1633

'Hey, Melissa-I mean… Come on. That 'civil disobedience' crap-uh, idea-I mean, it ain't gonna work in the here and now. No way!' A bit wildly, his eyes ranged toward the far door leading to the main complex of the Tower where, although they couldn't be seen, he knew Yeoman Warders were standing guard on the U.S. delegation. 'Jeez, you try chaining yourself to a gate here… They ain't gonna bother with getting a blacksmith. They'll just whack your hands off at the wrist. Laugh while you bleed to death. Mop up the blood for sausage. I mean-'

'Oh-cease and desist!' Melissa tried to accompany the admonition with a fierce frown, but failed miserably. The word 'desist' was followed immediately by a laugh.

Tom and Rita were laughing also. Gayle, sitting on a chair, was grinning.

'Whazza matter, Darryl?' she demanded. 'I think you'd look cute marching into Whitehall and sitting at the lunch counter next to the king and queen. Make your mark on history.'

Darryl glared at her. Unlike Melissa, Gayle Mason didn't intimidate him. Well, not much. Gayle was combative enough to intimidate any man who really tried to push her around, true. But she was in her mid-thirties, not nearing sixty-and, more to the point, she'd never been Darryl's schoolteacher. So his relationship with her was more that of a younger brother to an older sister.

'Very funny!' he snapped.

Melissa waved a hand weakly. 'Enough, you two. Darryl, I'm not stupid. I am quite well aware that anyone trying to emulate Mahatma Gandhi or the Reverend Martin Luther King in this day and age is guaranteed a short life.' She grimaced. 'Short and painful life. Drawn and quartered first, the rack, God knows what else.'

She moved over to the nearest window and studied the Thames. For a moment, she felt awash in a sadness as broad as the river. 'Civilized common sense,' she murmured softly to herself. 'But what does that mean, in a 'civilization' which thinks thumbscrews are a source of justice?'

Rita came over to stand next to her. The young woman seemed to understand her mood. 'It's not your fault, Melissa. I mean, really it's not.'

The concern evident in Rita's tone caused Melissa to smile. And, with the smile, her vague sorrow faded away. There was much to console her in this callous new world, after all. In the old one, as 'civilized' as it might have been, Melissa Mailey had been alone. Respected, yes; even admired, by many. But alone. She'd often thought, sometimes, that her identity began and ended with schoolmarm; radical-and, increasingly, behind her back if not to her face: spinster; no children of her own, that's why she's such a pissant.

Now… she had a lover, a husband in all but name. And, in all but name, a multitude of children.

She turned to face Rita. Especially daughters.

That thought cheered her immensely. She turned now to Gayle. 'Do you think you've made contact with Julie and Alex yet?'

Gayle shrugged. 'No way to be sure, of course, since they're only set up to receive. But I doubt it. Until they reach Scotland, Julie won't really be able to set up her radio very well. It's just an off-the-shelf Radio Shack DX-398. Hell of a nice radio, mind you, for what it is, but-' Her voice swelled with a touch of pride. 'It's nothing like the special rig I brought, or that Becky has. Even then, I'm pretty sure we're going to have to relay to Scotland through Holland.'

Melissa nodded. Gayle was one of Grantville's three 'Amateur Extra class' hams, and had played a major role in designing the radio equipment all the diplomatic missions had taken with them. She was the specialist in their party on radio, just as Jimmy Andersen-a 'General class' ham-was for Rebecca's. 'And nothing from Becky either. To be honest, I'm getting a little worried about that.'

'It's too complicated to figure out, Melissa, without knowing enough facts.' Gayle glanced at the trunk where the radio was kept out of sight. 'With this equipment, we'll be able to reach Jimmy once he gets set up in Holland, no sweat. But until he does…'

She shrugged. 'It's that freakin' Maunder Minimum. From a ham's point of view, we came to Europe at just the wrong time. Officially, it doesn't start until 1645, but in the real world it's more complicated than that. The sunspot count is already plunging-'

'Dammit, Gayle,' growled Darryl, 'I don't want to hear it again. Bad enough I gotta listen to history lectures from Melissa every day, without you gettin' in on the act. Especially the history of sunspot cycles and how they screw up-or don't, I can't remember-radio transmission!' Sullenly: 'I mean, Jesus. I had a hard enough time keeping the Roosevelts straight.'

A little chuckle went through the room. Melissa's was more prolonged than anyone's. 'You didn't, as a matter of fact.' She gave Darryl a smile that was a lot friendlier than the scowl she'd given him at the time. 'Oh, yes, I can still remember it. I'll say this, Darryl McCarthy-your answers to test questions were always, ah, unique.'

Her voice slid into a slight singsong. ' 'Teddy Roosevelt. Led the Rough Riders against the Japanese at Pearl Harbor.' '

Tom burst out laughing. 'He didn't-really?' Darryl flushed.

Melissa nodded cheerfully. 'Oh, yes. Then there was 'George III, first President of the United States.' '

Rita joined her husband's laughter. So did Gayle. Darryl's face was now bright pink.

Melissa decided to relent. Or, at least, slide off. 'But I will say, in Darryl's defense, that Harry Lefferts could always top him. I remember one test question which Harry answered: 'Abraham Lincoln. Invented the Continental for George Washington.' And then there was the little essay he wrote explaining how the ancient Greeks conquered the Romans because they were mad at the Romans for giving them all lead poisoning when Mount St. Helens erupted.'

Tom was laughing so hard now that he had to sit down before he collapsed. Gayle wasn't doing much better; neither was Rita.

Darryl, on the other hand, apparently decided he'd gone so far beyond 'embarrassment' that he might as well join the fun. So he, too, started laughing.

'Hey, ease up. Me and Harry were too busy rebuilding cars to worry about history. I mean, whaddaya really need to know beyond the fact that President Ford invented the automobile?' He frowned. 'I mean, the first President Ford, of course. Not the guy who couldn't cut it in football.'

Tom fell off the chair.

***

Outside, standing on the walkway which led from St. Thomas' Tower to the inner complex, the two Yeoman Warders on guard listened to the riotous laughter. Then, looked at each other.

'Jolly lot, I'll say that.'

His comrade nodded, smiling. 'Aye. I think the earl is worrying himself too much.' He jerked his head a little, indicating the unseen occupants. 'Hardly the sound of a new Gunpowder Plot in the making, eh?'

Silence followed, for a minute or so. Then, after glancing around, one Warder spoke in a lower tone. ' 'Tis said they're rich.'

'Said truly too. I've seen the silver meself.'

Again, a period of silence. Longer, this time. Finally, the one who'd seen the silver spoke again in a half-whisper. 'Can't see any harm in it, Andrew. Not to the king, not to us, not to anyone.'

His comrade, nodding, slid into the status of partner. 'Aye. Even split then, Will? Whichever of us is on duty?'

'Done. All the woman wants, she says-the one who showed me the silver-is to have packages brought and delivered.'

Andrew frowned. 'Small packages only.' For a moment, leaning the partisan against a shoulder, his hands made quick motions indicating the acceptable size.

'Oh, to be sure. Anything else's too risky.' Will shrugged. 'But I think that's all they want anyway. Just luxuries, you know.'

'No harm in that.'

***

'-see the harm in His Majesty's, ah, foible,' concluded Laud. The bishop of London shifted in his seat. 'So leave it alone, Thomas, it's not worth irritating the king over any longer. If it pleases Charles to think of Oliver Cromwell rotting in his dungeon instead of a grave, what of it?'

Strafford started to argue the point; then, pressed his lips shut and satisfied himself with glaring down at London from the vantage point of his chambers in Whitehall Palace.

'I suppose,' he growled, after a few seconds of silence. 'With Pym now dead-God, what possessed the man, anyway? Fighting off soldiers, at his age! What was he, fifty?'

Laud's face seemed to tighten, as if he'd bitten into a lemon. The earl had to restrain himself from laughing aloud. For the bishop, clearly enough, knowing the age of a rebellious parliamentarian was as foreign to his nature as knowing the inside of an Ottoman harem.

The momentary amusement lifted his annoyance at the king's stubbornness. 'Well, perhaps you're right. True, Hampden slipped through our fingers. But he's certainly off the island by now, and I can't really see what harm he can do us from the Continent. Oliver was-would have been-the soldier amongst them.'

'There's Monck.'

Strafford's smile was not quite a sneer. 'Ah, yes. The estimable George Monck. There's a piece of work.'

'You've spoken to him, then?'

'Two days ago. I sat him down, showed him the relevant portions of the history, and brought him to the light of reason in less than half an hour. What's the point of it all, I asked him? He'd start as a Royalist, switch sides halfway through-and then, in the end, wind up putting the Prince of Wales on the throne after Cromwell's death. So why not eliminate all the mess and confusion?'

Laud looked slightly alarmed. 'I trust you didn't-'

'Certainly not!' Strafford laughed. 'I took the book from him before he could turn the page and see that Charles the Second would reward him with a dukedom. That man is quite ambitious enough, thank you!'

Strafford's face, for a moment, looked as lemon-sour as Laud's had done. He had no chance at a dukedom, he knew full well. When all was said and done, the king depended on Strafford… but didn't like him, and never would.

' 'Duke of Albemarle,' ' muttered the earl. 'Granted a large pension and made Master of the Horse, to boot. Died of old age, rich as Croesus, in his bed. While I went to the block. So did you, not long after.'

Silence fell on the room. Both the earl and the bishop had studied the history books brought to England by Richelieu's agent, as well as the copies of pages from another brought back by the king's physician. William Harvey, that was, who had been given something of a hero's welcome when he visited the Americans at their capital