Page 62 of Mirrors of the Past

‘Laurie . . .’ she whispered, holding on to the photo just as tightly as she could, as if she was frightened to let it get away from her again.

‘He married Viola. And that, I suspect, was her at the party.’

‘She looks just like the bridesmaid in the wedding photo. And the sketch here. And . . .’ She stopped short at mentioning her otherworldly visitor with a bouquet. Instead she laughed, even though, strangely, she wanted to cry as well. ‘Laurie was my literary crush, you know. From Little Women. I’ve always loved him.’

‘Really? I’ve never read it.’

‘I doubt it’s the sort of book you’d have been interested in. But it’s my favourite one. Remember when we first met up again and I was a bit shocked that Elsie’s brother was called Laurie? I obviously wasn’t going to tell you then, but I used to have dreams about me marrying Laurie instead of Amy marrying him . . . God. Under the circumstances, and given my apparent likeness to Viola, that’s incredibly creepy.’ Tegan stared at the photo again.

Then, with a touch of her usual sass where Ryan was concerned, and perhaps as a little bit of her defence mechanism kicked in, she said, ‘And this Laurie looks a bit like you. If I’m creeped out about Viola, it’s only fair you should be too.’

Ryan went paler than usual. ‘Well, thanks a lot, Tegan. I don’t need you to creep me out. I did spot the likeness. Remember, I said it was weird when I came in here?’

‘And it’s got even weirder,’ she said quietly. Then she shivered. ‘And colder.’ She looked around and saw a mist starting to form behind Ryan, coming slowly down the ballroom towards them.

Nope. No. That wasn’t happening.

‘Come on,’ she said suddenly, grabbing his hand. ‘We need to get out of here. Leave the hatbox.’

‘I am not leaving anything,’ he said, shaking his hand free. ‘Because who the hell is going to come back in here and get it?’ He ducked down and picked up the box and tossed the book into it. He might have seen the horror in her eyes and that she was looking over his shoulder; their eyes connected for a second, then he looked behind him. The mist was getting stronger and closer and starting to form shapes — legs, perhaps, coming out of it, arms, maybe.

Shit.

No.

They couldn’t hurt you, but who was mad enough to stay and risk it?

Not them.

She yelled at Ryan. ‘Let’s go!’

‘Right with you.’ And somehow, they were holding hands and running through the ballroom as if all the demons of Hell were after them, and not, God forbid, a pre-war version of themselves emerging out of the shadows to say “hello”.

* * *

Ryan couldn’t believe what he’d seen. It definitely looked as if something was coming along the ballroom, gliding towards them.

He felt a little sick and a lot scared. Not that he wanted to admit it to Tegan, although it had probably been crazily obvious when he’d grabbed her hand and they’d pelted out of the room.

Or had she grabbed his hand? He wasn’t sure — all he knew was that, somehow, they were still holding hands and were in the hallway, at the bottom of the Grand Staircase, both breathing heavily.

‘Oh my God. This place!’ said Tegan. ‘You saw it, didn’t you? Saw — them?’

Ryan nodded. ‘Yeah. I think so . . .’ He was still trying to process it. ‘How do you work here?’

‘I don’t know. They were in my office as well—’ She stopped herself short, then shook her head. ‘No. Never mind. Forget I said anything.’

They simultaneously seemed to realise they were still holding hands, released each other and both took a step backwards.

‘I can’t actually do that. Forget it, I mean. If it makes you feel any better, that story I found? It was here as well.’ He closed his eyes briefly, rubbed his hand across his face and then re-opened this eyes. ‘Up in one of the rooms they’re refurbishing.’

‘What were you doing creeping around up there?’ asked Tegan, looking shocked. As well she might.

‘I don’t know. That’s the thing.’ He was mortified now. ‘I just — found myself in there. Poking around inside a chimney breast.’

There was silence. ‘Wow. That almost trumps my story.’

‘Almost,’ he said miserably. He raked his hand through his hair. ‘Now I’m wondering if it was Laurie’s room and he took me there.’