WANTED, two household maids for a small family, to clean part of the house, wash, iron and bake. Must have good Characters from places where they have served in the above capacity, and be good-tempered and cleanly.
Due to the abrupt departure of two previous maids without an official resignation, this position must be filled promptly. Enquire to the Finchley family, Annetwell Street, Carlisle, without delay. No Scottish servants or Jacobite sympathizers need apply, regardless of whether they otherwise meet the above description.
Folios/v1/Time-landscape-1745/MS-11
File note: Advertisement posted in The Carlisle Courier on 18 September 1745
ST ANDREWS, SCOTLAND, 2056
Clove jerked awake, sending bath water splashing out of the tub and onto the floor. Someone was trying to open the bathroom door.
After she’d walked home from the university, she’d run a bath while eating a packet of smoky bacon crisps. Even though she had been exhausted, she had to wash before she could even think about going to sleep. She had been deprived of shampoo and shower gel for so long that she could smell herself. It wasn’t pleasant. She had sunk into the warm water, letting herself drift into a contented doze, and fallen asleep.
“I’m in the bath!” she called out to the person outside. She was shivering. The water had gone cold.
There was silence.
“Who is this?” Tom said.
Clove sat up, bubbles dissolving into nothing around her. Her muscles had all seized up. She was seriously considering never time-travelling again, if she was always going to feel like death afterwards.
“It’s me, Dad.”
There was another silence.
“I’m sorry, I know it’s late. Did I wake you? I have a headache,” she explained. “I thought a bath might help.” She was desperately trying to calculate what day it was now. Friday? Or wait, no, Spart said she had arrived back through the wormhole twenty minutes after she’d left. That must mean it was the early hours of Saturday.
“What are you doing in my house?” Tom said, and this time his voice was low and threatening.
“Dad?”
“Who is this? Let me in, right now.”
“Dad? It’s Clove.”
Why was he being so weird? Climbing out of the bath, she reached for a towel. But where there was usually a neat stack of folded towels, there was nothing. Clove suddenly felt dislocated in her own bathroom. There were no towels anywhere – and now she was looking, there were none of her other things either.
Where were all her toiletries? Why was there—?
There was only one toothbrush on the sink.
Clove grabbed her clothes from her rucksack and pulled them on, trying not to panic. The room hadn’t been like this when she’d arrived. When she’d cleaned her teeth before her bath, everything had been in its place.
She didn’t know what any of this meant.
“Come out now,” Tom said. “Or I’m breaking this door down. Whoever this is, I want you out of my house. Right now.”
What was going on? Had her dad had a stroke or something? Had he forgotten who she was? Where was Jen?
“Dad, it’s me, Clove,” she said, opening the door.
Tom stood outside, his skin pale. “Whoever you are, you need to get out of my house right now.” He sounded hoarse with something that she had thought was anger, but now realized was fear.
“Dad,” Clove pleaded again, tears welling up in her eyes. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know who you are, but you aren’t my daughter. I don’t have a daughter.”
“Look, I know all those things I said yesterday sounded bad, but you’re still my parents, even if I am adopted…”
“I’ve never had a daughter.”
She had a flashback to Matthew, also denying that she was his daughter. It was almost funny that this kept happening to her, in a heartbreaking way.
“You… Where’s Jen?”
“Jen?”
“Mum? Your … your wife?”
“I don’t have a wife,” he said, flatly. At least he didn’t sound angry any more. “I think you’ve got the wrong person. Do you need me to call the hospital? Are you injured? How did you get in here?”
“No wife?” she repeated hoarsely.
What was going on? What had happened while she was away? Clove wrapped her arms around her waist. She could feel herself shaking.
“Let me call someone for you, OK?” Tom said with concern. “You’re clearly … confused. We’ll get you home to your family.”
“But … but you are my family…” Clove stammered.
What had happened while she was in the bath? Something had changed while she was asleep. Reality had … shifted, somehow. Altered.
Clove suddenly had an urge to look outside. What if everything was different? Without a word, she pushed passed Tom and stumbled down the stairs. He called after her, but she ignored him.
She pulled open the front door, gasping as she caught sight of what was outside. The street, the one she’d grown up on, was unrecognizable. Everything had changed.
And it was her fault.
She’d destroyed the future.