A House Out of Time Read online

  "Don't count on it," retorted James, "I've been in two dog carts with your daughter and I'm sure she'd beat my sister hands down."

  "I might take you up on that wager. It would be a singular entertainment as I have noticed that when women are in competition with each other they do it in some earnest. But to continue. When we arrived at Midhurst we went to the chemist shop where I believe Mr Wells had worked and asked if they knew him. I had not realised how famous he was. However, the shop assistant told me he was long dead. I was just about to leave when the shop manager who had been listening to my conversation mentioned that he had let a room to a Mr Hyatt not five weeks since who had asked the same question. I immediately asked if I could meet him and he was good enough to bring me here. Oh, by the bye, before the manager left he said that if I was looking for work in horticulture he would point me in the right direction."

  He was now smiling at James who in return was wagging a finger at him with a similar humorous countenance conveying the impression that the fund of gardening jokes about his only suit had been exhausted.

  I then asked what had happened to Jill.

  "Once she saw I was safely ensconced with a kindred spirit she said she would go back to Chichester in case you turned up there. She gave me a telephone number to dial if I required any assistance. There is a telephone here as you can see but despite our best efforts neither Mr Hyatt or I have been able to understand its function to communicate with anyone."

  ________

  J.

  While wondering how many more jokes about my clothes were going to be dug out, I noticed Mr Hyatt was keeping very quiet in his chair, listening and fiddling with a pipe. It was time to fit this man into the jigsaw so I turned to him and said, "Mr. Hyatt, we would like to thank you very much for looking after Elizabeth's father but would you mind telling us how you got here and why?"

  "Not at all, Mr Urquhart. Your friend Mr Wells arranged it."

  Ah! Mr Wells. I was still not sure whether he was a friend or just helping us to suit his own purposes but I kept that to myself.

  "And how?" I said feeling yet another time story coming.

  "I do not understand everything. As you may be aware, Herbert was a bright pupil at my school in Midhurst. What you may not be aware of is I had met him before when he was much older."

  "Pardon?" I said waking up suddenly.

  "Yes, it is a conundrum with which I am still having difficulty. He said that shortly I would meet him as a pupil and he wished to ensure that his younger self was given a grounding in modern scientific knowledge. You can imagine I thought this was some prank by a madman. But he persuaded me to come to his carriage where he presented me with a number of scientific books. They were beautifully written with many coloured photographs and graphs. I had never seen the likes. But what shocked me were the dates of publication. They were all written in the early twentieth century! I swear it. There were books on time and space, anthropology, chemistry and the transmutation of the elements. He insisted that I should read these before he came as a pupil and that I should impart as much of this knowledge as I could into his brain. He seemed to regard the concept that the fourth dimension was a time quantity rather than a spatial one as especially important. Apparently he was of the belief that one could travel through time!"

  Only just having met this bloke for the first time I felt a little test of his veracity was required. If that’s the right word.

  "So what did you think of Einstein's theory of relativity?"

  "I found, Mr Urquhart, that the mathematics were beyond me, though a book by a Mr Feynman helped me enormously to understand the concepts."

  Ah, Richard Feynman, I thought. How would have I got through college without him. I also thought it best, as Mr Hyatt had been headmaster to a boys only school, not to tell him that Elizabeth had cracked Einstein's relativistic tensor calculus in one evening. Though I must admit it would have given me some pleasure to tell him.

  I said, "So basically you're the person who taught Wells all about time and radioactivity?"

  "Well, I planted the seeds."

  Then Elizabeth brought him and me back to the real question.

  "Mr Hyatt. That is very interesting but how did you get here?"

  He turned to her and said rather pompously, "You are very tenacious for a woman, Miss Bicester."

  Oh dear. Time to hide under the table. I could tell by her expression that he was about to receive the full effect of her exposure to the twentieth century.

  "Mr Hyatt. I should tell you I am Mrs Urquhart and a reminder to stick to the subject in question should not be interpreted as a weakness of my sex."

  She then gave him a look which by his facial response indicated that in his youth a similar expression had possibly contributed to him hiding for the rest of his life in a boys only school.

  ___________

  E.

  I must confess that the equality that James allows me, and that phrase says something of my upbringing, has given me a certain intolerance to references by men to the 'weaker sex'. However, since I have read the exploits of the suffragettes, I have felt a need to liberate men from their superiority when it is put on display. Though I should add, and I know this is not the case for all women, I am of the opinion that to supplant it with ours would significantly affect the pleasure of men's company.

  Thankfully Mr Hyatt had recovered from my remark sufficiently to recount his story.

  "I apologise, Mrs Urquhart. I had been headmaster at the grammar school at Midhurst since 1871. We had benefitted by the new Education Act to enlighten the poor. It was in 1880 I was first visited by Mr Wells and this was the occasion when he showed me his books."

  He paused for a moment as though he was trying to get something clear in his head then he continued, "There was also something else he showed me."

  Again a brief pause.

  "Just as I thought he was about to leave he drew me to his carriage, opened the door and asked me to look inside. It was quite dark. At first I thought it was just another passenger wrapped in a cloak or cover. As I stood there wondering to what purpose Mr Wells had brought me there the cloak seemed to fall away or dissolve to reveal the most wondrous creature. It was clad in a robe of saffron. At first I thought it was a small man or boy but it had the face of what I can only describe as a rabbit! But that was of minor importance to what else I saw. It had wings, and the whole creature’s skin, if that what is was, shone with an iridescent glow. Waves of colour, flushes of purple and crimson, golden green and intense blue seemed to cross its form. I was dumbstruck. It looked like an angel. I confess for a moment I thought my time had come. This feeling was reinforced when it turned to me and I felt myself falling into a strange sleep. However, instead of being transported to a place of God's choosing I found myself in a woodland clearing beside a stream. A strange glass object of pyramidal shape was before me and next to it stood Mr. Wells and the creature. This was beyond imagination. Then they beckoned me to enter. I could not resist despite all my mind wishing to leave! I passed through a translucent door and found myself in a small metalled room in which I saw much machinery and two globes floating in the centre. As I looked at them in this dream like state I thought one to be of the Earth and another, half its size, the colour of orange and blue.

  The creature moved to the smaller one and indicated in my mind that that it was from whence it had come. Then Mr Wells operated some machinery and touched the larger globe. Suddenly, one wall dissolved to show the court yard of an old house or Lodge. There I saw, what I now realise to be you and Mr Urquhart being met by an old man. Then the scene changed and I was with Mr Urquhart and the person here who I now know was your father, Mr Bicester. They were both studying a strange sphere which I quickly realised was the same as the smaller orange globe in the pyramidal object. As I tried to understand what I saw the room dissolved and I was floating above the orange planet.”

  James interrupted, “Did you then have a vision of the destruction of the
planet and how it turned orange, Mr Hyatt”

  “Yes! Exactly. How did you know?”

  “We’ve been to that planet and had the same visions.”

  “Good Lord! I do not know whether to be relieved or not. I have been questioning the state of my mind ever since and often thought it was a brain fever; that is until Mrs Urquhart’s father arrived here.”

  I tried to reassure him a little and said, “I do understand it is difficult, Mr Hyatt. There have been many occasions that I have thought our adventures were just the dreams of a fevered mind. Our lives would have been much different - and quieter.”

  James retorted, “So we are both just apparitions of each other’s deranged minds, Elizabeth?”

  I let that thought go, “What happened after that?”

  “I awoke to find myself back at the carriage of Mr Wells with his books. I was quite giddy at this point as you can imagine. He must have noticed for after enquiring after my heath asked me to recount what I had seen. I hesitated but after he asked whether I remember being in the strange object I told him quickly what I had seen.

  “He was much relieved and then told me that I would be shortly in correspondence with his younger self and implored me once again to take him on and teach him all the sciences in the books he had given me. I was rather reticent as you can imagine. What wondrous child would this be?

  “I asked why this was so important. He said it was to do with time itself. In order to bring a certain order to the world and save the two planets he had seen it was necessary for his younger self to have the advantage of an education of the future. It was especially important that I encourage the pupil to think about time and its fluidity. I must admit I was by now thoroughly confused and said I could not give a straight answer. He then became rather agitated and gripped my arm tightly and implored me to at least take the pupil on. He then produced a thick envelope and said it contained a thousand pounds which was mine if I took on this task. I promised I would take on this student though in my mind I had doubts that this child even existed.”

  “And did he?” said James.

  “Yes, Mr Urquhart, he did! And he was a very keen scholar indeed.”

  “Did you tell him you had seen his future self?” I said.

  “No. Mr Wells had stipulated that I should never recount what I had seen. However, I could plant in his mind the concept of the possible existence of angels from another world.”

  This story was incredible though seemed to dovetail into our own experiences. Yet there was a nagging uncertainty in my mind for I felt there were too many coincidences here. I tried to recall our journeys since we had decided to visit my home in the hope of making more sense of our situation. We had arrived at my house only to find we were back in 1873 but just after my father had left through the portal to look for us in the future. He had then found his way to Midhurst with the help of Jill where by chance met Mr Hyatt who was also out of his time and amazingly had been Mr Wells’ tutor. Everything seemed very convenient. I decided to explore and turning to him said, “Although I am very pleased we have found you, Father, do you not think that you were incredibly lucky to find yourself here with another person of your time?”

  He thought for a moment and replied, “I must admit, Lizzy, in hindsight some luck must have played its part and the fates were kind to us.”

  “I had not realised until now that you placed reliance on luck and the fates to guide you,” goading him a little for he had always given me the impression of being a very practical man reliant on his own skills to make his way in the world.

  He looked at me with that quizzical expression he used when he thought my interrogations of him were gaining advantage.

  “I trust you are not implying that I have some complicity in this arrangement?”

  I hesitated in answering his suggestion for I noticed he had said something which I had thought but not implied. But I kept that to myself and treading carefully so as not to arouse his suspicions of my purpose continued,

  “I am just confused, Father, there just seemed to be too much luck involved.”

  But he had guessed my intention and deflected my remark easily, as only a father can do, back to me.

  “So, Lizzy, too much luck eh? But what of you and luck? Have you not had more than your fair share?”

  I was taken aback. What did he mean? How much did he know about James and me and our adventures? A little flustered by his remark I blurted out, “What do you imply, Father?”.

  He saw my expression and relaxed with a smile back into his chair.

  “Now let me see.” He paused for a moment, a little too theatrically I thought, then looking me in the eyes said, “Ah yes. If I remember correctly I travelled to India expecting you to be looking after the house. Instead I find you have been gallivanting all over the place with this young man of questionable social standing and possibly both finding yourselves on occasion in intimate arrangements in the process which you may have found difficult to resist. Was it by luck or chance you found him or was it just fate? I do not wish to show disrespect to Mr Urquhart for I like him dearly and he is a good match for you but he is not of the class you normally chase. Where did you really find him?”

  I swear my cheeks turned redder than beetroot at that point not helped by the devilish smile my father put on when he noticed that he had successfully diverted me from my line of enquiry.

  “Dear Lizzy, do not fret. When I’ve gone on, as they say, you may find some diaries of my own in the Lodge from my youth where you might be surprised to learn I did not spend the entire time in a monastic existence.”

  Although I was gratified to hear his reply I did not feel much change in the colour of my face. For, I must say it is difficult for a single lady in the company of men to have her moral predicament discussed so plainly, nor to contemplate her father being so fully cognisant because he has participated in similar activity - and kept a record which he was inviting me to read after his death!.

  Thankfully James, who was looking a little embarrassed as well, came to the rescue by changing the subject or more importantly not.

  “Ok. I’ve got that,” he said, “but I think Elizabeth asked how did you get here in this time?”

  -------------------------------------------

  J.

  I could see that Elizabeth’s father in future was going to get some humorous mileage out of our relationship at our expense now he knew what we’d been up to. However, I made a mental note to absorb it without too much comment whenever the subject came our way.

  Hyatt had still not told us how he got here. It seems when people get to a certain age, in telling a story they have difficulty getting to the end of it and are easily distracted from its path by the simplest interruption. Oh dear. I’m doing the same here. To the point, Urquhart!

  So to summarise: Hyatt arrived here in Midhurst five days ago, not weeks, brought in a time machine provided by Wells. Why? To meet Elizabeth’s father. Why? Because Elizabeth’s father is going to meet me in 1873 and show me the Martian canals and tell me about the little folk who live on Harrow Hill. Simple really. It’s so much easier to understand when one is brief. Isn’t it? No.

  There was one point missing, “What year was it when Wells brought you here? If you understand what I mean.”

  “1895.”

  Of course. The year Wells published ‘The Time Machine’. Then I remembered Mr Hyatt’s reference to the creature in the carriage in 1880 and his likening it to an angel. This had some familiarity. I looked it up on my phone which recently I had increasing difficulty keeping out of Elizabeth hands (must buy her one) and eventually found that Wells had produced a book called “The Wonderful Visit” in which he describes such a creature! It seems some welsh vicar, not understanding what it was, had shot and wounded it. Welcome to Earth. Then I remembered that in another time line, ‘The War of the Worlds’ had been started by just such a thing.

  “So now you’ve met Mr Bicester,” I said, “What are you s
upposed to do now?”

  “Why, I must go back and drop off him off, so to speak, at his home just before you arrive to meet him for the first time.”

  “And pray tell me, how?” said Elizabeth.

  “Why, in Mr Wells’ Time Machine.”

  Elizabeth and I nearly fell off our chairs.

  “What? Are you saying there is a time machine around here?”

  “Of course,” he said, “How else could I get back to my own time?” He gave a look indicating that he was stating the obvious.

  When I had recovered I said, “Ok, where is it?”

  “It is on the old castle field. Do you wish to see it?”

  -------------------------------------

  Chapter 4

  E,

  The four of us walked down the road to the castle hill. Two people in modern dress, one wearing James’ suite and another in an 1880’s frock coat. We tried not to notice whether we were being noticed but I had the distinct impression that everyone we met on Church Road did notice. This feeling was not helped by one of us in a modern short dress being the subject of some comment about her attire by her father.

  "Do you not feel a little too exposed, Lizzy?"

  I was wearing a blouse and a skirt which came just below the knee. I had done up the top buttons of my blouse in deference to my father. James and his sister had often ribbed me about the length of my dress but having been brought up where even the sight of an ankle or calf was to invite a certain type of notice I had resisted their banter. This was despite James trying to persuade me that I had the best legs in Sussex and should show them off whenever possible. How fashions change.