Page 29 of Mirrors of the Past

Chapter Eleven

Present

Tegan was aware of someone standing in her peripheral vision — a tall, masculine shadow, with what looked like a white shirt on, dark trousers and a dark waistcoat.

At least, it looked like that from the corner of her eye. When she turned to look at the person, she realised that, yes, it was a man — a tall, dark man at that — but rather than wearing a white shirt and a waistcoat, the person was wearing a black T-shirt. And that person was Ryan Jackson.

Dammit. Why had he come here? Why hadn’t he just gone to the Tower Tearoom like he was supposed to?

‘Can I help?’ she asked, and even to herself she sounded clipped and unfriendly. ‘But you’ll have to wait a second. I’m just texting my boyfriend. Angelo. He lives in Sicily. He’s a musician.’

Ryan’s lip curled up at the corner and he looked at her strangely. Clearly, he wasn’t bothered about Angelo and why should he be? She had been messaging him a few minutes ago — well, responding to a text that asked how she was, and which had included a photo of a Sicilian sunrise. But did she really need to share all that with Ryan?

No.

‘Okay.’ Ryan continued to look at her strangely. ‘I’ll leave you to it. Although I did somehow think that you were working, and perhaps you’d have gone to the tearoom to do that. To work, I mean.’

Ouch. Now it looked as if she’d been messing around with Angelo instead of doing what she was meant to be doing. It galled her that Ryan thought that, but that was pretty much the case to be fair.

‘Why would I do that?’ she asked defensively. ‘Go and work in the tearoom, I mean. It’s coming up to lunchtime anyway, and you might have been there. Also,’ she shrugged. ‘It wouldn’t be fair if I commandeered a table, but to be honest Sorcha would pretty soon move me on if I tried that.’

Ryan nodded. ‘Good for Sorcha.’

He hovered for a moment, before turning around to leave.

Something in Tegan relented. She sighed, then called after him. ‘Ryan! Do you want to know what I’m really looking at?’

‘Not particularly.’ But he turned back around and took a few steps towards her. ‘But you did say you were messaging your boyfriend in Sydney.’

‘Sicily.’

‘Whatever. Let me guess.’ He sighed. ‘Rubbish music? Your next job? Social media influencers who you think are super-cool, but who would literally do my head in?’

‘Not smart, not funny.’ She glared at him. ‘No music is worse than your crap and I’m sticking this one out for a year, despite you being part of it.’

‘Despite your boyfriend being in Sydney.’

‘Sicily.’

‘Sicily. Is he coming over, then? Actually, don’t tell me, I don’t care.’ He waved his hand around to illustrate. ‘But you being here for a year is pretty unfortunate for me. Don’t suppose you fancy reconsidering your post, do you? It would make me very happy. Unless, of course, I get the job in Glasgow I’ve applied for and then I’ll be away from you. Which would also make me very happy. But, having said that, you’re not chasing me out of this job with your attitude. I might have to stick it out for the long haul.’

‘Whoopee-do,’ muttered Tegan. ‘Then you really oughta be interested in what I have in front of me here.’

‘A pink phone?’

‘Smart ass. No. The research I’m doing. If we really have to work together and you won’t leave immediately — no? — okay, just checking again — then we should talk weddings.’

She realised what she’d said and knew the colour had drained from her face. It sounded a bit — intimate — that. Like they were getting married.

Ugh.

‘Elsie’s wedding, of course,’ she said for clarity.

‘Of course.’ Ryan was emphatic — she couldn’t be sure if he was being sarcastic or not, so chose to ignore him.

‘So it’s only recently come to light that she married Louis in December 1911. I’ve managed to dig a bit more, and I can confirm that Lady Elsie Alexandra Teague Pencradoc and Mr Louis William Ashby got married on Friday the twenty-second of December 1911, at St George’s Church, Bloomsbury. The winter solstice, no less.’

‘Perfect!’ Ryan took a step closer, his guard apparently dropped, and he even managed to look fairly excited. ‘That links really well to the theme.’