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Epilogue

Constantinople, September 1071

Jennifer looked into the mirror and tried not to laugh. She turned her attention to the big television set behind her. Though she’d had the volume turned down, she could still hear the presenter’s gushing commentary on the better life that a plumber could enjoy with his family if they relocated to Thessalonica. If she focussed, she’d be able to see the reversed Greek subtitles at the bottom of the picture. “It really doesn’t matter,” she said in Greek to the weeping handmaid. “Won’t I be wearing a veil?”

“But, Your Majesty,” came the shocked reply, “it has to be just so!”

A door opened behind her, and her private secretary hurried in with a sheet of paper. “Your Majesty!” he cried after a low bow. He held up the laser printout. “Your father regrets that he and your mother are still detained in Venice by mechanical failure.”

Jennifer took a final look at her spoiled makeup and got to her feet. “Well, that doesn’t matter either,” she said firmly. “Daddy wants to be here for the reading of the Emancipation Decree. Since that won’t be for another week, it won’t hurt him to hang around for a bit. There must already be something nice to look at in Venice.”

Michael now walked in through the open door, followed by the Grand Chamberlain, who was reading out yet again from a stack of stapled sheets half an inch thick. The secretary and all the maids fell to their knees. “What is going on?” he said to Jennifer. “You were supposed to be on your throne twenty minutes ago. The Pope is muttering the most horrible things in English. The television people are in a panic. The Caliph will be very upset. All else aside, the chains I’m supposed to strike off him are heavy.”

The Chamberlain took that as his prompt. “The Commander of the Faithful will come forward three paces,” he recited. “The sultans and kings and other former tributaries will stay back for their prostrations. The Caliph will perform his at the third stroke of the gong. He will then swear allegiance and render up the Holy Places and all his realms. His Holiness of Rome will be followed, after the smallest interval, by His Holiness of Constantinople, as they….”

“Do shut up!” Michael groaned. “Much more of this, and I’ll wonder if the Caliph isn’t having a better time of the occasion.” He sat down beside Jennifer. “I was told your cheeks were still painted different colours,” he said accusingly. “You really should have let the makeup girls do the whole job themselves.” He looked at her and frowned. “But I can’t see any difference of colour.” He got up again and reached out a hand. “Come on. There are twenty thousand people waiting outside the Hall of Audience. If we keep them waiting much longer, women will start delivering babies, or whatever happens when these things go on too long.”

Jennifer let the maids tie the veil over her face. Someone else rushed in unbidden to place a gold crown on her head. Hand in hand with the Emperor, she crossed the floor, nearly tripping over a dress of silk brocade that felt as heavy and unyielding as a suit of plate armour. She let her husband push her first into the carrying chair that would take them to what everyone would have called the greatest victory ceremony since Heraclius, over four centuries earlier, had celebrated his total defeat of the Persians—or would have called, that is, if Heraclius hadn’t almost immediately lost everything again to an enemy that only the present Great Augustus had been able to crush.

“Please don’t do that!” she cried in Latin as Michael climbed in beside her.

“Now, why shouldn’t a man pinch his own wife’s bottom?” he asked grandly.

“Because I still worry that I might wake up!”

They both laughed. They were still laughing as they were carried into the glittering immensity of the Great Hall of Audience.

End Matters

Many thanks for reading my book. If you liked it, please consider taking the time to leave a review at your favourite on-line bookseller.

You may also wish to read some of the other books I have written. There are many of these, both fiction and non-fiction, and as both Sean Gabb and Richard Blake. Some of them are listed and described in the following pages.

My novels as Richard Blake are published by Hodder & Stoughton in London, and have been translated into Spanish, Italian, Greek, Slovak, Hungarian and Chinese. My other books are published by The Hampden Press. All are available in both printed and e-book editions via your favourite bookseller.

I am very active on the Internet. You can follow my doings in these places:

As Sean Gabb

http://www.seangabb.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/sean.gabb

http://libertarianalliance.wordpress.com/

http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/seangabb

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/seangabb

As Richard Blake

http://richardblake.me.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/richard.blake.7773

Acknowledgements

This book was read in beta version by:

David Davis

James Oliver Deckard

Robert Grözinger

Mario Huet

I thank them for proofing and for their general comments. The faults of this novel, of course, are entirely my own.

I also thank Christopher Bevis for his improvements to my product description.

The cover image is my own work.

From the Reviews

“Fascinating to read, very well written, an intriguing plot and I enjoyed it very much.”

Derek Jacobi, star of I Claudius and Gladiator

“Vivid characters, devious plotting and buckets of gore are enhanced by his unfamiliar choice of period. Nasty, fun and educational.”

(The Daily Telegraph)

“He knows how to deliver a fast-paced story and his grasp of the period is impressively detailed.”

(The Mail on Sunday)

“A rollicking and raunchy read… Anyone who enjoys their history with large dollops of action, sex, intrigue and, above all, fun will absolutely love this novel.”

(Historical Novels)

“As always, [his] plotting is as brilliantly devious as the mind of his sardonic and very earthy hero. This is a story of villainy that reels you in from its prosaic opening through a series of death-defying thrills and spills.”

(The Lancashire Evening Post)

“It would be hard to over-praise this extraordinary series, a near-perfect blend of historical detail and atmosphere with the plot of a conspiracy thriller, vivid characters, high philosophy and vulgar comedy.”

(The Morning Star)