“Hello Miss Corlani,” he said.

“Anything I like?” she repeated, with a questioning intonation, “Are you one of the guests or part of the food?”

The question was the most exciting one he’d ever heard. Nothing she’d said or done in her time travel classes could compete with this moment.

“I guess I’m still Miss Woodfield’s adopted son,” he said.

He watched with baited breath, as Miss Corlani’s fingers closed around a small meringue and lifted to her mouth. He saw her tongue come out of her mouth to receive it. The sight had even eclipsed his memory of being temporarily eaten by Colleen’s tongue in the past.

Sandra gulped it down, beamed at him with her eyes, and turned to talk to the returning Miss Woodfield.

“You’re the only person who now knows I’ve been shrinking him,” said Miss Woodfield, “I’ll have to hide him when the others arrive.”

The three of them talked for almost an hour, but neither Sandra nor Francis mentioned anything about their initial exchange. During the subsequent four hours, Francis watched from concealment, as all of the ladies enjoyed the party. Sandra was careful not to look in his direction, lest she do anything to give his presence away to the other guests. Francis, on the other hand, didn’t take his eyes off her the entire time. He hoped that she wouldn’t leave before the last of the others, and was pleased to see that she didn’t.

When Frances and Sandra were alone again, Frances said, “You can fetch Francis down from the cupboard and let him enjoy the leftovers on the table, while I’m washing up the empty plates in the kitchen.”

He heard that clearly enough through the glass door, and then saw Miss Corlani approach, open the glass door, and reach up for him. She took him back to the table and set him down on it, and turned to walk away.

“Miss Corlani,” he said, “Could we talk a bit more about what you asked me before?”

“If you like,” she said, and took him over to an armchair and sat down.

“I wanted to ask you … if I had been designated as part of the food, would you have eaten me?”

“I’d have had you down my throat within a few minutes,” she said.

“Would I have gone down intact?”

“Absolutely. I’d enjoy it more that way.”

“I enjoyed it when Miss Balfour did it in the past, and then used the time projector’s wrist remote to bring myself back, but I’d enjoy it even more with you. I could just send myself back a few minutes and into your place.”

“If you did that, you’d be back in the present and into the future by a few minutes, by waiting out the time it would take me to eat you,” she said.

“Would the device still return me from a few minutes into the future?”

“Theoretically, yes it would, but I wouldn’t want you to try it that way.”

“I could go back further, just to be sure, if we wait a while, so that I’ll still arrive after tonight. That way you’d be expecting me.”