And found myself yanked back to Oxford and hauled off to Infirmary before I’d even finished patting him on the head.
“If everyone minded their own business,” said the Duchess in a hoarse growl, “the world would go round a deal faster than it does.”
CHAPTER TWO
The Spanish Inquisition—Oxford, City of Dreaming Spires—Escape—Entanglement—Extrication—Explication—The Playing Fields of Merton—Eavesdropping—Difference Between Literature and Real Life—Some Sort of Nymph—An Important Clue—Lady Windermere’s Fan—A Good Idea“Your partner says you’re suffering from advanced time-lag, Mr. Henry,” the nurse said, fastening a tach bracelet round my wrist.
“Listen,” I said, “I’m aware that I may have got a bit carried away on the dog thing, but I must get back to Coventry immediately.”
It was bad enough that I’d landed fifteen hours later than I was supposed to have. Now I’d also left the cathedral only partly searched, which was as bad as not searching at all, and even if I was able to get back there at something close to the time I’d left at, there would still be all those missing moments, during which the verger, led by the cat, might have found the bishop’s bird stump and given it for safekeeping to his brother-in-law, whence it would pass out of history altogether.
“It’s essential I return to the ruins,” I said. “The bishop’s bird stump—”
“Preoccupation with irrelevancies,” the nurse said into her handheld. “Appearance dirty and disheveled.”