Page 85 of Watch For Me By Candlelight

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.