Chapter One Thousand Nine Hundred Thirty-Three
6th September 1969
Mitte, Berlin
The plan had been to meet Helene and Gerta for breakfast at a place Helene knew in the center of Berlin. Unfortunately, Gerta had been called away at the last minute because a young Film Maker had asked for her financial backing for a project that he was working on and it was something that she was excited about. She had told that Kat and Helene that she needed to attend the pitch meeting and that she was sending her love.
“A Western set in Outer Space that is based on a Japanese film?” Kat asked when Helene told her the details. “That had got to be the most Gerta-like thing that Gerta has decided to involve herself with.”
“She said that it sounds like it will be a lot of fun” Helene replied, “You know that is how she decides what she works on.”
Kat smiled and said, “As flighty as Gerta can be at times, she does have good instincts about what will or will not work as entertainment.”
“In the past, yes” Helene said, “But this sounds pretty ambitious and Science-Fiction is not exactly known for having a wide audience.”
“There was that Stanley Kubrick film last year, the one with the monkeys and Jupiter” Kat said before taking a sit of her tea.
“I thought you said you fell asleep partway through that one?” Helene asked.
“Doug said that it was good” Kat replied, as if that answered everything.
Helene just shook her head in response. As if she would have expected any other answer from Kat, a few hours away from the people who were constantly making demands of her time must have been like paradise. Of course, Kat had fallen asleep, that was just a given.
“What’s it like having the children back?” Helene asked, changing the subject.
“Josefine, Tatiana, and Malcolm are all attending University, so they don’t have time to cause too much trouble” Kat said, “Marie made it back from Canada in time, though that was the result of poor planning on my part and Sophie is now at the same school which is an adjustment for both of them.”
That was something that Helene didn’t understand about Kat. She apparently liked to have a big, noisy household. That had included several girls who were not her own who she had welcomed into the family with open arms. Helene figured that she would be slowly driven insane if she had to live with that.
“Marie presents a bit of a problem though” Kat continued, “Since she got back from Canada, she has been full of questions.”
“How is that different from normal?” Helene asked.
“Marie has always been inquisitive, but she is asking the right questions this time” Kat replied, “When she reaches a conclusion, Marie might try to act on it and that poses a serious problem.”
That caused Helene to give Kat a somewhat bewildered look. She didn’t seem to realize that the terms she had just used to describe her daughter could have applied her countless times in the past.
London, England
In the back of Elizabeth’s mind, this was something that she had never thought that she would live to see. Her oldest daughter, Alberta, being fitted for a wedding dress. It wasn’t that Alberta was necessarily hideous or totally antisocial, it was that with all her insecurities and foibles there was a serious question as to whether or not she would end up as the family’s Maiden Aunt, a recluse, or both. The years she had spent as the designated heir had not been easy Alberta, especially when it seemed like the entire country had been hung up on how plain she was as she had entered adolescence. She had been terrified at the prospect of inheriting the throne. Now though, she was marrying Michael of Bohemia and didn’t seem to put out by the implications of that. However, there was a large difference between being Queen of the British Commonwealth and that of a small Kingdom in Eastern Europe like Bohemia. Of course, the people in Bohemia she had interacted with seemed to like her which meant a lot to Alberta.
Oddly, it had been that moment when Alberta had walked in on Michael upbraiding William that she had realized that she had made the right choice. She had seen exactly the sort of husband and father that Michael would be. He had given the boy a well-deserved tongue lashing and made him stand in the corner staring at the walls for several hours but had not raised a hand in anger. None of that was a surprise, Michael was a product of a Prussian military education and William had no idea of the sort of bullet he had dodged. If Michael were the stereotypical “Hun” then William would still be feeling the sort of thrashing that he would have received. That had also been when the subject of Michael’s original plans for the weekend had come up, plans that had been ruined by the presence of William. Not the most romantic of marriage proposals, but perfectly in keeping with who Michael and Alberta were.
It wasn’t that Elizabeth was thrilled with how William was turning out. Despite her and Philip’s best efforts, their son had swiftly learned the art of behaving very differently when he knew he was being watched. Philip had reacted in wry amusement when he learned what had happened. “About time” was all he said about Alberta, which seemed to be everyone else’s reaction and when he was told about what had happened to William he had said “What did he think was going to happen.”