Page 111 of Right Place, Right Time
‘Thank you—’ I begin say, but Dotty pats my hand to stop me saying any more.
‘Let me finish, dear. It’s so important to me I tell you this while I have the chance. People say you remind them of me. And perhaps we do look a little alike, yes. Even I can see the resemblance.’ She winks. ‘But you are your own woman, Eve. Never forget that. You make your own decisions in this life. If you think something is right, then don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Trust your gut – that’s what the young people say nowadays, isn’t it?’
‘Er, yes.’ I wonder how Dotty knows this.
‘I can tell you it’salwaysthe right thing to do. If you listen to yourself, you’ll never go far wrong in life.’ She pats my hand again. ‘Now, would you like to askmeanything?’ She lifts a small gold pocket watch fastened with a chain to her dress, and opens up the cover. ‘Sadly, time is running short for me,’ she says, snapping it shut again. ‘But I’ll do my best.’
‘Er … yes,’ I say, trying to sort all the questions I have for her into order of importance in my mind – but instead they all just come tumbling out randomly.
‘Why did you always send people back on leap days?’ I ask, realising as I say it that this is by far the least important question I have for her. ‘That was you doing that, wasn’t it?’
‘It was. Because the twenty-ninth of February is a day when time doesn’t really count. All bets are off, as they say. The additional time we have that day messes with the rules of time. So it makes it much easier to move people from one year to another with fewer repercussions – that’s the simple answer, anyway. And for your reference, when we change the clocks forward and back – that works in a similar way too.’
‘Right, got it,’ I say, eager to ask my next question. ‘When you first got stuck in 1904, did you try to return to 1944?’
‘Of course I did,’ Dotty says earnestly. ‘I tried everything. There was no way I was leaving my little Sarah behind – she was my everything. I tried for years – different times, different days. But the harder I tried to return, the firmer the door to the portal stayed shut. Eventually I had to stop trying. It was draining me physically and mentally to the point it was making me very ill, and I almost didn’t survive. But it’s often when we’re at our lowest points that we find the greatest strength. And that’s when I decided if I wasn’t allowed to go back, then I would stay and help others in peril, just like I’d helpedBen. I had to hold on to the hope that one day I would be allowed to return – it’s what kept me going.’
‘But why didn’t you try to come back through the portal when you sent the others forward in time?’ I ask. ‘Surely the doors must have been open for them?’
‘Every four years there would be a window to help someone have a better life,’ Dotty says wistfully. ‘That sadly was the only time I ever saw the doors open. Except they weren’t open for me, they were only open for the others. Whenever I tried to join them in the tunnel, the doors would immediately close up again and I’d find myself back in 1904 once more.’
‘But why? The doors allowed you through today. That’s why you’re sitting here now.’
‘Yes, I know. I haven’t quite figured out why yet …’ Dotty’s pale brow furrows. ‘It might be because you and Adam opened them for me. But then, I assume Archie tried to get me back when I first disappeared?’
‘He did. I think he was very … frustrated,’ I chose my words carefully, ‘when he couldn’t get you back. It made him quite ill, I believe.’
‘Poor Archie,’ Dotty says sadly. ‘I thought that might happen.’
‘So why did you come to the doors today?’ I ask. ‘February was months ago now.’
‘I heard that someone was going around looking for me,’ Dotty says. ‘I’ve been in 1904 Cambridge for so long now, on and off, that I’ve developed a lot of contacts in the city. They let me know that someone had been asking after me, and also Ben. So I decided to investigate myself. I followed your Adam as he searched for Ben and visited with Ben’s mother, Eliza, so it didn’t take long for me to work out who he was. This morning, I followed himto the alleyway and saw him disappearing back through the doors into the tunnel. I thought about it for a while, before I decided to knock on the door. I didn’t know quite what would happen. So when the two of you answered, I was overjoyed to see you both.’
‘But that still doesn’t explain why you haven’t been able to come through the portal before today?’
‘As I spent more time moving around in the past, I began to understand more about how all this …’ She waves her hand around the office. ‘How it works. There are rules and regulations to it all, and I broke the rules of time, Eve,’ she says sombrely. ‘That’s why I couldn’t return.’
‘What do you mean, youbrokethem? How did you do that?’
‘There are many rules of time, Eve, which you eventually will learn for yourself. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t realise I was breaking any when I tried to help Ben.’
‘What happened?’
‘I messed with the past and it affected the future,’ Dotty says in a hushed tone, as though she’s worried about someone hearing her. ‘By sending Ben forward all those years ago, I changed what could have happened – it wasn’t his choice to come forward, I decided it for him. We all have freedom of choice in this world, Eve. When either our freedom or our choice is taken from us, we have nothing. I took Ben’s right to choose his future away from him, and so in exchange I had to give up my own.’
‘But you were trying to help him,’ I say indignantly. ‘Just like you helped all the others afterwards. Some of those people are my friends now. Luca, Harriet, Barney. If you hadn’t helped them – goodness knows what would have happened to them.’
‘You said Barney?’ Dotty asks, frowning. ‘You don’t mean Barnaby, do you? The small boy who couldn’t walk?’
‘Yes, he’s one of my best friends now. If it wasn’t for you, he definitely wouldn’t be here now. He was one of the people who helped Adam and I figure out what was happening down here. We couldn’t have done it without him.’
Dotty pauses to think, as if she’s working something out. ‘Maybe that’s why?’ she murmurs.
‘What’s why?’ I ask.
But Dotty is deep in thought. ‘Who would have thought it would have been young Barnaby who would be my saviour?’ Tears have formed in the corners of Dotty’s eyes and she reaches for her handkerchief again. ‘Barnaby was very special to me,’ she says as tears fall delicately down her pale face. ‘I took such a risk sending him through the tunnel that day, not knowing what would become of him. But now I understand. You needed him. You both needed him to get to where you are now. Does he know?’ she asks suddenly. ‘That he came from the past?’
‘He does now. He didn’t until recently, though.’
