Page 18 of The Runner
‘This room is exactly as I remember it,’ said Eddie. ‘The chesterfields are later additions, of course, but the layout and bookshelves are the same. It’s remarkable.’
A smile spread across Cara’s face. She was proud of this room.
‘I’m happy you like it. We’ve barely had a chance to get started, but it’s stunning, isn’t it? There’s a special energy in here and it’s been my favourite room as far back as I remember.’
‘Talking of special energy, where is this wormhole?’ He scanned the room from side to side, appraising the floor-to-ceiling shelving stacked with layers of old books. It was a special edition collector’s dream.
‘Wormhole?’ said Cara.
‘It may well be a priest hole in structural terms, but in quantum terms, it sounds to me like it’s got all the attributes of a wormhole,’ said Eddie, rubbing his fingers back and forth across the light stubble on his chin.‘Of course, there are various names for these points in the universe. You may have heard people refer to them as wormholes, portals, gateways or even tunnels,’ he continued, looking from Cara to George. ‘There are all kinds of names made popular by sci-fi books and movies.’
George, who had just discovered a volume of the Cavendish family history and was absorbed in flicking through it, raised his head. ‘Aren’t wormholes considered possible in Einstein’s theory of relativity? I seem to remember something about that from my otherwise deathly dull physics classes.’
‘Yes, that’s correct.’ Eddie’s head bobbed up and down as he nodded enthusiastically. And that’s all it took to set him off on the complex workings of quantum physics. ‘It’s known as an Einstein-Rosen Bridge or Einstein-Rosen Wormhole. In simple terms, it’s like a tunnel with two ends at separate points, which may be in different locations or times… or even universes. That’s when we get into the possibilities of the multiverse where we’d be talking about multiple universes, not just timelines.’
‘I suppose we should be grateful we’ve not been catapulted to other universes then!’ said Cara. ‘It’s mind blowing…’
‘It is,’ said Eddie. ‘It was reading Einstein’s Theory of Relativity that got me into this field in the first place. But don’t let the science overwhelm you. This is a really exciting development. It’s what you’ve been wishing for ever since you started time travelling.’
‘Is it?’ said Cara, pulling a face. ‘How so, exactly, Professor?’
Eddie sank down on the chesterfield next to the still unsorted boxes of books. ‘As you suspected, this could well be the missing piece for being able to time travel on demand. Although, we don’t know whether it will work for me or George. Think about it… let’s say it is a bona fide wormhole—you stumbled into it by chance, but it sounds as though you were transported to the same timeline on both occasions.’
‘Yes, but I would have expected to find myself back in Tudorville, but in Georgiana everything’s different… I even have a different name this time.’
Eddie scratched his stubble again and was silent as he considered the ramifications of an alternate timeline.
‘Using the wormhole theory as a starting point, it makes perfect sense the tunnel would transport you to one other location only. That’s what makes it possible to be explained by science, otherwise it would be too random.’ He waved his hands around as he spoke. ‘Think of it as a fixed entry point to the vortex.’
‘Triggered by that specific location, you mean?’ said George, looking bemused.
‘Yes but, we’ll only know for certain when Cara’s been through it again in a controlled experiment.’
Cara squeezed into the narrow space to sit down next to the professor. ‘I thought it wouldn’t be long before we were back to experiments. I really don’t like the sound of “controlled”. What on earth would you have me do this time?’
‘You have an amazing ability to revisit your past lives, Cara. We can’t just ignore it. That would be a great shame, and a loss to the scientific community. If this is as we suspect; the opportunity you have to travel to a specific timeline on demand is one in several billion.’
‘How did you work that out?’ she said, her grey eyes widening in awe at his instant mathematical calculation.
‘Let’s just say it’s an educated guess,’ said Eddie, with the hint of a smile.
George raised one eyebrow and looked at Cara knowingly. They had both experienced the outcome of Eddie’s educated guesses and George was reluctant to risk their hard-won happiness for the sake of proving a complex scientific theory.
George laid the book he was reading on the writing desk and came over to join them. ‘What do you have in mind?’
‘Show me the priest hole and if all is as I suspect, I’d like to send Cara through again and observe what happens,’ said Eddie.
George reached for Cara’s hand. ‘What do you think?’
She shook her head. ‘I don’t know what to think. I’ve been having more dreams about Georgiana, so it does seem to be calling me. But I’m reluctant to rush in and risk messing things up again. It’s 1729, and everything points to us reaching the exact spot when we were in danger of losing our past and our future after the karmic warrior hypnotised me to force us apart.’
‘You didn’t say you’ve been having more dreams,’ said George, thin lines creasing his forehead and his dark eyes clouding over.
‘I didn’t want to worry you, darling, and I didn’t know what to make of it. I mean, they could just be dreams, as you said, couldn’t they? I remember nothing after going into the priest hole, so we’ve no way of knowing if I did time travel to Georgiana… the dreams and the vortex showing up at the same time could be a coincidence. The vortex took me for sure, but it could have been to Tudorville as usual,’ Cara said. She stood abruptly and crossed the room to gaze out of the window. Cara watched Cornelius dart in and out of the hydrangeas, his thin tail curled near his long, graceful legs, while Swifty, lost in a world of his own and oblivious to her observing him, mowed the lawn which he had explained was a never-ending task. As soon as he completed the lawns on one side of the estate, he returned to the other and began all over again. Watching Swifty and Cornelius, who was a present-day version of the sweet puppy George had gifted her upon their betrothal in Tudorville, soothed her weary soul and not for the first time, she wished she’d never stumbled on the blasted wormhole. Her thoughts wandered again to their children, Thomas and May, and she imagined them in this very house in another time, taking their lessons with Tutor Edward, running about the grounds with the greyhound. She could see their joyful faces as they dashed about with Swifty and Cornelius.
George’s parents would be in residence at the estate, and the sixteenth-century version of her and George would likely be in London at the court of Henry VIII. If she hadn’t experienced this other life for herself, she would think it impossible. The thought of the children comforted her momentarily, but also reminded her of the magnitude of what was at stake. If she went back in time and changed even one tiny thing, it had the potential to adjust her family’s life for every generation.
Eddie said, ‘What do you say? Are you up for trying to go through the wormhole again?’
