Page 13 of Watch For Me By Candlelight

‘Get yourself a coffee before the after-lunch customers come in.’

Jenna muttered something affirmative and sat down as Kate picked up the skates. ‘Now you’re here, I’m popping over to the Hall. And please, have lots more coffee if you need it.’

Kate may have gone into the Hall grounds the back way. She may have walked along the banks of the River Hartsford which backed onto the fields near the museum cottages, and clambered over a fence that said ‘Private Property. Do Not Enter’. But she might not have done. It was best not to elaborate on that theory.

She ended up in the Hall grounds and was heading through them when she spotted Elodie drifting out of the gift shop. She looked gorgeous, swathed in a long, floaty maxi-dress. She had a circlet of flowers on the top of her head and was a whole lot rounder than when Kate had last seen her. Despite the beautiful hippy-dippy outfit, she didn’t look very comfortable and certainly wasn’t drifting very fast. There was a definite grace-less waddle to her movements.

‘Good grief, where did that come from?’ Kate asked, her eyes widening as she walked up to her, her attention drawn inexorably to Elodie’s stomach.

‘This?’ asked Elodie, running her hand across her huge tummy. ‘God only knows.’ She looked at Kate pathetically. ‘Tell me it’ll be over soon?’

‘When are they due again?’

‘August. Two more months.’

‘They might come earlier.’ Kate was unable to tear her gaze away. ‘Good God, I hope I never have twins.’

Elodie laughed — she wheezed a bit too. She had terrible asthma and carrying all that extra bulk around wasn’t particularly good for her lungs. ‘I think this might be it for me too. How’s things with you?’

‘Oh, not too bad.’ Kate frowned. ‘Chris just left to go back to London. He might have to start working weekends.’

‘Oh, no! That’s not good. You don’t have that much time together anyway.’

‘Yeah, well. It can’t be helped. Elodie, can I have a chat for a few minutes? If you’re not too busy.’

Elodie shrugged and flicked her long blonde hair back. ‘I’m quite happy to have a chat. But can we sit down for it?’ She smiled ruefully. ‘Sorry. My feet are twice their usual size today and my back is giving up the ghost.’

Elodie was quite small — in height and build — so Kate imagined pregnancy wasn’t the best of experiences for her in some ways.

‘Oh — yes. Of course.’ There was a nice shady bench outside the front of the Hall and they headed — slowly — towards that. ‘You’re so lucky living here,’ Kate told her. ‘Do you ever miss London?’ Elodie had lived there for a while with her first husband when she worked as a costume designer in the West End. Kate sometimes thought Hartsford might be a little bit tame for Elodie, even though she’d grown up there and had known Alex all her life. If Kate thought about the boys she’d known at school, it usually turned her stomach, so she couldn’t quite grasp how Alex and Elodie had ended up married; but they had and they were perfect for each other. Everybody knew that.

‘I sometimes miss London,’ Elodie said, sort of groping behind her for the seat before carefully lowering herself down in a very bizarre fashion, ‘but at the minute I’m happy not to be sitting on a tube or crushed on a bus trying to get to work.’ She grinned. ‘It’s much easier just to roll out of bed in the morning and be here. “Roll” being the operative. Look at me — I can’t even sit down without it being a performance.’

Kate laughed — she had to agree. ‘We’re happy you’re here as well. Which brings me to this. Do you recognise these at all?’ She lifted up the ice-skates and showed them to Elodie. ‘Not literally, of course. I don’t expect you to know their history — I was just wondering if you’d seen anything in your archives. Like if you thought they might have come from the Hall. There’s a sort of name in them if you look closely.’

‘Oooh,’ said Elodie, leaning forward as best she could. ‘Very nice. May I?’

Kate handed them over to her. ‘Of course. Tell me if you spot anything odd about them as well. See the name? It says “CAT”.’

‘Oh, I do. How lovely. It makes me wonder who Cat is.’ Elodie looked at the skates, turning them around and putting her head to one side. ‘But I think,’ she said, pointing with one peacock-green-tipped finger, ‘that this boot has been re-attached. Look at the stitching. It’s different and not so ragged as the other one.’

Kate peered where she was pointing. ‘I’m inclined to agree, but how on earth did you spot that so quickly?’ she asked in awe.

‘When you’ve worked with costumes and stitching and unpicked God knows how many doublets you get to know these things. It’s astonishing how many clothes have to be altered throughout a run of a show. In my experience, the actors either give up eating or over-indulge in hotel food. It all changes the size of their costumes.’

‘I’d never considered that! You learn something new every day. Anything else?’

Elodie laughed and turned the skates over again. She held them out in front of her and squinted. ‘I don’t know. That blade looks odd. The other boot. I know they’re a pair but I think there’s been some repairs done or some replacements. “Curiouser and curiouser” as Alice in Wonderland says.’

‘Alice is a really pretty name, isn’t it?’ Kate’s eyes were drawn again to Elodie’s tummy. ‘Any thoughts for names yet?’

Elodie shook her head. ‘Alice is nice. It’s a family name, but I don’t know. If one of these is a girl—’ she brushed her hand across her enormous bump, ‘—I think she needs her own identity.’

‘Very true,’ Kate replied, not really wanting to go too much into shared identities, considering her experience last night in the blacksmith’s cottage. Which part of her still insisted was a dream. Another part of her still wasn’t sure, but didn’t want to think about it. That was too scary.

‘I’ll be able to check my archives for you,’ Elodie said, ‘just as soon as I can escape from Alex.’ She frowned. Elodie had said her husband was way too fussy at the moment, and she wasn’t a woman who appreciated fuss. ‘I’m not ill, I’m pregnant!’ she kept telling anyone who would listen; usually just before she gasped for breath and collapsed in a heap somewhere. ‘My archives are all in the attics. I need to have a good old rummage in the boxes,’ Elodie continued, ‘but bending’s not exactly easy right now. As soon as I can, I will, okay?’

‘Okay. Thanks for having a look at the skates anyway. I might see what I can dig up myself. I can always use Google or some of those academic journals. In my experience, they can be a little obscure, but you sometimes find a gem in the articles.’