CHAPTER 4
The exhausted couple landed at dawn before the front gate of a secluded rural estate surrounded by grassy hills. Liz made her wand sound a greeting as several dogs rushed them. Because fliers could literally drop anywhere, everyone owned guard dogs to warn them of intruders. Often, the first sign of an attack was a dog burning.
"You nervous?" William asked, surprised, given her steadiness robbing a freaking castle.
"When my father was a teenager, he fell for a peasant named Susan who won the national championship. But he couldn’t marry her because the family didn’t find her genealogy acceptable. So they had ten kids instead and she helped find other powerful quads to also have his children. Because she had his children first, and because she has enough personality for several people, everyone calls her the Matriarch. Which pisses off the queen, who everyone calls Margaret.
“The queen put my father in charge of the conquest of Ireland. After several great victories, he fell for my mother, a great Irish queen. Their marriage united northern Ireland. His plan was to sire someone who could become king of both England and Ireland, like his parents did with Scotland. Then my mother died giving birth to me.
“With grandma angry with dad, Uncle John took the stipends and estates given to my father’s families, impoverishing them. He quite literally made a few hundred of my siblings homeless. They don't blame me personally, but I can't help but remind them of their change in fortune."
"Then you must remind them of something else," William said mysteriously.
Liz turned to stare at him when a large man holding wands burst out. He touched a wand to one eye, closed the other, then yelled excitedly back to the house. A dozen people burst to give Liz hugs, all talking over each other and the dogs. A little prodigy named Emily flew into William’s arms and gave him a hug so good she could have charged for it. William could easily tell who the Matriarch was, even though she didn’t look any older than her sons. After an eternity of greetings, the group slowly made their way inside.
"This is my fiancé, William. William, this is Susan and her first-born son, Richard."
William shocked everyone by hugging the Matriarch, who intimidated most people, then shook the big guy's hand. "You are younger than I expected, your majesty."
They all laughed, since the first-born son of the Royal Heir looked like his clone.
"And you don't look like an old Mongol birk," Richard replied with a smile.
"No, I’m some other birk," William said to more laughter, winning them over. "Back home in Prussia I’m the Baron Wilhelm von Richthofen."
The news floored Liz like a banana peel. She decided to marry a guy without even knowing his real name.
"Listen, I need help. If I marry the Mongol ambassador, they’ll build military bases here to open another front against Free Europe. To stop the treaty I must marry someone else and produce a non-Mongol heir."
"Are you already pregnant?" the Matriarch asked sternly.
"No, but we’re working on it day and night," Liz replied to knowing smiles. "Father’s presence at my wedding will give it the legitimacy it needs against Prince John’s inevitable attacks. Yet we must flee England before John arrests us.”
Richard groaned, because only he could convince the prince to return to England.
"He can’t afford to come now, with the potato famine collapsing the Irish economy."
"Ask him if he’d like to borrow a ton of gold at 5% simple interest," William suggested.
One benefit of Mongols controlling an economy larger than the rest of the world’s combined was their insistence on standardizing weights, measures, and distances. A "full" coin weighs exactly 100 grams, so ten of them weigh a kilo. A thousand kilos is a ton. A "half" coin weighs 50 grams and a “quarter” coin 25 grams. Silver coins of equal weight were worth fifteen times less, and equally heavy bronze coins that much less. No one trusted non-standard coins anymore. So a ton of gold was literal, not a metaphor.
Everyone stared hard at him, especially his soon-to-be wife. "What?" he asked her with a huge smile on his face. "You thought I was poor?"
Her husband, as she already thought of him, was becoming a mystery before her eyes.
"If he isn't interested, I sure would be," Richard said eagerly. “Did Liz mention that I headed the royal treasury before John fired me? I now run Global Bank, which my great-grandfather started a century ago.”
"Bring the prince here for our wedding and I’ll loan each of you a ton of gold."
“You’re gonna loan a banker money?” The big guy laughed as he lifted his granddaughter Emily into his arms. “I feel like a baker begging for flour.”
“You’re right. Instead I’ll buy 75% of your bank for two gold tons.”
“49%,” Richard said too quickly.
William smiled. “Now that I know what it’s worth, I’ll pay three tons for 85% and double your salary.”
Liz watched her family jump up and down in excitement. Little Emily gave Liz two thumbs up.
"What's the catch?" Richard asked, because there’s always a catch.
"You have to fly a few thousand kilometers to get it. Just get one hundred quads to carry thirty kilos each."
The room erupted as the family practically kicked Richard out of his own house.
"There's something else," William yelled over the chaos. "Last night Elizabeth and I found treasure at Castle Edinburgh, so we can give the equivalent of a gold kilo to every family of Prince Richard who attends our wedding."
Which was a great way to win over the in-laws, legitimize the marriage, and add protection in case a sheriff showed up.
"We have over two hundred gold kilos?" Liz asked in shock, since she didn’t think they carried so much.
"Two hundred?" he asked, kicking himself. "You said he started one hundred families."
"Before marrying my mother, yes. Since then, he’s conquering Ireland, one female quad at a time. I can’t walk into a Global Bank branch without spending an hour just greeting relatives.”
The Matriarch put a friendly arm around him. "Not that I doubt you, Baron, but it’d help if we could record it to show the skeptics. It's a long flight for most of them."
The happy couple led the family to their secret stash in the nearby woods. What they dumped onto the grass stunned the family.
“The greedy bastards stole all this?”
“No wonder the queen has to raise taxes.”
“We need everyone in England to see this.”
"Everyone record me," the Matriarch commanded. "Lady Elizabeth and her new fiancé offer a gold kilo, or its equivalent, to Prince Richard’s families who attend their wedding the day after tomorrow.”
The adults flew off to spread the word. As soon as the last one disappeared in the sky, Liz playfully slapped William. "Why didn't you tell me you were rich?"
"I was happy you’d marry me thinking I was poor. Whenever I travel within the Empire, I check out the local dueling champion. If I'm confident I can beat him, then I bet heavily."
"Then why the hell did we rob my uncle?"
"We’ll have a hard life on the run, so I had to see how you handled adversity before swearing to spend the rest of my life with you."
"Are you really gonna spend the rest of your life with me?" she asked, eyes locked on his.
He gave her the perfect answer: "With you, only you, and with you forever.”