Chapter Twenty-Nine

Kate sat at the reception desk the next day, her heart and mind not on work at all. It would be tough for a few weeks, without an assistant, at least until the Board appointed someone new; but then Cassie turned up, a smile splitting her pretty face.

‘I'm going to help out, don't you worry,' she told Kate. ‘It's the least I can do! Your ice-cream bicycle was the best . I just need the Board to sign off on a couple of things. Honestly, it'll be a pleasure!'

‘Cassie!' She had come around to the front of the desk and hugged her. ‘I hope they hurry up with the paperwork. Thank you!'

‘You're more than welcome,' Cassie replied, returning the hug warmly. ‘Oh, and Elodie said to give you these. She says you needn't ask how she found them, but just to tell you she had a little help because they were well hidden away.' She handed over a lumpy tissue-wrapped package. ‘She told me a little about Cat and how you've got her things. She thought these would go nicely with them.'

Kate suspected what was in the package before she'd even begun to unwrap it; and she wasn't disappointed. Another pair of beautiful Victorian ice-skates, identical to the ones she already had — except these ones were intact, as far as the blades and the boots went. Barely used, for the most tragic of reasons.

Inside the boots, written very neatly on the soft leather, were the letters AVA. Amelia Violet Aldrich .

Elodie was right — Kate didn't need to ask who had helped her find them.

‘They'll go straight in the cabinet, next to Cat's skates and the photographs Elodie already gave me.' There was no need to tell Cassie she had taken the photographs out to look at as she sat behind the desk this morning. She had needed to remember how happy and carefree those two girls had been, on that particular day, captured forever, laughing together.

Cassie looked at the skates. ‘AVA?'

Kate nodded. ‘Yes. They're Millie's initials. She was Cat's best friend, you know. It's right they should be able to prepare for some fun together again.' She smiled at the skates and then transferred her smile to Cassie. ‘Thanks for letting me know where Millie's picture was. Elodie found her scrapbook for me too.'

‘No problem. Alex has loads of family history notes, you know. Things Dad left which he's just started looking at again. Well — he was looking at them, before the babies arrived.' She smiled again. ‘How can things so small take up so much time?'

‘Easily, I suppose.' Her mind went unwillingly to Theo's little girl. How come every single topic of conversation led her mind back to him? ‘I might ask to have a look at the notes someday, if he'd let me. Cat and Millie fascinate me.'

‘I'm not surprised. I've got a million and one fascinating relatives if you want to know about any more of them.'

‘Cat and Millie are enough for now, thank you.'

‘No problem. Look, I need to get back and sort the fall-out from the weekend. But I'll be working with you just as soon as humanly possible, I promise.' Cassie blew her a kiss and hurried away.

Kate watched her leave, and then squeezed back behind the desk. She looked again at the photographs and realised she hadn't actually told Elodie how everything had fitted together. She supposed that she should be grateful for small mercies — or small babies anyway. With Elodie having the twins to look after, Kate suspected that her giving Elodie an update on those photographs and Cat's skates would have been the very last thing on her friend's mind. But still. It was probably just confirming what Elodie knew anyway from certain quarters. But Kate needed to do it personally, in a corporeal fashion, and thank her for the new set of skates as well.

She picked up her mobile, and held it aloft. No signal. Typical. She'd nip out the back and text her something appropriate from there. Kate didn't really like the Bath chair photograph, probably because she knew Cat would have hated it too, although she could see the humour in it and she did appreciate it, especially the little message on the back. Kate was willing to bet that Cat had wanted to kill Philip for taking it. But Kate did love the skating picture.

It was still odd seeing herself — or a very blurry version of herself anyway — dressed in skating clothes and hanging onto Millie. Poor Charles — she wondered if he'd ever found anyone else after Millie died? One of these days she'd do some research online to find out, but not today. She put the photographs back under the desk, thoughtfully.

Kate hoped Cat and Will had found their happy ending. She had loved the feeling of joy when he turned up and she walked out of the church on his arm — and they were not married, but who cared? She knew what she would have done in Cat's place, but that was overlaying a modern-day attitude on a Victorian girl. It wouldn't have been the done thing to fall into bed with him, but God — given the chance again . . .

The thing was, Cat lived then and Kate lived now. She had more choices, more opportunities and was more in control of her own destiny; but Cat would have fought hard for what she wanted, undoubtedly.

She headed towards the back door, and quickly looked up at the Hartsford clock. The hands were stuck as they had always been at 3.27 — some forgotten hour in some forgotten year. Hodie est tempus nostrum . Today is our time. It certainly didn't make her feel any better about the Theo situation.

Kate sighed and walked outside, typed her message and sent it to Elodie, then paused. It would be so lovely to complete the circle — Cat's circle and her circle were almost the same, but hers wasn't quite complete yet. God knew where Theo was now, and what he was doing with Lori and Poppy. Her heart twisted at the thought.

‘Hello, Kate.'

Kate started and looked up. She knew that voice. She'd dreamed about that voice. But she never thought she'd hear it again.

‘I was just thinking of you,' she said, stupidly. Her phone and the text to Elodie was forgotten. ‘Just this minute.'

He stood there, the sun glinting off his unruly, light brown hair. His dark eyes were warm and friendly and there was a smile playing about his lips.

‘I've been thinking about you as well. More than is probably healthy, anyway.' He shrugged. ‘You can tell me to leave if you want.'

‘No,' she interrupted, far too quickly. ‘I don't want to do that.'

‘Really?' Theo Kent moved towards her. ‘So why didn't you call me?' He looked genuinely flummoxed. ‘I left my number for you. On the business card? Just before I saw you at the church. Yesterday? I wondered at the time if I should just give up and forget about you. But there was no way I could do it. So there it is.' He shrugged. ‘I mean, I can go now, if it's going to be a problem—'

‘No!' Kate cut him off. ‘It's not a problem. Not at all. I went to the campsite, yesterday as well, after the church. And you'd gone.'

‘Yeah, I'd gone. I was all packed when I met you. But if I'd known you were coming back, I would have stayed until I saw you. Pitched my tent up again and waited another lifetime. But instead, I just had to hope that you'd get the message and call me. But you didn't.' He smiled, ruefully. ‘That estate cottage is a strange place. I knew in my heart what I had to do — but there were some things to sort out first, and then it was easier to come here and tell you face to face afterwards.' She noticed he looked tired, as if he'd been up all hours, perhaps being part of a difficult conversation and refusing to give in.

‘It was easier to drive all the way from Derbyshire, than to find my number and call me ?' she asked in a shaky little voice, thinking of Chris and the way he'd done everything he could, to avoid even her phone calls.

‘Not easier. But better. I had to let you know I'd be there for you when you made your mind up, if you felt anything like I did. You need to know that I'll be fighting for sole custody of Poppy and cutting Lori out of it all. I'll be going as far through the courts as it takes — Poppy isn't safe with her and I have plenty of people who'll back me up.' He frowned, then his face darkened. ‘I couldn't really have written all of that on a business card anyway, but never mind.'

Kate suddenly realised. Yesterday was the day Jenna had handed her resignation in. That was the day she'd been in the museum, on her own, and supposedly tossing junk mail in the bin when Kate caught her . . .

‘Oh no! Theo — I'm so sorry. Jenna must have done something with it. I swear, I never saw it. If I had . . .' Her heart was racing and she thought she might pass out. Was it happening? Was it really happening? She felt that cold, wet nose against her ankle again and she knew this time it was definitely Hector, coming to greet them both. But she had to ask that question again; she had to know. ‘Theo, I asked Jenna something and she didn't give me an answer. I need to know it from you.'

Theo smiled again and she was mesmerised.

‘Fire away. I can take it.'

‘Did you sleep with her? At all?'

‘Good God, no way!' He was genuinely horrified and she felt light-headed with relief. ‘She tried, I'll grant her that. But I think I put her off, because all I did was — well. No. I can't tell you.' He ducked his head, suddenly sweetly embarrassed.

‘No, tell me. Please. It's important.' Her heart was cantering like Hughie probably did in his wildest dreams.

‘Important?' He looked up and his dark-chocolate eyes met hers. ‘Well, okay. All I did was talk about you. Ask her a million and one questions about you every time I saw her. I had a much more Kate-focussed agenda, I have to admit.' He grinned. ‘Sorry to tell you that, but I did. And I still do.'

‘I truly didn't get the message to call you,' she whispered, but it didn't seem to matter now. His lips looked extremely kissable. They'd done this before — and not just a couple of times. They'd done it so very many times. She knew exactly how his lips would feel, how he would taste, how warm and solid his body would be when he took her in his arms. She knew she would fit perfectly within those arms and if she closed her eyes, they would be back on the Faerie Bridge. He would be holding her. But they would have all the time in the world left to them. He wouldn't be saying goodbye.

He moved even closer. He drew her to him slowly. He looked down so his eyes were inches from hers and tilted his head to the right. He nuzzled into her neck and it was all she could do to keep standing upright.

‘Is it all right to do this then?' he asked.

‘It's more than all right,' she said on a gasp, ‘but you have to understand I might get a visitor in the museum. It might get busy.' Her protests were useless and they both knew that.

‘That's good. It's good to be busy. You'll possibly have a very busy evening as well.'

Dear Lord. She could not actually respond to that.

Theo laughed gently and pulled away. ‘Sorry. I'm assuming too much. Tell me to get lost. I can take it.'

‘No! No. You're not going anywhere.'

‘Really?'

‘You have no idea. No idea at all.'

‘That's so good to hear.' He smiled into her eyes. ‘I should let you know, though, that amongst all of that thinking I've been doing, I've decided to expand my business — so I'm also going to be very busy in the future. It involves lots of travelling for a while, though. I hope that's okay with you?'

It was almost as if someone had thrown a bucket of cold water over her. Kate stared at him, the words not formulating. She didn't want this to be a fling as he killed time between jobs. She'd never wanted it to be a fling. She wasn't entirely sure if she'd ever made that clear to him.

‘I don't want that sort of relationship,' she said. ‘Not again, not like it was with Chris. I'm sorry, but I can't—'

He stopped the words with another kiss, hard and urgent this time. ‘Me neither. Believe me. Oh, Kate, don't worry about it. I should be more specific, shouldn't I?'

He'd better be more bloody specific, because if not, this was rubbish. Absolute rubbish.

‘The thing is, I've decided to expand into Suffolk. I've got more than enough work on in Derbyshire, and I've worked it out. I can afford an assistant. They'll cover that area, and I'll relocate down here. Poppy and me, that is; if I get her, and God willing I will. I put out some feelers over the weekend, and Alex pointed me in the right direction to build my network. I really think it'll be worthwhile. Is that okay with you?' He put his fingertips under her chin and lifted her face to his. There was uncertainty in his face, almost a sense of if he'd done the right thing or said too much or too little. ‘I needed to see how you felt about things before I decided to go for it properly though. Because, my love, I couldn't bear being down here and not being with you. So I guess I need to know how we'll be, first.'

Kate stared at him, seeing again all the beautiful, wonderful things she'd seen in him — from the time he rescued her from the ice-skating incident, to the time they'd talked ice-cream bicycles, to the moments — in both lifetimes — they'd been on the Faerie Bridge together. He was the same person; completely and absolutely and she'd never been more certain of anything in her entire life.

‘We'll be fine,' she said. ‘Trust me.'

And as he took her face in both his hands and leaned in to kiss her again, a clock chimed in the museum.

Kate smiled against his lips. It was the grandfather clock. It was reminding them that, finally, it was their time.