house. ‘Knock on the scullery door and tell Clara you want to see me. Got it?’
At the back was a stairway leading down to the servants’ entrance. Julius followed Emily down the steps. She untied the ribbon under her chin and removed her bonnet and her hair fell down across her fur-lined cape. As she looked at the candle flame in the scullery window, the faint yellow light played across her face.
‘Why did you run away, earlier?’ asked Julius. ‘You knew it was me. I was just about to call out to you.’
Emily shrugged her shoulders. ‘Don’t know,’ she said. ‘Just did.’
‘Did something frighten you?’
‘No. I just wanted to go, that’s all. Don’t go trying to make somefing out of naffing.’ She twirled the bonnet ribbon around her finger.
Julius lowered his eyes. The sudden happy shock he had felt at seeing her again had taken him by surprise. It saddened him to realise that she had not felt the same. Then he remembered again—this Emily barely knew him.
Often, in the six months since the Springheel case, he had allowed his mind to wander back to the other Emily—the future, fourteen-year-old, Emily he had met in the parallel timeline.
He had fallen a little bit in love with her, and he liked to think that she had fallen a little bit in love with him. She had kissed him before he sailed on the Bountiful . That must have meant something. He wanted this younger Emily to be a little bit in love with him too. But she wasn’t, why would she be? She was just on the lookout for an adventure.
She wanted to check up on Mr Flynn, not you, Higgins.
‘I wasn’t trying to make anything out of it, Emily. I was just—’
‘Yeah, well don’t.’
‘Is that you out there, Emily?’ came a voice from inside.
A face appeared at the window.
‘That’s Clara,’ Emily said, in a friendlier tone. ‘She’s the one you send to get me if anyfing comes up.’
‘Who’s—’
‘She’s the assistant cook, and she’s ace. She does everyfing round ’ere. She lets me in on the quiet. If Mrs Trevelyan knew I was out and about she’d send me packing.’
A key turned in the lock and the door opened to reveal a short, plump woman with wide, smiling eyes.
‘Come in, come in,’ she whispered.
Emily stepped inside. ‘Good night then, ’iggins,’she said. ‘And don’t forget, Emily’s available .’
‘Gracious me,’ exclaimed Clara, staring at Julius.
‘It’s all right?’ said Emily. ‘’iggins is sort of a kind of friend of mine. He was just seeing me ’ome.’
Julius lifted the peak of his cap. ‘How do you do?’ he said.
‘Look, ’e gave me this.’ Emily held up the orchid. ‘If ’e calls again, send Nell up to get me, it don’t matter when it is or wot I’m doing.’
‘Er, very well,’ said Clara, looking at the orchid in confusion, then back at Julius. ‘Higgins? From Higgins’ Booksellers?’ she said.
‘Yes, do you know it?’ said Julius.
Clara’s eyes widened. ‘Well, I—’
‘Bye then,’ said Emily. ‘Can’t stop ’ere nattering all night. Remember, ’iggins, Emily’s available .’
She closed the door in his face.
CHAPTER 3
Friday 19th January 1838
8:51 AM
The next morning, freezing drizzle fell over London. Julius dragged his feet along Milk Street on his way to the City of London School.
At the age of fifteen, he was in his final year and he hoped to go to Cambridge University to study history while he waited for the call from the Guild of Watchmakers to begin his time traveller apprenticeship. This morning, however, his mind was not on his studies.
He stopped at the school gate, stamping his feet and deliberating.
He had slept fitfully—dreaming of Emily and the Springheel case, of the Guild of Watchmakers lifting their top hats to him in St Paul’s Cathedral, oftravelling through time with the giant pocketwatch.
The idea of sitting on the hard school bench until the bell rang at half past three was already calcifying his brain. He