One of the many alternate history timelines visited in Michael Flynn's "The Forest of Time" is one in which "The Angevin Kings still rule". Flynn's traveler is generously hosted by a Goodman de Veres and his wife, living on the site of Philadelphia, and hears from his hosts about "what sounds like scientific magic" whose practice is widespread in this world. The traveler, versed in the science of our 20th Century, is skeptical and suspects this reputed magic to be "superstition or mass delusion", but is too polite to share this skepticism with his hosts - and anyway, he must soon depart.