It’s interesting to write about this, but how interesting is it going to be to read? Guess my patrons can tell me at the end of the month.
“Thank you for seeing us, Mr. President,” said the baroness.
“That’s quite all right, your Excellency,” Whitman started to say, when the baroness interrupted him.“Ms. Adams is fine, sir,” she said. “Victoria, if you like.”
“And you can go ahead and call me ‘Gabbie,’” Fraser said cheerfully.
“Everybody calls me that, Mr. President.”
This made Whitman stop. “This smells like… a protocol issue,” he said. “You’ve both been delicately scrupulous about titles and forms of address, up to now. Are the rules different here?”
Victoria smiled rather charmingly. “And I wondered whether I’d have to explain! No, you’re right, Mr. President. The rules are different here. It’s difficult to explain without some specialized math, but sorcerously speaking: while we’re here we’re not on Virginian territory. And we’re not on Second Republic territory, either.” She looked at him, as if expecting him to say the next part.
Fortunately, Whitman thought that he was following along. “So if it isn’t Virginian territory, and it’s not my country’s territory, then it must be still… American?” He smiled at that. “The last piece of the old United States that’s left?”
“Well, one of three,” said Gabbie. “When the House of Barod founded the kingdom, they discovered that their power didn’t extend to here, the Capitol, and the Supreme Court. The symbolism was obvious.”
I would like it.
.
So would Sarah Hoyt, I imagine.