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PROLOGUE

London,

14 May 1602

THE STREETS of Southere dark and deserted The air se, and dead fish He instinctively held her handthe riverside Anyone could easily get lost in this tangle of alleyways," he whispered

"Yes, and there’s a thief or aaround every corner" She sounded pleased "Wonderful, right? Much,in that stuffy roo homework!" She picked up the heavy skirts of her dress and hurried on

He couldn’t suppress a grin Lucy had a real gift for seeing the bright side of any situation in any historical period Even Shakespeare’s England, which was supposed to be a Golden Age but looked distinctly sinister just now, held no terrors for Lucy The opposite, if anything

"A pity we never get ht up with her "I’d have enjoyed Hamlet more if I hadn’t had to see it in installments" She neatly avoided a squelchy puddle of mud At least, he fervently hoped it was only mud Then she performed a few dance steps and twirled around "Thus conscience doth reat?"

He nodded, and had to rinned too often when he ith Lucy If he didn’t watch out, he’d end up looking like soe idiot

They were on the way to London Bridge It was a shae, which would have been a much more convenient place for them to cross the river, wasn’t yet built But they’d have to hurry if they didn’t want anyone at home to notice that they’d taken this secret trip to the early seventeenth century

How thankful he would be to take off this stiff white ruff again! It felt like the big plastic collars that dogs have to wear after an operation

Lucy turned the corner,about Shakespeare "How ive that man to let us into the Globe Theatre, Paul?"

"Four of those heavy coins--don’t ask hed "To hies"

"Anyway, it worked The seats were super"

Walking fast, they reached London Bridge Lucy stopped, as she had on their way to the theater, to look at the houses built right over the bridge But he led her on "You knohat Mr George said: if you stand under atoo long, so to empty a chamber pot on your head," he reminded her "And you’ll draw attention to yourself"

"You’d never know you were standing on a bridge, would you? It looks like a perfectly normal street Oh, look, a traffic jaes"

Unlike the side streets, the bridge was croith people, but the carts, carriages, and litters trying to get across to the opposite bank of the Thames could hardly inch their way forward Frohing, but they couldn’t see exactly as holding up the traffic A ht beside them His starched, white lace ruff came up to his ears

"Isn’t there so river?" he called to his coachman in French

The coachman shook his head "Even if there e can’t turn back--we’re stuck! I’ll walk on ahead and find out what’s happened I’ain soon, , the man put his head, complete with hat and ruff, back inside the coach, while the coachh the crowd

"Did you hear that, Paul? They’re Frenchhted "Tourists!"

"Yes, terrific, but we uely ree had been de the river Not a great place for time travel, then

They followed the French coachman, but after a while, the people and vehicles were crah

"I heard a cart carrying casks of oil caught fire," said the woman just ahead of them, to no one in particular "If they don’t watch out, the whole bridge will go up in flah not today, as far as I know,"Lucy’s arm "Come on, let’s retrace our footsteps and wait to travel back on that side of the river"

"Do you remember the password? Just in case we don’tcaves, wasn’t it?"

"Gutta cavat lapide, she looked up at hiht with pleasure, and suddenly he remembered what his brother Falk had said when he asked about the perfectspeeches if I were you I’d just do it," Falk advised hiirl can only slap your face, and then you’ll know"

Of course Falk had wondered aloud exactly who the girl in question was, but Paul didn’t want any of those discussions beginning, "You do know, of course, that any links between the de Villiers and Montrose fa, "What’s irls are silly cows, and later on they get to be dragons like Lady Arista"

Silly cows, indeed! That irls, but definitely not Lucy

Lucy, whos he had never told another living soul Lucy, someone you could literally--

He took a deep breath

"Why have you stopped?" asked Lucy, but he was already leaning down to press his lips to hers For three seconds, he was afraid she was going to push hiet over her surprise She returned his kiss, at first cautiously, then putting her heart into it

In fact this was anything but the perfecthurry, because they ht travel back in tiot about the third "in fact" Nothing counted but Lucy