TIME QUAKE (2 page)

When Peter told me that the Tar Man had lost possession of the device to my former master, Lord Luxon, I was afraid. For I knew Lord Luxon’s heart better, I think, than any man alive. I understood his parched soul and how far his thirst might take him. He was not always thus. Once, long ago, and for no personal gain, he saved my life. But now Lord Luxon was that most dangerous of creatures, a good man who has turned bad
.

Gideon Seymour
Lincoln’s Inn Fields, 1763

C
HAPTER
O
NE

Manhattan

In which Lord Luxon takes a
fancy to New York

The sun shone down on the remarkable island of Manhattan, whose thrusting castles – too tall and numerous by far to be the stuff of fairy tales – held gravity in contempt as they vied to be the first to reach the sky. Great alleys of skyscrapers seemed to strut across the city, catching the rays of the dazzling sun and casting vast shadows behind them. It was August, and the air was heavy with an intense, moist heat and those foolish enough to leave the cool shelter of the giant buildings for the scorching street would soon find their shirts sticking to their backs and their hair plastered to their foreheads. More than one New Yorker, turning off Sixth Avenue into the comparative calm of Prince Street, found their gaze sidling over to an individual whose stance, as well as his dress, marked him out, even in SoHo, as somewhat unusual.

The buildings were smaller here, on a more human scale, a mere six storeys home of them with iron staircases zigzagging down towards the sidewalks that, mid-afternoon, were already in deep shade. While he waited for his valet to hail a cab, Lord
Luxon stood in front of an Italian baker’s shop, its windows piled high with crusty loaves baked in the form of oversized doughnuts, in order to observe his reflection in the dusty window. He adjusted his posture. People were strolling by in various stages of undress, wearing shades and shorts and brightly coloured T-shirts, as they darted from one air-conditioned building to another. Lord Luxon, however, appeared cool and immaculate in an ivory three-piece suit, cut expertly from the lightest of cloths, which skimmed the contours of his slim figure. He assumed his habitual stance: legs apart, one arm neatly behind his back, the other resting lightly on his silver-tipped ebony cane. He consciously lengthened the muscles at the back of his neck so that he held his head at precisely that angle which announced, eloquently, that here was an English aristocrat, born of an ancient line of English aristocrats, and accustomed to all that life can afford, in whatever century he happened to find himself. He observed his silhouette and congratulated himself on discovering a tailor of such exceptional talent in an age when the male of the species seemed to have forgotten both the art and pleasure of self-adornment. And how curious it was that although well over two centuries separated his tailors, their respective premises, on London’s Savile Row, were but a few dozen paces from one another.

A middle-aged tourist, his sagging belly bulging over the waist of his shorts, stopped to stare for a moment at this vision in cream linen. Lord Luxon eyed him with distaste and thought of his cedar wood chests in 1763, specially imported from Italy, and the layers of exquisite silks they contained, the frothy lace, his embroidered, high-heeled shoes, his tricorn hats and brocade waistcoats, his dress wigs, his rouge and his black beauty spots in the shape of crescent moons. It was disappointing, he reflected, that twenty-first-century man’s sense of fashion had not kept pace with the
truly staggering progress he had observed in every other walk of life. Although the current fashion for body piercing, tattoos and hair dyes in the wildest of colours
was
tempting – indeed, it might be amusing to have his navel pierced and a ruby, or perhaps a diamond or two, inserted . . . Lord Luxon suddenly laughed out loud, causing the staring tourist to make even less effort to conceal his curiosity. Faith, he could even have his own coat of arms tattooed on his shoulder! How deliciously unseemly!

Lord Luxon looked around him, still smiling. What a transformation this new millennium had worked on him. Little wonder, he thought, that the Tar Man, his errant henchman, had become so attached to this age of wonders. Deprived of the means to travel through time, Blueskin’s own century must now feel like a prison . . . Lord Luxon recalled the Tar Man’s expression, his rage and desperation and horror, as he realised that his master had stolen the ingenious time device and that, like the rest of humanity, he was once more limited to his own short span of history. Lord Luxon let a shiver of pity pass over him like a cold draught. And yet, extraordinary though he was, the Tar Man had disappointed him in the end. Just as Gideon had done. But what did that matter to him now?

Lord Luxon closed his eyes and listened to the roar of the city and sensed its throbbing pulse. How astonishing to witness what Britain’s wayward little colony had become! Those first American seeds had yielded a crop so bountiful it defied belief! This city took his breath away! It was as if the Manhattan sunshine had burned away the cloud of world-weariness and boredom that in his own time so rarely left him. Here he felt an energy and an excitement and a zest for life surging through him which he could scarcely contain. Here, his convalescent soul was regaining its appetite: sops of bread and milk were no longer enough. Now he wanted
meat
. He believed that he had found his purpose on this earth and if he succeeded in his quest, which, by all the gods, he was determined to do, his name would be shot across the skies in eternal glory . . .

The annoying little man continued to stare at him and Lord Luxon glanced at the tourist’s dun-coloured excuse for a shirt, wrinkled and stained with sweat, and decided to acknowledge his presence with a disdainful bow, putting one foot in front of the other and pulling out a handkerchief from his top pocket as he did so.

‘Good day to you,’ Lord Luxon said. ‘Upon my word, sir, your very countenance makes the heat seem less tolerable, if that were possible . . .’

‘Excuse me?’

‘Why, on an afternoon such as this, it is difficult even to conceive of the notion of ice, or snow – although I heartily recommend that you try . . .’

An angry cloud scudded across the man’s red and shiny face and he did not reply, not quite understanding Lord Luxon’s meaning but detecting more than a hint of disrespect in his arrogant, peacock’s attitude. He scowled and clenched his fists and took half a step towards Lord Luxon, but immediately found himself confronted by a ruddy-cheeked man, with a black beard and pigtail and a chest the size of a small ship, who planted himself squarely between the overheated tourist and his master and proceeded to fold his arms as if it were a threat. The tourist took one look at Lord Luxon’s lackey in his worn white trousers and braces, his curious crimson jacket and his bulldog stare, and fled in the direction of Sixth Avenue, unable to decide if he had imagined the low growl or not. When he felt it was safe to do so, the breathless tourist looked back and saw that on each level of the emergency
stairs that climbed up the red-brick building behind Lord Luxon, there was a man, seemingly standing to attention, in white trousers and military-style crimson jacket. ‘Who are these guys?’ he said under his breath, and found that all the hairs had risen on the back of his neck.

C
HAPTER
T
WO

A Spent Rose

In which the party struggles to know what
to do about Kate’s affliction and
Gideon brings some promising news

The hot summer of 1763 was drawing to a close and there was something in the air, a quality to the light, that made the residents of Lincoln’s Inn Fields cherish every last warm evening before the first chill of autumn sent them scurrying indoors. Only a few streets away, amidst the raucous cries of street hawkers and the incessant thunder of wagons, starving children begged; soldiers, mutilated in the recent war, drowned their sorrows in gin, and, for the sake of a few coins, footpads beat their victims senseless up dark alleyways. But here, in this civilised London square, all was calm and comfort and respectability. Who could have guessed that behind these fine façades could be heard the first rumblings of a cataclysmic storm that threatened to destroy all before it?

Dusk was approaching and the trees in the square were thick with songbirds which trilled and warbled in the rapidly fading light. A blackbird perched, sentry-like, on a tall, wrought iron gate that graced the frontage of an imposing house to the west of
Lincoln’s Inn Fields. The sweet birdsong drifted into Sir Richard Picard’s first-floor drawing room, carried in on wafts of air made fragrant by the honeysuckle that scrambled beneath the open window. Inside the room were to be found Parson Ledbury and two children from the twenty-first century, although their appearance gave no clue as to the century they called their own – except that, under closer scrutiny, their shoes seemed better suited to a modern-day sports field than the elegance of an eighteenth-century drawing room. Kate Dyer lay stretched out on her belly, on a couch beneath the window, her red hair vivid against her sprigged green dress. She supported her chin in one cupped hand whilst with the other she tugged absent-mindedly at the sleeve of a discarded jacket draped over the back of a chair. The boy it belonged to, Peter Schock, was sitting at a circular table in front of a chessboard. Opposite him, white wig awry, sat a portly man of the cloth who emptied a glass of claret in one gulp and set it back on the table with a bang that jolted Kate temporarily out of her reverie.

In the middle of setting out the chess pieces for a return match with the redoubtable Parson Ledbury, the young Peter Schock glanced over at his friend, a white knight suspended in mid-air between finger and thumb. Kate’s eyelids kept sliding shut but as soon as they closed she would jerk them open again through sheer effort of will. Another day spent searching for the Tar Man – and, hopefully, the duplicate anti-gravity machine which Kate’s father and the scientist, Dr Pirretti, had built – had left Peter frustrated and anxious. But Kate was utterly wrung out and exhausted – as, it seemed to Peter, she so often was. Gideon and Sir Richard had been keen to continue the search but when they noticed Kate’s white face, they had insisted that the Parson take the children home to rest.

‘Go to bed, Kate, before we have to carry you up,’ Peter said.

Kate shook her head and pushed herself up. ‘No. I want to see Parson Ledbury thrash you first.’

Peter stuck out his tongue at her.

‘Now if
you
were to challenge me, Mistress Kate, it would be a different matter entirely,’ said the Parson.

‘All right,’ she replied. ‘I will. Afterwards.’

Kate laughed and slumped back onto the overstuffed sofa, pulling out the flounces of her dress that were badly spattered, she noticed, with mud and other unmentionable substances from the gutters of Covent Garden. She should really get changed, but not yet . . . not just yet. Perhaps when she had rested for a little longer. The familiar, piercing cry of swallows made her turn her head to look through the open window. As her eyes followed the birds swooping and diving through the air in search of midges she felt a pang of homesickness. How often had she and her brothers and sisters stood in their Derbyshire farmyard and watched swallows build their nests under the eaves. Kate wondered if she would ever do so again but instantly scolded herself for even doubting it. So she forced herself to look out at the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral, whose silhouette, rising up into the golden evening sky beyond Lincoln’s Inn Fields, spoke to her so powerfully of hope. She sighed heavily and another strand of hair tumbled down over her face.

The Parson beat Peter in three moves but by then Kate was fast asleep and even his victory cry did not wake her. The two players looked first at Kate and then at each other.

‘I don’t think Kate likes being alone right now,’ whispered Peter.

‘I do not think it is a question of her being alone,’ said the Parson, endeavouring to lower his booming voice a few notches. ‘Rather, it seems to me that Mistress Kate is frightened of being separated from
you
. Bringing up the rear of the party, I observed
her tagging behind you like a lamb to its mother, growing ever more anxious as the crowds grew denser.’

This was not what Peter wanted to hear. He had noticed it, too. A frown etched itself onto his forehead.

‘I saw a few people staring at her today. If she carries on fading at this rate I think it’s going to be really noticeable. She can still get away with it – just – but not for very much longer.’

‘Alas, I am of your opinion, Master Peter. Her condition has worsened since her return to this time.’

‘I don’t get why it’s happening. I’ve travelled through time as much as she has. It’s not as if she keeps blurring back or anything . . . It’s not like the first time. And I haven’t blurred once.’

‘Ay, the phenomenon is the queerest thing I ever saw and I cannot for the life of me account for it. Upon my word, how you, Peter, continue to be in rude health while your companion droops and fades like a spent rose is quite beyond my comprehension.’

‘Do you think she’ll get better if we get her back home?’ asked Peter.

‘I am certain of it, my dear boy,’ said the Parson, unconvincingly. ‘But for her own safety I fear she must soon be restricted to going out under cover of darkness . . .’

‘What! Am I becoming a vampire now?’

Kate was suddenly fully awake. She shot up from the sofa and stood facing Parson Ledbury accusingly. The Parson stared vacantly back at her.