Page 107 of Right Place, Right Time
‘Adam Darcy,’ I say in a loud, stern voice, standing up. ‘You’d better come back through those doors in a minute, or … or … I will be coming down that tunnel to find you myself!’
‘Oh, Christ, am I in trouble?’ My heart leaps at his voice. ‘Maybe I should have stayed in the past?’
I rush forward, fling open the two doors and a dishevelled-looking Adam stumbles towards me. Immediately I fling my arms around him.
‘Adam! Oh, my God, I thought you might be gone for ever.’
‘You don’t know me very well,’ Adam says, stepping out of the tunnel, ‘if you thought I’d let that ever happen.’
Adam is wearing exactly what Luca described as missing from his shop. Unlike Ben, who returned to his past looking like a character from a Charles Dickens novel, Adam looks more like an extra from the television seriesPeaky Blinders– even though that is set a tad later than the era he’s just come from.
We continue to embrace for a few blissful moments more.
‘I see you found my letter,’ Adam says, noticing it lying on the desk.
‘Yes, what the hell were you thinking of?’ I say, releasing him as my relief is rapidly replaced by anger.
‘You were going to do the same,’ he says, removing his cap and sitting down at the desk. ‘Don’t tell me you weren’t?’
‘Perhaps. I hadn’t actually decided.’
Adam looks reprovingly at me, then he grins. ‘You can’t hide it from me. I know you, remember?’
Suddenly, I realise how exhausted he looks, as well as dishevelled. ‘Forget that now. What happened to you? I assume you went back to 1904? Was everything OK? Are you OK? You look really tired. What about Ben and Dotty – did you find them? Are they all right?’
‘Whoa, steady. One question at a time.’
‘Sorry.’ I pull up the other chair in the office and sit down next to him. ‘Tell me everything.’
Adam takes my hand in his and immediately I fear the worst.
‘I didn’t find Ben,’ he says, sounding utterly dejected. ‘I tried – believe me, I tried. I searched and searched, and I asked so many people. A couple of them had actually seen a man matching the description I gave them, but they didn’t know where I could find him.’
‘Oh, please don’t worry,’ I say, putting my hand over his now. ‘At least we know he probably got back there all right if people have seen him. I can’t imagine there would be too many people matching his description walking around Cambridge back then – he cut quite the striking figure in his outfit when he left.’
‘However … I did locate his mother,’ Adam says, some sparkle returning to his eyes. ‘And I spoke to her.’
‘Gosh, did you? What did she say?’ I ask eagerly. ‘Had she seen him too?’
‘Kind of. I mean, I know it was Ben from what Eliza – that’s Ben’s mother’s name – told me, but I don’t think she knew it was him.’
‘How do you mean?’
‘I think Ben must have gone back to 1904 before Dotty rescued him. Because when I went to visit Eliza, she told me a well-dressed man had come to her house asking about her son just over a week ago – which she thought was odd. She asked what did he want with her son? But the man wouldn’t say. He simply told her not to worry and her son was absolutely fine. But he insisted on leaving her money – more money than she’d ever seen in her life. Eliza was suspicious at first and thought there might be a catch. But when nothing happened and the man didn’t return for his money, she decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth. There’s enough money, she told me, for her and her son to move out of the slum they are living in and to rent a little cottage on the outskirts of the city. They were moving out the next day – I only just caught her.’
‘So our Ben went back early so he could give his mother money before the young Ben went missing?’ I say, trying to follow this.
‘Yes, it appears so. That’s if young Ben actually did disappear this time?’
‘I don’t understand. What do you mean?’
‘Ben told us he was pickpocketing back in 1904 to keep both him and his mother from going into the workhouse, didn’t he?’
‘Yes …’ I say, not understanding where Adam is going with this.
‘What if, by giving his mother money before the day he was rescued by Dotty and ended up in 1944, the young Ben was able to stop what he was doing, because they both now had plenty of money to live on?’
I stare at Adam as what he’s suggesting begins to make sense.
