Chapter One Thousand Five Hundred Sixty-Seven
11th June 1963
Mitte, Berlin
If it was not one thing, it was another.
Nancy had recently learned that the sixth film of the series that she had inadvertently started would be the last. The whole fun in the sun ethos that it had depicted was a real thing. A week spent in Italy, Greece or the South of France was a very achievable for anyone with even the slightest means and a bit of spare time. It had been to Nancy’s surprise that the films had a wide appeal to an audience that was composed of those who had come of age during the Second World War and in the following decade. That audience was moving on though as the pressures of career and family took hold. A film depicting parties on the beach and madcap adventures in Athens or Rome might as well include dragons as well because they had become almost as much of a fantasy.
Now that Nancy had resumed her role as the Press Liaison for the German Imperial Court. She had found herself working as one of the conductors in what had amounted to one of the largest circuses ever attempted. Two wedding ceremonies, a good portion of the Imperial Court of Japan, thousands of troops to be part of the event and work security, not to mention delegations from nearly every country on Earth.
As the date for the wedding drew closer, Nancy was discovering that she was getting more attention from the International Press than she would have liked. When the various Newspapers and Press Agencies had been asking just how she had ended up playing the role that she was, she deferred the question. Nancy remembered that Gia had been basically forced to quit her ambitions to become a journalist because she had become the story that no one could get past. It was easy to see just how that could happen here if instead of focusing on the marriage the focus became how a girl from a town in Washington State that few people had ever heard of, had become the public face of the German Royal family then Nancy clearly wasn’t doing her job correctly.
It was that job that played into the third issue that Nancy was having. Because she had needed to split her time between Berlin and Flensburg things had gotten complicated with her children. Sabastian was old enough to stay with Tilo, but Anna and Gretchen were being treated like luggage as Nancy had made the journey to Berlin and back. It was Tilo’s sister Inga who had made the whole situation tolerable. Because Inga didn’t have a family of her own, she positively adored her nieces and nephews. That was why she was perfectly willing to watch Nancy’s daughters while Nancy was in town.
Potsdam
She had been put in charge of coordinating medical services within the wedding party. Kiki knew that it was equivalent of getting a pat on the head, but she intended to make the most of it. That included being able to select her own people, so she had sent for the members of her old FSR team.
This afternoon when they had arrived at the Sanssouci Palace and had looked around in astonishment at the scale of preparations that were happening in the Palace and on the expansive grounds. Kiki’s reunion with Rauchbier had gone as well as could be expected. He had greeted her in the effusive manner of all dogs, and he had grown considerably larger since Kiki had seen him last. Fortunately, the one thing that Kiki may have worried about, Rauchbier’s tendency to urinate whenever he got overexcited was one that he had outgrown.
“I can’t believe that you grew up in a place like this” Mitzi said in greeting.
“When I was a child, things were a bit different” Kiki said in reply, “The bigger rooms were sealed most of the time to save the expense of heating them and there were milk cows grazing on the estate.”
Kiki remembered what it had been like during her childhood during the war and for a considerable time afterwards. All the things that she now understood were the direct result of wartime austerity. Beyond the cows and sealed off rooms there was the ration book that had been kept for her, it was archived with her father’s personal papers, but he had shown it to Kiki the previous week. They had listed her as a minor child, female and a comprehensive list of food and other items were listed for her upkeep. Liters of milk, grams of bread, sugar, oatmeal, tins of fruit and condensed soup. There were also clothes and toys listed. While Kiki remembered those items, she didn’t remember that there had been a substantial amount of news coverage surrounding the fact that the State had Kiki, along with the rest of her siblings, on the lists of wartime recipients. Kiki’s mother had made a point of keeping clippings of the newspaper articles along with the ration books.
It was then that Kiki noticed Anton elbow Valentin in the ribs and whisper something that Anton found uproarious.
“Mind telling me what you think is so funny?” Kiki asked.
Valentin gave Anton a dirty look.
“He pointed out that this is the first time that we’ve seen you in a dress” Valentin said.
Kiki considered what she was wearing. Basically, it was what she was expected to while in the Summer Residence. Not as Oberlieutenant von Preussen but as Princess Kristina.
“That reminds me, all of you are going to be in the presence of not one, but two Emperors in the coming days” Kiki said, “Along with a number of Kings, Presidents, Prime Ministers and whatnot. So, we are going to have to get some tailors to see to you.”
“What are you saying?” Ingo asked in reply.
“The full monkey suit for everyone save Rauchbier” Kiki said before she turned and started walking towards the room that served as the Palace Infirmary with Rauchbier following at her heels. She could hear the sounds of dismay behind her and she smiled.
