A House Out of Time
Page 5
"It is the 14th of October."
"And the year?"
"Why, it is 1873!" he replied, giving a puzzled glance to Flory.
A bell rang in the hall. Flory and Henry looked at each other again. Flory said, "There is someone at the front door."
She was hesitant. No one moved so I volunteered to go with her. I hoped it wasn't Marco. I pulled back the bolts and Flory unlocked the door. I opened it slowly. Nothing! I was confronted with the blank portal time-wall again. Summoning a bit more nerve than I really had in front of Flory I then peered through it. The scream was quite piercing.
"Bloody Hell, Jim!” said Jill, “What are you trying to do to me? And why are you floating there like a ghost without a body?"
My brain was on overdrive. When we went back last time we had lost a week so she should not have arrived here for another seven days.
"What are you doing here?"
"You told me to come - remember?"
"But that was in a week's time!"
"What are you talking about? It was this afternoon."
This was beyond me. I said, "Get your stuff from the car Jill and get in here as quick as you can."
She gave me a questioning look that I'm sure she usually reserved for the criminally insane then ran to the car and retrieved a large bag from the boot. When she returned she said. "OK, Jim, how do I get in? All I can see is a blank wall with your decapitated creepy head sticking out of it."
"Just walk through as though it isn't there."
"What? Why? What's on the other side?"
"Just do it!"
She closed her eyes and made a lunge for the door. Unfortunately, because the portal did not have any physical resistance she crashed through at some speed and bowled us over like nine pins. When we all got back on our feet Jill said, "Where am I? It's blooming freezing...Oh hello Flory what are you doing here... My God! I really am in the nineteenth century, aren't I?"
Flory’s shocked face made Jill look down at her own clothing. She tugged uselessly at the hem of her tight, sleeveless, and very short dress. What really concerned me though was when I had looked out into the court yard the time machine was not there. But then I realised of course out there was 2016.
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E.
I went to the hall to see what was causing the commotion followed closely by Henry who had grabbed a large poker from the fireplace.
I took one look at Jill’s attire but before I could say anything, behind me I heard Henry exclaim, "Good God, woman! Go upstairs and dress yourself immediately," and he retired back into the study.
James just managed to get his hand across Jill's mouth in time before she replied and then tried to convince her, without much success, that no further sensible conversation was going to happen until she was dressed in a more modest style.
A little heated discussion concerning men, their double standards and ladies’ fashions followed which I could see James thought it wise not to participate in.
Eventually Jill said resignedly, “OK. I’ll do it but I’m NOT going to force myself into one of those bloomin' corsets again just to turn on your cousin?”
As I had ‘given up’ the dreadful things some time ago she had my sympathy. As to 'turning on' Henry, if I understood it to mean what I thought it meant, it was best left alone and I said,
“No, Jill. Just a bit of modesty is required. You can keep your clothes on underneath.”
I still remember James showing me pictures of the compressed torsos of ladies who had been subjected to a life time of corsets purely to follow fashion. Not to mention the constrictions to the lungs which must have contributed greatly to the ease with which women fainted and no doubt reinforced the idea that we were the weaker sex.
Eventually Jill agreed and Flory took her upstairs while James and I returned to the study where Henry was standing facing the fire. When he heard us he turned and said, "I make no apology for my exclamation though perhaps I could have said it with less haste. But here in this world there are certain conventions to which I insist you adhere; not least to protect the servants and Flory."
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J.
I was about to challenge him on his remark but he stopped me in my tracks.
"Mr Urquhart, I know you have been with my cousin for some time and I believe you are an honest man but I hear you have been living, how should I say, in close proximity. Do you not think you could make an honest woman of her?"
"But Henry, we are married!" Elizabeth said.
He looked at us rather incredulously then said, "Yes. But that is in the future. Here you are in a time before your marriage and I suggest that if you are residing here overnight then, for the sake of the servants, I would prefer if you slept in separate bedrooms."
I decided not to protest though Elizabeth gave me a look indicating I was not sufficiently defending her honour. Instead I replied,
"Look, our priority is to find Elizabeth's father. And I'm afraid to say we also have to find Marco because he came out of the machine Elizabeth’s father entered. There is a problem though.”
"What do you mean?" said Henry and Elizabeth almost in unison.
“We have lost the time machine."
Henry gave me a look I’m sure he reserved only for a servant who had provided him with the wrong club on the golf course and said, “Do you mean to tell me that you have not only lost my cousin's father but also the means of finding him?”
Before I could answer he turned despairingly to Elizabeth and said, “I thought this was a man in which you placed great trust, Elizabeth?”
“I do trust him, Henry. But I think this adventure would be exceedingly trying even for you!” She stormed out of the room leaving me alone with her cousin.
There’s nothing like a bit of stress to get people arguing about the wrong things. I motioned Henry to sit down and preferably as far away from the blunt instruments in the fire place as possible then tried to explain to him that we had come from the year 2016 to 1873 via the machine. But now if we tried to leave, the time portal meant the world outside the front door leads to the future again.
Eventually I got him to understand what we were up against and he admitted that used as he was to looking after the Bicester estates and two precocious female cousins, he now could see our situation would test even his limits.
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E.
On leaving Henry I went upstairs to join Flory and Jill where I have to say the discussion on corsets, men and morals continued for a little while. Then just as we were complimenting ourselves on how sensible women were, Flory said, "Jill, what do you mean by turning Henry on?"
I had previously suspected that Henry and Flory were very close but thought nothing of it, until now.
Jill said in her usual and normally endearing fashion, "I presume the sight of a woman underdressed in front a Victorian man is going to get him rather aroused."
Flory with her cheeks now blushing a little replied a little tartly, "I can assure you Henry is not that kind of man and would certainly not be distracted by such an apparition."
Jill looked at me, and seeing my expression indicated I had reached the same conclusion as she had, she quickly changed the subject and said, "Sorry, Flory. Please forgive my language. I'm still recovering from being transported here and seeing Jim's face poking through that door."
Then the thought of James' head floating in the air caused us all to laugh and thankfully brought us back together again. Dear James, he does bring brightness to my life in so many ways. However, I will watch Henry and Flory with renewed interest in future.
Once we were satisfied that Jill was “respectable” we returned to the menfolk who seemed now the best of friends and were busy scribbling on a table cloth. When they saw us they ignored the work we had done on Jill and instead drew our attention immediately to the cloth which had a rough drawing of the plan of the lodge with arrows going in all directions.
They were di
scussing whether we should stay in this time without the machine or return to the future without it.
It seemed an impasse. How were we going to find Father? While looking at their drawing I remembered that when Henry and Flory had left the Lodge by the rear entrance they remained in their world. This gave a possible solution and I said, "I have an idea. If you will all follow me?"
They all looked at me and no doubt concluding that I had a touch of the vapours due to a too tight a corset decided to humour me and followed me through the kitchens and out into the garden.
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J.
I had never been in a real Victorian garden before. I had some idea from the paintings of Monet and Leighton but to see a real one was a dream. It was full of autumn flowers. Masses of marigolds, daisies and chrysanthemums spread over the box hedge and wild roses clambered up the trellises and disappeared into the tightly clipped yew hedge.
This was still a time when nature was in equal competition with man and the flora displayed was determined by nature and not the local garden centre. I asked Elizabeth, as I followed her down the green path, if we ever get back to a normal world together whether she thought a year of hard work by me might turn our home and small patch into an enchantment like this?
She turned to me and holding my hand said, "James, you are my enchantment. But if you wish we will make a garden together where you can enchant me forever."
That was a bit too much even by my romantic standards and she noticed a tear fall from my eye.
"James! Are you crying? You fool." And she kissed me.
I had to sit down for a moment. A cricket buzzed near me in the grass and landed on my hand and a late butterfly rose from the last flower on a buddleia and passed over my head. If there was a fairy land it was here. I thought back to that fateful day with my friends rambling in the Sussex countryside when I was distracted by that butterfly in the woods and found myself in her world at Hamgreen. Did that butterfly know what it was doing and drew me to her?
For some reason an image of a small winged Martian came into my head. But before I could pursue that thought we had left the garden and turned around the side of the Lodge.
And there in the court yard was the time machine. Why didn't I think of that?
I said to Elizabeth, "Of course! It's only if you go through the portal that time changes."
She then said with a twinkle in her eye, "I would wager that if we had gone out through the front door to 2016 and then went around the back of the house it would still be the same time."
I don't know why she goes out with me. It was so obvious.
"Well, “I replied, swallowing my pride, "there is only one way to find out."
So we encouraged everyone to join us and we all went around the back of the house again, re-entered the kitchen and exited out of the front door into 2016.
Then we returned to the back again. By now Flory, Henry and Jill were beginning to think we had lost our marbles and all hope of finding a certain father would have to be abandoned. However, when we entered the kitchen this time, much respect for the intrepid adventurers was restored. For luckily we were confronted with a kitchen of the future with all the electric gadgets of its time. We were so pleased with our deductions that when we entered the study and Henry and Flory started exclaiming about the television and the hi-fi equipment we did not at first notice Marco sitting in the armchair by the window.
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Chapter 6
E.
The shock of seeing Mr Batalia was almost matched by the shock of Henry grabbing him by his collar and lifting him out of his seat and shouting into his face in a most threatening manner.
"What are you doing here? I thought I left you up at Midhurst! Are you after my cousin again?"
Mr Batalia was surprisingly quite unfazed by this outburst though I noticed he was regarding James and me quite closely. He said very calmly, “And I may ask what are you all doing here?”
“It is YOU who is an intruder in my house!” I shouted rather louder than I expected.
“I think you’ll find that you’re the intruders because it’s my house. I’m renting it from one of your sister’s grandchildren.”
We were all dumbfounded. Not least Flory who had collapsed in a half faint into Henry’s arms. How did our house end up in the hands of Mr Batalia?
No one spoke. Seeing that his comment had had the intended effect on us he continued. "I've come to take you two to your father. He’s with Wells and his old tutor Hyatt."
Eventually James broke the silence, “And what does Wells want to do with him, Marco? That’s if what you’re saying is true - which I very much doubt.”
“Wells needs Mrs Urquhart’s father to show you the canals of Mars.”
This was indeed what Mr Hyatt had said but before I could speak James asked my question in his own way.
“Yes, I’ve got that, Marco, but what’s it got to do with you? And also how did you get into their time machine? Because last time we saw you we left you in 2015 at Newgrange.”
This was a conundrum. We had heard nothing concerning him after that until his sudden appearance from the time machine at Midhurst. Until then I had presumed he had either entered the burial chamber at Newgrange or the observatory hidden in the bushes and was lost in some other time line or on Mars.
Mr Batlaia replied rather hotly to James’ enquiry. “Yes, you did leave me at Newgrange. Didn’t even offer me a lift.”
“Don’t give me that!” retorted James, “You had already disappeared. Where did you go?” said James.
“Why, I returned to the cavern at Midhurst.”
“So how did you find Wells’ time machine?” said James getting angrier than was good for him.
“I didn’t find it - I made it for him."
This pushed us back on the defensive. "What? How?" I heard myself say, trying to comprehend him.
"From the machine you left me. of course. Remember you sent me off to 2016 and shut down the power supplies."
"Yes," said James trying to control his emotions. "So you should be trapped in 2016 but obviously you found a way out"
"Obviously. You see, you left me an intact time machine. All I needed was a new power source. So when I got back to the cavern I went through the portal to the derelict Martian fleet and removed one of their power sources. A fusion reactor can be quite small if you can find the right material to generate and contain an appropriately strong magnetic field. Oh yes, and if it occupies a five dimensional space."
I looked at James for assistance for this was beyond my knowledge. His eyes were screwed tightly, deep in thought. I gently nudged him.
He saw my expression and after a moment said, "So Marco, are you saying that a small fusion power source can be made if you spread its power density out along a fourth dimension like time for instance?"
"Right in one. You were always quite clever, Urquhart, for just a science teacher. Weren't you?"
I held James' arm tightly.
Mr Batalia finding that his remark had fallen on barren ground continued, "Its power density cannot be contained in just normal three dimensional space but if you can spread a little bit into the past and future you can dilute it so that in any point in three dimensional space it can be easily contained."
"And you need to be able to see in five dimensions in order to see the fourth, like the Martians," replied James.
"Precisely."
Once again James had been able to make a deduction and reduce its components to a simplicity which allowed me to comprehend it. However, these facts although important did not answer why Mr Batalia was involved with Mr Wells and my father.
"Mr Batalia, why are you here and where is my father?"
"I told you he is with Wells in 1895 and safe. I am really here because at the cavern I found there is an end to time."
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J.
Marco 's last statement had us all stunned.
“I discovered it at the cavern while looking at the sky screens. Have you looked at the stars recently?”
He could see we didn’t understand what he was getting at.
Henry, having laid Flory on a chaise longue, took his comment seriously and went to the window. It was now after sunset. He said, “I see stars, Mr Batalia. What of it?”
“Yes, but it is what you can’t see is the problem."
"And what can't I see? The sky is clear."
"OK. Let me explain for it’s very obvious. When you look out the window at the sky at night as I’m sure you often do, you are looking at the past.”
A glimmer of where this was leading entered my head but I let him continue.
“The nearest star is about four light years away so when we look at it we are seeing what it was four years ago."
Henry interjected. “This light year? I have heard it used by my uncle. Is it not the distance light can travel in a year?”
“Yes. You are well informed. Now the galaxies beyond the Milky Way such as Andromeda are millions of light years away.”
“That is fantasy! And what is this Milky Way or galaxies to use your Greek? The universe of which I have read is believed to be only a few thousands of these light years across.”
“I’m afraid not, Henry,” I said, “Our galaxy in which we live is just one of millions of galaxies which occupy the Universe.”
“Poppycock! Why would God make it so large?”
It was a good point.
I said, “No one really knows, Henry. But scientists say," divorcing myself from my own profession in the hope of giving him a better understanding, "that they can see objects whose light left them over ten thousand million years ago. It is really, really big.”
I could see Henry was struggling with this. I hoped he didn’t believe in Bishop Usher’s age of the world as four and half thousand years.
I turned back to Marco, “So what makes you think that time has an end?”
He looked at me with an almost sardonic grin and said, "Let's try a little experiment. I happen to have your wife’s father’s telescope in the conservatory."