A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver (15 page)

“Not during his lifetime,” Eleanor agreed, “but in Heaven all things are possible … even….” Eleanor’s voice faded as she looked in the distance.

Abbot Suger, Matilda-Empress, and William the Marshal also looked. They saw three men coming toward them: one on the left, tall and gaunt, wearing a black beard, the one on the right, short and squat. King Henry II floated between them.

Henry took his first look at Eleanor in eight hundred years. He looked her over from toe to brow. Then he spoke, “Good grief, madam! One of these men says that he is a Mr. Winston Churchill and that he governed England. How can a common man govern?”

“This one did quite well, actually,” Eleanor replied.

“You mean that a common man now sits on the throne of England?”

“No, Henry. A rather plain housewife does.”

“And this one,” Henry said, pointing to the tall man with the beard, “says that he is a Mr. Abraham Lincoln and that he is an American lawyer and president. What is a president? And what in Heaven’s name is an American?”

“In Heaven’s name, Henry?” Eleanor asked. “Everything here is in Heaven’s name.”

“Now, madam,” Henry said, “don’t act
holier than thou
with me.”

“But I am
holier than thou
, Henry. I have been Up for over five hundred years.”

“Eleanor!” Henry shouted.

“Sh, sh, sh,” Eleanor answered. “There’s a lot I have to tell you.”

Abbot Suger, Matilda-Empress and William the Marshal floated away. The Messrs. Churchill and Lincoln left, too.

Then at last King Henry II of England and his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, were left alone in a corner of Heaven to catch up with eight hundred years of history.

But they will.

They have all Eternity to do it.