Prologue:

It was the early hours of the morning when the noise of a crying baby could be heard echoing through the empty hallways of the palace.

There were little guards on duty and those who were trusted.

Women around the new mother desperately tried to soothe the baby, closing the windows and doors to avoid the dreaded noise escaping.

The regal woman lay in bed exhausted, sweat covering her body, and her now damp pearly white nightgown was clinging to her body, wrapping around her still legs.

“Get rid of it,” she demanded, waving her hands around.

Immediately, the midwives started packing away their equipment, bloody towels, and sheets that were used and tucked away into bags.

Slowly getting off the bed, the woman was supported by a midwife who led her out of the room; she took one last glance at the baby, who had finally stopped crying and was now cuddled up in a blanket in a man’s arms.

She left and the rest of the room was cleared and seemed as it was before.

The man carrying the baby said nothing as he left the palace walls; no one followed him as he disappeared around the corner and seemed to drop off the face of the earth.

*

18 years later.

1 of 13

I’m a what?’ Jane gasped in surprise.

Her father, Jonathan, looked at her rather uncomfortably at that moment when he decided to break the news. “You are a time traveler.”

I’m sorry; first, you say that I’m not from here, and then you come out with that; I think you have lost the plot.

Jane had been taken on a trip with her father to study the history of the Victorian era.

He had always had a secret affection for that time, and for whatever reason, it had rubbed off on Jane as well.

They were taking a walk around the grounds of the Osbourne House, a well-known residence of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert when he decided to blurt out this random information.

Jane, please, this is hard enough as is; I had to wait until now before I was allowed to tell you about our gift.

Stopping in her tracks, Jane turned at him dead in the eyes.

He had been acting off over the last few weeks, but this was really out of character for him.

What on earth are you talking about, first, you decide to take a random trip to visit this museum of all places, and now you are spurring some nonsense about time travel!

I think you need to see a doctor!’

Jonathan stayed quiet for a while, looking anxiously around the room they had stopped in; it was a simple bedroom with an antique canopy bed featured in the center, along with matching furniture and large oil paintings hanging around the room.

Jane waited for him to carry on, but for whatever reason, his eyes focused on the bed.

‘I just need a minute; just give me a minute, and I will explain more.’ Jonathan left Jane alone.

She looked around the room and wasn’t sure whether it was because of her or the room itself that he was acting strange.

All things aside, Jane truly wanted her father to be ok; he was all that she had, and should anything happen to him, she would be alone for good.

After searching for what felt like hours, Jane finally came to a stop in the gardens outside.

She had looked everywhere but to no avail, the last place she thought to try was the beach, it was a far enough walk away but she figured that it couldn’t hurt to try.

The beach wasn’t anything special to Jane; there was sand and the sea, and while it was a lovely sunny day, all she wanted to do was find her father.

Looking around, there wasn’t a person in sight, leaving her to worry about the state her father seemed to live in.

For no apparent reason other than to scare her, he decided to tell her that she could travel back in time.

Not knowing any more than that let her mind wander and question whether there was some truth to her father’s words; she continued to walk along the seafront to look for clues as to where he might have gone too.

Jonathan was a simple man; he had a medium-sized build, a mousey face with light brown hair, and a scruffy beard that covered everywhere but his upper lip. A second-hand brown suit with a waistcoat and bow tie was his usual attire; on rare occasions, he would finish the look with a black fedora.

While Jane didn’t necessarily agree with his chosen look, she would usually dress semi-smart to please her father, the first impression was everything to people and usually meant that you were treated with some respect.

Today, Jonathan decided to wear a brown fedora; it was when Jane found it lying further up on the beach that she started to get worried, as he usually wouldn’t go somewhere without it.

Picking up the hat, she brushed off the sand from the rims and looked to see where it might have come from.

Where the grass and sand met was a green-looking hut sitting on top of wooden-black wheels.

Figuring that it was the only place that her father could’ve gone to, Jane walked up to it, opened the door, and went inside.

Father!’ she shouted into the wooden room, hoping to find him somewhere in there; the door suddenly shut behind her, making everything go dark.

Jane rushed back to the door, trying to pry it back open; with all her might, she finally pushed it back open while managing to eloquently fall back down the stairs face-first into the sand.

Trying to shake off her clumsiness, Jane looked up to see two young children laughing at her.

She carefully climbed back onto her feet and looked at them, still giggling.

They looked rather peculiar, she thought, two girls similar looking in both appearance and age were looking at her rather curiously.

They were both wearing white pleated dresses and matching hats and seemed to find her tartan skirt and polo-neck black jumper very strange.

‘Why did you fall?’ asked the older-looking of the two.

‘It wasn’t planned,’

Jane replied, ‘I was looking for my father. Have you, by any chance, seen a man dressed in a brown suit anywhere around here?’

‘Why would you be looking for your Papa in the Bathing machine?’ said the other girl I thought he might’ve gotten lost,’

Jane answered back.

The beach seemed a bit fuller with a large family playing in the sand and a small tent had been put up to provide a bit of shade, both the adults and children seemed to be wearing very modest clothes.

‘Vicky, Alice, come here, girls!’ shouted a woman further along the beach.

‘We must get going now,’ the older child said pulling the other girl’s hand, ‘the governess gets mad if we keep her waiting.’

The other girl looked at Jane kindly, ‘We did see an afternoonified man a little bit before you, he went back into the Bathing machine, where you came from.’

‘Great, thank you for your help.’ Jane said back, finding their wording a little unusual.

Feeling rather puzzled, Jane couldn’t understand how she could’ve missed her father going in this so-called ‘Bathing machine’ when she had just come from there; she figured she may as well look again; it couldn’t hurt.

Climbing up the stairs to go back into the hut, Jane looked back at the beach confused as to where the family had appeared from so quickly, her eyes for some reason focused on a man and woman dressed very proper and walking together along the beach in deep conversation.

She saw the two young girls who talked to her go up to the couple and assumed they must’ve been the parents.

They looked very familiar for some reason, but Jane couldn’t quite put her finger on why.

Looking away, Jane put her focus back on looking for her father she opened the door, and like before it seemed to automatically shut itself again.

She opened the door to let in a bit of light and saw that the hut was empty and figured it was all in her mind.

Walking back down the wooden steps, Jane looked down to make sure that she would avoid her previous incident.

‘Having fun?’ asked a familiar voice.

Jane quickly looked up and saw her father waiting for her on the same beach as before, only this time it was empty.

‘What on earth has just happened, and where have you been?’ Jane questioned him whilst also giving him a warm embrace, glad to have finally found him in one piece.

Jonathan looked pleased and apologetic, ‘I’m sorry to have gone off like that I just wasn’t expecting so many emotions to hit me at once today, I needed a bit of time to find the words to explain things to you.’

‘Do you fancy starting with telling me where all those people went?’

They didn’t go anywhere; we did.’ Jonathan tried to explain, ‘We traveled back in time through that wooden hut over there.’

Jane looked at him, befuddled by the rather strange explanation, but was also intrigued to learn more about where she had been.

‘We are some of the few gifted people that can travel back and forth in time. I didn’t want to overwhelm you with this until I thought you were old enough to understand, but I need your help.’

He said, looking at Jane with empathy. ‘Say I believe you to a certain extent; why do you need my help?’ she asked

somewhat fascinated by this new knowledge. ‘There is a specific window of time when I need to travel back to make sure that certain events happen the way that they have to. I only have one chance, and I need you there to make sure that everything happens precisely as it should when and where I tell you.’

He paused, almost scared to say, I need you to help someone get into the grounds of Buckingham Palace so they can try and assassinate the Queen.

‘What!’ Jane shouted back, horrified by what her father was asking her to do.

‘I need you to trade the pistol that the perpetrator is bringing to the palace for a broken one.’

‘What do you mean a broken one? Why on earth would I help someone do that?’

‘The history that’s about to happen could end up killing the Queen unless we get involved and change things. I need to be at the center of it to stop the main event from occurring, but I also need you to help me from the sidelines to make sure that the pistol brought in is a fake.’

‘Wow, I mean, if you’re being serious, I guess I can’t say no, can I?’ Jane said back in awe of the plan that her father had come up with.

Jonathan smiled back at his daughter; hopefully, his plan would work; it had to, or certain things wouldn’t happen for his or Jane’s future.

*

After being filled in on some information about time travel as well as the plan, Jane,

and her father found one of the ‘time points’ (objects, furniture, or places with significant historical value that allowed users to travel back to specific points in time) closest to Buckingham Palace, where the assassination attempt was due to take place.

Ready and in position Jane watched her father hide at the palace entrance, whilst she was around the corner at the fence where the assailant was due to be.

She was in awe of the obvious change in time, seeing London in the overcrowded state that it was.

Thousands of people anxiously waited for the Queen to go past them in her horse-drawn carriage.

There were hundreds of women lining up, all wearing the latest style of petticoats, corsets, hoops, and bustles holding tightly onto their parasols, whilst most of the men wore smart waistcoats, black-tail coats, and trousers along with a large top hat.

The skies were filled with smoke and soot which Jane guessed were probably from the workhouses and the overuse of coal during that time, but she was still just amazed to be there.

Hearing the annoyance of people behind her who were getting shoved out of the way, Jane saw a teenage boy come sprinting towards her.

He was distracted by the person standing in front of Jane, which gave her the perfect opportunity to trip him up.

‘Oomph’ a noise was made from the boy when he falls to the ground.

‘I am so sorry, that was completely my fault, let me help you!’ Jane exclaimed apologetically, holding her hand out to help him up.

He took it, and Jane boldly took the moment to swap the pistol that was in his jacket pocket with her broken one.

‘Honestly, girl, watch where you are going!’ he replied angrily, dusting himself off.

‘Oh, I am really sorry, can I help you get somewhere, Mr…?’

‘O’Connor. Arthur O’Connor.’ He answered back.

Please let me help you in some way; it was an accident.’

‘If you’ll give me a leg up, I’d be grateful; I’m late for work, I am.’

‘Of course, Mr. O’Connor! I’d be more than happy, too.

She put her hands together to give him a boost up to get over the fence.

It took Arthur a few seconds to use the leg up to skilfully climb over the palace fence.

Jane smiled, watching him run across the palace courtyard.

She could see the black royal carriage quickly approaching the entrance gates and watched as her father rather heroically tackled him to the ground, kicking the broken pistol out of the way.

Looking at him in awe, she felt proud to help her father protect a bit of history, watching Arthur being dragged away by the palace guards.

It was only when the Queen decided to elegantly climb out of the carriage did Jane realize exactly who it was that she had helped.

Wearing an iconic black mourning dress, black shawl, and white widow cap, Jane’s mouth gasped open as Queen Victoria climbed out of the carriage.

She walked around her carriage, thanking her guards, and then stopped to talk to Jane’s father.

Jane couldn’t hear exactly what was being said but when Victoria turned away from her father, she saw a smile appear on the Queen’s face.

She quickly composed herself and returned to her usual unsympathetic expression.

Jane was shocked mainly to see an icon but also to see that her father was the one person that she seemed to smile for.

She rushed back to the time point to meet her father and anxiously waited for his arrival.

It wasn’t until a few hours later that Jane was reunited with her father did her mouth start to run. ‘I can’t believe it’s you! You and the Queen! You’re that John Brown, the one with whom Queen Victoria was secretly rumored to be in love! My father! Wait… my father…’

Jonathan sheepishly looked at his daughter as she started fitting all the pieces together.

I’m not. No, I can’t be. Am I?’ Jane asked, desperate to hear the answer.

‘Yes. Yes, you are, you were born here some years ago and I was asked to protect you, a royal lovechild could’ve been dangerous for both you and me.

I hope you can understand, but I did everything I could to protect you.’

Jane looked up at him in awe, she realized that she had been looking at a younger version of her mother on the beach that day.

‘Someday, when it’s safe, you will be reunited with each other,’ He promised.

Jane looked up at him proudly, ‘And until that day, I will be with my father, protecting our history with both your secret and mine.’

They went into the time point together, looking forward to the day that they wouldn’t have to leave.

This was written by our contributing writer, Shanai Besst.