‘I … suppose.’
You won’t know this. I don’t think it will ever happen for you now. But in my time, in that future which no longer exists, Waterloo was a great battle between England and France, at the end of this present war. England won. Yes, I know; imagine England winning anything.
‘And this station here, Charing Cross, beside which you have marked Trafalgar Square. Again, it isn’t called that now. Trafalgar is, here and now, a nondescript cape of land in Spain. Why is the centremost square in London named after it?’ He was twinkling now. He never was stupid.
‘I don’t know.’
‘Do you know what’s interesting about Trafalgar? The Spanish one, not the London one.’
‘No.’
‘Nothing. But it is only about – oh, fifty miles down the road from Cadiz.’ He inclined his head. ‘Cadiz is the home harbour of the Spanish fleet, and indeed one of the home harbours of our fleet, since the alliance with Spain. A favourite hobby of the British navy is to blockade it.’
‘How … vexatious.’
I was hanging on to the hope that he couldn’t possibly reason out the existence of two major battles from only a pair of names on a map of London. As I say, though, he was never stupid.
‘Yes, it is, but do you know which direction the wind blows, out of Cadiz?’ He was laughing. ‘Which direction one is almost always obliged to sail? I’ll tell you, it’s towards Trafalgar.’
‘If you say so.’
‘I do.’ He smiled again. ‘Waterloo, a battle which you won; you must have or you wouldn’t want to enshrine the name. Trafalgar; a sea battle, I suspect. Trafalgar would be … quite a natural place to have a sea battle, if ever the Coalition Fleet were to try and break out past the British during a blockade. Tell me about Waterloo and Trafalgar, mademoiselle.’
‘I had no idea what they were until you told me just now,’ I protested. ‘May I remind you I’m sixty years too young to know all this? They’re just – places, I don’t know why they’re called that.’
‘Oh, that’s a shame,’ he said, entirely serious and completely insincere. ‘No extra rations for you then. That’s very frustrating for you, you must be hungry by now.’
I gripped the piece of broken vase in my pocket for a second, then jolted forward and slashed at him with it. I was just too slow, and instead of catching his neck, I only got his cheek. He shouted and I went for him, but the soldiers caught me and pulled me back.
‘For God’s sake!’ Herault yelled at me. I always remember what he said, because he was actually shocked. ‘Mademoiselle, all I’m doing here is my duty! I haven’t hurt any of you, I haven’t treated you badly, I’m making you uncomfortable, nothing worse! Have you any idea how many millions of people live on the rations you feel so deprived with? I did, when I was a child, for years, because people like you took everything.’ There was such hatred in his voice. It’s stark to me, even now. I’d suspected for a long time that poorer people resented people like me; it’s why I was cautious around William and Sean. But I’d never understood the furnace heat of it. ‘So contain yourself, please! You are safe and warm and dry, and if you’re hungry, it’s your own fault. There is no need for savagery.’
I didn’t argue, because even though I’d been angry a few seconds before, I felt sorry now. I felt like I was talking to someone who had been wounded by people who looked just like me.
He pulled his sleeve over his bloody cheek. One of the soldiers touched his arm to ask if he was all right. ‘Just put her somewhere, please. I don’t want to see her again. Tell the others that the first one who can properly describe the battles of Trafalgar and Waterloo will be given full rations for a fortnight.’
33
Edinburgh, 1807
Cigarette ash dropped on Joe’s knee. He scooped it up and scattered it out of the window, which was old and stiff, and opened only a few inches. He hardly noticed himself doing it, his head still with Madeline in that strange chateau in France. Maybe he was wrong about Charles. Maybe he was Sean. That certainly fitted the way Joe looked. And then there was William; Joe had that same scar, the little mark over one eye.
He didn’t see that Kite was awake until he got up and went to the door.
‘Hold on, where are you going?’ Joe said.
‘Away from that,’ Kite said towards the cigarette.
‘It’s no better downstairs, don’t – look, gone, see? Don’t.’ Joe went after him. ‘You shouldn’t be standing up. It’s only a cigarette; why does it bother you so much?’
Kite didn’t push him very hard. It was meant to make a point, not hurt, but it did hurt; it banged him into the wall and sent a thick airless ache through his ribs.
‘No, all right,’ Joe heard himself say. He touched Kite’s knuckles. ‘Come on, it’s all right.’
Kite let him go and stepped back. ‘Sorry,’ he whispered.
‘I’ve sailed for fifteen minutes and I nearly punched the bartender just now, you’re doing well to speak in sentences.’ Joe breathed slowly to make Kite do the same. He let the quiet spin, waiting for Kite’s lungs to take on the rhythm on their own, not just because he was forcing it. In his hands, Kite’s were shaking. Too much energy. It had to go somewhere. ‘Come on, we need to go out for a walk. A long walk. What’s that hill called, in town?’
‘Arthur’s Seat?’
‘Let’s climb it. See in the morning from the top.’
Kite looked out at the dark for a long time, but then nodded. The marines stared claymores at Joe, who pretended not to notice. He realised it was a stupid idea as soon as they were outside. It was foggy, and the hill was more of a mountain, with only one steep track up. Even by the time he hurt all over, the light at the top didn’t seem any closer. In the fog it was only a halo haze. The longer he looked up at it, the less it looked like something they could reach, and the more like an incurious angel.
‘In your time,’ Kite said. ‘You said it wasn’t only you, with epilepsy. The forgetting. You said it was common.’
‘Yes, it’s … well, the doctors said it was common. They said it happened in clusters. Started about two and a half years ago now, three. Why?’
‘Something happened here, three years ago. It will have affected the future a lot. You’ll be angry when you hear, but – I’ll tell you if you want to know. It’s the only thing I can give you, to …’ he lifted his hand a little ‘ … return the favour,’ he said.
‘What could have changed the whole future that much?’
‘Trafalgar.’ Kite’s hand went to the burns across his face but like always he pulled it away before he could touch them. ‘The Kingdom came from a future where the English won the Battle of Trafalgar. London didn’t fall, the French fleet never made it to Calais to ship the army across to Kent and Bristol, they didn’t invade, none of it. Your time was under English rule. But then we lost.’
Joe almost laughed, but only almost. ‘Jesus. And she was only trying to tell Herault about railway stations.’ He held up Madeline’s letter to show what he was talking about.