Emmy thought for a long time as they rode through the sunny afternoon. Surprisingly history classes seemed to only teach the bad stuff, she thought. She could remember her high school history tests well enough to remember they were usually filled with the dates of wars and assassinations, of disasters natural and made-made, of economic down-turns. Why didn’t they ever teach anything good? Was history really just about the bad? Huh, she thought, what a realization to have a hundred and fifteen years in the past. It said a lot for their society.
“Something good, something good,” she murmured, thinking. “Wow, I’m so stumped,” she admitted and gave him a rueful smile. “Sorry, I’m not much help at all. I think most of the good stuff I can think of is more along the lines of all the cool things that will be invented in the next century.”
“Ye do not allow me to be optimistic about my future, Em,” he said reproachfully, “if you cannot think of one good thing that we have to look forward to.”
“Oh, good things happen all the time!” she insisted. “They just always get outweighed by misfortune. The history of the entire world has been recorded that way. You know it’s true.”
“It is,” he confessed realizing that most events he could recall in recent history as well as the history taught at Cambridge were also those with a negative connotation.
“Inventions though,” Emmy realized aloud recalling med school classes. “There will be a lot of medical advances coming up and some very soon. There will be vaccines against polio, diphtheria, measles, mumps and chicken pox. There will be major drops in infant mortality. I mean smallpox will actually be eradicated almost world-wide!” She gave him a wide smile, pleased that she could recall something of a positive nature.
“Truly?” Connor blinked in amazement feeling a fluttering in the pit of his stomach.
“What is it?” she asked in response to his mediocre reaction.
“My mother and baby sister died from the measles when I was a young lad,” he confessed but forced a smile when her expression fell and filled with sympathy. “No, no, I’m quite all right, my love. It lifts my heart that someday that a child will not have to fear watching his mother or sister die before eyes.”
“Oh, Connor! I am so sorry!” she reached out for his hand.
“I know ye understand,” he returned recalling her story of her mother’s death. “Why have they not found a cure for the cancers yet?”
“Oh, they try,” Emmy shrugged philosophically. “Someday maybe. Who knows?”
“Indeed, who knows what the future will bring,” he grinned, “yer future, of course. We now already know what my future will bring.”
“Well, not your personal history. The guidebook was a little vague on which generations their information applied to. It didn’t mention you specifically beyond the reference to the next laird.” They had poured over her guidebook together looking for anything to indicate how his family’s personal history went forward, but only the most generalities had been mentioned.
“Well, even yer London guidebook did not delve deeply into the history of the monarchy,” he consoled since she felt so badly about not knowing more about his future. “After all, it said nothing about the queen’s death or what became of her children.”
“Edward VIII!” she announced brightly nearly startling Connor from his saddle. She stared at him snapping her fingers over and over trying to latch on to the memory forming in her mind.
“Who?” he asked.
“King of England,” she snapped her fingers again trying to pin it down. “I saw it on Biography. The king after Victoria or the one after that. Edward VIII will abdicate the throne for the love of a woman.”
Connor was taken aback and it showed on his face. “My God, ye cannot be serious! That is the most appalling thing I have ever heard of. Forsaking one’s birthright and heritage for a woman!”
“Are you kidding me?” Emmy asked in amazement unable to grasp the reason for his displeasure. “It was a big deal!”
“Of course, it was a ‘big deal’,” he agreed with a curled lip. “No one has ever done such a thing!”
“But he loved her, Connor,” she frowned not understanding his contempt. “He gave up being a king so he could marry the woman he loved. Why is that wrong?”
“Obviously she wasn’t a suitable wife for a king or they would have been allowed to wed without such a drastic event,” he deduced. “The responsibility of a king goes beyond personal wishes. This Edward had a duty to his nation and he abandons it for a pretty face!”
“I don’t think she was that pretty,” Emmy glowered at him but shook her head, puzzled. “And there was something about the Nazis in there too. But, I don’t get it, Connor.”
“Kings find love in mistresses, Emmy, if they cannot find it in marriage.”
Emmy blinked. “Wow, so adultery beats out abdication then? Because she wasn’t good enough for him?” Emmy stuck a finger out at him nearly stuttering in her agitation. “I’ll have you know the son of the current Prince of Wales is dating a commoner he met in college and his brother is dating an international nobody and…and…the Prince of Wales married his former mistress because he loved her! And almost the entire world is totally good with that!” she yelled at him.
“What’re ye so mad about?” Connor asked astounded by her outburst.
“Because, sometimes loving a nobody is okay, Connor,” she yelled, old Daisy shifting in circles as if feeling her rider’s tension. “Next thing you’re going to spout is that I’m not good enough for an earl. I’m an American nobody, you know? My father was a mechanic. He worked on cars and my grandpa was nothing more than a soldier most of his life, he spent forty years in the army. My mom was teacher. That’s it! We couldn’t even claim we had money. I am nothing more special than the average American. Is that good
