or that Jamie had heard just about everything at some point in his life. “I’ll be brief,” he said. “I don’t suppose you’ve heard any rumors about Lord Epworth having a piece of lace go missing.”
“What I heard was he had a fit when you broke into his very secure hall and lifted said piece of lace from practically under his nose in fifteen minutes.”
“It was actually eight and a half,” Derrick corrected politely. “It would have been eight, but I had to stop and tickle the Pomeranian under the chin and feed him his favorite doggie treats.”
“I suppose we can all be relieved you haven’t chosen a life of crime,” Jamie said dryly. “Very well, so the lace has gone missing in truth this time. I’m assuming you’re hunting for it?”
“Aye,” Derrick agreed. “It’s just where it’s gone missing that’s presenting a bit of a problem.”
“Tell me about it.”
Derrick could just imagine Jamie settling comfortably in his expensive leather chair in his thinking room, as he called it, and flexing his fingers purposefully.
“In brief,” Derrick said, “it was given to a courier who managed to lose it in Elizabethan England.”
“Interesting.”
“She put it under a planter.”
“Hope it was wrapped well.”
Derrick pursed his lips. “That thought has occurred to me as well.”
Jamie clucked his tongue. “I don’t think I need to tell you how perilous it is to leave two of the same thing in the same place.”
“How perilous?”
“The deviation from the natural order of things might not be so noticeable at first,” Jamie said slowly, “but I’m not exaggerating when I say that the fabric of time becomes . . . hmmm . . . let’s say it becomes disturbed when things are added that shouldn’t be there.” He paused. “In some cases, when it comes to individuals perhaps, I have come to believe that those additions were meant to be. But when it comes to tangible things—”
“Bad?”
“They have a way of turning up where they shouldn’t and the result is never pleasant. Do you remember that fellow traveler we acquired during that trip a couple of months ago?”
“Vividly.” They had spent a week on board a Victorian frigate with a C. S. Forester nut who had heard a rumor about Jamie’s familiarity with time periods not his own and had been determined to test its veracity. He had followed them back in time, then continued to follow them onto the ship. It was only when he succeeded in poaching the captain’s sword that they had realized who he was and what he was up to.
And, well, Jamie was right. That sort of thing belonged in its proper time and place. He and Jamie had had a hell of a time getting the sword back where it belonged. They had managed, again just barely, to also get the would-be Horatio Hornblower back to the current day, but the man had eventually had to be institutionalized.
Time travel wasn’t for the faint of heart.
“I’d pop back and get it, were I you.”
Derrick could see the wisdom in it. “There’s just one problem,” he said slowly. “I’m not sure that the woman who stashed the lace will come along. And I’m not sure I want her to.”
“Can she give you directions?”
“I don’t think she will, even if she could,” Derrick admitted. “I think I could find it myself. She didn’t venture too far afield.”
“Then what’s the trouble?”
Derrick hardly knew how to voice his thought, but he hadn’t called just to chat. “I was thinking,” he began slowly, “that perhaps if I used a gate to simply go backward a day, just to yesterday, and managed to get the lace back from her before all this madness . . .”
Jamie made a noise that wasn’t quite disapproval, but it was definitely warning.
“Have you ever tried it?” Derrick asked.
“Aye,” was all Jamie said.
Derrick waited, but Jamie didn’t say anything else. It had to have been terrible, else he would have described the experience in minute detail. Derrick sighed.
“Very well, I’ll go back to the proper time myself.”
“Want company?”
Derrick smiled. “I think I’ll manage, though I’ll try to send word if things go awry.”
“I’ll keep an eye on the Tower inmate list.”
Derrick would have laughed, but he didn’t suppose he dared. “That would be very kind.”
Jamie laughed a little. “You’ll be fine, laddie. We’ll go have ourselves a goodly adventure somewhere safe after you’ve restored old Epworth’s treasure to him.”
Derrick thanked Jamie for his help and rang off. He considered, wished he hadn’t ditched his Elizabethan