Page 13 of Mirrors of the Past

‘Tegan!’

Her attention shifted from the stair and she looked in the direction of the voice. ‘Merryn! God — look at you!’

Tegan was genuinely shocked. At Christmas, Merryn had been — well — Merryn. Merryn-size, Merryn-shape, just Merryn. Now, her older sister looked as if she had a watermelon stuffed down her front. She was enormously pregnant and Tegan was surprised that she was actually standing upright. How had the weight of that baby not made her faceplant the floor?

‘Good to see you too, Tegan.’ Merryn’s voice was wryly amused. ‘Come on. Give me a hug.’

‘Not sure I can actually get my arms around you,’ said Tegan. The odd feeling about the stair was forgotten as she bounded down the remaining steps to greet her sister, arms outstretched.

‘You have to at least try!’ said Merryn with a laugh, catching her sister as Tegan threw herself at her gently yet enthusiastically.

‘I can just about manage it!’ She hugged Merryn and kissed her on the cheek. ‘Oh, wow, it’s good to see you in person.’

‘Isn’t it great?’ Merryn grinned. ‘And you’re here! At Pencradoc. Amazing. Can’t wait for the place to start working its magic on you.’

‘There are no bloody ghosts here, sis, don’t know what you keep going on about,’ said Tegan. ‘I’m here to do a job — a doddle of a job, may I say, and only for a year.’

‘Hmm.’ Merryn was non-committal, then she laughed. ‘A doddle of a job? Okay. Don’t let Coren hear you say that, mind. And ghosts or no ghosts, I’m jolly pleased to see you too. Come on. Let’s go and see the boss. I swear that man sleeps in that study; he’s always in it.’

Merryn linked arms with Tegan and they headed to the office. ‘Did you see Little Elsie last night?’ Merryn asked, patting the marble girl on the head as they passed her. ‘I would love to know what she was thinking when she posed for that.’

‘Do you think it was done while she sat there? Posing?’

‘Not at all. I think it was done from a drawing or a painting. But yes. It would be interesting to know what she was thinking. I bet she would have been full of it. Her little cousins and brothers and sisters wouldn’t have heard the end of it.’

‘And is that her mum? The lady in that beautiful portrait on the staircase? I know you’ve mentioned her to me, but I can’t remember her name.’

‘No.’ Merryn shook her head. ‘That’s Duchess Rose. Sorry, Rose, Duchess of Trecarrow, if we want to give Rose her formal title.’ She paused, looking up at the portrait and studying it, as if she was seeing something far, far away. ‘Rose died and Elsie’s mum, Zennor, married the duke, the guy Rose had been married to first.’

Tegan couldn’t help but notice the small, bitter twist to Merryn’s mouth as she remarked upon the man. ‘You’re not impressed with the duke?’ she asked.

‘No, he wasn’t a very nice person. From what we know, anyway.’

The sisters continued walking.

‘Did the ghosts tell you that?’ Tegan was amused.

‘They didn’t have to. We all knew it,’ replied Merryn — cryptically, Tegan thought. But she didn’t let the thought linger. They were now at Coren’s office and the sisters disconnected their arms, and Merryn knocked on the door. ‘It’s just us!’ she called, and walked in without waiting for an answer.

Coren looked up from his desk and a hint of a smile lifted the edges of his lips. ‘Good morning,’ he said. ‘Thanks for coming up, Merryn. I know it’s a long way.’

‘It’s worth it to see Tegan, if nothing else,’ Merryn said. ‘I think an hour away is the closest we’ve been for a long, long time.’

‘Well, sit down and we can do this handover — then you can head back. I don’t want to keep you too long. You shouldn’t even be here.’

‘I’m going to be here long enough to go to the Tower Tearoom. And help Tegan for the rest of the day if she needs me to.’

‘I’m not totally hopeless, Merryn,’ said Tegan. ‘You’ve already been emailing me lists and lists and idiot guides and all sorts of stuff!’ And by the look of her, she needed to be much, much closer to home in case that child decided to make an appearance. Much as she loved her sister, she didn’t want her to hang around too long with that situation so imminent!

‘Not idiot guides. How-to guides,’ said Merryn defensively.

‘And you mentioned what you fancied as the next exhibition,’ said Tegan.

‘Yes. I did.’

‘First World War?’ Tegan raised her eyebrows.

‘Yes. It’ll be perfect to work between Wheal Mount and Pencradoc. I told Sybill—’