The Derring-Do Club and the Year of the Chrononauts (23 page)

There was a wave of murmured comments.

The Speaker of the House intervened: “Order!”

“I have been to the future, transported from a room to the same room, but seventy five years hence. I saw this very building in which I now stand from a distance and the sky was full of flying machines. I saw wonders I could not comprehend, devices and mechanisms beyond our understanding as a steam engine is worshipped by natives in our own far flung colonies and people… and misery and hardship in a world devastated by war.”

She paused; it was all too much as if the enormity of it was only now beginning to manifest itself.

She was prompted: “Go on”, “Tell us”, “Quiet”, “Let her speak.”

“There was a Great War, a World War that touched every land in the Empire with armies on every continent, navies on every sea, air machines in every sky and it involved every nation. It nearly destroyed everything. Millions – that’s
millions
– killed on the battlefields, bombs from the air, civilians – women and children – massacred. There were unstoppable land behemoths churning the mud across Europe, men tunnelling like animals to kill each other underground, metal tubes like undersea dreadnoughts plying the very oceans hunting merchant shipping like monstrous sharks. A whole generation of young men cut down like… like… a crop.”

No–one spoke now, not a whisper, as expressions betrayed every man’s inner struggle to comprehend this horror. Earnestine wanted to say more, to explain over and over until they understood, but she held her tongue.

The question was finally asked: “But, Miss, do you believe it?”

“How could I not when I saw it with my own eyes.”

Captain Caruthers came up and took her elbow, guiding her away.

“Lord Farthing,” said a voice behind her, “you ask us to surrender our hard won powers to this… committee.”

“My Lords, My Lords, please,” Lord Farthing commanded, his clear voice cutting through the hubbub. “We are not discussing the demise of this House, far from it. Just as we defer to the lower house upon occasion, we now defer to a higher chamber. This Chronological Committee was formed by the Crown and Government of the Empire for a particular task. We are simply following our own orders, though before we have made them.”

Another Lord jumped to his feet: “Lord Farthing, my Lord.”

“I give ground,” said Lord Farthing.

“My Lord, what you say is all very well, but there is a long standing legal precedent. Laws cannot be applied retroactively.”

“But the… excuse me.” Lord Farthing consulted his notes. “The Law of Retroactive Application as pertaining to Chronological Police Act of 1962 does make it so.”

“But it does not apply.”

“It does not apply
yet!
”

Lord Farthing’s turn of phrase struck Earnestine as belonging to Mrs Frasier.

“Gentlemen, Gentlemen,” Lord Farthing continued, “their desperate times – such desperate times – led them to desperate measures. They want to save the world. Our world. And who would not want that? Who stands here for destruction? Who stands for Death? Who stands for War? I most certainly do not. Do you? Or you? You Sir, do you?”

The man picked out, and his neighbours, shook and then bowed their heads.

“Of course not. And their desperate times will be our desperate times unless we act
now
in our own time. We are simply endorsing a decision that will be made. I ask you to vote for the motion, stand up for law and order and save our very future!”

A shout rang from the back: “This is a fait accompli!”

“No, Sir, it is not: it will be a
fate avoided
.”

As the Members of the House of Lords filed out to ‘vote with their feet’ through one door for ‘aye’ and another for ‘nay’, a small group gathered in a committee room: Captain Caruthers, Earnestine and a few others.

The room, although gloriously decorated, seemed Spartan in comparison to the great chamber of the Lords. Earnestine felt desperately tired as she waited. How could it take so long to count… but there had been hundreds of men packed into the cathedral–like space.

A clerk arrived with a note for Caruthers. He seemed shifty, his eyes looking in different directions as if he were permanently suspicious of everything and everybody.

“Major Dan,” the Captain said by way of explanation. He didn’t show it to Earnestine, but instead scrunched it up into his pocket.

“It’s on a knife edge, it could go either way,” said Lord Farthing as he entered. “Miss Deering–Dolittle, you performed splendidly.”

“Thank you, my Lord.”

“Ah, yes… yes, Mrs Frasier was right, you are a fine young lady. Weren’t you something to do with defeating that Austro–Hungarian business?”

“She was, my Lord,” said Caruthers.

“Nasty, nasty, that was a terrible business, but it wasn’t the end of the world, was it?”

“No, sir.”

“Whereas this is.”

The clerk with the lazy eye came in, bowed and handed Lord Farthing a slip of paper.

“Our future,” said Lord Farthing. “One wonders whether it is right to know, but nonetheless we must look. We have been shown the future in the hope of avoiding it and with this we might.”

He opened the folded page.

His face revealed nothing, his eyes merely showing that he read it, read it again and finally checked a third time, then he whooped and jumped off the ground.

“We have it, by Jove, we have it! The Laws of the Future take precedence over the laws of the past from this moment on. I did not believe we could pull it off, but we did. You did, my dear. You tipped the balance of the scales. We would have got there, don’t you doubt it, but this makes things so much easier, all above board and by the book.”

“Good news, my Lord,” said Earnestine.

“Yes, now we can begin the arrests in earnest.”

Mrs Arthur Merryweather

“Ness, we were so worried,” said Georgina as she led Earnestine to a seat. Her elder sister looked shattered and groggy. “You’ve been gone nearly a week.”

“A week, but I was only gone a day and a half.”

Finally, they guided Earnestine into the hallway of 12b Zebediah Row. Earnestine raised her head as if she didn’t recognize her own home. She seemed to shy away from the light, darker now that so few panes of red and blue stained glass remained. Just as the porch was boarded up, so Earnestine’s countenance seemed shuttered.

“Shall I get you a glass of water?” Charlotte asked.

“Brandy,” said Georgina. It did look like Earnestine was ill.

“I’ve Temporal Ague,” Earnestine answered, clearly reading Georgina’s expression.

“Temporal Ague?”

Charlotte backed away: “Is it catching?”

“Don’t be silly, Charlotte – brandy!”

“I was going.”

Charlotte went to the drinks cabinet and brought back the bottle of brandy.

“Glass, Lottie,” Georgina said, and then softly. “Is it catching?”

“No, it’s… because I’ve travelled in time,” said Earnestine.

Once Earnestine had taken a sip, and coughed, the colour seemed to come back to her cheeks. Thank heavens for medicinal alcohol, Georgina thought.

“What happened to the porch?” Earnestine asked.

Charlotte piped up: “It was–”

“Nothing to worry about,” Georgina said.

“It was an angry mob with pitchforks and everything, chanting, and out for blood–”

“Charlotte!”

“They shouted, woke up the whole neighbourhood.”

“Charlotte!”

“They said we were in league with the Chronological Committee. Gina was amazing.”

“Charlotte!!!”

Charlotte was quiet.

“Did that really happen?” Earnestine asked.

“I was amazing, yes,” said Georgina. “A lot has changed while you’ve been away.”

“They say a week is a long time in politics?”

“Yes.”

“A day in the future seems like an eternity,” Earnestine said. “A lot changes in the next seventy five years. Millions. They died in their millions… will die. In a Great War, the whole world was laid to waste. Every nation: the British Empire, Germany, France, the United States, Japan, every nation, and they just killed each other, and then there was starvation, disease, tuberculosis and the real killers like influenza. Whole communities just swept away.”

“Oh Ness.”

“This is what we have to look forward to if we don’t stop the conspiracy.”

“Then we’re joining forces with the Chronological Committee?”

“I don’t know.”

“With Mrs Frasier?”

“If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you.”

“Keep your head when all about you are losing theirs. Yes?”

“But I doubt myself when all men believe me.”

“Why are you quoting ‘If–’?”

“Mrs Frasier quoted it in the future.”

“It just means that, like you, she knows her Kipling.”

Earnestine hesitated: “She’s not telling us everything.”

Miss Charlotte

The doorbell rang.

“I’ll get it,” Charlotte shouted. She ran to the door and then came back looking shamefaced. There were Temporal Peelers behind her, tall and imposing, and when they parted, there was Mrs Frasier.

“Earnestine,” she said, “I’ve not seen you in such a long time.”

“It’s only been…” Earnestine looked at her fob watch. She still hadn’t changed it, so it made no sense. Half past nine: was that a late breakfast or a supper?

Mrs Frasier consulted her two fob watches: “Nearly a month for me, but less than a day for yourself, I believe. I thought I’d pop back and visit you for afternoon tea.”

“Afternoon tea?”

Mrs Frasier smiled: “Because of you, things have moved forward. We can begin the next phase.”

“I see,” said Earnestine, her lips tightening.

“Tea then,” said Mrs Frasier, and then she raised her voice: “Jane, Jane… tea, chop–chop.”

“Can we have cake?” Charlotte asked.

“Of course, Lottie,” said Mrs Frasier. “It’ll be a proper little feast, all of the Derring–Do Club together again. In the drawing room I think.”

Mrs Frasier swept past, her burgundy dress trailing the floor. The others had no choice but to follow.

“Still got that picture in your bag I see,” said Mrs Frasier.

“I beg your pardon?” Earnestine said.

Mrs Frasier pointed to the gap in the wall: “Gina?”

“Oh, yes, I forgot,” said Georgina. “It’s in my… how did you know?”

Mrs Frasier made a little writing gesture in the air.

Jane bought the tea, a pot and the best china on a metal tray.

Mrs Frasier took charge: “Thank you, Jane.”

She sat; they all sat, except for Earnestine.

“I’ll be Mother,” said Mrs Frasier. She poured: lemon for Earnestine, milk for Georgina and Charlotte, and two lumps deposited into Georgina’s with the silver tongs. “And lemon for me.”

They took their tea, blew gently on the surface to create ripples that spread outwards.

“Such a good picture too,” said Mrs Frasier. “All of us together at the theatre: the Captain and the Lieutenant, Uncle, and then
Earnestine
, Georgina and Charlotte. Did we count the men then? I think we did, even then. The Derring–Do Club.”

“You’re not a member of the Derring–Do Club,” said Earnestine.

“Of course I am,” said Mrs Frasier. “You really are such a silly little girl, Earnestine.”

“I am not a little girl.”

“And petulant too.”

“Who are you?”

“I am Mrs Frasier, of course.”

“We’ll find out what you’re up to and put a stop to it.”

“You didn’t.”

“We will.”

“So much fire, so little wisdom,” said Mrs Frasier, not unkindly. “You’ll join us.”

“I will not!” said Earnestine.

“Yes, you will, because I did,” said Mrs Frasier with a smile. “We have so much in common, you and I. You see, I’m Mrs Marcus Frasier now, but my name is Earnestine too–”

“That’s my name?”

“Yes, I’m Earnestine Frasier, née Deering–Dolittle.”

Chapter XIV

Mrs Frasier

She smiled at the three sisters and their shocked faces. Earnestine – the younger Earnestine – looked utterly aghast, amusingly so; while the other two, Georgina and Charlotte, looked from their elder sister to their… more elder sister and back again.

Mrs Frasier relished Earnestine’s startled reaction. She knew she shouldn’t. She should feel sympathy for this young lady. Mrs Frasier did, after all, know what was in store for her.

She took a calm sip of her tea, tasting the sharp tang of lemon.

“Yes, Earnestine,” she said, “I was you, Earnestine Deering–Dolittle, and you will be me, Mrs Marcus Frasier.”

“No, it can’t be,” cried Earnestine.

Mrs Frasier stood, took two decisive strides right up to Earnestine. Nose to nose, they had the same angle and shape making an even ‘V’ between them. She put her hand upon her head and shifted it across. They were the same height. She pulled her earlobes to signify that they were identical apart from the slight elongation caused by the older version’s heavy earrings, but their ears each had the same shell–like appearance.

Mrs Frasier stepped back and smiled.

“You have a gold tooth,” Earnestine said. “I don’t.”

“You don’t…
yet.
”

Earnestine put out her arm behind her, feeling for a chair, but it wasn’t positioned straight on. Georgina leaned in and guided her down.

“No, no…” said Earnestine.

“You see, we are on the same side… in fact, we are the same side.”

Georgina glanced back and forth, comparing eye colour, hair, shape of chin, everything. Mrs Frasier let her examine fully, knowing that Georgina was finding it suddenly obvious – of course it was. If one sees two people who look similar, perhaps one thinks of a family relationship, but one never for a moment thinks they are the same person.

Still, she had a part to play.

“Now, if I remember rightly, we have some foolish questions and then I went… I
will go
and attend to certain matters.”

“What foolish questions?” Charlotte asked.

“Quite.”