Edward Ware’s Retirement In The House Of Lords:
General Lord Edward Ware at the end of World War 2 retired from His Majesty’s Armed Forces with the title of Lord of Ruweisat Ridge and an appointment to the House of Lords. He helped the British win the Battle of El Alamein in 1942. Therefore he has been appointed to a hereditary position in the House of Lords. When he is no longer meeting with Churchill to plan battles, Lord Edward Ware’s life is now consumed with social events and flashy ceremonial responsibilities. For one thing he has managed to have the title of Black Rod of the House of Lords forced upon him by his peers.
It is now his responsibility to be the monarch’s representative in the House of Lords. He summons the members of the House of Commons to Lords to hear the monarch’s speech. He is also the usher to the Order of the Garter. He organizes addresses to Parliament of visiting heads of state. He also organizes the state opening of Parliament and helps to run the House of Lords on an every day basis.
After a long career of spying, intrigue, and fighting battles, Edward’s life has run into a boring dead end. His wife, Dora, Lady Ware, tries to console him and find things for him to do in her father’s auto and tire business. But Edward is totally out of his element when they run into alarming news.
Churchill, in his second career as PM, summons Edward to his office. He shares with him a security report that has just come in from joint exercises that Americans and Brits are doing in the Bering Strait off the coast of Alaska. A boat was observed with bright lights and fizzling sparklers going off. When it saw the British and Americans it fled. They tried to follow it. They lost it.
“Russians?” Edward asked.
Churchill shrugged. “Anything is possible. But since you and your wife have never recovered your daughter from the Russians, I thought the assignment of researching it was up your alley.”
Edward is catapulted into the Far North. He finds situations beyond the human imagination that his better sense would say were impossible. People that he thought were dead suddenly appear again or seem to appear to meld with legends. But what are they doing? Carrying out the will of the mysterious, dark Russians who seem to be plotting to take over the world the way the Nazis were? Or is it something far worse?
Churchill with cigar