Page 81 of Watch For Me By Candlelight

‘Kate—’

‘No! Look — talk about something else. Talk about the Hall — don’t talk about yesterday! Please.’

‘Okay.’ He cast around for something, anything to focus on. ‘Something else.’ Anything to keep her here, anything to maintain that closeness to her. He nodded towards the grave she’d been standing at. ‘Is it a special one? It looks really old.’

‘She’s the one who wrote the verse on the back of that photograph. She died in 1886 — she was only in her early twenties. It’s sad really.’ Kate looked relieved that he’d changed the subject. ‘She was called Millie. But it says Amelia here. Amelia Violet. I suspect she loved all the different shades of blue and purple. She’s the one I think I saw on the bridge. Silly, huh? There’ll be crocuses here in the spring, you know. It’ll be a pretty spot.’

Theo nodded in agreement, seeing the long leaves that were evidence of those spring flowers. ‘People often didn’t last long in those days. It could have been a fever or anything.’

‘A fever.’ Kate blushed and for a moment she seemed to be miles away; then she looked back at him, almost searchingly. ‘It was consumption. Poor thing. It can’t have been pleasant.’

‘I suspect not.’ Theo folded his arms. ‘This chap here, just where I am,’ he pointed with his foot to a half-hidden stone, ‘I don’t know what finished him off. There’s a horseshoe on the top and anchor on the bottom. So it was a horse or a boat — I’m not too sure.’

‘Seriously?’ Kate wove her way through some graves and came over to where he was standing. Theo moved to one side so she could see the stone clearly.

‘It’s a memorial stone,’ she said after a moment. ‘I don’t think there’s anybody buried here.’ She hunkered down and moved some grass and old leaves off the stone, which lay flat in the ground. The words engraved on the top were barely legible, but she leaned in and traced the carvings out with her fingertips, trying to interpret the name.

‘Wm. Haddon,’ she said after a moment. ‘B. 15th April 1860, D. 5th July 1885, victim of the SS Victoria Disaster. Always loved, never forgotten. Heri fuit nostri.’

‘Heri what?’

‘I think it means “yesterday was our time”.’ She looked up at Theo, and surprisingly she smiled. ‘It’s for William, the blacksmith on the estate. They thought he’d died, but he didn’t. He came back. You saw his house, remember?’

‘Ah! Yes. I remember it very well.’ Theo kneeled down next to her to get a better look at the stone. ‘And I guess if he was supposed to go down in a shipping disaster, that’s what the anchor symbolises.’

‘I guess.’ She picked at a bit of moss with her nail, then gave up. ‘I need to get permission to tidy this up. It’s not right that he should be hidden away here and neglected. I think he’s got just as much right to a tidy memorial as anyone — even though his body is probably miles away. I think he wanted to travel and work abroad. Maybe he succeeded, maybe he didn’t. But they thought he’d died and it’s all part of Hartsford’s history anyway. He was in love with Cat, the girl who owned the ice-skates, and he never stopped loving her; and he came back for her, just like he promised. I think he probably deserves something in my museum, you know. Something to go with the story of Cat’s ice-skates.’

‘Yes. Of course.’ He shivered a little, remembering his experiences there. This was as good a time as any to float one of his crazy suggestions past her, especially if she was considering doing something relating to the blacksmith anyway. ‘I don’t suppose anyone has ever considered really rebuilding the furnace, have they? It could help you with the interpretation of the site. Help to tell Will’s story. You could have demonstrations.’

‘It’s basically a pile of rubble. I don’t know who we’d get in with the experience to do it.’

‘What about that Aidan guy from the Hall weekend? The one with the motorbike? I’m sure he would do it, and if not, he would probably know someone who could.’

Kate looked at him, a spark of interest in her eyes. ‘The Aidan who Cassie’s falling over herself to spend time with — that Aidan?’

‘Yeah.’ Theo shrugged his shoulders. ‘It’s a thought anyway. I’d be happy to be a consultant if he needed it.’ He stood up and held his hand out to help her up. She hesitated for a moment then took it.

He pulled Kate to her feet and she stumbled. He grabbed her other hand to steady her, and for one bright moment, they caught each other’s eyes and the world stopped turning. Theo didn’t know whether to drop her hands and step back; or to lean down and kiss her.

He chose the latter.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

When he leaned down to her, Kate ducked out of his way and stepped aside. ‘No. No, Theo. I’m sorry. I can’t. Not here, not now.’

The memory of Cat standing on the Faerie Bridge, dressed in her beautiful gown, and Will telling her he was leaving suddenly burst into her mind and blotted out everything else. Then she remembered how Will had come back for Cat. What Cat had felt, seeing him there when she thought everything was lost to her. Heri fuit nostri. Yesterday was our time. And how she had grabbed a future with the man she loved, out of the wreckage of her past. Lucky, lucky Cat.

But—

She took a deep, shaky breath. ‘None of us can live in the past, Theo. It doesn’t work out like it did for Cat and Will for everyone—’ She shook her head, unable to finish the sentence, desperate to just give herself up to him right there and then, but still raw from the day before. If ever she had felt lost, she felt it now. But he had to sort his life out before she could commit to him wholeheartedly.

If Theo thought it was a weird thing to say, he didn’t comment. Instead, he stood in front of her, hopelessly, almost, his arms by his side.

Then he wrapped them around his body, a mixture of pain and honesty in his eyes. ‘You’re right. And Kate, my love, I have to tell you something. What I’m going to say doesn’t for one moment change how I feel about you, but I have to be honest. Poppy’s my daughter. They’ve just confirmed it. I’m going to fight for her. I want her with me.’

Kate just stared up at him, her eyes wide. ‘Yours? She’s yours?’

Theo nodded. ‘She’s mine.’