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‘What he means,’ Simon said, ‘is that Blaise St Clair, or John Ford as he’d become, wasn’t supposed to attract the attention or interest of any St Clair. Hector put—well, let’s call it a sort of shield around him, specifically designed to make him almost invisible to anyone in your family. Not literally invisible of course, but it would make him sort of melt into the background, be of so little interest to them that they wouldn’t even bother to find out his name.’
‘Which is pretty much how we felt about him,’ Harley admitted guiltily. ‘Sorry, Romy.’
‘That makes sense,’ Killian said, nodding. He looked at me. ‘Remember when we met him, and we couldn’t understand why the girls found him so unattractive and boring? Sure, we got on with him well, didn’t we? Thought he was a fascinating person. That explains why.’
‘But it doesn’t explain Romy’s attraction to him,’ I said. ‘So what went wrong?’
‘I have no idea,’ Simon admitted. ‘John fell in love with you almost from the moment he met you,’ he told Romy. ‘I suppose his persistence and charm won you over.’
‘How do you know?’ she asked shakily. ‘You weren’t around then.’
‘Oh, I was around,’ he corrected her. ‘Just because you didn’t notice me, don’t think I wasn’t keeping an eye on things. John was my charge, and I’ve taken care of him and watched over him ever since he stopped being Blaise St Clair. Hector made sure that he’d planted the memory of our friendship in Blaise’s mind, so when I made myself known to you both, John, as he was by then, had every reason to believe we’d been friends for years. He didn’t deceive you, Romy. It was what he genuinely believed.’
‘Poor Johnnie,’ she said tearfully.
‘Poor Johnnie?’ Keely gasped. ‘Romy, you can’t seriously be feeling sorry for him, after everything he’s done?’
‘But that wasn’t him, was it?’ Romy pointed out. ‘It’s like Simon said earlier, Blaise and John are two different people to all intents and purposes.’
‘And you honestly believe he hasn’t got his memory back?’ Sky asked suspiciously.
‘Absolutely.’ Simon sounded quite certain of it. ‘He has no recollection of his previous life. I must admit, I’ve watched him in admiration. He’s an incredibly intelligent person and could have used his abilities to make a lot of money and a name for himself. Instead, he appears to have a heartfelt desire to make life better for other people. Hence his career as a family support worker. I don’t know. Perhaps, somewhere deep down, he’s been trying to make amends for his past behaviour. Who knows?’
I rubbed the back of my neck, thinking. ‘I understand that you’re all deeply concerned about Blaise,’ I told them, ‘but honestly, don’t you think we have more important things to worry about right now? In case you’d forgotten, Trinity is missing. My twin sister, Linnet. We need to find her before something terrible happens to her.’
I heard Romy gasp but turned to Hector. ‘You said you had every reason to believe she’d been taken by the fae. If that’s the case we should be out there trying to get her back, not arguing about a man who’s no longer a threat and, quite frankly, seems irrelevant right now.’
‘Blaise St Clair is hardly irrelevant,’ Raiden pointed out, ‘given that if not for his little jaunt through time the fae wouldn’t be trying to start another war with us.’
‘The fae are not trying to start another war with you,’ Killian said testily. ‘It’s the Pendragons and their hangers-on. Don’t label all fae as warmongers.’
‘Sorry,’ Raiden said. ‘I didn’t mean to offend. It was a slip of the tongue.’
‘The point is,’ I said, ‘whether Blaise’s time travelling started all this or not, he’s no longer the issue. The issue is that the fae—the Pendragons—have taken Trinity, and we need to find her before it’s too late.’
It seemed weird to me, knowing that the Pendragons were our enemies, when they were my kin. Trinity’s kin. Did they realise that they’d kidnapped one of their own? Would that help her if they did?
My blood ran cold. Of course it wouldn’t. Not if they realised she was really Linnet Pendragon, because then they’d know she was one of Ashen and Laragh Pendragon’s children, and they’d want to kill her, just as they’d killed our parents. Just as they wanted to kill me, and would no doubt make every effort to when I reclaimed my magic, and they finally realised who I was.
‘What exactly happened to Trinity?’ Romy asked nervously. ‘Did I hear right? She’s Lowen’s twin sister?’
Keely gave an impatient wave of the hand. ‘Oh! You don’t even know about that, do you? Yes. Quite a turn up for the books. It turns out Trinity is really Linnet Pendragon. She was in Whitby, trying to find someone called Sister Agnes who might know something about their parentage.’
‘And now she’s missing?’
‘Kidnapped by the fae,’ Keely said gloomily. ‘And Lowen’s right. All this with Blaise is a distraction and nothing to do with the main issue.’
‘Except, maybe Simon can be of use to you in that respect,’ Hector said.
‘Simon?’ I narrowed my eyes. ‘In what way?’
‘Well,’ Hector explained, ‘in the way that he was in Whitby that day. Simon saw it happen.’
Chapter 4
Lowen
All eyes turned to Simon who nodded. ‘I was asked to follow Trinity to keep an eye on her. Hector knew of course that she was intending to travel to Whitby in search of this Sister Agnes, so he wanted me to make sure she was safe.’
