Doctor Who_ Wolfsbane - Jac Rayner [61]
Harry blurted out, But your mother murdered your fiancée!‟
George frowned. „Yes, well, I didn‟t know about all that, did I?‟
Harry was confused again. „Didn‟t you?‟
„That was rather what I was saying just then. I did not.‟
George stroked his feeble moustache. „I say, do you really think I‟d have gone about saying, “Righteo, mother, just bump off my wife-to-be to further your schemes”? I wasn‟t at all happy about that, I can tell you. Of course, mother explained and it did make perfect sense, what with me going to be king and all, but all the same, I was not entirely cock-a-hoop about the matter at first.‟
The conversation was taking rather an unexpected turn.
„You mean... you now know your mother killed your fiancée, but you didn‟t know at the time?‟
George gave an exaggerated sigh through a mouthful of ham. „Isn‟t that what I‟ve been saying?‟
Harry wanted to make sure he‟d got this. „And you don‟t care?‟
George shook his head in apparent disbelief. „Well, of course I care! She‟s been keeping all this a secret for years! I think I had a right to know what was going on.‟
This was going to be a difficult conversation. It wasn‟t as if George was a Cyberman or a Sontaran, something evil and monstrous like that. Or even a fully moustache-twirling tying-young-girls-to-railway-lines sort of villain. He was apparently a simple, hospitable chap, who just happened to be coming to everything from a completely different angle to Harry where the most annoying thing about murder was not being told about it beforehand. Harry abandoned that line of
- well, call it questioning - and went back to an earlier, bizarre, out-of-nowhere point. „You‟re going to be king? How does that work? England‟s already got a king.‟
„Ah, but not for much longer!‟ George beamed at him.
„Mother says that Edward - I won‟t call him the pretender, he doesn‟t know that I‟m supposed to be king instead - anyway, Mother says that Edward won‟t tell Mrs Simpson to go take a hike, as the Americans say, and the government will never agree to a morganatic marriage, so they‟ll need a new king.
Mother‟s been following it all very closely for months. So she decided it was the perfect time for me to claim my rightful inheritance.‟
Harry wanted to grab this infuriating man and shake him by the shoulders, but somehow managed to keep himself almost smiling. Keep him on side. Find out the plan. Because there obviously was a plan.
„Not that I‟m doubting you or anything, but - what rightful inheritance?‟ Harry asked.
George tutted at him. „You‟ve not been listening.‟
Harry hastened to clarify. „Oh, I get the whole King of England thing. I‟m just not one hundred per cent on how you‟re going to inherit it rightfully.‟
George now swivelled his eyes to the ceiling. „Well, because I‟m the son of King Arthur of course!‟
Harry boggled; couldn‟t keep the incredulity out of his voice. „King Arthur?‟
„That‟s the chappie.‟
Despite having been on friendly terms with a young man from King Arthur‟s time for a day or two now, Harry wasn‟t buying this at all. „Your father was King Arthur?‟
George signed yet again. „Well, not my earthly father, obviously. He was just - well, just Arthur Arthur. A common or garden Arthur, so to speak. But I am in every real sense, the son of the actual King Arthur, and now my time has come.‟
Harry stared. „So, are you telling me you‟ve been hanging around for a thousand-odd years waiting for someone to abdicate?‟ he asked.
„Well, I suppose you could put it like that. It‟s called reincarnation. Always thought that was something these Hari Krisha chappies with their funny singing went in for, but turns out it happens to us Englishmen too. Learn something new every day.‟
„So... you‟re the actual son of King Arthur from a thousand years ago, but reincarnated?‟
„That‟s the exact thing!‟ George beamed at Harry, his prize pupil. „And you have to admit, it‟s a bit more than a coincidence, really, me happening to be reincarnated just at the point when England needs a jolly old new king. Sort of fate type