“Artie is your daughter?” I ask.
“Yes, short for Artemisia. She’s six now,” Forrest says. “I’m hoping she might get out here to join me next week. When she heard I was going to live in a castle, she nearly exploded with excitement.”
“Castles are cool,” I admit. “So, you’ve been a single parent since your little girl was a baby?”
“Oh no, not really,” Forrest says. “It takes a village, right?”
“Guys!” our driver shouts, beckoning us over. “Come on or you’re going to miss it!”
“I didn’t think stars went anywhere,” Forrest says as he gets out of the buggy. He offers me his hand, which after a moment I take and let him help me out.
“Well, the stars in the Milky Way travel at around two hundred and fifty kilometres per second,” I tell him, as I climb over the stile, a sort of ladder that people can climb, but sheep can’t, and get a glimpse of the telescopes set up in the field. “This is actually going to be really cool.”
“Any chance of a truce for tonight at least?” Forrest asks. “It’s just I think stargazing would be so much more relaxing without the whole mortal enemy thing.”
“The enormity of the universe does kind of make our petty troubles seem insignificant,” I say. “Fine, truce for tonight. Now hurry up. I want to find out if we can see the rings of Saturn through one of those things.”
“We can see planets?” Forrest asks.
“Oh, you are about to have your mind blown, my temporary friend,” I tell him.
Chapter Fifteen
“I can’t believe I am looking at Saturn,” Forrest says, his eye against the viewfinder. “I can’t believe it, it’s just there! Being a planet in the solar system, minding its own business, and I can see it! I can see it! With my own eyes.”
“You don’t even need a telescope to see Mars or Venus,” I tell him, pointing them out, shining just a little brighter than the thousands upon thousands of stars in the sky. Overcome with a sudden urge to try and hug the whole sky, I fling my arms open wide. “God, it’s beautiful.”
“It is,” Forrest agrees.
“To think that we exist, in this moment, amongst all of that...” When I turn to look at him, I find he is already looking at me. “Well, it’s sort of a miracle, isn’t it?”
“Ava!” Rani calls to me from the telescope that she’s looking through with Alex. “Come and see this!”
I won’t lie; it’s a relief to have a reason to leave Forrest’s side. For the few minutes when we were huddled together over the telescope as our allocated astronomer explained to us what to do, I had the strangest feeling. I’m putting it down to excitement.The bubbling, butterflies sensation in my tummy when his cheek briefly grazed mine, and that look in his eye I just caught for a moment, as if... well, almost as if he were looking at me with the kind of wonder he’d just looked at Saturn with. But that’s just crazy talk and I’d be a fool to fall for his obvious allure. He can try and dazzle me with his good looks and assume it will all be fine because he is pretty. Well, prettiness is not enough, and I, for one, refuse to be physically attracted to my nemesis, regardless of the way his hands looked when he turned that focus dial, delicate and yet strong. It’s a trap and I am staying away from it.
“I really didn’t think I’d be into this,” Rani says, “but it’s so cool!”
“And now for a little something to warm the cockles,” LordB says, as one of the buggy drivers produces a tray with several small silver beakers on it. LordB produces a hip flask of whiskey from his waistcoat and pours a tot into each glass.
“I don’t know if I like whiskey,” I say, taking my beaker and sipping. A fiery honey sensation trickles down into my chest. “Turns out that I do.”
Someone has lit a huge firepit, and every now and then sparks fly off into the sky as if they are desperate to join the stars up there.
“This is where our glampers stay,” LadyB tells me, nodding to the yurts that are better appointed than most five-star hotels. “New lot of guests arrive tomorrow, so it was the perfect night to make the most of the view.”
“Thank you so much,” I say, earnestly. “For having me here, for the lab, and all of this. I am really sorry about running away and saying stupid things. I’d hate for you to think that I wasn’t so grateful to be here.”
“Darling,” Lady B says, “I think no such thing. How boring the world would be if we were all the same. Besides, you’re a genius. It’s in your job description to be a little eccentric.” She offers me another draft of whiskey and I accept. “Did you get on a little better with Forrest?”
“I did,” I say, glancing over at where he’s laughing with Sasha and her husband. “Forrest is a decent guy. I will try to un-nemesis him, but it won’t be easy.”
“Well, as you well know by now,” LadyB says, looking across the firepit to where Rani and Alex are flirting, “the best things never are. What do you think about Rani? Do you think she’s really interested in Alex?”
I’m surprised that LadyB is asking me, but I suppose I do know Rani better than maybe anyone, and I guess that as the handsome and wealthy son of an aristocrat, he probably does have quite a lot of suitors.
“I mean, they are just flirting,” I tell LadyB. “But I can tell that Rani likes Alex the person, and not just for his good looks and castle. See how she’s listening to everything he says, her head on a slight tilt, her eyes fixed on his? Rani gets bored easily. Alex doesn’t bore her, and by the look on his face, I’m sure she fascinates him.”
“They do make a handsome couple,” LadyB says thoughtfully. “I’d hate them to rush into anything.”
