Chapter 23
“Do we know where we need to go?” Leo asks, a little out of breath jogging to keep up with me while running interference for me. He would have a rough time on my campus, where everyone is always in a rush. And there are hills.
“No.” I look around. “That’s the chapel.
” I point at gothic building I was studiously ignoring earlier.
“I think those are mostly dorms.” I point to the left.
“And maybe those are classrooms?” I look straight ahead, across a perfectly manicured lawn with a fountain in the middle.
I vaguely remember the college from a history conference I attended in the future.
“It’s mid-morning. The students should be in lectures now. Shall we wander and ask people if they know where Andrew is?” Leo asks.
“That’s the best plan we have.”
A man walks by, looking at me half hungry and half confused, like I’m a steak dinner inexplicably cut in the shape of a Christmas tree.
“Maybe we should aim for getting out of here as fast as possible. These lads do not get a lot of female interaction,” Leo says.
I roll my eyes. “Wait until the future,” I whisper at him.
“Schools are co-ed. Women everywhere. And we wear shorts. You can see ankles and knees and elbows and thighs and sometimes bellybuttons. And other times, we wear pants so tight you can see the outline of our butts. And you can just learn to control your base desires, because they are not my problem!” I poke him as my voice raises with each word, ending on a particularly intense poke.
Then I walk off in what can only be described as a huff in any century.
Then the wind gets taken out of my sails when I don’t see Leo walking next to me. I do need him before I apparently start a riot by existing. “Are you coming?”
Leo is as still as the statue of Henry VIII outside Trinity College just down the road. Now there’s a man who would be happy with the state of fashion in the twenty-first century.
“Leo?” I walk back to him and poke him in his hard chest.
But I don’t have time to enjoy his chest, just like I don’t have time to take notes about this trip to Cambridge. Well, maybe I can multitask, if Leo is set on taking his time. I poke him again, this time shamelessly enjoying his muscles.
“I want to see the future. I want to see you in the future,” Leo says, his voice rough. Imagining me in leggings he’s never seen?
“If this man has figured out time travel, you’re welcome to use it and see for yourself.
” I try to ignore how happy I get at the thought of him and me in the future, because we don’t have time for that.
There are too many complicated emotions around Leo, frankly, and if I start thinking of them, we’ll never get moving.
Like Leo isn’t now, so I take his arm in mine and walk assertively forward with him.
He begrudgingly starts to move forward, stumbling a bit before he catches his footing. “Would you promise to show me what you usually wear?”
“Would it get you to move?”
“It might make it harder to move.”
I laugh, surprised at the dirty humor from the aristocrat, even though I shouldn’t be, knowing what they get up to.
Every generation thinks they invented enjoying sex, or having fun with sex, and every generation is wrong.
Maybe they all talk about it more freely than previous ones, but everyone does it.
“Did you just make a dirty joke at me?” We don’t really have the time, but I can find some time for this.
Leo blushes, adorably. “I apologize. I should not be speaking like that to a lady.”
I shake my head at him. “You have a lot to learn about women from the future. I’m sure some might be offended by the mention of an erection, but I feel that more would appreciate a good penis joke.” Or at least I do.
He blushes even harder at me saying penis. Oh, this innocent baby angel face. How the world is going to change in the next hundred years.
“You don’t have to worry about the wild women. They’re far away,” I say.
“If they are anything like you, I am disappointed to miss out on them. Even though I sincerely doubt they are exactly like you, because you are special.”
There Leo goes again. Saying kind and perfect shit that makes me want to climb him like a thick tree.
He doesn’t mean it. He can’t. We’ve only known each other for a few days and he can’t possibly understand me, or know how different everyone is in my time.
I know him well enough to know he’s not a complete rake, throwing empty compliments at me to get in my pants—or my pantaloons.
But he is a bit of a romantic, and I think he’s a little caught up in me being from the future.
Shiny and new but nothing special if he ever took a trip to my time.
“Let’s find this Andrew guy.” Back to business.
“I do not particularly want my time with you to end. But if it will make you happy, we will find him.” Leo raises his hand as if to touch my cheek but drops it before he makes contact when a student behind him drops some books, ruining the moment with the bang.
We enter the first door to our left and see more students in what looks like a lounge. With a bar.
Bless the English.
I still get intrigued looks when I walk into a room, but they barely register anymore with how many stares I’ve had directed at me since I’ve been here. I don’t have to deal with this for much longer, hopefully.
“Let’s talk to the most important person on the entire campus,” Leo whispers against my ear as his hand pushes against my lower back.
“The professors?”
“The barman.”
“Of course. What was I thinking, prioritizing the teachers in an institution of learning?”
“Precisely. You understand.” Ah, so sarcasm hasn’t been invented yet. “Excuse me? Do you know the student Andrew Huxley?”
“Could do.” The man continues cleaning some glasses, less impressed than the gate guard was with Leo. Good, even if that does slow us down.
“Do you know where he is now?” Leo asks.
“Could do.”
“Right.” Leo slides some money across the lacquered wooden bar. “Where is he?”
The barman takes the money, more impressed with that than Leo’s status. “Should be in lectures now. I don’t know where, but he’ll probably head back to his room before lunch.”
“Which room is his?”
“Now why do you want to know that?”
“I want to surprise my friend,” Leo says, pushing more money across the bar.
The barman takes it. “Room forty-two. I’ve helped him back to it enough times.”
“How do we get there?” Leo asks.
“The rooms are all up the stairs.” He points at a set of stairs with the glass he was wiping down.
“Thank you,” Leo says, turning to the stairs.
With each step, my feet get heavier with the weight of what I want to find out on this trip. I use the time trying to think what I could do next to get home if this doesn’t work out.
I can’t Google time traveling and the people who are studying it. There’s no subreddit I can look up to see what people are saying about the subject. I’ll have to keep hounding different librarians, I guess.
We get to a plain white door with a neat 42 painted at eye level.
“Now we wait.” I lean against the wall next to the door.
After a few minutes of silence, Leo stirs. “Have you thought about what you will do if Mr. Huxley cannot give us the answers we are seeking?”
“I always try to think of every possible scenario. I like being prepared, so yes, I’ve given it some thought.
I need to find housing and a job. I could go to Limehouse, but Victoria might send someone there to look for me since it’s the obvious place to hide.
I could flee to the country, and maybe find work as a maid or a tutor, but I have no references, and how would I even know who’s hiring?
I think my best option would be to start making some bets.
Small, so they don’t get anyone’s attention, but I do know when things will happen.
And if that fails, blackmail is there, although I would feel bad about that, unless the person is bad.
But nothing sounds particularly good. And nothing sounds as good as being home. ”
Leo nods but doesn’t say anything. I wish he would. I want to know if he feels the same pull that I do when we’re together, even though we’re not only separated by an ocean, but also 130 years. One could be circumvented by frequent plane rides, although that would get expensive.
The other is a little harder to deal with.
Would we live here or in the future? Would the universe even let us both back? And if we stayed, Leo would still have his money problems. If he left, his sister would be alone and vulnerable.
All of this becomes irrelevant if he doesn’t feel anything toward me. Kiss aside, I could just be an interesting diversion. A curiosity to have fun with who doesn’t think kissing someone is the end of the world, or an invitation to propose marriage.
“Whatever happens, you will prosper. Her Majesty enjoys your company. You are smarter than most people in this city. In this country. I would bet on you over anyone. If I were still betting,” Leo says.
“Thank you.”
“And if you did stay, I would be honored to show you more of London, of England, and of the nineteenth century.”
I shake my head, denying not only the words but the feelings that the words engender in me. “If I do stay, Victoria will find out about me; I’ll have to leave the palace and be on the run. And you’ll be busy husbanding soon. Settling your estates with your heiress wife.”
“I cannot imagine that as my life. Not anymore.” Leo drills his eyes into me like I’ve got coal under my surface and he spent his last crowns on the mining rights.