Chapter Six

Chapter 6


“You did say he would be here at nine o’clock didn’t you Georgie?”
Georgiana sighed calmly, and peered at her father over the top of Tom Sawyer.
“Yes father, I did say he would be here, and it is not yet nine o’clock.” She reminded him, gesturing to the large clock tower that loomed overhead, keeping a watchful eye on the city of London.
Mr. Smith paced back and forth in the flower beds that lined the yard at the back of their house.
Georgiana was sitting on the grass, reading by the bright moonlight. She knew her mother would have a fit if she saw her dress, and grass stained stockings, but Georgie liked to pretend she was still that small girl she once was.
“And you’re positive it was the exact same watch yes?” Her father said for what must have been the hundredth time.
Georgiana closed her book rather impatiently and forced herself to contain her frustration. It would be disrespectful to snap at her father, and she knew it.
“Father, could you please trust me? What I told you was true, and if Mr. Howler is a man of his word, he’ll come at nine o’clock tonight.”
Mr. Smith walked over to his daughter and gave her an apologetic smile.
“I do trust you Georgiana, I didn’t mean that. You know how I get when I get nervous.”
Georgie smiled in appreciation to her father, he was always the most understanding of her parents.
There was a rustle in the bushes and they both froze.
Georgiana turned, rising to her feet slowly. The fight in the library flashed through her mind, and her breath hitched in her throat as the sound repeated it’s self.
Her grip on the book became so hard her knuckles whitened, and she subconsciously raised it, though rationally she doubted she would use it to harm the source of the noise.
But then, there’s a first time for everything. She thought.

Just then, a body came crashing through the bushes and stumbled a few steps before coming to a halt.
He finally stepped into the light as he glanced over his shoulder, wiping his face off with his sleeve.
Georgiana let out a sigh of relief once she saw his face.
“Mr. Howler, you came.”
The boy looked up at her in surprise, as if shocked to see her standing there in her own backyard.
“I thought you said the library…” he said slowly. “I did read it correctly, right?”
Georgie nodded eagerly.
“Oh yes you did, but father didn’t want you breaking into the house again.”
Nico crossed his arms over his chest and looked at her with an expression that she couldn’t quiet put a name too.
“I would have knocked.”
“And woken my mother up. That would have been very messy.”
“I didn’t say I would have knocked on the front door now did I?”
Georgie turned to her father to hide the growing smile and blush on her cheeks.
“Father, this is Mr. Howler. Mr. Howler, my father, Mr. Smith.” She quickly made introductions.
Nicolas dropped his arms and held out a hand.
“Sir.” He noted, giving a nod as Mr. Smith shook his hand.
“Mr. Howler, I trust you have a first name son.”
“Yes sir, Nicolas.”
Mr. Smith nodded and seemed to be deep in thought as he reclaimed his hand.
“Well, Mr. Howler, I do believe you came here for a purpose.”
Nico nodded in agreement and cast a glance at Georgiana who had once again buried her nose in her book.
“Well let’s go up to the library so we can talk, I have a few things to say that you will want to hear.”
Mr. Smith led the two children through a set of French doors and into the parlor.
Georgiana dropped her book onto the round table, before falling in line behind Mr. Howler.
He glanced back at her, and she had to force herself not to stair at his golden eyes that were so mesmerizing she had to dig her nails into her palm to drag her back to reality.
They followed Mr. Smith up the stairs, to the second landing, quietly creeping past the master bedroom where they could hear snoring, and then they went up the attic stairs.
When they were all in the library, Georgiana, being the last one in the room, carefully closed the door behind her.
“Well now, you sure do look a lot like him.” Mr. Smith remarked, as he examined the young man before him. Nico’s eyebrows pinched together in confusion.
“Like who? Sir.”
“Your father.”
Both Georgiana and Nicolas looked at him, stunned and speechless.
“You know his father?”
“How did you know him?” The two children asked in unison, they glanced at each other when they heard their voices mix and she gestured for him to go ahead, knowing he was more curious than herself.
“Your father and I worked a great many cases together.” Mr. Smith said after a moment. He was leaning against his personal desk, his hands out on either side of him against the top of the desk.
He was looking at Nicolas with a sad sort of look. Georgie knew that look, it was a look he gave people when he knew their sorrow, when he felt their hurt, when he shared their burdens.
Her eyes moved to Mr. Howler, who seemed to be trying to hold back tears. She wanted to do something, to comfort him, tell him a lie and tell him it would all be fine, even when they both knew it was far from fine.
Instead she just gently laid a hand on his arm for a brief moment. Just so he knew he wasn’t alone.
“What - what do you mean by cases, sir?” He choked.
“Your father and I were trying to figure out the great mysteries of life. We could do it too you know, we could travel anywhere we wanted, in any time we wanted to.”
Georgiana’s head shot up. Her father was giving Mr. Howler a look that said he knew something. Something Georgie was dying to find out, and she knew it had something to do with that pocket watch.
“It was you.” Nicolas cried excitedly. “It was you, father was always talking about! I always thought he was talking about someone from the past, or in a far away place, I never believed him when he said you were closer than I thought.”
Georgiana looked at her father with a questioning expression.
“What are you two going on about? Both of you should know very well that one can not simply go back into the past.” She spoke up.
Nicolas looked at her, his expression still giddy and excited.
“True, one cannot simply go back into the past. It’s much, much more complicated than that and it took me years to figure it all out.”
Georgiana threw up her hands and walked a way.
“You’ve both lost it. Completely bonkers. It’s not possible, and only foolish men think it is.” She rambled on to herself. She was trying to convince herself that it was impossible. Whenever her father believed something, it always made her believe it too, but this, this was something her rational, mathematical brain could not except.
She pulled a pouch out from the gathers in her skirt and dumped it’s contents onto the closest desk. Immediately she began to assemble the various cogs and screws, her hands flying in such a flurry Nicolas couldn’t keep up. As she worked, her lips moved rapidly, but no sound came out of them.
He started towards her, but Mr. Smith put up a hand, and shook his head.
“This is how she thinks, let her be. She’ll stop in a minute.”
Nico turned back to Mr. Smith.
“She said she saw a sketch of my pocket watch in your journal…”
“Ah, yes. I would show it to you, but it seems that that intruder stole my journal last night.”
Nico kept his mouth shut, so he didn’t point out that he too, was an intruder last night.
“But to answer your unsaid question,” Mr. Smith went on. “Yes, there is a sketch of a pocket watch. May I see yours?”
Nicolas pulled his only valuable out of his vest pocket and handed it over, knowing this was a man he could trust.
Mr. Smith cleared off a section of his desk and set the watch down carefully.
Georgiana stopped her building and moved over to the two men, her curiosity getting the best of her.
Mr. Smith opened the watch, and studied it for a moment. It had been a long time since he had tried to get past it’s ward.
“What is that?” Georgie’s sweet, quiet voice asked.
“Well, to you it would look like a broken watch -” Her father started.
“No, that!” She interrupted.
Her father looked up at her in sudden horror, and shock.
“What do you see Georgie?” He asked.
“It’s - it’s huge! So many colors, so many stars, all trapped inside such a small cage.” Her eyes were starring at the watch, captivated and unblinking.
“She can see it.” Mr. Smith marveled.
“Quick, shut it! Looking into the Vortex too long can cause damage to her brain, she cant process what she’s seeing, and it will hurt her permanently.” Nicolas jumped on the watch, slamming the cover closed, and cutting her out of her trance like a knife.
“What… Was that?” She whispered.
Nicolas exchanged worried glances with Mr. Smith.
“That is what’s called the Vortex…” Nicolas started slowly. His eyes still on Mr. Smith, who nodded for him to go ahead and explain to her.
“The Vortex is time and space, it’s then and now, it’s what could have been, and will be. It’s everything and nothing all at the same time.”
Georgie tried to force her mind open to the possibilities, but it was so hard when something like that was scientifically impossible.
Nico noticed the dilemma on her face and quickly moved to reassure her.
“I know it sounds impossible, and extremely far fetched, but it’s true.”
She turned to her father who nodded in agreement with Mr. Howler.
“His father and I would travel all space and time trying to figure cases out.”
“So you’ve…you’ve seen this Vortex?” She asked, the strange name rolling off her tongue like she was tasting it.
“Yes, it’s beautiful, in a sad way.”
She agreed with her father with his description of the Vortex.
“And she’s never seen this before? When my father had it?” Nico asked Mr. Smith.
“No, your father was very careful not to open it in front of her.”
Georgie had a flashback to years long since gone. She remembered Uncle Jack, his friendly smile, dark hair, and gold eyes.
“Uncle Jack….that’s his father?”
“Uncle?” Nico looked at her in shock. “You called him uncle?”
Georgie nodded.
“He was around so much, he insisted. Once he brought his…son a long…”
The two locked gazes as they remembered the same memory.

~ +++ ~

Nicolas’ father held his hand tightly as they walked down a street in Upper Station.
“Dad, I don’t play with girls. They are too disagreeable, and never get their hands dirty.” He said.
His father laughed as he opened a white garden fence.
“You’ll like this girl. She’s just your age, and she loves to get her hands dirty.”
Nico’s eyes flew open at this impossible notion.
“Really? She would run around with me?”
“Of course! You just have to talk to her first.”
His father ruffled up his curls, before taking him around the back of a fancy house on King’s Street.
“Orville!” His father let go of his hand and embraced a man in a black fancy suit.
“Ah! There you are Jack, I wondered when you would be coming.” The man said with a friendly grin.
“Have I ever been late?”
“No, but you’ve been early before.”
The two laughed and Nico felt strangely out of place. But that’s when the motion of something behind the stranger caught his eye.
He saw a girl  peaking out from behind the man’s leg as her small hand clutched on his pant leg.
“So this is your son you talk so fondly of.” The man said upon noticing Nico.
“Yes, Nicolas, meet Uncle Orville.”
“Nicolas, this is my daughter, Georgiana.” the stranger moved aside, revealing the small girl who looked a bit shorter than himself, but the same age.
She looked at her father in fear, and then quickly back to the boy standing in front of her.
He glanced up at his father, who nodded encouragingly. He bowed formally, as he had seen his father do to his mother, and the girl giggled slightly, before curtsying back at him.
“How do you do miss?” he asked politely.
“I’m fine thank you.”
Then he couldn’t help himself.
“Do you want to play tag?”
The girl’s eyes brightened and she nodded eagerly.
“Oh yes please!”
He quickly ran past her, tapping her shoulder as he passed.
“Your it!”

~ +++ ~

“It was you! You were that little boy I played with when I was little.” Georgiana cried in recognition. She had been pondering over Mr. Howler since the other night. There was a feeling of remembrance but she couldn’t place where she might have seen him before. But now all the pieces fell into place.
“You were the only girl I knew that would play tag in your Sunday best.” Nico confirmed. “Still are the only girl I know that would do that.”
Mr. Smith smiled as the children remembered each other.
Yes, everything would go just as planned.