She led and he followed a half-step behind, so that she had to raise her voice to talk to him. “You were Sir Henry Fayth’s valet,” she said. “Is that right?”
“I was his footman and driver,” Giles corrected.
“And I take it you haven’t made all that many jumps?”
“My lady?”
At his blank expression, she rephrased her question in the more formal style of address of an earlier age. “Am I to understand that you have but limited experience in ley travel?”
“Yes, my lady. This was only my second time.”
“I see. Has anyone explained to you about the time slip—that’s what I call it. You know, the way time slips around when you make a jump?”
“No, my lady. But I know Sir Henry made many such leaps. He and Mr. Livingstone often travelled together, and I understand that the places they visited were not in the present day and time—if you see what I mean.”
“Yes, well, I just want to warn you that we will be returning to Britain—but it will not be the country it was when you left.” She cast a quick glance at her sturdy companion. “What year was it when you left England?”
“The year of our Lord sixteen and sixty-six, if I have it right.”
“Then it will have changed.”
“Are we going back to London?”
“Not just now. We’re going to Scotland—Edinburgh, to be exact. You should recognise many things—there is much that remains unchanged from one era to the next. But the Britain we are going to visit lies about a hundred and fifty years into the future—that is, your future.”
“Is that where you live?”
“No.” She smiled. “My home is—or was—three hundred years further still into that particular future. But, don’t worry, we won’t be going there . . . at least, I don’t expect we will.”
“Does a body always go to a different place?”
“A different world or dimension, you mean?” Mina considered this. “I think so,” she replied. “At least, so far as I know. Even so, it is possible to make a jump and remain in the same geographical area, so to speak. If Kit followed the instructions I gave him, he has made a jump that keeps him in Egypt—only it will be a different Egypt in a different time from the one he left. It took me a long time to work that out, but it is incredibly useful.”
Giles accepted this without comment. They proceeded up the long ramping incline of the hill to the top, where they paused to look down into the valley beyond. If there was an old straight track down there, it was well hidden. After taking in the view for a moment, Giles asked, “What is this place?”
“To tell you the truth, I don’t know. I have not explored this world. I only use it as a sort of stepping-stone to get from one ley to another. There are many such as these—unknown worlds, I call them.” She laughed. “Mostly because I don’t know anything about them.”
“Are there people hereabouts?”
“A few,” replied Mina. “Farmers and the like. I have seen them working in their fields beyond those hills just there. Once or twice I have encountered them herding sheep in the valley as well. I don’t know what country this is, or what language is spoken. I hope we won’t be here long enough to find out.” She pointed to the silver sliver of water coursing along the wide valley bottom. “The ley is just on the other side of that little stream. Once we reach it, we’ll be on our way.”
Soon their feet were swishing through the bracken that covered the hillside all the way down to the banks of the stream, where they stopped to refresh themselves before moving on.
“There it is,” Wilhelmina said, indicating a rough stone shaped like a magician’s hat rising from the weeds near the bank. “That marker is where it begins. You will see the line once you are on the path. It is not very long, so we must be in step and up to speed when we reach the stone.”
“And this ley will take us to Scotland?”
“I’m sorry, Giles, no. We must make two more jumps to get there from here.” She pulled from her pocket a small brass object shaped like a river stone, twisted a tiny dial, and held the thing in the direction of the marker.
Giles watched, and when nothing seemed to happen Mina cast a glance at the sky, observing the