TIME QUAKE (45 page)

‘Oh, Kate,’ said her mother. ‘I expect so much of you, don’t I?’

And Mrs Dyer put her arms around Kate and Milly and then Sam joined them and they all opened their arms to let him join the circle and the next moment they were all there, clinging silently on to each other, their hearts brimming over with some unnamed emotion. It only lasted a moment.

‘Why’s everyone crying? This is very silly,’ said Sam, sniffing.

Dr Dyer laughed and ruffled Sam’s hair. ‘Human beings
are
very silly. Didn’t you know?’

Mrs Dyer squeezed Kate’s hand. ‘I knew this would be a perfect day.’

And then it was over. Sam and Sean and the twins went off to clamber over the cannon and Milly wriggled out of Kate’s grasp and started to crawl over the damp clover. With the last ounce of her strength Kate willed the memory of that moment to return and she felt the clutch of arms and warm breath on her cheeks and hard chins resting on her hair. And with the power of her imagination, for that was all that was left to her, she placed Peter, who she knew was so often lonely, and Gideon, who had lost so many brothers and sisters, firmly into the centre of that circle of belonging, too. Just for a moment. And then, as the scene started to slip from her grasp, she said goodbye to the people that she loved and who loved her, for she knew that she was now beyond help.
Goodbye
, she said.
Thank you. I love you
.

Kate was going in and out of consciousness. ‘BELIEVE!’ whispered Dr Pirretti. ‘Remember what the Marquis de Montfaron said. Nothing is ever lost . . .’

Kate murmured something which Dr Pirretti could not catch.

‘We did not mean to invent time travel,’ said Dr Pirretti. ‘Who would have wanted to open such a Pandora’s box?’

Kate wanted to reply. She wanted to say that after Pandora let out all the evils of the world, Hope still remained. But she did not have the strength.

Dr Pirretti’s voice was unsteady. ‘I swear that I shall not rest until I have undone the harm we have done to the universe. I shall never forget your sacrifice. Can you hear me, Kate? Kate? KATE!’

But by now the only sound that Kate could hear was the faltering murmur of her own heart beating in her temples. And soon, too weak to resist any longer, even that was lost to her as the precious, unique structure that had been Kate Dyer was swept away by the ungovernable waters of Time.

C
HAPTER
T
WENTY
-S
EVEN

Mr Carmichael’s Homework

In which the Tar Man lends some welcome
support and Peter is reminded of the usefulness
of homework

No sooner had he put his hands to his ears than Peter realised what he had done. He stood on tiptoe, trying to see Gideon. He immediately held out his hand for Kate again.

‘Sorry!’ he shouted over the clocks. ‘Give me your hand. We’ve got to help Gideon—’

But out of the corner of his eye he saw the two jackets they had draped over Kate drop to the floor as if balloons had been pricked beneath them. Peter froze, his hand still extended for her to take. Then he slowly picked up the heavy jackets one by one and stared in disbelief at the empty floor. He ignored the commotion coming from the other side of the room and searched frantically all around him for any sign of Kate. The air was thick with the chiming of an army of clocks whose relentless pendulums swung, measuring out the seconds since he had last seen Kate. He ran wildly through the crowd, pushing people out of the way, continuing to call out for her, yet all the while somehow knowing he had
lost her. An invisible bond had been cut, a candle blown out. But, of course, he could not accept it.

‘Kate!’ he screamed, not caring what people thought. ‘Kate!’

He ran towards the water clock hoping to find that she was helping Gideon with Lord Luxon. People were in a state of high agitation.

‘Did you see it? Am I dreaming?’

‘He just vanished! He vanished off the face of the earth!’

‘Should we call the police?’

‘Has a crime been committed?’

‘He said he was the ghost of Lord Luxon come back to haunt us!’

‘Did you know him?’ a woman asked Gideon. ‘You looked so angry!’

Gideon was backing away. Peter stood next to the water clock trying to take it all in. Kate had gone. Lord Luxon had gone. Gideon glanced at Peter and immediately understood that something terrible had happened. Peter’s face was ashen. He needed to get him away.

‘’Twas a magician’s trick, that is all,’ Gideon called to the crowd as he pulled Peter towards the long gallery. ‘He has good timing, has he not, to vanish at the very moment the hour strikes? Doubtless he will be back soon to beg for your pennies . . .’

Gideon took hold of Peter’s arm and led him firmly out of the crowd before anyone got any ideas about stopping them. He marched Peter through the long gallery and then into a corridor and then, when they came across a narrow wooden staircase, roped off and labelled
No Entry
he unhooked the rope and pushed Peter through. They climbed up five flights of stairs to the top of the building and found themselves on a vast roof terrace that stretched the breadth of Tempest House. There was a carved stone
balustrade and Peter slumped onto the floor and rested his elbows on the sun-warmed stone, panting a little after all the stairs. Gideon sat down next to him.

He waited for Peter to speak. From the movements of his back Gideon could tell he was crying. Suddenly Peter started to hit the balustrade with clenched fists.

‘I let go of her!’ he cried. ‘And now she’s gone . . .’

He felt Gideon’s hand on his shoulder.

‘Then we will look for her,’ said Gideon.

‘How can we do that when she’s moving so fast she’s invisible?’

‘Then . . . Mistress Kate will have to find
us
.’

Peter sat up and looked directly at Gideon, his eyes red from crying. ‘She would have found us by now!’ he shouted. ‘Don’t you understand? For her, it’s probably been a hundred years since she disappeared. If she was going to come back she would have done by now. I promised not to let go of her . . . and I did. It’s all my fault!’

Gideon looked taken aback by Peter’s outburst and covered his own face with his hands for a moment. Peter saw that the truth of the situation had sunk in. Gideon’s blue eyes had misted over.

‘So Mistress Kate is lost for ever? She is beyond our help?’

Peter nodded. ‘And wherever she’s gone, I think she’s taken Lord Luxon with her.’

They both looked out through the gaps in the balustrade. The sun shone down on the water gardens and on a vast London neither of them recognised. Time passed. The two of them felt punch-drunk, overwhelmed, unable to take in the desperate reality of their situation. The hum of conversation drifted up to them. Sightseers enjoyed the warm weather and admired Tempest House and its magnificent gardens. After a while two uniformed attendants
appeared on the lawn and Peter and Gideon watched them knock canes into the turf around the anti-gravity machine and tie striped tape around them. The two of them began to get thirsty, but still they did not move. For a while Gideon looked in fascination at the cars moving in and out of the car-park but finally grew tired of it and lay flat on his back, preferring to stare at the cloudless sky instead. Peter sat cross-legged looking towards London. This isn’t my home, he thought. Once, in another world, I lived in southwest London in a house overlooking Richmond Green, with my mum and dad . . . And I had no idea how lucky I was.

More time passed. It was Peter who broke the silence first. ‘Gideon, look!’ he exclaimed, pointing beyond the great arch that marked the end of the gardens towards London.

Gideon heaved himself off the ground and stood up painfully. He scanned the cityscape that stretched as far as the eye could see. Peter heard Gideon’s sharp intake of breath as he saw it.

‘I had hoped never to see such a thing again . . .’

A glowing, billowing mass pulsated over perhaps a quarter of the city on the eastern side. The sky had grown very dark over London, even though here, at Tempest House, all was blue sky and sunshine.

Below them they heard frightened cries and when they looked down at the people on the terrace, they saw that everyone was looking in the same direction.

‘Another time quake!’ someone shouted.

People began to hurry away from the house. They heard the sound of engines revving and tyres crunching on gravel. Soon there was a mass exodus and the drive was full of visitors and staff. It was not long before the car-park had emptied and the gardens were deserted. On the horizon, lurid green lightning streaked across the city like a skeleton’s fingers. As Peter watched, a strong
sense of unreality came over him. He did not even feel frightened any more.

‘Kate was right,’ said Peter. ‘We’ve damaged Time – and who is going to mend it? Even if Lord Luxon can’t cause any more damage, the time quakes aren’t going to stop. It’s too late.’

Gideon looked as sad as Peter had ever seen him. ‘Come,’ he said. ‘I grow weary of this place. I need to find you food and water and a roof for your head.’

What’s the point? Peter was about to say. We might just as well lie down now and wait for it all to be over. We’re all alone, with no means of getting home, in a world that’s falling apart in front of our eyes! What’s the point of doing
anything
? It’ll only prolong the agony . . . But he bit his lip. He felt suddenly ashamed. For the first time he considered what Gideon might be feeling.

‘
We
need to find food and water and a roof for
our
heads,’ said Peter.

The time quake was still raging over London. The strange wind that emanated from it came in violent gusts that blew the hair from their faces and, although it was early afternoon, there was so little light now it seemed more like dusk. They had left an empty Tempest House and now not a soul was to be seen in the gardens. Even the birds had stopped singing; the only sound was that of the splashing of fountains and an ominous roaring, like an angry tide, rolling towards them from the city. Gideon suggested that they walk away from London, deeper into Surrey. Perhaps Abinger Hammer, the village where Gideon had lived as a child, still existed in this world. Gideon suddenly stopped. He wheeled around and stood, alert and watchful. Peter looked at him. He was put in mind of a fox sniffing the air to see if hounds were on its trail.

‘What is it?’

Gideon pointed. A large white vehicle, a van of some kind, had come into view at the opposite side of the park. It was heading towards the house. It was still some way away and, unwilling to draw any attention to themselves, Gideon pulled Peter behind the nearest cover, which happened to be a large barrel. It was painted white, and contained a clipped bay tree. They crouched down behind the barrel and peeped out. The van approached the house, drove right past it and continued onto the lawn.

‘They’re heading for the anti-gravity machine!’ said Peter incredulously. ‘But why? Why do they want to shift a broken machine now, when they don’t even know what it is and when half of London is in meltdown?’

Gideon started to smile. ‘I know who it is.’

Peter looked at him, puzzled, and then the penny dropped.

‘Do you really think he’d come back?’

The Tar Man jumped out of the van and ordered the driver to direct his headlights at the anti-gravity machine. From their hiding place, some fifty metres away, Peter and Gideon saw him kick over the canes, take hold of the trunk of the birch tree, and drag it away. Then the Tar Man called to the driver to help him. They picked up the heavy weight between them and loaded it onto the back of the vehicle. The driver got back into the van and started up the engine.

‘Surely you’re going to tell him we’re here?’ hissed Peter.

Gideon put his finger to his lips and continued to watch.

The Tar Man did not get in the van but slowly turned around in a full circle. Then he stepped into the yellow beam of the van’s headlights, so that he was spotlit for all to see, cupped his hands to his mouth, and shouted: ‘Gid-e-on! Gid-e-on!’ till it echoed all around the valley.

Gideon laughed out loud. ‘Upon my word, Peter, Nathaniel is full of surprises!’

‘
Nathaniel?
’

‘It is his name.’