“Does anyone want us anywhere?” he heard himself ask. “Why do we assume these far-flung places are ours?” “Because we won them, Eddie,” Gilbert said, after a brief silence. “One assumes that the natives of England were perhaps not unanimously delighted by the arrival of our twenty-second great-grandfather, but, well, history belongs to the victors.” “William the Conqueror was a thousand years ago, Bert. Surely we might strive to be somewhat more civilized than the maniacal grandson of a Viking raider.” Edwin stopped talking then. Everyone at the table was staring at him.
