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‘Have you any luggage?’ she enquired politely, looking me up and down.
‘Er, no,’ I said, realising how suspicious that must seem. ‘Our luggage was sent ahead with the carriage. We decided to stop off here for the night on the spur of the moment and quite forgot to bring anything with us. No matter. It’s only for one night.’
Oh, how I hoped it would only be for one night. Well, it would be. Even if the island didn’t appear overnight, surely we’d find somewhere better to stay than this?
Blaise and I followed Wulfram up the stairs, as the comely Annie clomped ahead of us, chatting merrily about the terrible weather, and how she couldn’t imagine why we’d come to Gerrenporth for pleasure, and did we have family in the area?
Wulfram gave non-committal responses, clearly too tired to do much more than grunt, while I prayed that Blaise would keep his mouth shut. Luckily, he seemed too confused to say anything that contradicted my brother.
I’m not sure what my face did when Annie opened the door and showed me the first room. Evidently it worried her because she frowned and said, ‘Is it not to your liking?’
‘Oh,’ I said hurriedly. ‘It’s fine, thank you. This will do splendidly.’
She gave a relieved sigh then showed Wulfram to the room next door.
‘I’ll bring you some supper up later,’ she said. ‘Make yourselves at home.’
With that, she turned and thudded down the wooden stairs.
I lifted an eyebrow. ‘Oh, wow.’
‘You’re not kidding,’ Wulfram breathed.
The rooms were awful, with tiny leaded windows and dirty wooden floors. One side of each room was taken up by a box bed, and closer inspection showed that they each contained a straw mattress.
‘Don’t look too hard,’ I advised. ‘They’re crawling.’
‘You’re joking,’ Wulfram said, horrified.
‘Nope. Why do you think well-off people used to bring their own beds with them when they travelled? I’ve been reading all about it. People have been known to catch all sorts from infected beds in places like these. Even smallpox. I mean, call me fussy, but there’s no way I’m sleeping in that thing.’ I shuddered. ‘Anyway, it would be like sleeping in a coffin.’
‘I suppose it’s to keep warm,’ he said, eyeing the box bed doubtfully. ‘There’s no fire lit, I notice. I wonder if that’s an extra charge.’
‘I’d be happy to pay it,’ I said. ‘What are we going to do?’
‘I’m just thinking of the supper Annie’s going to bring us up,’ he admitted. ‘Can you imagine what it’s going to be?’
‘I don’t know,’ I said, ‘but I somehow doubt the chef has passed his food hygiene exams.’ I gave a sudden cry of horror. ‘Oh no!’
‘What is it?’ Wulfram said, as Blaise’s head jerked round and he eyed me nervously.
I stared down at my hand. ‘The fede ring,’ I said, feeling choked. ‘It’s gone! It must have fallen off somewhere. I need to go back to the seafront and—’
‘No chance,’ Wulfram said immediately. ‘I’m sorry, but it’s dark out there and it’s probably been picked up by now anyway. That’s if it even made it back to this time with us. It could have dropped off your finger at home, or even while we were mid-journey.’
I felt sick with grief. Meri had given me that ring and I’d lost it. How could I have been so careless? Suddenly it was all too much for me. What had I done?
I sank onto a wooden chair and put my head in my hands, overwhelmed. ‘This is my life now, isn’t it? All—’ I waved a hand around the room in despair, ‘this.’
‘No,’ he said. ‘Don’t worry. This is just the first night. You’ll be able to find somewhere out of other people’s way to make your home, and then you’ll be free to live exactly as you wish. Maybe the Tremaynes will let you stay on the island, and then you can do what you like, just as Meri did. Just as Ewella and Emrick do now. Remember? Everyone in this town thinks there’s nothing there but an old shack with an ancient generator that gives them intermittent electricity, but look how they live! You’ll have all the comforts you had back in our time, Romy. It will be fine.’
I was overwhelmed with shame. Had I really had such a huge wobble this early in the game? ‘You’re right, of course. Always supposing the Tremaynes accept us and allow us to stay with them. If not we’ll manage. As you say, we can find a cottage somewhere out of the way. Just me being a drama queen. I guess it’s been more of a shock to the system than I supposed, and with Blaise not remembering who he is…’
I eyed Blaise sadly. He was leaning against the wall, watching us both curiously.
‘Wulfram,’ he said slowly. ‘Romy.’
We exchanged delighted glances.
