‘I’m not even going to ask what you had to do to get this.’

‘Just as well because I am never going to tell you. Give me your arm.’

She sat quietly while he dealt with their trackers and then leaned back with her eyes closed.

He poked her. ‘Don’t go to sleep.’

She sighed. ‘I’ve had a bit of a rough day, you know.’

‘And you’re not the only one. I rescued the princess and she tried to beat me to death.’

‘Sorry.’

‘So I should bloody think.’

They both sat in silence until she said, ‘We can’t stay in here, though, Luke. We need a secondary site. Another base. Somewhere safe, away from this pod. Because they will find it. Eventually. We need to find somewhere to live and . . .’ She tailed away. ‘Had you planned to stay here?’

‘Well, Matthew and I picked today because there would be a huge number of pods here. And for the next couple of days, as well. We could, if you like, pursue that strategy across other major historical events. We can work our way from here to Waterloo, to Marathon, Cortez’s arrival, Elizabeth’s coronation or Victoria’s funeral – anywhere you’re likely to find large numbers of pods and historians and even larger numbers of Time Police there to keep them in order.’

He paused. ‘Or, we can walk away from the pod and settle somewhere. Here would be good. Once the civil disturbances are over with and Octavian sorts himself out, this is a bit of a Golden Age for Rome. We could lie low, wait until everything settles down again and build a life.’

She fiddled with the visor on Matthew’s helmet. ‘You keep saying “we”. Does this mean . . . ?’ She stopped.

‘Well, while they may only have suspicions about Matthew, I’m pretty certain they will have correctly credited me with being the brains and main perpetrator of your escape, so yes, it’s “we”, Jane. Unless you don’t want to, of course, in which case I’ll leave you to it.’

And here came the familiar stab of panic. To be on the run was bad enough. To be on the run and alone . . . She shook her head.

He heaved a sigh of relief. ‘Thank God. I didn’t want to go all wimpy on you, but I really didn’t fancy trying to do this by myself.’

She threw him a quick glance. ‘Me neither.’

‘OK then – it’s you and me against the massed ranks of the Time Police. Shouldn’t be a problem.’

‘You’re very good at that, aren’t you?’

‘At what?’ he said, vaguely.

‘Steadying people. Getting them through sticky situations. Like with me in that tomb.’

‘Am I?’

‘I think you’d have done quite well in the Time Police.’

He grinned. ‘Well, we’ll never know now, will we? Let’s just hope we’re equally as good at avoiding them.’