Page 38

“So how come the old cars are so bright and shiny?” Then she realised what he’d said.

“What do you mean a free festival? I had to pay a heap for my three-day ticket.”

“Errr…I must have misunderstood. I assumed it was free.” He wouldn’t meet her eye and Megan knew he was lying. “I’m only a simple musician. I’m not sure what’s going on. Come on, the guys are going to be worried.” The more that was said, the more her certainty grew that somehow she was at the 1971 festival and he was trying to hide it from her. She shook her head. Now she was thinking crazy thoughts too.

Maybe that soup had had something in it?

He grabbed her hand and dragged her through the crowd. Warmth shot up her arm and she resisted the urge to curl her fingers in his. She had no idea what was going on, who he really was, or when she was.

Bloody hell, I can’t concentrate.

David Morgan was a mass of contradictions. The man who was pulling her along behind him and expressing such concern for her well-being was poles apart from the rude guy who’d greeted her the other night, and very different again from the man who had taken her to heaven and back again last night. Now he was looking after her. Taking a breath and shaking her head, she tried to clear it and stay focused on the present.

Whenever that was.

“So why is everyone dressed in seventies clothes?”

“I don’t know, Megan. Like I said, I’m just a musician. I’m not the fount of all knowledge about the festival. You’re the sociologist.”

“Don’t worry. I intend to find out everything I can. Trust me. I am very interested in what’s happening around me.” She pulled her hand from his as he stopped at the back of the pyramid stage. A set of stairs led to the stage about ten feet above them and David stood back and gestured for her to climb up. She hesitated.

“Come on, I don’t want to lose you again.” He put his hands on her waist and lifted her onto the first step, and her skin burned where his fingers gripped her firmly.

“You can sit on the side of the stage and you’ll have the best seat in the house.” He stood in front of her and his eyes were level with hers. His face was so close, his breath fanned her hot cheeks and she looked down as she felt it stirring along her skin. She didn’t move, and continued to watch him. And wait.

Will I never learn? Focus.

Finally, she turned away and grabbed the rope that ran up each side of the stairs, conscious of him close behind her.

“Thank God, man.” The two men she’d met at the pub yesterday, his band members, Bear and Slim, stood at the edge of the suspended wooden platform. As she looked up at them, she remembered how she knew their names. Bear and Slim were the nicknames of the two guys in Davy Morgan’s band. She’d read it in that article on her laptop. On the CDs she’d listened to for years, they were credited under their real names, but it was only yesterday in that article about a scandal involving Davy that she’d read their nicknames

Holy shit. It is1971. How the hell had that happened? She racked her brain, reliving every moment of the past few hours. It had all turned crazy after she’d woken up in the first aid tent. After she’d followed David through the field after he’d disappeared.

And I touched that stone. That was it.

It was like something out of a bloody historical novel. Time travel? No way?

She shook her head, on the brink of tears.

“We thought you weren’t going to get back in time,” Bear said as he nodded at Megan. “He found you okay, I see?”

David nodded without speaking as he slid a small wooden chair behind the brown hessian covering that was hanging at the side of the stage. When he had pushed it into the shadows, he turned to her and once again his strong fingers gripped her waist as he lifted her and put her in the chair. Megan sat and watched, bemused as he turned to Slim and finally spoke.

“Have you got anything to drink? Any food?”

From behind Bear’s drums, Slim retrieved a backpack and dug inside and pulled out a glass bottle.

David frowned as his fingers circled the neck of the narrow glass bottle and passed it to Megan. “At least Coke will give you some energy.”

She took the cold glass bottle from him, holding it up in front of her.

“Hmm, one of those retro Coke bottles?” She watched as the two men exchanged a glance.

“Yeah, a retro bottle.”

Ha! Sure it is.

The floor creaked as another man jumped up from the top step onto the stage.