Page 30 of Mirrors of the Past

‘My theme.’ Tegan couldn’t help but claim it. The winter wedding thing had been her idea after all — but the solstice thing . . . yes. As Ryan said (and she reluctantly agreed), perfect.

‘So, my next idea—’ she pretended not to notice that he had folded his arms — ‘is that we go all out with a winter wonderland theme. Kind of like Narnia. Through the wardrobe door into Elsie’s wedding. We have replicas of her dress, her bouquet, all that sort of stuff—’

‘No.’ Ryan shook his head.

‘What?’ Tegan was momentarily shocked. He’d disagreed with her? ‘You disagreed with me?’

‘Yes.’

There was a beat and they stared at each other.

It almost choked her to say it, but, ‘Why?’

‘Narnia.’

‘What’s wrong with Narnia?’

‘It’s the wrong era.’

‘How do you know that?’

‘Because the kids in the story get evacuated in the Second World War. Way after Elsie’s wedding.’

‘Oh.’ There was no comeback for that. He was, annoyingly, correct. ‘Ah.’ Tegan began drumming her fingertips on the notepad. Narnia had been perfect. She had even sketched the flow of the Pencradoc rooms and where she would put the wardrobe door and what the corridor of trees would look like and where she’d have the lamppost . . .

‘You could do The Snow Queen,’ said Ryan. ‘Fairy tale. Same sort of idea. Spectacular entrance into her world, corridor of trees, Snow Queen’s sleigh. Could Elsie’s wedding dress be the Snow Queen’s gown, with her sitting in the sleigh?’

‘Oh! No, because we really want to show off her dress. But she — well, she could be standing on a giant mirror, which could represent the frozen lake the Queen’s throne sits on. And the splinters of ice . . .’ The story came flooding into Tegan’s mind, which was odd, as she couldn’t remember ever reading the fairytale. All her ideas about the Snow Queen came from Narnia. But she must have read it, to know what she said next. ‘The splinters of ice had to spell out “eternity” before the little girl in the story could rescue the little boy.’

‘Gerda and Kai.’

‘That’s it. So we have something representing those splinters of ice saying the word “eternity” and that links into the wedding theme. Awesome!’ Tegan would have high-fived anyone else. But she wasn’t going to touch Ryan, no way. And anyway, he still had his arms folded.

‘The corridor of trees,’ he said suddenly. ‘I think that could be a room. The ballroom’s fairly long — I’d think.’ He was quiet for a moment. Tegan nodded. It was, and Merryn had told her it was the permanent home to an exhibition of informal Pencradoc family pictures and sketches from the stores that probably didn’t warrant full exhibits themselves, but were little windows into the domestic world of the Teagues. ‘Yes. So you can have it in the ballroom and have the smaller room at the front — is that the morning room or something? — leading into the main exhibition—’

‘Yes! That smaller room as you go in, on the right of the staircase — it’s the drawing room — could be a pop-up gallery with photos, letters, that kind of jazz.’

‘It actually sounds great. And not too much work.’ Ryan smiled.

‘Definitely manageable.’ Tegan nodded.

There was a silence and it would have been the natural point for them to close down the conversation. But oddly, Ryan didn’t make a move to leave the gothic rose garden.

Instead, he said, ‘I’ve got some papers in my bag here.’ He patted the document case, slung diagonally across his body. He almost looked embarrassed. ‘I never thought I’d end up the kind of a guy with a man-bag.’

‘It’s not a good look on you,’ said Tegan.

‘Much as I hate to agree with you, I agree.’ Ryan pulled a face. ‘But I do have stuff you might be interested in. But you haven’t asked, sooooo . . .’

‘Oh, God. Don’t make me physically ask you.’ Tegan folded her arms. ‘I refuse to play that game.’

‘Fair enough. See you via email soon. Hopefully not in person.’ He turned around and began to walk out of the garden, but curiosity got the better of her.

‘All right then,’ she said, cross with herself. ‘Please may I see what you’ve got in your delightful man-bag?’ She closed her eyes. Asking Ryan anything was anathema to her sensibilities.

He paused, back still turned to her, then he responded. ‘All right. Seeing as you asked so nicely, I shall share the contents of my man-bag with you.’

Tegan rolled her eyes heavenwards in an extremely dramatic fashion to indicate her extreme exasperation with this annoying man, but sadly, the gesture was wasted on Ryan as he was still turned away from her.