They drank and conversed of little until the pea soup arrived, ladled into their plates from a grand silver-plated tureen. They got a great deal of attention from the waiter, as they were the only people in the place.
‘Now, which of us is going to start?’ Angela said, once she had tasted the soup, grimaced and then doggedly drunk a small portion of it. ‘Are you going to tell me what happened on the other side of the pergola? Or am I going to tell you what it is? I would prefer the first. Then I can explain the second much better. You must understand that I don’t really know what is there. I give you a solemn promise that I will fulfil my side of the bargain.’
Rosie drank a spoonful of soup. ‘Just answer one question first,’ she said. ‘Is that a time machine?’
‘Good guess,’ Angela said. ‘But not exactly. It moved you somewhere. Relatively past or future I do not know. But not our past or future, I hope.’
‘There are lots of pasts and futures?’
‘No. Only one. That is the problem. One of the two I’ve noticed, at least.’
‘What’s the other one?’
Angela dabbed her lips. ‘Well, you were sticky coming back, you were wearing rings and you saw a shadow.’
‘What does that mean?’
‘I don’t know. I’m working on it; it’s why I am not going to hide anything from you. I need your help. I have to figure out what has happened. Rather more is at stake than your current status with your parents, serious matter though that is. Besides, it’s not as if you can tell anyone else. So, what were you doing in that cellar? The first time, I mean.’
‘I was looking for Jenkins. I thought he might have got himself stuck there. I pulled back the old curtain in case he was behind it.’
‘I see. Then you went through.’
‘Just for a moment. I saw this boy, and he bowed at me, and then I came back. That was all, really.’
‘This was Jay?’
‘So I discovered later. How did you know that?’
‘Then you went through again. When? On Thursday?’
‘Wednesday. This time I was there until late at night, but I seem to have been away until dawn here.’
‘Ah!’ Angela seemed very interested in that. ‘Go on. What did you see this time?’
‘Wonderful things! Everybody was so nice to me. They acted as if I was terribly important. There was a super party, and I was a sort of guest of honour.’
‘Who was your host?’
‘Lady Catherine. She is the Lady of Willdon, and awfully rich.’ Rosie peered at her over the table. ‘She looked a bit like you, except that she was younger, and wore a wig. She was beautiful.’
‘I’m flattered.’
‘It was odd, though. Everybody made a fuss of her house, but it was really very simple. Pretty and big, but simple. And they were all in awe of things like her cups and glasses, but they were old and scratched and a lot of them looked as though they’d come from Woolworth’s. We’ve got nicer ones at school.’
‘Tell me about the party.’
‘There was food, which they thought was terribly grand but was quite simple as well. And everyone asked why I wasn’t married. I heard some of the oddest music I have ever come across. And I met this really handsome man called Pamarchon.’
‘You’re blushing.’
‘And everyone called me Lady Rosalind and acted as though being able to read and speak English was amazing.’
‘What did they speak?’
‘The ones I talked to most spoke English, although like it was a foreign language. The others... I don’t know. I began to recognise a few words after a while, and even managed to say a few things. It’s quite basic, you know. Not like French or Latin. It sounded a bit like English put through a mangle, if you see what I mean. Or a badly tuned radio where you can almost make out what is being said.’
‘You seem to have had an interesting evening.’
‘It was magical. Wonderful. I danced, and everybody admired me, and it was lovely.’
‘I’m glad you had a good time. I’m surprised you came back.’
‘I was going into the forest after Pamarchon. I’d upset him, although I don’t know how I did it, and I wanted to apologise. I got a bit lost, and then I found Jenkins and saw the light. Saw the light. That sounds silly. But you know what I mean. I thought I’d better take the chance while it was there. Last time it had vanished.’
‘That was my fault. I’m sorry about that. I shut it down to stop anyone going through. I didn’t know you already had. Anyway, you decided to abandon your lover for the sake of your homework. Faithless mistress you are!’
Rosie blushed scarlet. ‘Oh, don’t say that! Please! Whatever will people think? Was that a quotation, by the way?’
‘You sound worried.’
‘They’re always quoting things. It is a bit annoying.’
‘What do they quote?’
‘The Story. It seems to be a bit like a cross between the Bible and the Encyclopaedia Britannica. The thing which really worried me is that they call the place Anterwold.’
‘Well, they would.’
‘But that’s what Professor Lytten...’
‘Indeed. I built it out of his head.’
‘Seriously?’
‘Seriously.’
Rosie digested this surprising statement for a few moments. ‘Go on, then. What is that thing? I mean, really?’
‘It is a machine which I invented, designed and built. It is a way of gaining access to a variety of realities. As I say, at the moment it leads to a world created from Henry’s imagination.’
‘Does he know?’
‘No, and I’d prefer it if you didn’t tell him. He might be offended.’
‘What do you mean by variety of realities?’
‘It means that for any given state of the universe, there are an infinite number of other possibilities. For example, we came to this restaurant and you ordered chicken. You could have ordered fish. A universe where you did order fish is a viable alternative to this one. One where you ordered roast Brontosaurus is more distant and more difficult to access.’
Rosie’s eyes narrowed. ‘So?’
‘Anterwold is one of those variants. A very distant one, I hope. To get to it, the number of different events must be gigantic. That was why I chose it. I didn’t want any confusion with the line of events which leads from here to my future. Otherwise it would be difficult to study properly. Are you confused?’
‘Very. Especially the “my future” part. Do you mean that?’
‘Yes. I am born — you notice I don’t say “I will be born”; it is an important distinction — in a little over two hundred years’ time. I do hope you are not going to say that I am mad.’
‘I’ve been into your invention,’ Rosie pointed out. ‘But I don’t rate your chances with anyone else.’
‘You may be correct. That’s why I don’t want you to mention any of this to Henry. Girls’ secret. It will be a lot easier if you simply take my word for it. Just as the future is determined by the past, so the past is determined by the future. Where I come from is the future and I want it to stay like that. What Anterwold is I do not yet know.’
‘So what is now? The present.’
‘Ah,’ said Angela airily, waving her fork in the air. ‘Nothing.’
‘Nothing?’
‘Mathematically speaking. An abstract concept. Now is just what lies between yesterday and today, just as zero lies between minus one and one. From the point of view of the future, the present is the past. From the point of...’
‘Yes. I get the idea,’ Rosie interrupted. ‘But it’s not nothing. It really is now.’