was not able to follow at the same speed. Just because I was his advisor, would not protect me from one of the visiting nobles if I were to “jostle” them in the same manner as William. As I walked up, her full attention was on me, and as I stopped she snapped her attention back to the king.
“It has been far too long Will,” she said with familiarity and then nodded. “I believe I might be inclined to agree with you. Perhaps we should go on a ride tomorrow to discuss it further though?”
*Then came the opening line he had used with all of the single women that night.* I thought to Sarah.
“My dear let me introduce my advisor and bodyguard, Jack” as he takes a step to his side angling to include me into the conversation.
*You gotta admit it though, having the King of England as your wingman is pretty much as good as it gets, even if it is obvious to all.* The laugh that burst across the link was so genuine, I could tell she had actually laughed out loud, so I sent the image I had of her just sitting somewhere in a crowded hangar laughing while everyone looked at her in confusion and continued what they were doing. As an afterthought, I added a cartoony bubble above her head that read LOL. A combination of letters I hadn’t used on anything in 975 years. *What is this woman doing to me?* I thought to myself trying to keep the question from slipping across, and probably failing.