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"Perfectly all right May I present another goddess of goodness and light?" He urged forward the quiet, dark-skinned wo in my life, Braxtyn of Canterbury, my beloved wife"

"My lady," Braxtyn said in her melodic voice, "you are most welcome to our hoives me the headache to attempt to make poetry ofpractice of " She eyed her spouse "At once"

"I live but to please you, " Geoffrey held up hands esture of surrender "And the only manner in which to continue would be to co Beautiful they ave Michael an aht" She clasped hands with the suzerain’s wife, hesitating again as she looked down at the contrast between their skins

Braxtyn’s full cheeks di hooman of the islands came to be Darkyn, Geoffrey’s father purchased irl He put me to work in his kitchens, and eventually I became cook Fortunately for "

"All of this is Braxtyn’s fault," the suzerain said, gesturing around them "I became a Templar only because we fell in love but could not marry I released her from servitude before I took my vows, you know, but the damn woman didn’t want her freedom Then I returned frofor me with open arms"

"Someone had to look after you," his wife chided To Alex she said, "He becalean h he always dreadfully distorted everything they told hied for the lies and immorality he published with his tales"

"That was all the doing of Arundel," Geoffrey said, and glanced at Alex "He was the archbishop of Canterbury He despised attacks on the clergy, and refor He tried twice in one day to have me killed in Greenwich"

"Really" Alex frowned, and Michael took pity, leaned forward, and murmured the French version of Geoffrey’s surname As soon as he did, her expression cleared "Oh, so you’re that Geoffrey" She put her hands on her hips "They h school"

"Who said Americans had no taste?" The suzerain adjusted the frill at the end of his sleeve "My published work relish literature ever written"

"Sure, if you can read that Middle English stuff," Alex said "I couldn’t have understood half the words without the e"

Geoffrey sniffed "’Tis tragic how our noble language has deteriorated over the centuries"

The suzerain finished the formal introductions between his men and Michael’s while Alexandra answered Braxtyn’s questions about their journey and her first impressions of London

"I daresay Thirty St Mary Avenue was that building you describe as a striped rocket ship--we call it ’the Gherkin’--but I cannot recall a structure that reseress with a blue rooftop," Braxtyn said

"I think Lady Alexandra means the Imperial War Museum," Geoffrey put in "Before it stored the weapons of e, it housed much more violent occupants In those days it was called the Bethlehem Royal Hospital for the Insane"

Alex’s eyebrows rose "It was a mental hospital?"

"An asylum--the most notorious in our country’s history, I fear," Braxtyn admitted "You would know it as Bedlam" She offered Alex her arm "Come Let me take you to your roo the delights of Madame Tussauds"

"Nonsense, everyone loves the orks," Geoffrey called after theuillotine in the Chamber Live now There’s a wonderful exhibit on Vlad the Impaler, whoGuy Fawkes being hung, drawn, and quartered a hundred times a day?"

"That is precisely why," Michael heard Braxtyn say, "I never per"