Saints and Sinners

Chapter Thirty-Three

June 2065

The White House

Washington DC

Mrs Hayleigh Bateman led the official mourning in the White House chapel with Olivia Procter and her stepdaughters beside her. Impressively, she was in position within an hour of the sad news breaking at two in the afternoon, east coast time, and maintained her graceful vigil for seven hours. Keepers moved amongst the ladies of the Presidential court, fitting the gentlewomen with new feeding muzzles, imported from London, so that they could suck up their dinner without disturbing their devotions in memory of the great man, the leader of the modern renaissance and author of the holy doctrine. Every woman was swathed in sumptuous black velvet and tethered in position, which made the pictures released to every news agency all the more dramatic. It was broadcast online, a live show of American piety to rival anything that was taking place elsewhere, showing the world the strength of feeling amongst the large Christian community. President Bateman also spoke to the nation, calling on every Christian and all right-thinking Americans to pay their respects to Michael Winstanley and promised to attend the state funeral himself, on behalf of the grieving American people. His wife and her companions would pray daily, he promised, until he had to leave for London.

"Bill is planning to mirror what is happening in Meadvale," Howard Procter told his wife as he undressed, ready to join her in bed, barely an hour after she finished her afternoon and evening of prayer. "He is genuinely moved by Winstanley's passing...apparently, he met the man several times...and he is using this period of reflection to remind the world what Pastor Michael and his friends have achieved over the years? And that he stands with them, and for what they believed in."

"Can you excuse the girls from some of it, Howard? It is too much for them?" Olivia sighed as he dropped his boxer shorts to the floor.

"I have asked Miss Danvers to be patient with the twins, my dear...but I am expected to support the President in all things and they are both Maidens now...they must learn?" Procter sighed, reacting to her appeal much as she had expected, because he was a man, and a devout Reformist, and he did not understand what it took to be a Daughter of Eve. Bailey and Emily were only just beginning their training and she feared that the demands of a public mourning period would be beyond them. And indeed, down the hall, the two girls were both screaming silently as Miss Danvers patiently reminded them of their place. Bailey had done better than her sister, but both would have received auto-punishments if they were British, and Danvers could not let it slide.

Bill Bateman was still in the oval office. His efforts to dissuade the rest of the security council from punishing the British, and especially the Symonds family, so severely had fallen on largely deaf ears, but he had managed to get Delacorte to back off a little until after the state funeral, out of respect. It was not much, and Bateman suspected that they would use the delay to continue tracing Connor's funds, but it gave him breathing space. His state of the union address had met with a mixed reception, as he had suspected it would, but it had gone down well in the bible belt, and in London. But that support would only stick with him if he could deliver on his affordable healthcare pledge. Boston was a good start, but the protestors were still camped outside and they had still not broken ground on another convent hospital for some reason. He was getting impatient.

"Cartwright...we need to start building more hospitals?" He said testily, when he finally got through to Connor's new right-hand man at his home in Boston.

"Connor's assets have been frozen, Mr President...we simply don't have the cash."

"You're kidding me?"

"Everything is at risk...and especially here...if we brought any money into this country it would be seized in seconds...but it should only be a temporary delay?" Cartwright said calmly, stating the bloody obvious. "But we don't know which investments the UN are going to take to raise their trillion pounds...we are not sitting on mountains of cash, the general idea is to put it to work, and I am trying to keep what we do have moving..."