Waking Elizabeth (5 page)

“Do
I have to call you, Her Majesty, now?”

Chapter
5

T
he next morning we
hurriedly packed our few things and headed down to meet Blair and Phoebe for
breakfast.
 
I watched as Jess threw me
the side eye while I was getting ready and just shook my head at her inability to
drop this whole ridiculous past life theory.
 
I had begged her not to say anything to Blair or Phoebe about my night
with Mona and she agreed.
 
After
breakfast Phoebe announced that she wanted to drop by the store at the corner
before heading out of town to see if they had any eclectic jewelry pieces for
her collection.
 
Blair went with her
while Jess went to pack our stuff in the car.
 
I decided to stroll down the street in front of the shop and whether I
meant to or not, I found myself outside Mona’s cottage within minutes.
 
She was sitting outside, drinking her coffee
and stroking her ever present cat.
 

“I
knew you’d be back,” she said as she offered me a smile.

“Was
that your intention?” I answered, hesitant to approach her, “To tell me
something outrageous and assume I would be back with my wallet to hear more?”

Mona
shook her head, “It’s always hard to digest it when your spirit is not open to
receiving it.”

I
was frustrated at her constant use of those stupid psychic phrases, “Whatever,”
I answered, intending to walk away.

“Do
you have any questions for me, your grace?”

Her
use of that phrase stopped me dead in my tracks.
 
My shoulders squared and my mouth set in a
firm line as I turned to face her, “What did you call me?”

“Ellie,
do you have any questions for me?”

“I
told you last night, I don’t have any money, I’m simply on this trip for my
friend,” I could see that Jess had pulled up in front of the jewelry store as
she waited for Blair and Phoebe.

“I
know you’re leaving, I just wanted to make sure you didn’t have any questions
that you needed me to answer before you go.
 
Free of charge of course,” Mona waived to the chair across from her.

As
much as I hated to admit, I was drawn to the chair, and I did want to know
more.
 
How could I not?
 
I walked toward her and took a seat.
 
Her cat immediately encircled my legs and I
could feel its soft purr against my skin.

“You’re
an animal person,” Mona said, smiling down at her cat, “So was she.”

“She
who?” I had taken the bait and was immediately regretful at how fast I had
caved.

Mona
smiled at me, “You don’t have to say her name if it makes you
uncomfortable.
 
You need to feel at ease
with this and process it internally in order to reach the full connection you
have with her.”

I
shook my head, more psychobabble, “Mona … this is so very farfetched.”

“Remember
when I told you that some people were farmers and maids and some people
weren’t?
 
Well you’re not.
 
I know who you are, you know who you are … if
you don’t want to share it with anyone, don’t.
 
It’s your knowledge, your life.
 
You can file this away and push her into the background and never bring
it up again if you so desire.
 
But if you
wonder why at times you feel differently about something or look at things in
another way you might want to explore that part of yourself.
 
Like I said, she’s a powerful force.
 
I could feel her wanting to be heard last
night during your regression.”

I
shook my head, “You keep saying that like she will take me over one day.”
 
Even saying it sounded ridiculous.

“No,
her time has passed, she knows that.
 
It’s your life, never doubt that, but you share it, or at least a part
of it, with someone who has experienced things much differently than you do
today.
 
There is knowledge in that …
power.
 
You can shut everything down today
and never delve into it again, or you can open yourself up to experiencing the
full force of regression.
 
We only
touched the tip of the iceberg last night.”

“What
do you mean?” again, I was hesitant to ask, unsure if I wanted more
information.

“There
are deeper techniques to past life regression that can bring out so much more
of her.
 
You might be surprised at what
you find out, how much you know that is being suppressed.
 
She’s very much a part of you.
 
It’s possible to have very deep and lucid
memories of your life as Elizabeth.”

Hearing
her name produced chills across my bear arms.
 
Mona noticed this and smiled.
 
Reaching out, she ran her hand over the chills on my arm, “There are
worse people to be in a former life, Ellie.”

“I’m
not sure I can believe all this,” I shook my head to clear my thoughts when the
sound of Phoebe’s laughter floated to me from the across the street.
 
“I have to go.
 
Thanks again … I think.”

Mona
smiled, “You’re most welcome.
 
Call me
any time if you have questions.
 
Or if you’re
in the area, come by and see me.”

“I
will,” I smiled.

“Go,
your ladies are waiting,” she grinned and winked at me.
 
I didn’t miss the pun in her words.
 

“Goodbye
Mona,” I waved as I stepped from the porch.

When
I arrived at the car Jess was eyeing me above her dark rimmed glasses, “Are you
ready?”

I
nodded, threatening her with my gaze, “Yes.”

“Good.
 
Where would you like to ride, Your
Majesty?
 
Front or back?” she was teasing
me of course and the other two didn’t pick up on a thing.
 

“Back,”
I answered, crawling into the backseat behind her.

I
was silent for most of the ride back to Arlington.
 
I tried to remember everything I had learned
in school about the woman who apparently inhabited my subconscious.
 
I knew what she looked like and knew she was
queen during the 16
^th
century.
 
I of course remembered her father who was famous for having had most of
his wives killed for not producing sons.
 
I yearned to pull out my cell phone and look up everything about her that
I could find but I didn’t want Jess to see me doing that and give her more
ammunition to tease me.
 
When they
dropped me off at my house I waved goodbye to the trio.

“Call
me if you need to,” Jess had said before backing out of the driveway, “Oh, and don’t
be mad at me.”

“About
what?” I asked as the convertible speed away.
 
I chewed my lip, wondering what she meant as I made my way to the front
door.
 
Reaching for my key, I was
startled when the front door opened with a whoosh and Geoff filled the doorway.

“Your
Grace!
 
I’ve been waiting for you to
arrive!”

I
rolled my eyes, “Jesus Christ, are you kidding me?” I said, pushing past him,
“She told you!”

“Of
course she did!
 
Are you kidding?
 
News like that!
 
I would have killed her for not telling me!”

Geoff
was right behind me as I tossed my overnight bag on the hall tree and shed my
light sweater, “So, I made brownies and there’s a pot of coffee on, enough to
keep us awake for hours or however long it takes for you to tell me how the
hell this happened!”

“Nothing
happened!” I shook my head, reaching for a brownie, something I never turned
down, “I sat with a crazy old psychic who told me an off the wall story that is
probably the biggest crock of crap she’s ever sold to anyone crazy enough to
spend the night in Lily Dale.”

“Whatever!
 
There’s more to it than that!” Geoff led me
to the couch, “Sit, let me serve you, cause obviously that’s what your use to,”
he added a flair to the last part which did produce a smile from me.

“You’re
crazy,” I laughed.

“Spill.
 
Every bit of it.
 
Leave nothing out.”

An
hour later Geoff sat cross-legged in front of me, his mouth gaping in what I
can only describe as a mixture of shock and excitement.

“Don’t
look at me like that,” I sighed and shook my head, “That’s exactly why I didn’t
want to tell anyone.”

“How
can I help
but
look at you like
that?” Geoff asked.

“I
don’t know if the look you’re giving me means that I’m crazy or …”

“Awe
… its pure unbridled awe!”

“Why?
 
I’m the exact same person I was two days ago
when I left town!” I protested, flinging my arm over my face as I sank into our
leather couch.

“You
are!
 
You are!” Geoff rubbed my leg
gently, “But now you have something a little extra.”

I
pulled my arm away from my eyes to glare at him and he winked at me playfully,
“We have to start watching some movies about her or reading about her or
something,” he reached for the TV remote, “Oh!
 
I’ll search for something on her and DVR it!”

“Great,”
I shook my head and got up, “I’m tired.
 
I’m going to bed.
 
You tell me
what you find.”

“It
could be worse, Ellie, you could have found out you were Eva Braun or Marie
Antoinette or something.”

I
turned to him, “What’s wrong with Marie Antoinette?”

“Oh,
remember … she was starving all her people and just giving them cake or
something,” he was steadily searching through the shows on the screen as I
smiled at his reference from across the room, “But she had fabulous taste in
clothes though.”

I
laughed at his addendum, “Well then, she couldn’t be all that bad.”

After
my shower and a quick check of emails I crawled into bed with my iPad in an
effort to force my brain to concentrate on something else.
 
I had finished my latest book which happened
to be a book about the love life of Ernest Hemingway, someone who had always
fascinated me.
 
I scrolled through the
list of best-sellers with nothing immediately jumping out at me.
 
I tapped my finger on the screen
contemplating what to enter into the search bar.
 
I looked up at my door, feeling the need to
ensure my privacy, before I typed her name into the blinking cursor.
 
As expected, dozens of books flooded the
screen about the famous queen.
 
One of
them stood out to me and was by an author I was sure I had heard of.
 
I clicked on it and the cover enlarged
instantly on my screen.
 
It consisted of
a close up shot of half of her face which I took a minute to study
intensely.
 
Her skin was pale and
translucent and her eyes were so dark, they almost appeared black.
 
I remembered that she had red hair but it was
a golden blonde red and curly, much different than my dark rust red colored
hair.
 
I wondered how accurate this
particular painting was and I found myself clicking back to my search engine to
look for more pictures of the woman that was now haunting my every
thought.
 
Hundreds of pictures swamped
the screen and I quickly scanned a dozen or so and noticed that in every one
there was no smile or warmness conveyed neither by her pale coral lips nor her
dark distrustful eyes.
 
I found myself
feeling overwhelming sad as I wondered if she had led an unhappy life.
 
As I sat in the darkness of my bedroom I
wasn’t sure how to process the information I was given by Mona and yet I knew
one thing for certain.
 
I wanted to know
more about her, for some reason, I craved it.
 

Chapter
6

T
he next morning I
stumbled into the kitchen exhausted and in search of coffee.
 
Thankfully Geoff had a full pot already
brewed, the aroma filling our small kitchen.

“You
are a God,” I said to him, offering a tired smile.

“Ha,
the God of coffee and brownies!” Geoff laughed.

“He’d
be my favorite, if there was one,” I winked.

“What
happened to you?
 
Did you need an extra
day to recover from your trip?” Geoff said, already reaching for a mug.

“I
should have asked for the day off, stupid me,” I yawned.

“You
went to bed before I did last night.
 
Did
you get any sleep?” he leaned against the counter casually as he handed me my
coffee with cream and sugar, exactly how I liked it.

“I
stayed up way too late reading,” I said before thinking and instantly wished I
could take it back.

“You
weren’t reading about a particular monarch, were you?” Geoff’s eyebrows raised
in question, a smirk on his lips.

I
could have lied, he wouldn’t have known the difference, but honestly I didn’t
feel the need, “I did.
 
Once I got
started I couldn’t stop.”

“Find
anything interesting?”

“Her
entire life is interesting.
 
It’s amazing
she lived long enough to inherit the throne and then once she got there, whew …
it’s all just fascinating,” I sipped my coffee and flipped through the mail on
the counter.

“You
know,” Geoff began and I knew from the sound of his voice it was going to be
something outrageous, “Don’t you find it interesting that you live in the one
state that was actually named after her?”

“Virginia?”

“Yep.
 
They named it after her, because she was
supposedly the ‘Virgin Queen’,” he emphasized the words with air quotes.

“Huh,”
I shrugged, “Well that’s one thing we don’t have in common.”

Geoff
laughed at my comment and popped me on my butt through my housecoat.

“I’m
going to get ready, this will help,” I held up the coffee cup, “I’ll need about
three more before I leave.”

“So,
what’s the occasion?” I asked, opening up the menu even though I always ordered
the exact same thing at this particular restaurant.
 
In fact, if I was honest, I ordered the exact
same thing everywhere I went.
 
I was
funny that way, a creature of habit.
 
If
I found something I liked, I usually stuck with it.
 

“Well,”
Jess began, her voice raising an octave toward the end as if signaling a big
surprise, “I’m going on a work trip.”

“Fabulous!
 
Finally!
 
It’s about time they let you out of that dungeon.
 
I hope you get to do something fun,” I closed
the menu, settling on the #14 which was my favorite dish of sweet and sour
chicken with chunks of pineapple.

“Well,
it’s for work, but I’ll be there about two weeks so I’m hoping to add some fun
in the mix,” Jess said before turning to the waitress to quickly order not only
her food but mine as well.
 
I smiled when
she ordered the #14 just how I liked it.

“That’s
a shame, I’m so predictable,” I shook my head and grinned as I handed the
waitress my menu, “Anyway, where to?”

Jess
leaned across the table as if she were going to relay a secret, “England.”

I
was surprised, nearly spewing my drink on the table, “England?”
 
Certainly I hadn’t heard her right.

“Yep.
 
Good ole Great Britain,” Jess rested her chin
on the back of her hands, watching me with a gleam in her eye.

“How
on earth did you manage to wrangle that?
 
You work for the government.”

“It’s
a trade mission, the Senator will be there some of the time but I’m going to
stay on a few weeks to hold some meetings and do some tours.”

Jess
was still smiling at me like a Cheshire cat from across the table, “Why are you
looking at me like that?
  
I have a
feeling there’s more to this than you telling me you’re going on a business
trip.”

“Well,
I was hoping that you would come with me.”

There
it was.
 
The shoe had dropped.
 
I knew there was more to all this,
“Seriously?
 
I don’t know the first thing
about trade missions and the thought of being surrounding by politicians for a
night, let alone weeks scares the hell out of me.”
 

“I’m
not asking you to go with me to the trade missions or the meetings.
 
I won’t make you attend a single event you
don’t want to.
 
I want you to come with
me to
go
to England.”

My
dark eyes narrowed towards her, “Why?”

“Why
not?”
 
Jess’ answer was evasive and the
look on her face told me that she was still trying to hide something.
 
“Look,” Jess leaned forward, “My room is paid
for, I’ll get per diem, and you can stay with me and do whatever you like
during the day.
 
I’ll only be working
till around four or so each day, so there’s plenty of time for us to do stuff
together, but there’s also a ton of time for you to go exploring yourself.”
 
Her eyes were twinkling again.
 
I knew what she was doing.
 
She wasn’t fooling me.

“Exploring
my roots, no doubt?” I asked, the corner of my mouth lifting in a grin.

“Possibly,”
she answered, taking a sip of her wine, “I mean, it’s London.
 
It’s where she lived, where she ruled.
 
Maybe something will feel … familiar.”

“Shh,”
I hushed her, “Don’t say that stuff out loud.
 
People will think we’re crazy.”

“Nobody
knows what we’re talking about and even if they did, they certainly wouldn’t
believe who you are!”

There
she goes again, I thought to myself.

“Look,
you don’t have to answer tonight, but think about it?
 
Won’t you?”

The
waitress placed my delicious dinner in front of me and I was thankful for the
interruption, “I’ll think about it.”

“You’re
absolutely going, you don’t have a choice.”
 
Geoff was adamant as he stood in our living room with his hands on his
hips, “I can take care of your classes, and you’ve got tons of leave time and
quite a bit of money saved up.
 
There’s
no reason
not
to go!”

“What
am I going over there to do?”
 
I needed
him to convince me it was a good idea, because at the moment, it seemed a
little reckless.
 
And reckless was
something that was completely out of character for me.

“Why
not?
 
The whole thing feels like fate to
me,” Geoff went on before I could stop him which is what I tried to do after
his use of such a ridiculous word to describe the recent events.
 
“You met Mona by chance, had a mind altering
encounter that none of us can easily explain and now this trip of a lifetime
just lands in your lap?
 
A mostly free
trip at that!”

“It’s
hardly free.
 
Only the room is being paid
for,” I corrected him.

“Details,
details,” he waved me off, “Go over there and go to the places she lived, the halls
she walked and see what you feel.
 
What
do you have to lose?”

“I
wouldn’t even know where to start?
 
I
don’t know anything about London,” I protested, but even as I said it, it
sounded like a weak excuse.

“I’ll
help you figure it all out.
 
I’ll help you
plan.
 
We’ll put together an itinerary
for you and you can jump on one of those red busses and just zip around the
city.”

I
loved his enthusiasm, I almost wished he was coming but I knew he was terrified
to fly, “Zip around, huh?”

“Yes!
 
I can’t wait to plan all this and live
vicariously through you for a few weeks.
 
And you’ll be making the queen lurking inside of you happy, no doubt,”
Geoff pointed to my chest like the woman he was speaking of was just hiding out
in there.

“So
does this mean I’m telling Jess yes?”

Geoff
handed me my cell phone, “Call her.”