“Patsy come along, we must be getting on to Washington Palace or we will miss the ceremony,” Thomas Jefferson chastised his teenage daughter. As he spoke, he had to take a second look at his daughter who seemed to have become her mother reincarnated overnight. The same long, dark hair, the same fair skin and green eyes, and unfortunately for him, the same stubborn headedness.  

“I am coming Papa, I don’t know what the rush is, we’ve already seen that dreadful place; and it’s quite laughable to refer to it as a palace if you ask me.” 

“Yes my dear, I quite agree. Once I ascend the throne your first task will be to update the place to remind us more of our beautiful Monticello.” 

“I don’t understand why we can’t just live at Monticello, you will be the King, don’t you get to decide?,” Patsy complained as they climbed into the carriage for the short drive to the new official residence of the King. 

“Yes, well I have every intention of us spending as little time as possible in this dreaded city, don’t worry my pet we will be back in Monticello before you know it. This place will be used for diplomatic entertainments.”

“If you say so Papa.”

As the carriage bounced along the newly constructed roads with Patsy going on about the latest gossip in the capital, Jefferson reflected on his current situation. King George was in his late sixties and in poor health, he couldn’t be expected to live for much longer. Then Thomas would be able to begin reforming the nation to fit more to the idea of what he hoped it would turn out to be. 

The King had faded in popularity, starting with his backing of the French  monarchy during the attempted revolution by the Third Estate. King George and Ambassador Franklin may have been able to save the French monarchy, but it had put the young American monarchy at risk. The first thing Thomas intended to do was sever the unpopular French alliance, and rebuild a relationship with their former rulers in Britain. Thomas understood that the French monarchy likely wouldn’t survive another attempted revolution and the English offered a much more stable relationship if they could get over the whole revolutionary war situation. 

“Papa! You aren’t listening to a word I’m saying are you?” Patsy interrupted his thoughts of the future when she realized he hadn’t spoken nearly the whole ride. 

“Yes of course I am my pet, so and so is scandalized by so and so, I’m sure it’s quite the drama.” 

“You know, for a future King I would expect you to have a lot more interest in the happenings of the court.”

“Well if I took an interest, then what would you do? Is that not what I have you for? Now, come along, we’ve arrived, it’s time to get this over with.” 

The carriage had pulled up to their destination, and Thomas prepared himself to deal with the crowd that he would be forced to be polite and generous to. Patsy climbed out of the carriage with a roll of her eyes and a grin for her charming, yet difficult father. Thomas alighted from the carriage, and as he did so, a groom stumbled into him. 

“Watch it boy, have you no sense of how to walk?”

The young man was having a hard time disentangling himself from Thomas, and he suddenly looked up into Thomas’s eyes with a malevolence Thomas hadn’t seen since the Great War with Britain. 

“The Prince Regent sends his regards.”

“Pardon me, wha-“, the rest of Thomas’s words were cut off as the groom plunged a knife into his chest. Suddenly the world seemed to go silent, until Thomas saw Patsy turn around to see what was happening, and let loose a blood curdling scream.

The groom dropped Thomas to the ground, and absconded into the crowd. Patsy collapsed sobbing, pulling her father into her lap as life quickly drained from him.