A church bell tolls twelve strokes as he automatically spreads his legs wide apart to keep his balance. There is a moment of vertigo and confusion before he reorients himself taking care to not attempt to control this body. Then his new mind becomes melded, filled with his old memories along with some new. It must be high noon as he opens his eyes on this sunlit day.
Detective Chief Inspector Lorenzo Herne cannot keep from smiling as he gazes out over the ramparts of the stone structure to the City streets and the snow covered landscape below. He is no longer Lorenzo for a period of time. Several days, or so he has been told. Even better to simply think of himself as whomever he is now.
Wait, he considers, who is he at this point? The hands before him are delicate, ladylike with colored fingernails of some coral tint carefully worked to be appealing. Quickly he examines his body and discovers what he had not expected at all. This is a woman's body.
Whatever does this mean? The mind he is sharing is questioning but unafraid.
Don't be alarmed. No need to fear. Lorenzo is soothing and calming with all of his mind's power.
Fourth dimensional travel is turning out to be confusing even for the mind of a master detective.
But DCI Herne is not perplexed for long. Lady Galsworthy had not even hinted that this might be the result of his foray into another dimension of time. However, it was simply one more test of his strength and initiative. Or of this female he is now. He must begin to remember that he is a woman. He is presently a she, as it were.
He sees that the map held in her hands is easy enough to follow. For anyone used to the tortuously convoluted and contorted thoroughfares, alleys, and footpaths of a nineteenth century London this sprawling twenty-first century grid display of the modern capital city is most unproblematic for the mind of a professional in the Metropolitan Police. Even in a feminine head, it occurs to Lorenzo. The one he has now covered with braided tresses of golden blonde locks and an oddly knitted cap.
Lorenzo understands that this lady is up here reconnoitering the cityscape of her home. She had arrived some weeks before to take a position in a department of the institution below.
He touches and examines her garments. On her feet are flat laced up comfortable white shoes of some vulcanized substance. Her blouse seems to be simple cotton of a cheerfully flowered pattern. She has some sort of tight fitting pants covering her legs with a kilt-like skirt to her knees and a short over wrap keeping her warm on the chilly winter day.
No longer is she wearing the inspector's usual clothing of striped trousers held up by leather braces, a silken white shirt with billowed sleeves and a ruffled scarf, long overcoat of dark grey wool, and a high top hat. No more highly polished black boots covering the calves. She is missing the normal goggles consistently at rest upon the neck.
And even more oddly there seems to be no type of brass firearms or sheathed knifes upon her person.
She adjusts her blouse covering her distaff parts and physique. Her strange, unfamiliar undergarments are causing a rather uncomfortable chaffing and abrading in the delicate, tender area under her not overlarge bosoms. Even though she is certainly used to wearing this womanish clothing he is rather certain that females of his own time were not employing concealed garments that covered each breast individually in such a surrounding and encompassing manner.
It must be at least the year of twenty naught one, he considers, as the map is copyrighted for that year. Their location is clear from the title of the colorful chart. Most impressive, he thinks. As he expected he has arrived presumably at exactly one hundred years from the starting date. He consciously brings her delicate legs together, trying to be more ladylike in manner. The denizens of this future dimension should not be aware of her differences. That would be formidably bad luck.
It is readily apparent that there is something missing between her legs. Those masculine appurtenances that shortly before had resided in his groin area. The place that is occupied at this point with something his mind is quizzically attempting to discern clearly. He adjusts the pantaloons under the kilt-like garment that she is wearing. Yoga pants her thought explains. He presses against that spot and discovers that it causes a not uncomfortable, yea pleasurable feeling in that sphere of sensuality.
Hey, watch it buddy! The lady is sharply demanding of his respect at this instant. Lorenzo quickly follows orders and crosses her arms across her bosom.
She glances about her a little furtively. No, there is no one else here on this roof-top terrace. The inspector's delving, traveling mind has found a suitable body to occupy at the right place and time. As often occurs a strong British fortitude is good enough, with well planned initiative, to allow one to land upon one's feet. Upon a lady's feet, as it were, in this instance.
She has some type of bag suspended from a shoulder. Opening it he is able to find a smaller folding device that contains cards of different sorts. One has a photo of a smiling young woman with blonde hair. This must be some sort of identification paper for her. The woman that Lorenzo is now. Gwendolyn Montrose, it says. The inspector is now Gwendolyn.
The cawing of a crow echoes briefly. He looks quickly over at the avian creature as it flaps its wings and drops off the walls of The Old Lady towards Threadneedle Street below. Suddenly the view becomes more focused in her sight and she reels backward. She is on the rooftop veranda area of The Bank of England.
His senses take in the vision of strange objects passing rapidly across the sky, leaving trails of smoke behind; of unexplained lines strung across all the streets and between buildings; of metal encased vehicles moving with enormous speeds over the roadways below; of an almost sickening unknown gaseous odor in the air. Across the Thames, on the south bank, is a huge wheel on the shore.
What kind of world is this? This is not my domain. Where is Lydia? We were to be together. Their feminine body collapses on the tarry roof surface from the lightheadedness that arrives upon finally realizing how different this reality is. With such an intricate and forceful disparity of known and unknown the two of them, Lorenzo and Gwendolyn, feel overtaken with what the young girl knows as sensory overload. Both of them completely succumb to insensibility and the shadows of a murky perception.
*****
It was just a fortnight earlier, in his own time and world, that DCI Herne found his way to the lodgings of a friend, Lady Galsworthy, to whom he went upon pressing personal business, or so she implied in her short note to him that he received in the pneumatic tube transmission device. Her ladyship was landed Scottish gentry, but was also, more importantly to her own purposes, a knowledgeable scientific mind. She was well-educated and practiced her specialties of chemistry and the law with diligence and devotion.
The inspector called for a steam-powered hansom cab for the trip to her ladyship's residence in the Pimlico District of London. It was only a few miles from Scotland Yard. But it was chill and cold on this winter afternoon, and the sun was barely showing itself from the cloud cover overhead, dotted with smog cleaning vessels held aloft by hydrogen filled balloons. Also, he was tired from long days and short nights solving his latest case, The Mystery of the Sinking Pomegranate. He choose to ride rather than take a healthful, invigorating walk along the slippery, slushy Grosvenor Road.
He stepped from the metal covered vehicle, open to the elements, and paid his fare as the driver released some backed up steam from a whistle. He noted the patina of verdigris on some of the cab's copper plating. "Good man, you must needs polish up your taxi."
As the cabbie frowned at him the inspector felt the stony setts of the pavement shake with the movement of a vactrain underground, either arriving or departing from the nearby Grosvenor Vactrain Station. It was good to see the front steps were cleared of snow and ice today. He smiled in anticipation of his greetings from Lydia.
She was Lorenzo's lover of some months now.
Lydia opened her second floor flat's doorway herself. If her servants were busy she felt no need to stand upon ceremony. She was capable of opening a door. She smiled as he took her hand and kissed it. "Dear lady. Lovely as ever."
High buttoned boots covered her legs and the carmine gabardine fabric of her skirts fell away behind over the bustle she wore. Her colorfully embroidered suspenders crossed her scarlet silken blouse and a burgundy satin scarf was tied about her long aristocratic neck. At home she never wore her tiny derby upon her coifed ginger ringlets. She was satisfied with a leather cap. Her small brass pistolas were only for formal wear.
"My dear Enzo. So good of you to come so soon. My pair of working drones are out for the afternoon. I gave them their freedom for the nonce. Come, we'll go into my parlor. We may be at ease there."
They soon ensconced themselves upon a bamboo settee covered with cushions upholstered with a material of embroidered emerald green jungle leaves. Lamps glowed as coal gas from the Battersea Gasification Plant burned to give them light. The walls were covered with charts and maps, along with bookshelves filled with scientific volumes and political tomes. She had little time for womanly novels and such.
It was completely comfortable enough to make the inspector, after a long day, to think of napping. But he attended to Lydia's conversation. Momentarily. Then he put his hand up, lifted her strong little chin with a finger, and leaned in to kiss her softly. She stifled a giggle. Too girlish, she always supposed.
"I've no idea what is of such great importance, to you, my dear. But I've not seen you in some weeks time. Shall we simply let the business at hand await its own time and just allow ourselves to complete a proof of passion for now?" He flashed his bold Irish smile.
Their relationship was such that she merely smiled and then arose and went down on her knees upon the fine velvety carpeting covering the floor. He took her head in his hands, brushed his lips across hers, and let his tongue gently press itself over her glistening ruby red mouth, taking in the scent of her person. So arousing in its maidenly fragrant character. As he did so her dainty but strong hands were quite busy on their own, introducing themselves into his breeches and discovering his arising manhood ready for release.
She pulled her face away from his, pushed against his bulging chest to force him back into the settee, and lowered her mouth down to engulf the taste treat she often called her Hibernian teacake. His masculine legs were spread widely asunder. She had long since given up trying to be ladylike about it and simply salivated and whimpered when she allowed herself the thrill of his male member in any manner.
Her ladyship had learned some time back now that her Enzo took particular joy in receiving this fashion of sensual diversion. Indeed, she had overcome any initial reluctance to find it gave her intense pleasure as well. To the point that her feminine orgasmic spasms would often come over her within moments of feeling the tremors in his body while giving her consuming attentions in this way. It was not readily explained but it was so true and a sensuous tingle passed over her most rapidly this day.
She got a great deal of delight from tracing the veiny surface of his flesh with her tongue, and then nipping the bulging head with her nibbling teeth while grasping the member tightly within her fingers to make it red and distended. Playfully sucking the bulbous flesh as she jerked the tubular pipe up and down, licking and devouring it.
Such a kittenish and frolicsome time Lydia had that she would neglect to count her orgasms and just knew they were numerous. Realizing that poor Enzo just had the one major ejaculation she was thorough enough in her ministrations that it might be some time before it finally occurred and he erupted. At first it had been a little distasteful for her to accept his seed in her mouth in this way. However, she did finally arrive at that place where the simple reception of the seminal fluids was enough to bring forth a large and ultimate climax for her as well.
And often, mischievously, she would save his ejaculate and preserve it in a vessel for examination and testing. Her simple, true scientific character emerged often. This afternoon she suckled roughly and deeply and he groaned mightily.
He cried out with fervor and joy. Her hands continued their slide up and down his lubricated shaft while her mouth was glued upon the head. Then he began his completion of the deed. He came for her and she aimed the squirt out and into an awaiting glass vial. She grinned coquettishly as he released a great sigh. Then she licked it clean.
*****
Lady Galsworthy led the inspector into her laboratory. He had been here several times in the past. The room was filled with glass vessels, vials, beakers and pipettes. The walls were covered with shelves upon which were containers that held virtually every known chemical substance in the form of powders, liquids and gels. Everything was meticulously labeled.
Large tables were carefully placed about the room so that various tests and experiments might continue until completion and she obtained results that she would record meticulously in her diaries and daybooks. Often she sent off papers to be published in assorted scientific publications and journals.
They were standing beside a desk of hand carved Persian walnut. Laid out upon the surface were the components of a chemical formula she had been telling him about before their intemperate sensual emotions had overtaken them with their wildly lustful spree.
"You must understand that the lucky discovery for this formula was something of a fortuitous accident." She smiled, recalling how many such propitious breakthroughs occurred while many of her fellows worked in scientific fields of endeavour. The simple discovery of vulcanized rubber being one.
"In any case, this is the formulation." She displayed a vial of clear liquid with a slightly rosy tint.
"It is composed of three chemical substances. Psilocybin that was extracted from a fungus found in the southwestern desert areas of the North American continent. A type of poison that was discovered upon the bodies of certain frogs in the jungles of the central American region that explorers determined was used by the natives to make their blowguns more formidably perilous when hunting. Finally, a simple stabilizing liquid agent of my own devising.
"It would sound tremendously dangerous simply from the ingredients, would you not agree, Enzo? But its actual characteristics are enormously more consequential when I tell you that it enables the person ingesting the formulation to travel through time. To move out of this dimension and into another, into the future. And back into the past, as it were."
Lorenzo smiled but his expression also indicated doubt and some amusement, as well.
"No, my dear Enzo, hear me out. You know I am fully capable as a researcher, do you not?"
He wondered aloud, "How would such a thing actually work on the body. What would be the method of its operation?"
"To be simple in my explanation I must say that it works with the mind. The human mind, as you may know, is attuned to the world around it. Just as animals have what is called a circadian rhythm, feeling and understanding time in their world, so do we humans actually feel time with our more developed minds.
"This substance...the formula...the drug if you will, works with the mind. It allows the brain to use its powers to awaken and attune itself to the time around it. The fourth dimension of our existence."
She hesitated as she looked into his questioning visage.
"And, of course, before giving you this information I would have proved the drug with a simple test."
"How, woman? How could one test such a theory?" He noted the flush spreading across her face.
Lydia whispered to him, "I took the potion myself. Some days ago." And she sank onto the swivel chair beside the desk.
"I was terrified."
*****
Her ladyship's awareness of the new mind she was inhabiting had seemed to simply spring into being. In an instant two separate, strong personalities were struggling for control of the one mind they shared. Lydia felt herself about to scream with fear. But she was unable to control her voice, their voice. Unable to overpower the one body they both were trying to dominate and manipulate.
She finally forced eyes open and saw an oddly flickering coolly luminescent light above her. Someone was speaking. She felt dampness on her face.
"You'll be okay. Just relax. It's gonna be alright, Becca." There was a frowning face gazing down at her, clearly worried as her forehead and cheeks were wiped gently.
A voice cried out, screaming, as she struggled, fighting. "She's in me, in me. Please get her out of me!"
Then Lydia took momentary control, demanding of the air around her, "What is the year? What time is this?"
The kindly voice sounded as if it were weeping as it said, "It's two thousand one, Becca. Oh, god. What's happening?"
Then figures in white appeared in her sight and seemed to gather her up and carry her away. She felt a sharpness in an arm and she lost whatever consciousness she still had.
The next time she regained consciousness she awoke as Lady Galsworthy. She arose slowly from the deep pillow upon the bed in her boudoir as her servants conveyed to her that some three days had passed after she had taken the drug. She became aware of her surroundings once more there in her gaslit residence in London of her own time. The year was again 1901 in the reign of the new king, Edward VII.
*****
Her ladyship was recounting, as best she could, what had taken place when she tested the new drug she developed. She had rather arrogantly, perhaps, gone into it with little true preparation of her own mind for what might actually come to pass when she arrived in the future. It had been her conceit to believe she could respond perfectly to what ever came her way upon receiving a hypodermic needle with an exact measurement of the formula.
She had failed miserably. She truly lamented what had presumably happened to the unfortunate woman she had brain melded with for that short period of time. It was her deep hope that upon her departure from the young lady's mind that the girl she knew simply as Becca had returned to her normal condition.
But she had at least determined, with some certitude, that the drug did allow one to pass exactly one hundred years into the future.
It was her educated opinion that if two people took the trip together, departing at the same instant of time while in propinquity, that they would arrive together in the future, finding accommodating bodies and minds in the same kind of intimate proximity.
It would work if only one did not attempt to take over, as it were, the receiving person. Simply be one with them and let them see there was nothing to fear.
Lydia had been relating all of this to Enzo as they sat in her parlor upon the settee wherein they had lately been so intimate.
"I must say I am somewhat perturbed with you, my dear. It is inconceivable to me that you should take such an uninhibited chance with your life and mind. Never mind the impact it would constitute in the lives of those who care deeply for you.
"Now, that being said, how do we go about setting forth, the two of us, on this adventure across dimensions, my lady."
*****
Her ladyship's servants were profoundly trustworthy and completely loyal to her. They had been trained to handle the necessary labors that would send the two mind travelers on their way and maintain their health while they were gone. Lady Galsworthy reclined upon her large bed. Beside her was DCI Herne. Both were still fully clothed. They would not be actually moving themselves physically across the dimension of time. But they did want to maintain decorum.
At the time that was decided for them to set forth upon their journey one servant was placed at the side of each actor in this adventure. Each exposed an arm to receive the hypodermic needle filled with the precise measurement of the formula. The timing was just as precise. At exactly noon, as the wall chronometer chimed on the day chosen, they were both simultaneously injected with the formula into their veins.
The two of them shuddered and they lost consciousness there on the brocade covered mahogany bed, under the watchful eyes of trusted retainers. Then it was simply the guardians' duty to wait as the days slowly passed until the concoction wore off and the dimensional voyageurs returned, back from the future.
The two servants, a pretty young lass and a handsome youthful lad, smiled at each other.
Deirdre spoke to Paden. "So, youngster, we've naught to do but give them water. 'Tis all the mistress needs, so she says. Making sure they get plenty. Til they awaken some days hence, don't ya know. Naught to eat. None needed, so her ladyship says."
"Aye, tis best to stay nearby, I should suppose, middear. Must take care. One of us here all the time I'm thinking."
"True, bonnie lad. We've the divan and the pillows there in the corner. One of us will be sleeping here at night, I should think, as well." She lowered her head shyly.
He grinned impishly. "Tis sure I am that both of us attending here at night would be best. Aye lass?"
Then, within moments, they were glancing over at the two, mistress and master, lying unconscious upon the large bed. Soon they were going about having a bit of slap and tickle while playing about upon the divan.
With plenty of dexterity Deirdre detached Paden's braces and pulled his leather trews off of his pale legs exposing his lack of undergarments and a thickening rod. She left his puffy sleeved blouse upon his torso. But she did lift it and blow into his navel for good sport.
As she was without knickers it was but a moment before she was lifting a plump leg over and sliding her wet kitten down around his shaft, with a giggle and a squeal when he thrust upward.
Paden was uncommonly familiar with this juicy puss and he laid upon it mightily giving his little lover the riding that she preferred. She would press herself down, then take him as he rose up, and hold her thighs pressed against his hips to keep her tightly filled with his meat.
Her ample breasts were released from her bodice and she could squeeze one, with the nipple hardened, as the other was pinched and twisted by her lusty lad. Giggling gaily she accepted his frolic with glee. The odor of lechery rose up around them and their lips joined, kissing as he slowed down his pace.
One hearty thrust and then another, making her beg with a tremor in her throat. She needed him to fill her deeply and quickly. Paden did love to tease his little playmate. Then the play became serious and his face frowned with a grimace as he edged towards the culmination and his explosion. At last there was a surge of sticky cream with swift, continuing spurts up and into Deirdre's vessel of lust.
The two on the great bed slumbered on for the time being.
*****
"Babe, what's happening? What's going on. Wake up, Gwenny, wake up." Lorenzo felt his mind probing and searching to find his way. He knew who he was. And he knew who Gwendolyn was. His senses erupted abruptly and he looked up into the eyes of a young raven-haired lady. One he somehow knew. It was her lover. It was Cecily.
Gwendolyn opened her mouth and cried out for Cecily. "Oh, oh. Cecily, hon. It's crazy, it's crazy. He's inside my head."
"She's in mine, too. I mean the one in me. Oh, damn, what's happening to us?" Then the same girl's voice articulated with a smile, "Lorenzo, my dear man. I'm here. You're here, too? It's true, my knight. We're here!"
Both young ladies were down upon their knees, still upon the rooftop veranda. It occurred to Lorenzo that Lydia, along with Cecily, had together arrived here in search of him and Gwendolyn. This was the result of their journey through time. They arrived in the minds of two lovers. Sapphic lovers it appeared, already acquainted with the concept of melding minds in a symbolic way, it would seem.
The two of them who belonged in this century were shivering with the chill of the hard, blackened surface they were both crouching above and the cold wintry air and stonework surrounding them. Hastily, as they began really feeling the seasonal weather, they rose up together, assisting each other to stumble over to the metal doorway into the building.
It was a bank holiday and they were on their way home to the flat they shared together in the Mayfair district. They carried their new mental passengers along with them. And all the way home their psychic companions were looking out upon this new world and wondering about the differences between the reality of the year 1901 and this one of 2001.
The questions that the inspector and her ladyship continually asked firmly embedded in the minds of the two young girls that these visitors were not only from the past. They were from another dimension of time and space entirely. Each girl attempted to make it clear to the adventurers that a world entirely based upon the use of steam had never existed. Or for only a short period, at most.
They tried to explain that steamships and steam trains were at some time in their past found around the globe. But they had not reigned supreme as modes of transportation for many years. And had never been used for transport door to door on the streets of the cities, nor had balloons filled with hydrogen been anywhere near common. And if they had been they would have used helium as the gas holding them aloft. Not hydrogen which was needlessly dangerous to use. Now the fuels of choice were called petrol, natural gas, and electricity.
Electricity was vastly more common passing over the wires that seemed ubiquitous along and over the streets and buildings around them. It seemed it was simply what Lydia knew as the energy that could be felt when lightning struck, or traveled through metal objects during thunderstorms. It had never become useful as a source of energy to light the world or power modes of transportation. Not in the nineteenth century.
The more they heard the more they knew they had not just gone forward in time. They were in the wrong world completely. It was now simply a matter of trust and hope that upon the reversal of the drug's effects the two travelers would be returned to their familiar homes. This world was sounding more hideous with every minute and mile they passed along the streets of this new London town.
But the same thing was felt by Gwendolyn and Cecily. It was difficult to imagine how dark and dank and dread a world using coal to power virtually everything could be. And why would the common folk walk about with firearms upon their person, as if living in the Old West of the savage American frontier.
As they traveled across London the cabbie gave them odd looks while they passed along information verbally to their mental passengers. And as they found themselves drawn to each other with slowly emerging pleasure that they were not losing their senses and that they were still there for each other.
Gwen and Cecily found it necessary to express their devotion in the best way possible. Hugs and tender kisses of affirmation. It was just good luck for Lydia and Enzo that they were both recipients of the same sensory perceptions as the young ladies. They gladly joined in the physical and psychical pleasure that all four of them were feeling.
For Lydia some of the delight was a reiteration of gratification she might have often perceived and enjoyed as a woman. For Enzo it was in many ways new and a truly delectable way to obtain information concerning the joys of having a feminine body and brain, as it were. Completely original and refreshing sensations were implanted in his thoughts and memories, all to the good.
And as they exchanged thoughts among themselves it was established that a total and profound expression of love was to happen as soon as they arrived at the residence where the girls lived.
But when they got there it seems the two girls were more eager to sate physical hunger than to fill their sensual needs, They made some luncheon, as they called it, of cold, sliced meats, kept in a metal box that apparently used electricity to power it in a cooling function. The meats were simply placed within slices of bread along with some other unknown condiments. And these were served with thinly sliced fried pieces of potatoes appropriately called crisps. It was all rather uncomplicated but tasty to their minds.
One thing could never change, perhaps. Tea was served.
Then, as a strange object, again using electricity, somehow released music into the flat, the two girls went into their small sleeping chamber and began undressing one another.
They were fully aware of Lydia's and Lorenzo's presence in their minds. They had both come to almost completely recognize and accept the reality of this oddly disconcerting and yet intriguing situation. It was somewhat troubling, but even more, it was erotic in a special, unheard of way. Each young lady had another human's ideas, dreams, wishes and needs being expressed in their own thoughts and it was becoming more sensual as they began touching each other and the time riders inside were responding.
As the light of the sun passed away from the sky outside the rooms were dramatically lit with illumination that was the product of electrical power. It made things appear too shockingly bright to the inspector and her ladyship. But as the evening approached one of the girls lowered the lights and the flat became more comfortable and welcoming to their eyes, especially when candles were lit and placed about the room.
The light flickered. Gwendolyn and Cecily began what appeared to their inner guests to be familiar intimate flirtation. The arousal that each girl felt was matched by the awakening excitement inside their minds as the time travelers responded enthusiastically.
Lydia felt the familiar sensations in Cecily's breasts as the nipples hardened and tingled. The dampness in the groin was perfectly remembered part of her dearest memories of lovemaking. She responded inside enthusiastically as Gwendolyn's fingers were caressing her, lying there upon the bed.
To Lorenzo it was completely new and somewhat frightening at first. The first time one feels certain changes in one's body can be slightly traumatic. But the pleasure that Gwendolyn was feeling was easy to feel as well. And he was soon ardently urging his young carrier on to more sensual avidity. Especially when Cecily began nuzzling her lover's plump thighs with her lips. Lorenzo cried out in Gwendolyn's voice.
In his thoughts he imagined himself becoming erect and rampant. Even though he no longer retained such a physical presence. His mind still felt it, to be sure.
Lydia responded with Cecily's giggle and gleefully used her mouth to tickle the thighs and lips they were both tasting now. And soon each participant was sharing the thrill of kissing her partner's labia in a position of mutual fun and erotic fulfillment.
For the first time ever the inspector felt a woman's orgasm's spreading out and over her body. Both girls felt it and wanted more.
Their lovemaking continued until they were exhausted and perspiring from the show they finally knew they had been performing for their singular psychic visitors. This was the kind of complete and perfect intimacy that they would carry with them emotionally for a lifetime. As would her ladyship and the inspector.
They rested from their efforts and returned to their erotic encounters with even more euphoric dedication. Then the four all rested and slept as the night passed away.
When they arose in the morning Gwendolyn and Cecily did something that their inner pair had never heard of, but seemed to be a rather convenient thing to be able to do when one needed to do so.
They called in sick for the next couple of days. Until their mind melded companions had drifted away from their cerebral perceptions and were completely gone.
*****
Detective Chief Inspector Lorenzo Herne sat in the parlor with her ladyship Lydia Galsworthy. It had been some days now since they both became aware of their surroundings in her boudoir on a winter's day after having traveled psychically into the future. It had not been a future that they would have expected or even wished to occur.
Their dimensional travel guides, Cecily and Gwendolyn, over the course of some few days, between eager bouts of sensual play, had described their time's history over the past one hundred years. It had sounded horrific in so many ways. Millions upon millions of people had died in wars and famines and epidemics.
Lydia and Enzo did not know what their own true future might be. But they hoped and dreamed that it would differ enough that such would never happen in their time to come.
After a deep and thoughtful discussion a decision had been made. They arose together from the settee and walked over to the open, roaring fire sending out heat on this deep winter's day in their London town.
Her ladyship held the notebook that contained the transcription of the chemical formula for the time travel drug. She tossed it into the fire and it smoldered and flamed up. They watched until it was burned beyond recognition.
