Chapter 34: Threat

[Undated Entry]
Oxford, Oxfordshire

“WE CANNOT STAY in this place, Gérard.” It was their fourth day in Professor Perrine’s house. In his arms, Amélie’s heart beat faster and her eyes pleaded. “Gérard, this is not the place for us. I can feel it in my bones. Who knows who these people are, after all? And to say we’ve traveled through time? That makes no sense.”

Gérard smiled, but it was a tender smile. His foster sister was from time to time perhaps a little more enthusiastic than was good for her, but her instincts were sound. In his heart he suspected she was right.

“Gerard, talk to me.” Amélie kissed him. “Tell me.”

Gérard sighed. It was a profound sigh, and in hearing it Amélie knew how much he was sacrificing to accede to her wishes.

Professor Perrine and his protégé, Sophie, were not the only persons to note the strangeness of the quartet’s dress and the oddities of their speech. Everyone knew non-University authorities often attended these festivals for reasons of their own.

The group’s apparent disorientation and the striking beauty of Sandrine, even if she was not the strange sight in Oxford in the twenty-first century that she was in the seventeenth, made the four more noticeable perhaps than anyone might have thought. In twenty-first century Oxford Sandrine may have been one of many dark-skinned individuals in the streets, but her beauty was exceptional and drew more than her share of attention.

Stories about the stones and their properties had been handed down for years. For one reason or another, or perhaps because the stones had never found anyone worthy, no one had managed to test proposition. Or if they had, none had returned. Nevertheless the government agencies responsible for monitoring this sort of rumor had followed the issue quietly to ensure if there were developments they would not go unexplored.

The presence of these four suggested the stories might be true.

The two men who observed the quartet on the day after their arrival were young but they were not students. The heavy-set junior member of the pair did not stand still. By his movements he telegraphed his worry and uneasiness.

“George, leave it alone. Settle down.”

The speaker and senior member of the team, taller and slimmer than George, gestured toward the dancers.

“Go out there and dance if you can’t sit still, OK?”

“Shut up, Peter,” George answered. “You know I can’t dance.”

Peter gestured in the direction of a mixed group, not all of whom had remained dressed, that showed clear signs of having smoked or imbibed spirits. “Go on, George. You think any of them will care?” His voice grew compelling. “For all you know one of those ladies likes big guys.”

George shrugged. The two men and two women they were interested in had wandered around the stones, spoke with some of the dancers, and ate from one or two of the food stands, but otherwise had not done anything interesting or suggestive of where they might have come from. On the next day, however, toward the end of the afternoon, the youngest member of the group and his companion, an undergraduate from C— College, were joined by the professor from M— College, Perrine, known for some pretty crazy theories about worlds and time travel, accompanied by the other three members of the original quartet.

Perrine’s academic interests, no matter how disparaging other academics were, found listeners among those members of organizations responsible for following such matters. They continued to watch but heretofore had not taken any action.

On the following day the group of six had returned to the stones late in the afternoon for dancing and for something to eat and drink. The quartet did not appear to be quite at ease as on the previous day. After their meal the group seemed to engage an active discussion. The two agents were too far away to overhear their words but it seemed clear the four new arrivals attempted to explain something to the professor and his young companion. The older male gestured more than once in the direction of the largest stone. The professor seemed to be disappointed in what he heard, but he did not appear to object to their proposal. The professor’s younger companion listened with interest.

Their passive observation came to an end when the senior member of the pair received a communication from headquarters. They attempted to approach the group without being noticed, but their effort was unsuccessful. When the four new arrivals spotted their approach they quickly disengaged from the professor and his undergraduate companion and began to move urgently away.