TIME MACHINE CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE

A/N: Sweeet-as-Honey, I was really amused by your viewpoint of the whacking with the hairbrush as sexy. Yes it would normally be, but Robyn's 'set' are such an innocent little group that they wouldn't 'get' that. Thanks for your reviews. General note: Lloyd and Jamie are in their mid- teens in this story.

Ethan sat in the poky little room that he and Cal had been forced to rent now they no longer had rooms at the school. He was depressed and worried what would become of everybody now the machine wasn't working. He was also still angry with Ben. Had Ben forgotten what he and Cal had told him about their life back in Andromeda? Fighting for crumbs in the street, being willing to put their lives on the line for a joint of meat or a loaf of bread? To suddenly find food more or less on tap everywhere they went afterwards was a Heaven that Ethan had fallen into, and he was determined not to go back to the hell of near-starvation. This was why he was so resentful of Ben's and Cal's ban on panic buying and stockpiling food. It had been bad enough that the fools had used a lot of the money they'd brought with them to treat everybody else to a day in Brighton to boost morale, using the simple excuse that Ben 'had come into a small windfall.' Ethan resolved to sit on his resentment for a while longer and then to apologise to Ben and his brother in such a way that they'd end by apologising to him instead. It was too late for him to wangle an invitation to the dinner party though, alas.

Jamie and Lloyd sat on a wall, swinging their legs idly. They were torn between relief at being too young to enlist and rage at wanting to 'get at the Hun' properly. They were missing the girls from the school already.

"I'm missing Alicia already" sighed Lloyd, "I never did get to slip that device inside her skirt."

"There's somebody more exciting coming; Taylor Ashbie's singing at the Officers' Dinner with Ben Chiltern" Jamie reflected.

"Taylor Ashbie is a corker! Is this singing thing one of your fantasies?"

"NO, chump! I heard it from Robyn – you know how she could find out news – before the school closed down. Taylor's coming to sing at a benefit dinner at The Grange, and Ben's been invited as well after Spiller heard him singing on that coach trip. He thought he was good so now Ben's got a chance for a good dinner and a look at Taylor's you-know-whats close up as well! The jammy blighter!"

"We'll not get anywhere near that officers' jamboree, so what's the point?"

"Trust your Uncle Jamie! What we do is act like two stage-door Johnnies and wait for Taylor to go into The Grange! We tell her how much we love her singing, and at the same time we fasten the device to her blouse." Jamie was almost dribbling, "Then we retrieve it when she comes back out, and … off to Heaven!"

Little did they know the consequences of their little prank.

Taylor Ashbie, born Taylor Bartlett, was beautiful and knew it. From an early age she knew how to twist men round her little finger, which resulted in her being thoroughly spoiled by her father , who was completely besotted with her, and would never allow her mother to as much as raise her voice to the little girl. As a result she believed that the world existed to please her.

When she discovered her excellent singing voice, Taylor realised that this was a way to avoid all those tiresome lessons that the other girls had to endure.

Her father spent a sizeable amount of his life savings on sending Taylor to the best musical establishment he could find, Taylor having convinced him that she could only perform in a refined atmosphere. Soon her voice and her looks ensured that she was set for life. Despite this, she hardly returned home, even when her father became terminally ill. She did, however, return home after his death and stayed just long enough for the will to be read. Taylor was not surprised to find that her father had left her the lions' share, leaving her genuinely heartbroken mother somewhat financially inconvenienced. Taylor grudgingly let her mother stay on in the home that had become hers, until the old lady became too frail and incontinent to help herself, whereupon Taylor packed her off to a retirement home. Old ladies who drooled and couldn't make it to the toilet in time were not part of Taylor's pretty world.

The well-appointed town house that Taylor now owned soon attracted the attention of Jonathan Ashby, who turned out to be a male version of Taylor. Being a lot more competent in mathematics than his heartless wife had ever been, he began to siphon money from their joint account until he finally cleared the account one night and left for Paris with his mistress, leaving Taylor to appease his many creditors. She had to sell her father's beautiful house and move to rented accommodation, which she loathed. However, she soon used her voice to earn money by day and her body to earn it by night.

She soon acquired another house and was sitting pretty until war came. But predators like Taylor would always survive, and now she had a new source of income… spying for Germany. Plus she had the other string to her bow; the singing. It helped with her espionage activities too, many hospitals and army billets welcomed a pretty woman who could sing for the troops. Taylor was adept at extracting information from officers who let their guard down when a beautiful woman was in their arms. She knew full well what the consequences of her actions would be if she were ever caught, but like somebody taking drugs who believed they can fly, Taylor believed herself to be immortal.

And now there were rich pickings for her at this soiree she was to attend of Captain Spiller's. Taylor almost choked with indignation when she was told that the other singer there would be an ex-schoolmaster called Benjamin Chiltern. Like Robyn and her set before her, she expected him to be a doddering old man with a bit of a voice. How unpleasant, but worth it for the fee and the opportunities, she thought.

(