wait years and years. Well, it would be years and years, but mine, not yours, and I don’t mind. And it wouldn’t have to be all that many years if you took me with you to the Blitz.”
“Absolutely not.”
“I don’t mean to do the Blitz. If I get killed, I’ll never catch up to you. I’d go north to where the evacuees went.”
“No,” Polly said. “And I thought you wanted to catch up to me. If you go with me, our comparative ages will stay the same.”
“Not if I don’t come back with you. I could stay till the end of the war—that would be five years—and then come back flash-time. That would make me twenty-two, and I’d only have two or three assignments to go. I could do those flash-time as well, so you wouldn’t have to wait any time at all.”
She must put a stop to this. “Colin, you need to find someone your own age.”
“Exactly. And you’ll be my own age as soon as—”
“This is ridiculous. You’ll change your mind a thousand times about what you want between now and when you’re twenty-five. You changed your mind about wanting to go to the Crusades—”
“No, I didn’t.”
“But you said—”
“I only tell people that so they won’t try to talk me out of it. I fully intend to go there and the World Trade Center. And I won’t change my mind about this either. How old were you when you knew you wanted to be an historian?”
“Fourteen, but—”
“And you still want to be one, don’t you?”
“Colin, that’s different.”
“How? You knew what you wanted, and I know what I want. And I’m three years older than you were. I know you think this is some sort of childish calf love, that seventeen’s too young to be in love with someone—”
No, she thought, I know it’s not, and felt suddenly sorry for him.
Mistake. He clearly took her silence for encouragement. “It’s not as though I were asking for any sort of commitment,” he said. “All I want is for you to give me a chance to catch up to you, and then, when we’re both the same age—or, wait, do you like older men? I can shoot for any age you like. I mean, not seventy or something: I don’t want to have to wait my entire life, but I’d be willing to do thirty, if you like older men—”
“Colin!” she said, laughing in spite of herself. “I have no business letting you talk to me like this. You’re seventeen—”
“No, listen, when I’m the right age, whatever it is, if you don’t like me or you’ve fallen in love with someone else in the meantime—you haven’t, have you? Fallen in love with someone?”
“Colin—”
“You have. I knew it. Who is it? That American chap?”
“What American chap?”
“Over at Balliol. The tall, good-looking one, Mike something.”
“Michael Davies,” she said. “He’s not an American. He had an American L-and-A implant. And he’s just a friend.”
“Then which historian is it? Not Gerald Phipps, I hope. He’s a complete stick—”
“I am not in love with Gerald Phipps or any other historian.”
“Good, because we’re absolutely made for each other. I mean, a contemp won’t work, because either they’ve died before you were born, or they’re ancient. And there’s no point in falling in love with someone in this time because even if you start off at the same age, after a few flash-time assignments you’ll be too old for him. And they can’t come rescue you if you get in trouble. So the only thing left’s another historian, and as it happens, I’m going to be an historian.”
“Colin, you are seventeen—”
“But I won’t be soon. You’ll feel differently about this when I’m twenty-fi—”
“You are seventeen now, and I have work to do. This conversation is over. Now go away.”
“Not until you at least promise me you’ll do your zeppelin assignment real-time.”
“I’m not promising anything.”
“Well, then at least promise me you’ll think about it. I plan to be devastatingly handsome and charming when I’m twenty-five.” He grinned his crooked grin at her. “Or thirty. You can let me know which you’d prefer when I bring you the sirens list.” And he raced off, leaving Polly shaking her head and smiling.
She had a feeling he was right—with that reddish-blond hair and disarming grin, he was going to be fairly irresistible in a few years. And she wouldn’t be surprised if ten minutes from now, he showed up with another question and more arguments as to why they were made for