The Last Beginning

by Lauren James

  “I was wrong to bring you here,” Ella said, looking apologetic. “It’s too confusing for everyone. I should have taken you home to Katherine, like Clove suggested.”

  “It was very … interesting to come here. However, I believe I belong in Carlisle. This time is impossibly strange for me.”

  Clove nodded. She’d put him through enough. He deserved to go back to Katherine. She was grieving for him, after all. “Let’s take you home. Kate, we’ll be back in a sec.”

  “You’re getting awfully cavalier about time travel, aren’t you?” Ella whispered in Clove’s ear as Matthew said goodbye to Kate. “Just travelling back three hundred years, no biggie, save me a biscuit.”

  “Oops, gotta pop home. I left the oven on three thousand years in the future!” Clove replied, laughing.

  “It was an honour to meet you, Kate,” Matthew said.

  A lump rose in Clove’s throat at the sight of them together. They treated each other so tenderly, like the other person was the most valuable thing in the world.

  “I never would have imagined that my Katherine could be living somewhere like this,” Matthew continued. “I can’t wait to tell her how incredible she is – you are.” He touched Kate’s cheek.

  Kate kissed Matthew carefully, eyes closed and hands curling around his elbows. “I love you,” she murmured against his lips, pressing their foreheads together. “I always have, and I always will.”

  Matthew’s fingers followed the line of her jaw, and he kissed the side of her mouth and then her temple. “Look after our daughter. She’s very special.”

  When they kissed again, Clove looked away. She started helping Ella to choose when to arrive in 1745.

  “Are you ready?” Clove asked Matthew after a moment.

  He nodded. “Thank you for bringing me here,” he said. “It’s the greatest gift you could have given me.”

  Ella took Matthew and Clove’s hands, and activated her Skim. Kate waved goodbye, wiping tears away, as the wormhole pulled them in again.

  Carlisle, England, 1745

  They landed in the attic in the house in Carlisle. Only days before, Clove and Ella had slept in this very room. It was neat and tidy now, ready for the next maids to use. Clove wondered whether the new servants would be time travellers too, on a sightseeing trip to Clove’s history.

  Matthew seemed to visibly relax. “Home,” he said, and smiled. “At last.”

  Clove suddenly wished she was dressed more time appropriately. It felt unnatural to be here in jeans and a T-shirt, when she’d spent so long blending in with a dress.

  “Shall we go and find Katherine?” Matthew asked, smiling hard enough to split his face.

  Clove led them down the servants’ staircase to Katherine’s bedroom. Winter had arrived since Clove’s last visit, and through the windows she could see that the garden was white with frost.

  “The Jacobite siege is happening right now,” Clove told Matthew before she knocked on Katherine’s door, remembering what she had read in the Folios. “But the house is empty. The family fled the city, and Katherine is here alone. A few days ago she saw you die in the cathedral and then come back to life, only it wasn’t you. It was the Matthew from 1854. I used the time machine to bring him here to try and get this timeline back on track − but he didn’t have a suit and the radiation killed him. Katherine will be very sad and confused at the moment.”

  Matthew ran a hand through his hair, a little nervously.

  Clove went on, “I should go in first. Wait further down the corridor. We don’t want to give her a heart attack when she sees her dead boyfriend.” Clove knocked on the door. “Miss Finchley?” she called.

  “Who’s there?” Katherine asked as she opened the door. She was wearing a nightgown, with a shawl wrapped around her shoulders. Her eyes were red from crying. “Anise?” she said, surprised. “What are you doing here? Have my aunt and uncle returned to the city?” She gasped as she took in Clove’s appearance. “What are you wearing?”

  “I have something to tell you,” Clove said carefully. “I’m not really a maid. I’m actually from the future.”

  “What?” Katherine gasped, falling back against the door frame. Her face went white. “You mean, you … you’re the witch! The one who … who brought Matthew from the future after my Matthew died in the cathedral!”

  Clove opened her mouth, and then closed it again. She’d had a whole speech planned out, but Katherine was quicker to pick up the intricacies of time travel than she’d expected. “That was me,” she said instead. “I’m sorry. I know it made everything so much more complicated for you. But I had to do it. I was saving the world. The future would have been destroyed otherwise.”

  “We suspected as much,” Katherine said, voice fierce. “We thought there must be a reason for it. It seemed impossible for anyone to be so cruel otherwise. He died, Anise. You brought Matthew back to me, and then let him die right in front of my eyes, and there was nothing I could do!”

  Clove flinched. “I know. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Everything was going wrong in my time. I was dying, and my father had just been shot! It was a nightmare, and I panicked. I tried to fix things as best I could. I’m sorry you had to live with the consequences.”

  Katherine squared her shoulders, wiping away her tears. “Was it worth his death? Did everything become better, for you?”

  Clove nodded. “It did. And … I have some news. I took Matthew – your Matthew, your coachman − to the future. I healed him. I saved his life.”

  Katherine stared at Clove, uncomprehending. “You saved him?” Her voice cracked.

  Clove met her gaze unblinkingly. “He’s alive, and he’s well.”

  “Where is he?” Katherine said. “I’ll do anything, just please give him back to me!”

  “I’m here.” Matthew appeared from where he had been standing just out of sight down the corridor. Katherine’s face crumpled with joy. She and Matthew fell on one another, kissing desperately.

  “We should leave them,” Clove said to Ella, after watching them for a moment. She was torn between joy and guilt. “They don’t need us any more. Let’s go back to 2040. We have to track down my father.”

  Before they could leave, Matthew spoke. “I just wanted to say … thank you. Thank you for everything, Clove.”

  “Thank you,” Katherine echoed. “Thank you so much for bringing him home to me. I don’t understand any of what you have done, or why, but I am so, so grateful that you brought him back to me.”

  Clove smiled. “You’re welcome. I’m sorry again that it was so overcomplicated and messy. I tried my best.” To Matthew, she said, “Don’t forget to take your penicillin.”

  Matthew grinned. “I promise. I hope you find me – I mean … er … Matt.”

  “Are we ready?” Ella said.

  “Take us to the future,” Clove confirmed, and waved to her parents, instantly feeling foolish.

  They waved back as they fell out of sight, and then Matthew and Katherine were left together in 1745, where they belonged.

  CHAPTER 36

  A story by Ella Walker, age 11

  Clove Sutcliffe

  & the

  *Regency**

  ** Cyborg **

  Found this in your drawer when I was looking for headphones. Totally not judging, but did you write fanfiction about me when you were little? – C x

  NO, NO, NO! I THOUGHT I’D DESTROYED THIS. I have to go and have a very angry discussion with my mum. If you hear the sound of screaming, don’t worry, I’ll just be murdering her. Ella xx

  File note: Messages between CLOVE SUTCLIFFE and ELENORE WALKER

  LEEDS, ENGLAND, 2040

  Kate jumped in surprise when Ella and Clove arrived back in the motel room. “You’re back already? You were only gone thirty seconds!”

  “Time travel,” Ella explained. “I had a great time sneaking up on Clove before she knew I had a Skim.”

  “That’s how you were always so quiet in 1745!” Cl
ove said, with dawning realization, thinking of the time Ella had found Clove in the stables and interrupted her when she’d been trying to get Matthew’s DNA. It seemed so much longer ago than a few days. “This makes so much more sense.”

  “You two have a very … confusing timeline,” Kate said, squinting at them.

  Ella smiled. “It isn’t that complicated really. Clove and I are in love in the future, just like you and Matt are in love in the past.”

  “That isn’t simple at all,” Clove interjected. “And stop telling people that we’re in love! We’re not!”

  “Not yet,” Ella said with a cheeky grin. “And – speak for yourself.” She shot Clove a salacious look.

  Turning red, Clove let out a loud sigh, hoping that it conveyed the heavy weight that all of Ella’s drama was adding to her life.

  “Do you know my grandmothers?” Kate said, clearly eager to change the subject. “In your time?”

  Clove shook her head. “I didn’t even know you and Matt were my parents until a few weeks ago. I don’t know anyone at all from your side of the family.”

  “Oh,” Kate said in disappointment. “I wonder if they’re still alive in 2056. I hope they are. You would like them.”

  “Maybe you can introduce me to them?” Clove said. The question made her nervous, but Kate just broke into a brilliantly bright smile.

  “Of course! But … I think we should rescue Matt first. He’s been in prison for nine months now, after all.”

  “Right,” Clove said, and turned on her watch. “Spart, have you managed to find out anything from the prison’s system?”

  > I have successfully obtained access to the Wakefield network. Subject allocation “MATT”’s prison cell is number 345.

  Kate lit up with joy. “That’s on Spart’s map! I knew my ancient one would be out of date by now. We can Skim right into the room! Is Skim a verb?” she asked Ella. “Can you Skim through time? It should be. It sounds magical and scientific all at once.”

  Clove grinned to herself. She liked Kate a lot, especially now she wasn’t so sad. Instead, she was almost giddy with relief that they were so close to saving Matt.

  > 345 is a single occupancy cell, so you should be able to gain access and remove “MATT” from the premises without being observed.

  > The CCTV network was also decidedly simple to access. If I were more morally inclined, I might update the system for them.

  “You’re just used to technology decades more advanced,” Clove pointed out.

  > You are correct. By comparison, their vintage software is almost prehistoric.

  Ella choked, and everyone turned to her in surprise. “Nothing!” she said. “Nothing. It’s just … ‘vintage software’. There’s a human/cyborg Regency romance novel called that in my time. Not that I … er … read those kinds of things.” Ella flushed red and suddenly became very interested in the design of the curtains.

  “I definitely want to hear more about that later,” Clove told her. “But now is not the time. Kate, do you think this is going to work?”

  Kate nodded. “We should set the wormhole to arrive at night, so we know he’ll be in his cell.”

  Clove agreed. She sat down with Kate to make a plan, reluctantly looking away from the attractive shade of pink that Ella’s cheeks had turned.

  By the time their strategy was ready, it was midnight. They decided to wait until tomorrow, because Clove couldn’t remember how long it had been since she’d last had a proper night’s sleep, and Kate was still recovering from childbirth.

  Kate took one of the twin beds, so Clove and Ella were left with the other bed, which made Clove feel a little awkward. In the end, there was nothing to be nervous about. Ella kissed the tip of Clove’s nose, then fell asleep in seconds.

  Clove watched her for a few minutes, taking in the long curl of her eyelashes against her cheeks in the dim glow of the streetlights through the curtains. She didn’t think she was in love with Ella, but then she didn’t have much of a comparison. She did like Ella a lot, and she liked the thought that one day they might be a couple, as in sync with each other as KateandMatt or TomandJen.

  CloveandElla. EllaandClove. She liked the sound of it.

  There was still so much she didn’t know about her, though. Besides, how would it even work, having a girlfriend who lived in the future? You couldn’t get more long distance than that. Would they be able to message each other when Ella went back to her own time? Could the Skim send emails through time?

  “Matt,” Kate mumbled sadly in her sleep, and then rolled over and snorted out a dream-laugh. “My delicate flower,” she said affectionately.

  If Kate and Matt could make it work over all of the years they’d been together, then maybe Clove and Ella wouldn’t have a problem.

  Clove let herself drift into sleep.

  The next morning, Kate woke Clove up before six. “Can we go now?” she asked, as Clove blinked sleepily and tried not to breathe morning-breath all over the place. “I’ve been lying awake for hours and I know it’s still early, but I need my Matt back. Please.”

  Clove let go of Ella’s waist, which she’d somehow wrapped her arm around during the night. “All right,” she said, sitting up. “We can go. I need something to eat first, though.”

  Kate pushed a bowl of cereal into her lap.

  “Is this apple juice?” Clove asked, staring into the bowl.

  “Tell me about it!” Kate said, looking vindicated. “Matt doesn’t think it’s that weird, even though it’s so gross. But there’s still milk rationing because of the war.”

  Ella, who was somehow still asleep, rolled over and pushed her arm over Clove’s stomach, mumbling something incoherent. Clove patted her consolingly on the head and began eating.

  When they were ready to leave, Clove held Ella’s waist, then took Kate’s hand. Ella had entered the exact coordinates of Matt’s prison cell into the Skim, along with the time they wanted to arrive – about 1 a.m. that night. All the time jumps made Clove’s head spin.

  “Ready?” Ella asked.

  Clove took a deep breath and nodded.

  Ella pressed the Skim on her wrist, and they were all sucked into the wormhole in a mess of limbs and sparks of phosphenes.

  HM PRISON WAKEFIELD, ENGLAND, 2040

  Clove opened her eyes tentatively. Wherever they were, it was very dark.

  “No prison security against wormholes,” Ella whispered, shaking her head. “Amateurs.”

  Once Clove’s vision had adjusted to the light, she could make out a door in front of her. As Clove touched the handle, an alarm sounded − a harsh klaxon that echoed all around them. A beam of scalding bright light shone down from the ceiling to reveal a long hallway lined with rows of metal doors. Prison cells, Clove realized. Somehow they had arrived in the corridor instead of in Matt’s cell.

  “We’re on the wrong side of the door!” Clove had to yell to make herself heard over the blaring of the sirens.

  Ella grabbed Kate’s hand and dived for Clove. Then they were gone, twisting around in another wormhole. Seconds later they reappeared somewhere else dark. The alarm was still screaming.

  “Where are we now?” Kate shouted.

  “On the other side of the door!” Ella replied. As she was speaking, the alarms cut out, and she found herself yelling into a sudden silence. “Oops,” she whispered.

  Clove checked her watch, hoping Spart would have an explanation. “Spart, what’s going on? Can you shut down the security system?” If he didn’t, they would have only a matter of seconds to get Matt out before the guards arrived.

  She read his response off the screen.

  > I have succeeded in gaining control of the security system. I have cut off the CCTV feed for this floor. You’re not being recorded.

  > I have also adjusted the records to state that the alarm was activated in a different cell block, so no guards should investigate here.

  “Spart’s in the system,” Clove whispered to Kate and Ella. �
�We’re safe for now.”

  “Kate?” said a voice from the darkness.

  Clove turned on her watch’s torch. A sparse prison cell became visible, with a narrow bed along one wall, and a sink in one corner. There was a figure sitting up in the bed.

  “Matt!” Kate dived for the bed and the figure, wrapping her arms and legs around him. She pulled him into a kiss. Matt grabbed the back of her top in his fists so tightly that Clove could see the skin on his knuckles turn white. She widened her eyes in embarrassment at Ella, but Ella didn’t notice. She had her ear to the metal door of the cell, presumably listening for any sounds of movement outside.

  When Kate eventually let Matt go, he looked at Clove and Ella.

  “Here we go again,” Ella muttered, as Clove braced herself. She didn’t know if he would remember her or not. Kate remembered her past lives, but that didn’t mean Matt would.

  “Oh, this is—” Kate said, gesturing to Clove.

  “I know who you are,” Matt interrupted. He swallowed nervously. “Hello again, Clove. I haven’t seen you in three centuries.”

  “Hi,” she said. “It’s been a long time, Dad.”

  “You know who she is?” Kate asked. “How?” She couldn’t seem to stop running her hands over his arms, shoulders, through his hair.

  He kissed her again. “I’ve been waiting for you since the alarms went off,” he said. “It took me a couple of months to sift through my memories from 1745, but eventually I remembered Clove, and how she took me – me in 1745, I mean – to the future. I knew you’d come for me, eventually. Or I hoped, anyway. I knew you were trying to find me.”

  The idea of remembering a plan you’d been told three centuries earlier was so incredible that Clove wanted to ask a dozen follow-up questions, but this wasn’t the moment for a tearful reunion. “We should go, before the guards find us. Spart sent them on a wild-goose chase, but we don’t want to hang around, just in case.”