TIME QUAKE

TIME

QUAKE

Also by Linda Buckley-Archer

G
IDEON THE
C
UTPURSE
T
HE
T
AR
M
AN

TIME

QUAKE

being Book III of
The Enlightenment of Peter Schock

by

L
INDA
B
UCKLEY
-A
RCHER

The quotation: ‘
Plus je connais les hommes, plus j’aime mon chien
’ is taken from
Textes de
scène
by Pierre Desproges, published by Editions du Seuil, France.

First published in Great Britain in 2009 by Simon and Schuster UK Ltd
A CBS COMPANY.

Copyright © 2009 Linda Buckley-Archer

This book is copyright under the Berne Convention.
No reproduction without permission.
All rights reserved.

The right of Linda Buckley-Archer to be identified as the author
of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77
and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

Simon & Schuster UK Ltd
1st Floor, 222 Gray’s Inn Road
London WC1X 8HB

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and
incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are
used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people living
or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library.

HB ISBN: 978-1-41691-712-0
eBook ISBN: 978-1-84738-896-4

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Printed in the UK by CPI Mackays, Chatham ME5 8TD

www.simonandschuster.co.uk
www.thetarman.com

T
ABLE OF
C
ONTENTS

TO THE READER

CHAPTER ONE
MANHATTAN
In which Lord Luxon takes a fancy to New York

CHAPTER TWO
A SPENT ROSE
In which the party struggles to know what to do about
Kate’s affliction and Gideon brings some promising news

CHAPTER THREE
A WOLF IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING
In which the redcoats take to spitting at Orcs and
Lord Luxon contrives to meet a talented young American

CHAPTER FOUR
ST BARTHOLOMEW’S FAIR
In which Gideon is horrified to learn of
Lord Luxon’s deception and the party
pays a visit to St Bartholomew’s Fair

CHAPTER FIVE
HIGH TREASON
In which Lord Luxon gets an answer to his
question and Alice encounters a dog with bottom

CHAPTER SIX
THE ORACLE
In which it is the Tar Man’s turn to bare his teeth
and Kate proves her worth

CHAPTER SEVEN
ANJALI DOES THE RIGHT THING
In which Anjali has cause to be grateful
and a small domestic pet does its duty

CHAPTER EIGHT
RING! RING! RING!
In which Peter says sorry to Kate and
Bartholomew’s Fair hosts a family quarrel

CHAPTER NINE
THE SPLINTERING OF TIME
In which Anjali makes a decision, Sam wonders
if Kate is lost to him and the Marquis de
Montfaron watches ghosts on the internet

CHAPTER TEN
A CURIOUS DUET
In which Peter vows to do his best for his friends,
and the party makes the acquaintance of a singing dog

CHAPTER ELEVEN
THESE ARE THE TIMES THAT TRY MEN’S SOULS
In which Lord Luxon encounters
George Washington and marvels
at the power of the written word

CHAPTER TWELVE
BROTHERS IN BLOOD
In which the Tar Man confronts Gideon
with a truth he is reluctant to accept
and Gideon recalls an early memory

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
IN THE WAKE OF THE TAR MAN
In which Peter, Parson Ledbury, the old gentleman
and his dog tackle the Tar Man, Hannah nurses
Sir Richard, and Kate tries to understand the corridor of Time

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
A BONFIRE IN DERBYSHIRE
In which the Marquis de Montfaron
comforts Sam and the farmhouse
receives some unexpected visitors

CHAPTER FIFTEEN
THE LAW OF TEMPORAL OSMOSIS
In which Kate makes a scientific
discovery and keeps company with
the Tar Man on his boat

CHAPTER SIXTEEN
ON THE STEPS OF NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
In which Lord Luxon poses some
questions, Alice draws some
conclusions and Tom proves to be invaluable

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
GHOSTS ON THE WATERFRONT
In which Kate witnesses a shocking apparition,
has an important conversation
and discovers an interesting property of water

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
TIME QUAKE
In which many centuries collide, two brothers
make a pact and Kate tells Peter her secret

CHAPTER NINETEEN
AN APPOINTMENT IN MANHATTAN
In which the Marquis de Montfaron acquires
a taste for flying and Alice makes a
guilty confession to Inspector Wheeler

CHAPTER TWENTY
A MOVING TARGET
In which the Marquis de Montfaron tries to make
Lord Luxon see reason and the Metropolitan
Museum of Art witnesses a death

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
THE TIPPING POINT
In which George Washington prepares to cross the Delaware
on Christmas night and encounters an unexpected enemy

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
THE VEIL
In which Peter finally learns of the problems that
have beset his friend, and the consequences
of time travel become impossible to ignore

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
TEMPEST HOUSE
In which the two brothers cooperate, Gideon
resumes his career as a cutpurse and
Tempest House plays host to some unexpected visitors

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
THAT BOTHERSOME LITTLE COLONY
In which Lord Luxon discovers that you
should be careful what you wish for

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
THE LUXON WALL
In which Kate demonstrates to Lord Luxon
the consequences of travelling at the speed of light

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
A PERFECT DAY
In which all is lost for Kate

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
MR CARMICHAEL’S HOMEWORK
In which the Tar Man lends some welcome support
and Peter is reminded of the usefulness of homework

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
DERBYSHIRE
In which Peter takes an important telephone call

AFTERWORD

The world turns on such seemingly trivial incidents. An argument between a father and son led to a boy travelling up to a Derbyshire farmhouse for the weekend with a girl he did not know. An encounter between the girl’s Golden Labrador and a Van der Graaf generator caused the dog to panic and run amok through her father’s research laboratory. The frantic chase which ensued led, in turn, to the boy and girl hurtling along corridors and down stairs towards a collision not only with an anti-gravity machine but also with a different century.

The children’s accidental discovery of time travel – proof, if ever it was needed, of the relationship between gravity and time – had many serious consequences. One of which, as you will see, was to put the future of one of the world’s great nations in jeopardy. It is curious that the fate of so very many could depend on the actions of a single man, yet there are occasions when it takes only one hand to steer the great engine of history – and many more to put it on its right course.

So this, then, is the final volume of the story of Peter Schock and Kate Dyer, two twenty-first century children, whom fate plucked from their everyday lives and dropped into the year 1763. Peter and Kate were swept up in events which no child should have to confront and which ultimately threatened everyone. Yet no adult could have shown greater courage.

The fortunes and actions of two men, seemingly irreconcilable one to the other, are also at the heart of this tale. Gideon Seymour, a reformed thief and an honourable man, came to the children’s aid at no small risk to himself. The Tar Man, Gideon’s nemesis and, as it
subsequently transpired, his elder brother, was a feared and talented villain, who succeeded in establishing his vicious reputation not only in his own century but also in ours.

I have already described how the Tar Man made off with Peter, Kate and the last two anti-gravity machines in existence, and returned to 1763. One of the devices proved to be useless to him, for he had no knowledge of the code needed to make it function, but with the other, he hoped to undo the injustice that had blighted him all his life. In so doing, however, the Tar Man made a rare but calamitous error of judgement: he trusted his master, Lord Luxon, to help him. However, Lord Luxon had plans of his own for this machine that could travel through time, and he stole it, leaving the Tar Man stranded alongside Peter and Kate in 1763.

Lord Luxon’s mind was as keen as his soul was unfulfilled. Alas for the Tar Man, he underestimated how much even bad men need to atone for their failures in life; nor did he grasp, until it was too late, the scale of Lord Luxon’s ambition.

Since that first time event in a Derbyshire laboratory, the cost of interfering with the universe’s fragile time mantle has become abundantly clear. The formation of parallel worlds, the first time quakes and Kate’s accelerated fading, were all symptoms of a fatal disease. Perhaps if Lord Luxon had not stolen the anti-gravity machine, it would not have been too late for the scientists to act. But History has always been littered with ‘What Ifs?’. Beware of clever men who cannot see the whole picture. For like a boy crawling out along a rotten branch to reach for a last, ripe fruit, Lord Luxon was blind to the dangers inherent in time travel. All he saw, indeed all he
wanted
to see, was one glorious opportunity . . .