Page 39 of Watch For Me By Candlelight

‘But I swear I heard the noises of someone working there.’ Theo was confused and looked around him. The atmosphere had shifted a little and it no longer felt the same as it had a few minutes ago. ‘Look — I’ll show you.’ He headed over to the door and took hold of the handle. He turned it, and was met with resistance. ‘Strange. It was fine before,’ he murmured, and tried to turn it again. Still nothing.

He looked at Kate, perplexed. ‘I’m so sorry. I think I must have locked it.’

Kate was staring at him, a little oddly. She shook her head. ‘No. It’s been locked for ages. We don’t keep it open in case people try to sneak in the back way — without paying, you know?’

‘Without paying,’ he echoed. ‘Right. Fine.’ He let go of the door handle and nodded over to the fireplace. ‘And do you light that up regularly?’

Kate shook her head without taking her eyes off him. ‘No.’ She sat down, and looked up at him, her face pale and her eyes wide. ‘It’s never lit.’

‘Oh. Okay.’ He wrapped his arms around his body and stared around the room that felt so familiar and so homely. And so right with Kate sitting there.

He realised she was holding the skates up to him. ‘Do you want to have a look at these then?’

Theo nodded and took them from her.

There was a flash, like some sort of scene exploded into his mind; as if the gesture had thrown him back one hundred years or more ago and the cottage was lived in and warm and his . . .

He ran his finger down the blades and held them up to the light, squinting a little to see if the repair was noticeable. ‘I think these should be fair to use again,’ he told her. ‘I didn’t do too badly, if I may say so. I’ll warrant that only someone in my line of trade could tell.’

She was sitting in the room, the blanket covering her legs and a mongrel dog lying heavily against her. ‘I don’t think I’ll be using them for some time.’ She looked miserable and white and sickly, and her red hair lacked its usual lustre.

He knelt down beside her and took her hand in his. ‘You will be. You’ll be dancing soon. I promise you.’

‘Do you think I can be fixed as easily as those? It hurts. It hurts so much! It’ll never be better! I’ll be stuck like this forever!’

He laughed, loving her for her dramatic despair. ‘Bones heal. Breaks mend. Skates — can be repaired. Next winter, I promise, you’ll be on that ice and you won’t fall down again.’

‘Will I not?’

‘No.’ He lifted her hand to his face and laid it gently against his cheek. ‘Because I’ll be there to catch you. I promise.’

Theo gasped, and suddenly he was back in the little museum cottage, holding the skates, with Kate looking up at him.

* * *

‘Are you all right?’ Kate got to her feet and touched his arm. ‘Shall I take these away?’ She removed the skates and put them behind her back. He looked completely stunned and was staring down at her as if he’d never seen her before in his life. ‘Theo?’ She started to panic — maybe he’d had an apoplexy or something? Maybe he needed a doctor? He really seemed to have been somewhere else for a moment. The idea curled into her mind — maybe he had been somewhere else.

‘Kate?’ He blinked and turned slightly, and faced the chair she’d been sitting in. His eyes swept the area, as if he was looking for something. ‘Yeah.’ He scratched his head and looked around. ‘Was there a dog in here by any chance?’

Kate shook her head. ‘A dog used to live here, I think. A mongrel sort of thing. It had a bit of boxer in it. He was called Hector.’

‘Hector.’

‘Yes. Are you sure you’re okay?’ She tried a reassuring smile. He looked like he needed one of those. ‘This cottage has a bit of a — reputation. A bit like the Hall.’ She leaned against the mantelpiece. ‘In my opinion, these buildings know who they like and they make it pretty well-known.’ She laughed, self-consciously. ‘I wonder if the cottage knows you?’

‘It certainly seemed to know me.’ Theo looked around and his gaze settled on a point behind her. The doorway.

‘Hmm. Did it disappear? The door?’

Theo snapped his head back to her. ‘You could say that. And with the furnace and things. Well now.’ He shivered.

‘Perhaps you’re just a little more sensitive to things about — blacksmiths — working in your industry.’ Kate forced a smile. Pointless unloading the whole Cat Tredegar thing on him. She might never see him again; and that sort of information might disrupt both of their lives in unthinkable ways.

Then she realised he was looking at her strangely, and his eyes scanned her from the top of her head down to her legs and his gaze hovered around her ankles. She felt herself blush, not privy to whatever he’d experienced so briefly there in the cottage. But she wondered — a tiny, treacherous, hopeful part of her wondered — whether she, or Cat, had been part of it.

His eyes fixed on hers again. She noticed how dark and dangerous they were and the atmosphere seemed to fizz and crackle around them as she clutched the skates tightly behind her. There was a pull towards him that she was finding increasingly difficult to resist; and by the way his eyes flared as they met hers, she suspected he felt it too.

‘I think I should probably leave,’ he said in a low voice. He cleared his throat and stepped backwards, breaking the connection.