Page 83 of Watch For Me By Candlelight

‘Yes. Sorry.’ A smirk. She wasn’t sorry, of course she wasn’t. ‘Once or twice. Maybe three times.’ A shrug. ‘Four? Who’s counting.’

‘And,’ the words would choke her, she knew, but she had to say them, ‘with Theo Kent?’

Jenna’s ruby-red lips twitched up at the corners. ‘See you around, Kate.’ She turned on her heel and stalked out of the museum.

Kate watched her leave, speechless. Knowing Jenna, that could have meant anything. She was more annoyed at the fact that Jenna might have moved in on Theo than she was with the fact that she had definitely been with Chris. And she found she couldn’t leave it like that with Theo; not at all.

She was one hundred percent not going to share him with Lori, she knew that — but she wanted a chance to talk to him again, sensibly, without the shadows of Will and Cat lurking around. Perhaps they could sort things out properly. Perhaps she could give them a second chance again today.

It only took a moment for her to grab her car keys and run outside again. She put the car in gear and drove off, towards the campsite, her heart pounding as she imagined all the things she’d say to him. This was when, hopefully, everything slotted into place and the stars aligned and they finally had their time together.

It was the biggest gut-wrench of her life when she drove into that campsite and pulled up at the spot where his tent had been.

Because Theo Kent had packed up and left, without so much as a half-chewed carrot on the ground to say he’d ever been there.

* * *

Theo was all Kate had thought about, the whole of that Tuesday night as she tossed and turned in bed and knotted herself up in the sheets so thoroughly that she struggled out of them at two thirty in the morning and kicked them off.

She knew what she was going to do. She padded across the bedroom floor and headed down the staircase that led into the museum, relishing the cool stonework on the soles of her feet. She walked all the way through the museum until she came to Will’s cottage and she stood in the middle of his room, looking around as the shapes and shadows resolved themselves out of the darkness.

It was only the museum cottage, though. It wasn’t really Will’s cottage. Kate might have heard a snuffling, and she might have felt a cold, wet nose brush against her ankle. It might have been Hector coming to see her, but it could just as easily have been her imagination. She supposed in Cat’s timeline, Will had left the place; at the very least, he’d moved out of the cottage when he left to travel and someone else had moved in. She didn’t know where they had gone after the wedding-that-wasn’t-a-wedding. Perhaps Cat would have had no reason ever to come back here? The thought was sobering. Kate wondered if that meant it was over — her visits to the past had ended. Her life and Cat Tredegar’s life had finally diversified. They were no longer travelling the same path.

She had lost Theo, just as much as Cat had seemingly lost Will.

Second chances sucked, they really did, if everyone involved felt differently.

‘I guess this is really goodbye, then,’ said Kate. She listened, very carefully, but nobody answered her.

* * *

The drive back to Derbyshire was never-ending. Theo got stuck in some sort of tailback on the M1 and he was having a hard time concentrating on his driving as it was. Thoughts of Poppy and Kate were tumbling through his mind; and the spectre of Lori was there too, creeping into the corners of it.

‘Oh, for God’s sake!’ he said out loud, and swung his car away from the direction of his rented stone-built cottage near Matlock, and headed instead towards a newer estate of characterless, two-dimensional-looking brick houses. This was where Lori and Poppy lived. Well — currently just Lori on her own, thank goodness. Poppy was still safe, and he had already rung the solicitors and the social workers and had an idea in his head of how to progress on that one. But there were things he needed to say to Lori.

He too had lived on this estate, when they’d been ‘on’ — and he knew it was never an estate he’d fitted into. The neighbours he’d met clearly thought he was the one at fault. All they saw was a young woman with a baby, and a man coming and going. Lori had quite a creative mind, to put it politely, and he knew the stories would not be very complementary to him at all.

Sure enough, he saw some of the curtains twitch as he pulled onto the shared driveway and debated whether to wave at them or just ignore them and walk straight up to the door. He decided on the latter, and briefly wondered what Kate would have done. The thought made a bittersweet smile twitch at the corners of his mouth. But he pushed the image of her smile away, took a deep breath and rapped on the door.

He stood a few minutes, then tried again. Eventually, there was a movement from behind the door and it cracked open.

Lori peered out, looking dishevelled and her eyes widened as she saw him. ‘Theo!’ Her voice was slurred and Theo’s heart sank. Lori drunk was ten times worse than Lori sober.

‘Hello Lori. May I come in?’

‘It’s a bit awkward,’ she said, flicking a glance over her shoulder. ‘Poppy’s asleep and you can’t be waking her up.’

His heart pounded. ‘Poppy’s here? Then I’ve got to come in. I need to see her.’ I need to take my daughter and get her away from you! Why the hell had nobody told him she’d been returned when he’d been speaking to people earlier about it?

Lori just shook her head and made to shut the door. Theo put his hand on the door and pushed against it. He leaned in as close as he dared, and Lori’s breath reeked of alcohol and something he really hoped wasn’t marijuana.

‘Lori, Poppy’s my daughter. I’m coming in. You’re in no fit state to look after her today.’

‘I know she’s your daughter. And if you come back tomorrow you can see her and we can decide what to do.’ Lori smiled, lopsidedly and made her eyes wide and innocent. Theo saw her pupils were like little pinpricks and he didn’t like it much. ‘I think she needs two parents, and it’s something we can talk about tomorrow.’ Then, quite frighteningly, her face crumpled and she squeezed a tear out. ‘I’m too upset today to deal with it. It’s a big thing.’ She raised her voice, so the neighbours would hear her if they so desired. ‘I mean, you abandoned us, and all she asks is “where’s Daddy, where’s Daddy”. And I had to get all those paternity tests before you’d accept your responsibilities!’

‘Lori! That’s a lie and you know it! And what the hell have you been taking?’

She didn’t answer; but her gaze raked over him and suddenly she gave one of her little smiles. It reminded Theo of Jenna, back at the Folk Museum. It was predatory; there was no other word to describe it. And Lori was pretty much pickled. She only ever smiled like that when she was two drinks away from passing out. A prickle of unease ran up his spine. He knew, now, he had parental rights — but did that give him the right to walk in there and get his daughter? He didn’t know.