On a Night Black

by Cherie Mitchell

  Darcy coughed, sending a small puff of soot out into the room. “Due to the amount of changes that have now been instigated, you won’t be returning to 2020 and entering a world exactly the same as the one you so recently left.”

  “What does that mean?” He spoke slowly, allowing his own dire thoughts to fill the gaps in between.

  “As you know, I travelled back to collect Hortense but I took great care not to disturb too many sequences of events in the process. It seems the Knave hasn’t taken the same amount of care while skipping backwards and forwards and some of the changes are now irreversible.”

  “No, Darcy. I need examples rather than yet another vague summary. I particularly need to know how this will affect me, because I have a nasty feeling that it will.” Elliot held the inventor’s gaze for long enough to show him that he meant what he said.

  A screw suddenly popped out of the machine’s dashboard with a rusty sigh and fell onto the tabletop, where it spun once before rolling to the edge. It teetered for half a second before dropping to the floor. Hortense groaned and the sound was loud and mournful in the sooty silence of the room. “Go and get yourself cleaned up Darcy, and then I think you’d better sit down and explain what you mean.”

  While Darcy went to have a wash and change his clothes, Hortense and Elliot set to work with a bucket, a mop, and several rags in an attempt to clean away most of the soot. Once the grime was gone, the machine didn’t look too bad. It gleamed and shone from where it sat in the middle of the table and it was clear that most of the dashboard was still in place. The amount of small pieces flung far and wide during the explosion wasn’t as significant as Elliot had first feared and he let a tiny bit of hope creep back in. Perhaps Darcy could fix the device and get it working again after all. Returning to 2020 was still entirely possible.

  “There, that’s better and I’ve just put the kettle on to boil. As we all know, a nice cup of tea makes everything right again.” Darcy poked his head around the side of the doorframe and grinned with delight. “Well, well! You’ve done a marvellous job in here.”

  Elliot picked up the bucket of dirty, murky water and carried it out of the room. “We think we managed to find all the missing pieces and we’ve laid them out on the table. The rest is up to you.”

  “You missed a patch of soot.” Hortense, who had followed Elliot out into the hallway, licked her finger before scrubbing industriously at Darcy’s cheek. He ducked away from her, frowning furiously, and ambled through to the kitchen. “Both of you come through and I’ll tell you about my conversation with Ramona.”

  Hortense made the tea while Darcy blew his nose noisily several times to clear away the last of the soot. Elliot sat quietly, watching and waiting. The uneasy feeling that had formed earlier refused to budge, sitting in the pit of his stomach like a hard to digest meal.

  Darcy took his seat at last and launched straight into his speech, as if he’d been preparing it all along. “There’s nothing as elusive and changeable as time itself. Attempting to predict exactly what it will do next is like trying to catch quicksilver in your bare hand.”

  There was that mercury reference again. Elliot glanced at Hortense but she was idly tracing the outline of the rose pattern on her teacup with her finger rather than listening intently to the conversation.

  “Imagine time as a swathe of material.” Darcy grabbed for the tablecloth and Hortense and Elliot hastily grabbed for their dangerously wobbling teacups. Unconcerned, Darcy hitched a large piece of cloth over on top of itself, making several folds in the fabric. “See how the material loops back against itself? Effectively, two or more folds are sharing the same space.” He looked up to check if Elliot was following but Elliot shook his head. “You’ve lost me already.”

  “Hortense?” Darcy looked helplessly at his partner as he allowed the cloth to fall back into place. “I don’t seem to be doing a very good job of explaining this.”

  “Elliot and I did discuss some of this earlier. Elliot, what Darcy is trying to say is that the same moment in time can be lived more than once. Two instances of forward moving time can occur in the same period, looped back over one another so that each instance is happening concurrently.”

  “Take Hortense’s death for example.” Darcy picked up the threads of the conversation again. “At this very minute in the here and now, we have Hortense’s living, breathing, delightful self sitting alongside us but if I hadn’t gone back to get her, we would not be sharing the table with her now. This moment has been lived both with her and without her.”

  “And 2020 has two versions – the one with me in it and the one without me in it?” At least this part was simple enough for him to understand.

  “Exactly. The corporation has always taken great care with the concept of time and mostly any small kinks in the fabric work themselves out without any harm done but unfortunately, the Knave has messed everything up. His tampering has had a roll on effect and 2020 now contains some subtle differences.” Darcy took a deep breath. “I fear those differences are only going to get wider and weirder unless we can find that missing time machine and stop him from causing more damage than he already has.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  The Knave

  She needed to hurry things up and he’d already told her so more than once. She was fumbling now, losing concentration and dropping parts onto the floor, and causing unnecessary delays due to her overt clumsiness.

  “Annie!” He jumped up from the chair from where he had been irritably watching her for the past hour. “Can you move things along? This was never supposed to take this long!”

  She whimpered and he saw her hands shake as she bent to pick up yet another dropped screw. He paced around the confines of the room, unable to sit still while she dallied and quietly sobbed. This was a major problem with women – they were far too emotional to do anyone much good. He changed tactics, purposefully softening his voice as he spoke again. “Do you know how much more time you’ll need to get it done?”

  “According to the instruction sheet, this is the last task. We can test the machine once I’ve screwed this part into place.” She peered closely at the control panel and gave her screwdriver another delicate twist.

  “I don’t have time for tests,” he grumbled, spinning the silver ring around on his little finger. “I’m anxious to get back to 2020. There is a small problem there that I need to urgently address.” The small problem he had in mind was a certain Lani Bancroft, although he might now be too late to prevent her from blabbing everything she knew. However, regardless of what she’d told the corporation, he needed to dispose of her. Lani was an uncontrolled complication that his world didn’t need.

  Annie straightened her back and stood tall but she gave her apprehension away by stumbling over her words. “The instruction sheet recommends a test before a large jump forwards or backwards,” she murmured, her voice at times disappearing to a whisper. “There’s a warning not to attempt a major jump before testing the machine and that warning is underlined twice in red ink.”

  The Knave exhaled noisily. Her bowed head and her inability to look him in the eye frustrated him. He’d promised her that he wouldn’t harm her this time around, as long as she did as she was told, and he intended to keep that promise now that he had other things on his mind. Once the machine was in working order, he would travel back to 2020 and he would probably never return to this dratted and dirty era. At the point of his departure, she could leave the house and do whatever she wished. She was a pretty enough girl and there should be no shortage of suitors. She could find a husband to take care of her and be done with it. Elliot Cinder was no longer an option because he would soon be making his way back to the future too, but there were plenty of other available men looking for an obedient and attractive young wife. “You can test it if you’re so worried about the machine’s worthiness.”

  She raised her head to turn fearful eyes upon him. He could see that she was visibly shaking, as if she’d walked out int
o the wind without her shawl or cloak. “No, please don’t make me do that.”

  He felt something pleasurable twist in his gut whenever she looked at him like that. Her expression reminded him of another time and place, as he crouched above her prone body with a knife in his hand and the taste of violence on his lips. She only had vague memories of the night he’d killed her the first time around, a faint sense of horror that she couldn’t pin down, but it was probably best that way. There was a fine balance between muted fear and unrestrained terror.

  “Just get on with it,” he grunted. “I have things to do and places to go and you’re wasting my time.”

  To his surprise, she didn’t immediately return to her task. “I need to know if Elliot is still safe,” she said, keeping her voice steady even though her trembling chin gave her nervousness away. “Where is he now?”

  “Probably somewhere out there chasing his tail in useless circles.” He’d enjoyed their little run through the laneways earlier, their diving and darting up streets and down again before he hid himself away in here. He could imagine Elliot’s face when he saw he’d disappeared, gawping foolishly around at the empty street with no clue as to where he’d gone. He chuckled as he pulled out his pipe from the inside pocket of his coat and sat down to fill the bowl with a pinch of tobacco.

  “I need to know more than that,” Annie said firmly. She dropped the screwdriver onto the table, where it rolled a short distance before laying still against the wall of the time machine. She crossed her arms across her chest as if to protect herself and jutted her jaw out with brave but foolhardy determination. “I need to know that you won’t hurt him once I’ve finished my work here.”

  He raised his eyebrows at her impertinence and concentrated on lighting his pipe. She was growing a little cocky and he didn’t enjoy backchat from the fairer sex. It was probably for the best that they were about to part ways. A woman needed to know her place and it seemed young Annie Jones had forgotten hers.

  “Jack. I need your answer.”

  He smirked at her use of his name. She had grown bolder – this was the first time he’d heard her say it today. He took his time with his reply, drawing in a lungful of tobacco smoke and savouring the flavour and the burst of vigour rushing through his veins. “Elliot Cinder isn’t in any danger now but he might be in the future. It all depends on what option he chooses.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Now she was starting to nag and her boldness wasn’t quite so endearing. He scowled at her through a cloud of tobacco smoke to warn her off.

  She took a hasty step backwards but she didn’t drop her eyes from his. “By the future, do you mean tomorrow or the next day, or do you mean many years from now?”

  He tipped his head back to blow a lazy smoke ring into the air. The girl had been remarkably quick to understand the concept of time travel. She was a smart little thing, which was of course why he’d tasked her with fixing the infinity device. “I don’t think it’s any of your concern. In the end, the outcome will be Elliot’s choice and no one else will sway his decision.”

  “How do you know this?” she demanded. “Have you travelled to the time and place of this mysterious ‘decision’? I honestly don’t think I can trust anything you say.”

  “That’s your prerogative.” He stretched his legs out in front of him in a futile attempt to garner some warmth from the dying embers of the fire. If he didn’t need her to work on the device, he would order her to stoke up the fire and make him some tea.

  “You can’t get away with manipulating time forever, you know. Someone will stop you soon and I really hope that person is Elliot.”

  He picked a small, stray thread of cotton from his trousers and let it fall to the floor.

  “You’re not as clever as you like to think you are.” Her voice had risen an octave and now it held an underlying but steely confidence. “If you were, you would’ve chosen someone other than me to fix your machine. How do you know that I haven’t purposely attached the wrong part in the wrong position in the hopes of your journey failing? I owe you nothing, despite what you might believe.”

  She’d pushed her luck too far now and he was in no mood to humour her. “Get back to work,” he snapped, rising menacingly to his feet to drive his point home. “I’ve had more than enough of this foul year. Get the last of the repairs completed and finalised so that I can leave tonight, or tomorrow morning at the very latest.”

  She bit her lip and for a moment, he thought she was going to refuse. However, she turned back to the table and picked up the screwdriver, apparently resigned to the task ahead for now.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Elliot was ready to leave immediately to go and look for the Knave, until Hortense pointed out the lateness of the hour and suggested he wait until the morning. “The streets are already dark out there. You would be better to make use of the daylight if you hope to find him and the other time machine.”

  He knew she was right but he was impatient now to get on and get things done. He would find the Knave and the location of the time machine, allowing Darcy to contact the corporation with the coordinates so they could shut its workings down for good. After that, providing Darcy had managed to fix this machine, he would soon be winging his way back to 2020 and Ramona.

  “Did Ramona ask you about me when you spoke on the Com-Dec?” he asked Darcy casually over a light dinner of boiled mutton and mustard sandwiches. He had hoped that Darcy would say something about their conversation without any prompting, but so far he’d mentioned nothing.

  “Hmmm?” Darcy, who had been tucking into his sandwich with a great deal of relish, looked as if his thoughts were miles away. There was a tiny speck of mustard caught on his whiskers and a waterfall of breadcrumbs lay down the front of his shirt.

  Elliot could feel his cheeks turning pink now that he had to repeat himself. “Ramona,” he mumbled, “How is she?”

  “Oh, Ramona. Yes, she’s fine. She was having dinner tonight with that boy of hers – what’s his name? That lad who was so good at playing Charades? Jason. Yes, she’s having dinner with Jason.”

  That boy of hers? Since when?

  Darcy saw Elliot’s startled expression and hastily clarified his comment. “That friend of hers. He was at the party.”

  “Yes, I know.” Elliot nodded tersely and went back to meal, deciding he’d leave any questions about Ramona alone for now. He’d see her soon enough anyway and once he was back in 2020, he would not leave her again.

  The rest of the evening passed pleasantly enough. Darcy worked for a while on the time machine before joining Elliot and Hortense in the parlour. They collectively decided it was time for bed when Darcy fell asleep in his chair for the second time, only to wake himself up with a loud snore and a reflexive knee jerk that flung his plaid slipper high into the air.

  The older couple climbed the stairs before Elliot, who lingered for long enough to snuff out the candles before following them up the steps to the landing. He reached the landing just as Darcy disappeared into the room opposite his, and he stared in shock as Hortense went to follow Darcy into his bedroom. “He should ask for your hand and make an honest woman out of you.” The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them. Yes, he’d guessed they might be sharing a bedroom but to actually see it happen! This was outrageous.

  “Marriage would be the end of our relationship,” Hortense said, her tone stoic rather than maudlin. She did not look at all embarrassed, nor had she tried to hide where she was going. “We have discussed it but we’ve both agreed that what we have is perfect for us. Goodnight, Elliot.” She stepped into Darcy’s room and gently pushed the door shut.

  ***

  Elliot left the house directly after breakfast the next morning, determined to get this job done and get back to the life he really wanted. Yes, he remembered what Darcy had said about unavoidable changes in the future and he knew that some things might have altered somewhat but really, how different cou
ld it be? The future had already changed through his prevention of the deaths of the women whom the Knave had stalked. How could the changes wrought by the avoidance of murder ever be construed as negative? He expected that much the same scenario had happened again, although he wasn’t keen to dive down that particular rabbit hole when he was mind was currently fixed on more important tasks.

  The Stupendous & Sensational Saturnalia Showcasing Extraordinary Feats of Human Talent & Peculiarities had just opened his doors for the day when he arrived at the Olympia but already the crowds were surging and pushing, anxious to get inside and allow themselves to be entertained. Checking that his yellow badge was again firmly attached to his lapel, Elliot strode past the ticket office and into the hall.

  “Elliot Cinder.” A heavy hand on his shoulder accompanied the gruff voice and Elliot whirled around, expecting to see the Knave sneering at him. However, it was Jerome Langley glowering at him rather than the time travelling serial killer.

  “Morning, Jerome. As you can see, I’ve popped in for another look around your fine establishment.”

  “There’s been a complaint.”

  Annoyed by the insinuation in his tone, Elliot shrugged his shoulder out from beneath the man’s vice-like grip. “What kind of complaint and why does it concern me?”

  “Someone saw you following two young ladies away from here yesterday afternoon. You know this town has been under a state of siege lately due to the shenanigans of that dastardly Jack the Ripper. Frightened people are all too willing to jump to conclusions. What the devil were you thinking? Their father had several things to say to me about the doubtful safety of this carnival, and none of them were pleasant. If he decides to go to the papers, I’ll be looking down the barrel of all kinds of inconvenience. I’m not a man who enjoys walking on the wrong side of trouble.”