Chapter 21

October 29, 1925 P.D. Protector's Palace Spaceport Thursday, two days until the wedding

That morning, Rachel let out a breath when she signed out for leave. It was two days until she said "I do" and she felt as jumpy as a sand frog. However, she had people to meet at the spaceport, so she needed to be about it.

Ben, his wives, Jeanette, Rachel, and Matt stood in the terminal adjacent the cordoned-off landing pad and watched the heavily guarded pinnace make its landing. The hatch opened, and six uniformed personnel from the Queen's Own disembarked and looked about the area. Next, Colonel Shemais and a plain-clothed security officer disembarked. Finally, Queen Elizabeth disembarked, with Ariel in her arms, and she smiled when she saw the Mayhews in the terminal. She waved at the photographers and reporters on the other side of the cordoned area and headed to the terminal. Inside, Ben bowed over her hand and placed a genteel kiss on top of it. Matt bowed, and the women neatly performed a neat curtsy. Hipper and Ariel exchanged the usual 'cat greetings.

"Ben, Katherine, Elaine, it's so good to see you," Elizabeth said and smiled at Rachel. "The last time I saw you was in an auditorium at the academy. I wish you the best in your career, and I'm pleased to be here for your wedding."

"Thank you, your majesty."

Elizabeth smiled at Matt, who wasn't sure of what to do, so he bowed again.

"This must be Matthew, the groom. I'm pleased to meet you as well," Elizabeth said.

"Welcome to Grayson. Thank you for coming all this way for our wedding, your majesty," Matt said.

#

After lunch, Rachel and Matt headed back to the spaceport to greet friends who were arriving. Angela and Zack Mayfair, Athena, Theresa Meadows, Max Riley, and Diego Elizondo arranged to travel to Grayson together. Rachel and Matt watched their shuttle land at the pad and techs scurry about to attach the landing gear and umbilicals. The hatch opened and a few people disembarked, and then their friends were seen. They looked about the landing pad and spaceport and caught sight of Rachel and Matt waving to them from the terminal.

"There they are!" Theresa said and the group headed to the terminal.

Once inside the terminal, a group hug and handshakes were shared.

"It's damned good to see you two, well three, again," Diego said and shook Hipper's extended foot.

"Thank all of you for coming all this way, it means a lot to us," Matt stated.

Angela shrugged. "What else did we have to do?"

"Aside from helping to rebuild a space station, you mean?" Matt asked and the travelers were directed to their baggage pick up.

"Where's the best place to stay?" Theresa asked.

"I've taken the liberty of arranging a place for you, so that you don't have to spend a lot of money on a hotel," Rachel offered.

"I'll take it," Max said and they laughed.

"It's the old armsman barracks on the palace grounds," Rachel said, "and the rooms are bigger than hotel rooms. While not as fancy as a hotel room-"

"Stop, we'll take it," Angela chuckled. "We're newlywed ensigns looking to save a dollar, or austin, anywhere we can," Rachel said.

"I've also reserved a table for us tonight at Dempsey's in Harrington, and you can see our new home, if that's all right," Rachel said.

"Sounds fun!" Theresa said.

#

Rachel's friends wanted to give her parents their respects and to thank them for use of the armsman barracks. Rachel led them through the home's east entrance and arrived at the living room.

"Dad? You remember my friends?" Rachel asked.

They all greeted him with a bow, and he smiled.

"It's grand to see all of you. I trust your trip went well?" he asked.

"Yes, m'lord," Diego replied.

"Thank you, m'lord, for your hospitality," Angela said.

The visitors were shocked when they saw the Queen enter the library from the far door, and they recovered to come to attention and deeply bow.

"Elizabeth, I present the friends of the happy couple," Ben said.

"I'm pleased to see that you were granted leave," Elizabeth stated of the group.

"I'm pleased too," Rachel said and gave Angela a quick side-armed hug. "Dad, we're going to Harrington City. Need anything while I'm there?"

"No, you all have fun," he returned.

#

In a palace lorry, the friends chatted and Nate said, "Please let me know if I need to adjust the climate control."

"All right, thanks Nate," Rachel replied.

"You really could have taken, I dunno, ten seconds to say that the queen was there," Angela noted.

"Yeah, in your home," Max added.

"I thought you knew," Rachel replied.

"How would we know that?" Diego asked. "She didn't clear her travel plans with us!"

The group laughed.

"Dad wouldn't hear of her staying anywhere else. The palace is safest for her; no hotel can beat the safety of the palace, and he thought it would be more comfortable for her," Rachel explained.

"That makes sense," Theresa said.

"One tries," Rachel quipped, as her dad often said.

Angela and Zack recounted their marriage ceremony, and they all told interesting and amusing stories about their snotty cruises.

"Wait, we haven't seen your ear," Angela requested.

Rachel rolled her eyes and moved her hair from her ear so they could see.

"Did it hurt much?" Max asked.

"That's the weird part. Everything happened so fast, and I didn't feel it when it happened. I saw Nate hurt," she took a breath, "and then I saw Spacer Emmons hurt; Robert said for me to look to myself and then I felt everything."

"So that's why you wear your hair over your ears now," Angela said.

Matt squeezed her hand and Hipper nudged her ear with his nose. She could be self-conscious about it, but Matt reassured her that no one would notice her ear unless they deliberately looked at her ear. Why would someone be focused on your ear? he had asked.

"You have no reason to be embarrassed," Diego said. "It happened while you were in action."

"While the rest of us had normal, boring cruises, you were getting shot at on space stations and having dinner with planetary presidents," Max pointed out.

Matt's uni-link rang and he answered it.

"I'm on my way, something came up at school and I had to take care of it. Dempsey's right?" Lew asked.

Matt nodded. "Yep, the gang's all here and we're about ten minutes out from Harrington City…everyone, say hi to Lew."

"Hi Lew!" they chorused.

"When did they arrive?"

"This afternoon, after lunch."

"All right, the shuttle just pulled into Austin City, I'll be there shortly," Lew said.

#

The lorry pulled up the manor's drive and the group spilled from the vehicle.

"Nice," Diego and Max chorused.

"Shall we?" Rachel asked and Max opened the door.

Inside, the group fell silent at the simple splendor of the place.

"You've got a pool table right here!" Max exclaimed and the men went straight for the table.

Gillian Myerson came from the dining room and greeted the group.

"Will your guests want refreshments? Shall Ms. Brown prepare something to eat?"

"No, Gillian, we just wanted to show them the place, we're still going to Dempseys," Rachel said.

"Yes, m'lady, enjoy your evening."

Angela chortled. "You have staff, for your manor."

"It's going to take me a while to get used to that," Matt admitted.

"It's just with our schedules, there's no way we can take care of a home this big without help," Rachel explained.

Angela linked arms with Rachel and propelled her to the stairs. "Is upstairs as fantastic as down here?"

"Come and see," Rachel suggested.

Upstairs, Angel and Theresa loved the master bedroom.

"This is like a haven for you," Theresa said.

"That's what we were going for," Rachel replied.

"No one sleeps here?" Angela asked.

"Not yet, but we'll be breaking it in Saturday night," Rachel said lightly and wiggled her eyebrows at her friends.

"That's a huge bed, you two better use all of it," Angela advised, barely able to keep a straight face.

"No worries there," Rachel confirmed and tightened a corner of the bedspread.

"Should we be expecting a pregnancy announcement any time soon?" Theresa inquired.

Rachel shook her head. "No, it's going to be just us for a while. We agreed that it would be a good idea for him to get through his first year of medical school without the distraction of a pregnancy and baby."

"What about you and Rand?" Angela asked.

"He, uh…broke up with me two weeks ago," Theresa said softly, fiddling with the hem of her jacket.

She quickly wiped a tear that fell, and her friend's arms rested on her shoulders. Her silent tears turned into a full-blown sobbing fit and they held her as she let it out.

"Hey, what's happened here?" Diego asked from the door.

"I'm sorry to be the wet blanket," Theresa sniffed and wiped the final tears that fell.

"You're not a wet blanket…a pillowcase or doily maybe, but not the blanket," Max said.

Theresa chuckled. "Thanks, I always wanted to be known as a wet doily."

"There, that's better. I know you two were together for a long time, but if that blind idiot couldn't see the fantastic woman he had right in front of him, then weep for his stupidity," Max stated matter-of-factly.

Matt stepped forward and handed her a handkerchief.

"You know, this is the only planet that I know of where men carry these and give them to women in distress," Theresa stated.

"I think they do it on Anderman too," Matt said kindly.

#

After Dempsey's, the group of friends left Harrington for the return to Austin City.

"Any good spots for afterhours entertainment in Austin City?" Diego asked.

Rachel spoke. "Well, there's Randleman's. We're going there for dinner after the rehearsal. We have Starlight Billiards and Dance, the big location. Half the steadings have a Starlight, but the original one is in Austin City."

"There's a baseball game tonight," Matt noted.

Rachel snapped her fingers. "The cathedral has a community center that holds a bingo game every Tuesday and Thursday night-"

She looked at her chrono. "That's closed."

"What's bingo?" Max and Diego chorused.

Matt explained. "Well, it's a game where you have a card with a top row of letters, with vertical columns of numbers. The caller has a basket with little balls that have the numbers and letters on them. The caller picks a ball, and if your card has that letter and number, you mark it. When you fill in a row or column, you call out bingo."

"So it's a game of chance?" Diego asked.

Matt and Rachel nodded.

"And a lot of people play this?"

"Oh yeah, hundreds at a time," Matt said. "My mom plays every Tuesday."

"What does the winner get?" Angela asked.

Rachel shrugged. "A money prize, usually. Sometimes the prize is tickets to a show, ball game, or restaurant dinner vouchers."

"It's Thursday night though, so a lot of people will be glued to their HD viewers for their weekly dose of stupidity called As Grayson Turns," Matt complained.

"Mom Elaine is one of them; she went to high school with one of the actresses," Rachel added.

"Is it like Into the Fire?" Theresa asked.

"Worse," Rachel and Matt chorused.

#

At the palace, Matt came into the living room, bowed to the Queen, and addressed Ben.

"Sir, Rachel said that you have a bingo game?" he asked.

Ben chuckled. "Where did that come up in conversation?"

"Our friends wanted to know about Austin City night life, it came up," Matt explained.

"Lawrence?" Ben called out.

The boy peeked his head out of the recreation room down the hallway.

"Can you get the bingo bin? Our visitors want to play," Ben requested.

The boy disappeared and a minute later returned with game and the Mayhew kids.

"Can we play too?" Bella asked.

"Only if it's all right with Rachel and her friends, don't pester them," Katherine stated.

"What's bingo?" Elizabeth asked.

Bella hopped and raised her hand.

"Go ahead," Ben said, relieved that the girl didn't speak out of turn. She was learning!

"You have to match the letter and numbers on your card to the letters and numbers on the little balls," the girl explained.

From the bin, Ben held up a game card and two little balls with B and 2 on them.

"Ah, I see," Elizabeth replied.

#

Matt returned to the barracks with the bingo bin and Mayhew kids. His friends had discovered the dart board in the rec room.

"We need this for the house," Zack said and watched Diego toss a dart.

Rachel was on her uni-link with Grace, arranging drinks and snacks. She saw her siblings and looked to Matt. He shrugged and held up his hands.

"Your mom said only if it's all right with you," he stated.

Rachel shrugged and looked questioningly at her friends.

"I've never played, can you sit next to me to help?" Theresa asked Bella.

The girl nodded shyly and smiled.

"Can I be the caller?" Bernie asked.

"I'll help Mr. Zondo," Lawrence stated.

Diego grinned at his new name.

"It's Elizondo, Lawrence," Rachel corrected.

"I dunno, Zondo has a nice ring to it," he said and winked at the boy.

"Do you know the rest of our names?" Angela asked.

Lawrence nodded. "You're Mr. and Mrs. Mayfair. Then there's Ms. Meadows, Mr. Riley, and Lew…because he said I can call him that. Dad says we have to call people by their last names until they tell us not to."

"Good memory," Theresa said.

Bernie spoke. "Dad says 'cause I'm gonna be Protector, and Lawrence is gonna be the Steadholder, we have to be polite and remember people's names."

The cats were on the wet bar, watching Rachel help set up the ball basket for Bernie. He held on to the base of the basket and spun the handle, causing the balls to spin and hop in the basket. The 'cats were fascinated.

"Okay, all the cards have the same letters, but not all the same numbers," Bella explained to Theresa. "Bernie's going to pick a letter and number ball from basket, then you see if your card has it. If you do, put this on the number," she said and held up a small plastic dot.

"Got it," Theresa said.

"Ready?" Bernie asked, spun the basket, and plucked one from it.

"I..16," he announced.

Everyone looked at their cards and the barracks doors opened. Jeanette walked in and smiled at everyone, but her gaze lingered on Lew.

"Got room for one more?" she asked.

#

(I'm going to show my age, so here goes: regarding the programme As Grayson Turns, think of the eighties evening TV dramas Dallas, Falcon's Crest and Knot's Landing.)