"The Original is now on the lookout for such an impossible maiden. He's been primed to investigate the background of every girl he encounters. He will even hand to me a written report for each!"
Edward Oxford laughed; a brittle, edgy sound.
"You're a sly dog, my Lord Marquess, that's for sure! I must admit, though, I'm impressed with your resourcefulness."
"I'm happy to help. I'll leave you to work on your repairs now, but a little later, I insist that you'll sit and take wine with me. Agreed?"
"Agreed."
Oxford spent the evening with his host, slept, then, in the morning, jumped into the air and didn't come down until January 1, 1840.
"Six months to go before the queen gets it, and things are hotting up!" announced Beresford.
"Really?" rasped Oxford. His eyes seemed to be focused elsewhere. "Tell me."
"Our man is now working in the Hog in the Pound on Oxford Street. As his most faithful customer, A. W. Smith, I followed him there. My fellow drinkers don't realise that I'm the famed Mad Marquess!"
"You're famous now?"
"Yes, Edward; though I suppose `infamous' would be more accurate. I have quite a following of young bloods! Anyway, that's beside the point. As I was saying, the Original is now at the Hog in the Pound. The tavern is owned by a chap named Joseph Robinson, who lives in Battersea. Every week, he ships a group of families there from his borough for a knees-up. They call themselves the Battersea Brigade, and are supposedly a protest group opposed to the building of the power station."
"What power station?"
"The Battersea Power Station; one of Brunel's rather more controversial projects."
"That makes no sense at all," objected the time traveller. "Construction of the Battersea Power Station didn't begin until the 1920s-and it had nothing to do with Brunel!"
"Um. I may be to blame for that."
"What do you mean?"
"You've told me a great many things about the future, Edward, and I promised to keep my mouth shut. I'm afraid, however, that there was a night back in '37 when I was rather the worse for wear at the Athenaeum Club. The engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, was there-"
"I remember that night," put in Oxford.
"Well, I'm sorry to say that I blabbed rather," said Beresford. "I told Brunel about the way your people extract power from the ground. I even remembered the phrase you used to describe it: `geothermal energy.' He was absolutely besotted by the idea, and before the year was out, he'd proposed the Battersea Experimental Power Station."
"Damn you, Henry! It's bad enough that I'll return to a future without Victoria; now you've made it one where geothermal energy has existed three hundred years ahead of its time. Don't you realise the only thing that can prevent me from totally unravelling is to return to an environment which is at least in some way familiar?"
"I'm sorry. It was a slip."
"A bad one! But tell me about this protest group-why are they significant?"
"Because the moment the Original joined the staff, he and the Brigade hit it off like nobody's business! They love the little bugger!"
"You mean he finally has friends!"
"Yes! And seven of them have daughters, all the right age to qualify as the possible mother of the Original's wife. Any one of them could have the `Oxford birthmark' on her chest!"
"Not necessarily. It doesn't appear in every generation."
"But if it's there, finding it would be a distinct advantage; instead of having to follow all seven of the daughters until one of them gives birth to your ancestor, you'll just need to follow the one."
Oxford nodded slowly, chewed his lip, then became very still and expressionless. His face went slack.
"Edward?" prompted the marquess. "Are you still with me?"
"Yes," Oxford mumbled, blinking suddenly. "Get me times and places where I can find the girls. I want this over and done with. I'll see you in six months."
He left.
January, February, March, April, May, June passed.
July came.
Queen Victoria was shot dead.
Her assassin died a few moments later.
Ten days after, outside the veranda doors, Beresford greeted his visitor and said: "I took my followers to the Hog in the Pound a couple of days after Victoria was killed. I've abandoned the A. W. Smith disguise."
"So you're not hiding that you're the Marquess of Waterford?"
"No!" Beresford laughed. "I've been doing quite the opposite!"
"Funny. I thought your new moustache was part of a disguise. When did you grow-God!"
"What is it?"
"I recognise you! You were there! Watching! With a smile on your face!"
"Of course I was there, old chap! Best spectator sport ever! How could I possibly resist seeing you in action, witnessing all you've told me about? Watching the snooty cow die?"
"Henry! You could have tried to stop it!"
"Don't you think it's complicated enough already without me getting involved?"
Oxford stared at the marquess for a moment then sighed and shrugged.
"I suppose so."
Beresford grinned. "Take off your helmet. Come inside."
"I can't stay long. My suit is on its last legs."
It was true; the white scales around the unit on Oxford's chest were badly scorched, and sparks were continuing to hiss and spit from the strange device, while the aura of blue flame around the helmet now seemed a permanent fixture.
"It does look rather unhealthy, I'll admit. Straight to business, then?"
"Please."
"Very well. The first thing I should tell you is that, not unexpectedly, the police have been sniffing around the Hog in the Pound since the shooting. They're trying to find out whether the assassination was part of a wider conspiracy and my crowd is under suspicion. We're regarded, apparently, as a bunch of dangerous anarchists."
They walked through the ballroom and passed into the corridor beyond.
"This is exactly what I intended," continued the marquess. "It's the reason why I started taking my young bloods to the tavern; for while the coppers are concentrating on my group, they're ignoring the Battersea Brigade, which, by contrast, seems little more than a gathering of yokels.
"Then, of course, there's `Young England,' which is baffling Scotland Yard on account of the fact that, while letters from A. W. Smith were found in Edward Oxford's room, there seems to be no other trace of him or his organisation.
"All in all, the wool has been well and truly pulled over the authorities' eyes."
They entered the morning room.
"And what about the girls, Henry?" asked Oxford. "Did the Original tell you anything useful about them?"
"I should say! As village idiots go, he was quite a remarkable one. He managed to gather a huge amount of information, enough for you to hop back a couple of years or so and still find them. Here, take a seat; have a spot of tiffin."
Oxford sat at the table, where Brock-who was by now Beresford's last remaining servant-had laid out a platter of bread and cheeses.
There was an expression of doubt on the time traveller's face.
"Buck up, my friend!" exclaimed the marquess. "It's simple really. You can't get to the girls in the future because, obviously, we don't know where they'll be. You can't approach them now, because the police are on the lookout for anything unusual in connection with the Hog in the Pound. So that just leaves the past.