The flight was a bit faster than Ryan or Bradley imagined; they were in the air for about one minute, and then they were touching down on the ground as though they had simply done one hop. However, they had not simply hopped to another spot in this dimension's version of their backyard--they had gone all the way across the Atlantic to England! After getting their balance back, the two boys walked up to an incredible sight. It was a large palace, with red brick walls, wide pointed arches, and a wealth of style--Hampton Court Palace, just up the Thames from London. Many of the ghosts here looked like modern-day tourists, and in fact they were--tourists who wanted to see the palace but never got to in life. Going in through the main gatehouse, the boys found themselves in a large courtyard. A tiered fountain stood ahead to the right, and some tourists trying to get a photo with it. Moving on into the next gate, the boys turned left inside the gate and proceeded up the stairs. After opening a door and walking a few steps to their right, they stopped, amazed at what they saw. Hampton Court's Great Hall was truly an artistic wonder, but it was not the hammer beam ceiling or the vibrant tapestries that caught the boys' attention: it was the men and women in the Great Hall, dressed in authentic 16th-century clothing. They were dancing, toasting, talking, and bowing...bowing to a man that many of us have heard of at some point in our lives: the boys were looking at none other than King Henry VIII. Bradley began to move towards the dias where Henry was, but in the process he accidentally bumped into a woman. While apologizing to her on behalf of his cousin, Ryan couldn't help wondering where he had seen this woman's face before, and then it hit him: she was Anne Boleyn. In fact, everyone in the room was someone who had been present at Henry's court in his lifetime: Thomas More, Cardinal Wolsey, Charles Brandon, Thomas Cromwell, Edward Seymour, Thomas Cranmer, and so on. Henry's six wives were also present: Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, and Catherine Parr.
Thinking about what they could learn from the ghosts of England's past, the boys began to wonder what to do and who to talk to.