Oliver couldn’t quite believe what he was hearing. Sir Isaac Newton was one of his heroes!
“Newton?” he stammered. “As in the scientist? The man who discovered gravity?”
From her position on the doorstep, the maid chuckled. “Well, I don’t know what he’s discovered, boy, it’s far over my head. But he is a genius of science, I do believe. He left London because of the plague and has only just returned there.”
Thinking of the plague put things a little in perspective for Oliver. As thrilling as it was to be on a quest to meet Isaac Newton, England in the seventeenth century was a dangerous place. Not to mention unsanitary. There was all manner of diseases they could pick up. Oliver had even read in a history book that most people had lice!
The maid turned her head over her shoulder and bellowed once more for the stable hand to attend to them.
A boy who looked roughly the same age as Oliver appeared at the end of the corridor. He was bleary-eyed, as if he’d only recently awoken, and was wearing brown linen shorts that showed off his painfully knobby knees.
Oliver felt a stab of pity for the boy. He himself had lived a life of destitution. But his experience of poverty in the modern era was very different from this boy’s experience of poverty. At the very least he hadn’t been forced to earn his keep.
The boy scurried toward the maid. “Yes, Miss Dean?”
“These are acquaintances of Master Newton’s,” she announced, taking an unnecessarily gruff tone with the boy. “They need to be chauffeured to London immediately. Professor Amethyst’s express command.”
At the mention of the headmaster, the boy’s eyes widened. Clearly, Professor Amethyst was something of a legend around here. The mere mention of his name caused ripples.
“I’ll fetch the coach and driver right away, ma’am,” he stammered.
He bowed and turned to leave. But before he’d even taken a step, the maid reached out and smacked him on the head, causing him to stumble.
Oliver winced.
“Wear your cap next time I summon you!” the maid shouted.
“Yes, ma’am, sorry, ma’am.”
The boy scurried away into the shadows.
The whole exchange made Oliver feel terrible. The boy already looked half starved. The least he deserved was a kind word. He felt extremely grateful to have been born at a point in history where children were no longer forced to work.
When the maid turned back to Esther, Ralph, and Oliver in the doorway, her demeanor immediately returned to friendly. She smiled. “Will you come in for tea?”
The last thing Oliver wanted to do was spend any time with someone who treated others so cruelly.
He was about to politely decline when the maid added, “The young miss doesn’t look too well.”
Oliver looked over at Esther. She was very pale and was swaying side to side.
“She hurt her head,” he explained. He looked into Esther’s eyes. “Are you okay?”
Esther snapped back to the moment, as if waking from a bad dream. “Yes. Yes, I’m fine.” She rubbed her stomach. “The traveling just makes me nauseous.”
Oliver accepted her explanation but he still felt uncertain. Esther just didn’t seem like herself.
Just then, they heard the sound of horses’ hooves and all turned on the doorstep to look behind them.
From around the corner came the carriage, pulled by two jet black horses. The rider, a gentleman in a top hat with a very large moustache, flashed them a somewhat unimpressed expression before leaping down from his perch.
“There’s the carriage already,” the lady said, surprised.
“The boy said it was an emergency,” the driver said.
The maid nodded. “Professor Amethyst’s orders.”
The driver immediately wiped the frown from his face. “Oh. I see.”
He gestured for the three to approach.
As they did, the maid called out, “Make sure you keep your wits about you once you reach the city! It’s a filthy place. Full of pickpockets and ne’er-do-gooders.”
Then she retreated inside and closed the door.
Esther, Ralph, and Oliver went up to the horse-drawn carriage, where the driver was holding open the door for them. He took Esther’s hand, helping her inside, then stepped back to allow Ralph and Oliver to get in by themselves.
“Ugh, chivalry,” Esther muttered.
Once the three were seated the driver secured the door and climbed back up the front. He took the horses’ reins and pulled on them. With a whinny, the horses trotted forward. Oliver felt the carriage judder. The wheels creaked. They were on the move.
“Isaac Newton,” he muttered under his breath, with disbelief.
He was so excited to meet one of his all-time heroes. He’d learned about him in class and from reading his inventors book. His early life was inspiring. As a baby he wasn’t expected to live, and as a child he had to fend off bullies, just like Oliver had himself. He’d found comfort in inventing things—something else they’d shared in common—building models like sundials and windmills. He studied at the best university in England, Cambridge, rebuilt the telescope, and wrote his three-volume text on the laws of physics, including his ground-breaking discovery of gravity. And now Oliver was going to meet him!
He thought about the timeline. In 1690, Newton had finished his main body of work. In fact, he was heading toward a nervous breakdown. But once he recovered from that, he’d go on to receive his knighthood, the first scientist to ever do so, and become Sir Isaac Newton.
Oliver had so many questions swirling in his head. He just couldn’t wait.