The Historical Comfort Society

Chapter 3

3.

I sat gazing out of the massive window in my apartment waiting for Elenor to come and fetch me. It was time. Time for me to learn where I would be going and spend the next several weeks of my life. River had been taken the day before, Becca the day before that, tomorrow I suppose Gavin would be taken, but this particular day was my turn.

The routine would always be the same. I would be summoned and escorted to the most secure floors of the HCS where I would spend my last few days preparing for my journey. It would be where I learned who my contact in the past was, whom I was to provide comfort to, and what exactly my mission would be. It is all confusing now to think and write about. It's almost nonsensical.

I remember there being a light tapping on my apartment door, Elenor stood on the other side clutching a tablet against her chest. She greeted me with a wide smile and motioned for me to follow her. I took a look around my apartment one more time, my eyes landing on the picture of my parents. My eyes lingered for only a moment before I followed Elenor out of the room and down toward the hyperelevators.

Once inside, Elenor waved her key card over the security pad and punched in her security code, she then motioned for me to do the same. The first few moments of traveling downwards on the hyper elevator always feels like free-falling, it takes a moment for the brief bout of nausea to subside. I watched as the floor numbers descended until they started to go negative. We were now going underground.

"Nervous?" Elenor asked me.

"Slightly," I chuckled. Slightly had been an understatement, I found myself to be mildly terrified. Tudor England referred to such a broad period of history, I could be going back to any time between 1485 to 1603. It was just a board time frame.

"Fear not, the Vanguards we have in place there have worked diligently to make sure that you will be comfortable and protected." She said with a reassuring smile. I could feel the elevator slow and eventually stop, we were now fully underground where the Time Transfer Converters were housed. The elevator doors opened and I dutifully followed Elenor out. It was significantly colder down here, the air conditioning kept frigid to help protect all the time travel equipment.

We entered a small medical room where a nurse was waiting. I sat down and immediately began to roll up my sleeve, I knew the drill, I would be receiving vaccinations to protect me during my time in the past, as well as to make sure I was currently healthy.

"We'll I'll cut to the chase now that we are on a secure level," Elenor began, sitting down across from me and looking extremely excited. "This has been a mission that has been in the works for decades, not only did we need governmental clearance, but we needed clearance from The Crown, and if you remember the fiasco we endured over the Princes in The Tower, you'd be right to guess that to get to where we are now was no easy feat."

"The Crown? As in... England, the British Crown?" I asked just as the nurse inserted a needle into my vein to draw some blood, I flinched.

"Yes. You will be traveling to January 1, 1547, to the Palace of Whitehall in England, and you will be staying until the death of King Henry VIII. It is the King whom you will be providing comfort." She said, handing her tablet over to me. It was a that moment that I realized my heart was racing, I could hear it thrumming in my ears, and I was grateful for the coldness since at that moment I felt quite hot.

"Henry the Eighth?!" I was at a loss for words.

"Yes. You will visit with him shortly before his death and reveal to him what becomes of his children." It was at that moment my heart seemed to now stop beating. I knew just about everything there was to know about Henry VIII of England and his six wives. I knew what a stubborn and headstrong man he was, and now here I was, a woman, being sent to tell this man who discarded women in his life like used handkerchiefs what would become of his children!