Temporal Exploring 101 - Deep Future

IV.20 The Clarion Eye

"I wish James was here," Nancy mused.

"What do you need your dad's chauffeur for?" her cousin inquired. "And anyhow, where is he if he is not here?"

"Oh, he is staying with Mom and Dad while they are in London," Nancy explained. "Which is a pity. If he were here, we could borrow him so he could drive us to London this afternoon. You know, to meet and talk to that journalist, Ms Kimberley Ames. The one we talked about earlier today."

We had told Madison that there bad been an incident that we were 'investigating'. Granny Morgan, who was one of our classmates' grandmother, had disappeared after her cottage located in a small Welsh village had been broken into and vandalized.

Of course, we had told Madison neither about the message that Granny Morgan had left for Erin nor about what had happened a few weeks later at Mount Fernyr. However, we had mentioned what we had heard from Jake: how a journalist of a small London newspaper, the Clarion Eye, had found out that Granny Morgan's disappearance was but one of twenty or more similar cases where women all over the United Kingdom had disappeared, seemingly without a trace, after their homes had been burglarized.

We had called the London offices of the Clarion Eye on the phone, introducing ourselves as students at St. Albert's and claiming that we had chosen Ms Ames' articles about those mysterious disappearances as a topic for a school project on journalism that we supposedly were working on. Ms Ames had been kind enough to invite us to visit the Clarion Eye's headquarters to ask her questions during our midterm break.

"Yeah, it's too bad James is not available to drive us," Natty agreed. "It would provide us with something interesting to do for the rest of the day."

"I could drive you," Madison proposed. "I've got a driver's license. Or rather, I am about to get one, which pretty much amounts to the same thing. " She turned towards Nancy. "We can take one of those limousines from your dad's car-park, can't we?"

"I suppose so." Nancy looked doubtful. "Of course, Dad would never give us permission to do so. But hey, since he's not here we can't ask him, can we? If we damage one of his cars, we'll be in trouble, though."

"Don't worry about it, Cousin," Madison reassured her. "Trust me, I know how to drive a car."

"I don't doubt it. The question is, do you know how to drive a Rolls?" Nancy asked.

"A Rolls Royce, huh?" Her cousin grinned. "Well, let's go and find out, shall we?"

Ten minutes later, we were sitting in one of the fifteen or so identical looking black limousines that made up Lord Kerrington's car-park. The keys had been left inside the car, which spoke either of the great trust his Lordship put into his family and his staff, or possibly of the fact that Nancy's father was rich enough to be a bit careless about his material possessions.

Natty, Nancy and I held our breaths as Madison was steering the Rolls out of the garage and onto the main driveway. As our luck would have it  Ms Cavernough happened to be outside, talking to to one of the gardeners. She looked up and noticed the four of us – her three adolescent charges and her employer's niece – leaving the premises.

The governess stepped forward, waving her arms to get our attention and yelling:"Nancy! Madison! What do you think you are doing?"

Nancy's cousin rolled down the side window. "Hi there, Ms Cavernough!" she cheerfully shouted. "We are taking a trip to London. Don't worry about it, I've got a license."

"Wait a moment. You cannot just ..." Swiftly stepping aside, the governess narrowly avoided being hit by the approaching car.

Nancy turned her head to get one last look at her in the car's rear window.