He smiled at the three of us now, striding our way. “My friends,” he said warmly. “My dear, dear friends.” And he offered me his hand.

I was almost too startled to take it. Bending down on one knee, “Your Majesty” was all I could mumble.

He gripped my shoulders as I stood. “Christopher. How worried I was for you all when I heard the news of your shipwreck. How I prayed for your safe return.”

Tom’s eyes bulged. “You… prayed for us?” he said. He was so stunned, he forgot to say “Your Majesty.”

“Every night,” Charles said seriously, and he offered Tom his hand next.

Tom kneeled, positively glowing. But being a couple of inches taller than the king had its drawbacks. Charles was wearing a feathered, wide-brimmed, silver-trimmed hat. As Tom rose, his forehead bumped the hat’s brim and knocked it from the king’s head.

Tom was mortified. “Sorry, Your Majesty,” he said as he scrambled to retrieve it.

Charles just laughed. “Odd’s fish, how can you be so tall? No, you keep it.” The king placed his hat on Tom’s head. “A gift.”

Tom’s embarrassment turned to awe. He looked at me with the widest grin.

Then the king moved on to Sally, who curtsied. “Such loveliness returned to Court,” he said. She blushed furiously.

More serious, he said, “And your hand. Is it better?”

Sally had nearly been killed in Paris. As it was, a head injury had rendered her left hand almost immobile. Then, in Devonshire, she’d injured it further when she got run through with a knife. She seemed surprised the king even knew about it.

“Uh… yes, Your Majesty. It’s improving.”

“Excellent.” He patted her hand. “On to business. First—Christopher.”

“Y-yes, sire?” I stammered.

“I can never repay the service you have done me, nor compensate you adequately for the dangers you have braved. Nevertheless, I must insist you not set fire to any more of my things.”

My face grew hot. “Sorry.”

I’d been trying not to think about what punishment he’d dole out for what I’d done. But he apparently considered the matter settled, because he moved on. “Very well. I have gifts for the three of you. I had hoped to give them today, but something else must occupy my time.”

He glanced at Lord Ashcombe, whose gaze suddenly sharpened. I guessed he was talking about why the palace was locked down, but he didn’t say anything more about it.

“Regardless,” the king continued, “I have one gift with me, so I may as well offer it. Sally?”

He smiled as one of his servants placed a proclamation in his hand, which he read. “ ‘I declare that on this, the day of our Lord, the third of March, 1666, I do accept the care and guardianship of Sara-Claire Adeline Marie Deschamps, of London, late of the Cripplegate orphanage, to be established according to the laws, and so on. Signed, Charles R., King of England,’ et cetera.”

It took a moment for us to understand what had just happened. When we did, Sally nearly burst into tears. She covered her mouth with her hands, eyes shining.