Page 61 of Mirrors of the Past

Chapter Twenty-Three

Present

‘What on earth are you screaming for? It’s only me!’ Ryan was standing at the end of the ballroom. ‘I’m not going to hurt you!’ Tegan stared at him — Ryan was the person who had invaded the ballroom, startling her in the process.

She found her voice. ‘Just don’t — creep up on people like that!’ Her heart still thumped like mad. ‘And we are closed!’

‘How did I creep up on you?’ His voice matched hers for snappiness. ‘I’m way up here. You’re way down there. Coren told Sybill you were still here, so I came to find you!’ Ryan was glaring at her and Tegan felt the truce they’d sort of agreed on wobbling. She took a deep breath. She was getting tired of this, tired of the shouting and the grouching. And there were, actually, worse things to be dealing with than Ryan. Things like the Pencradoc ghosts.

The only thing was, his entrance had forced her to turn away from the charcoal sketch of Viola, and she could see that the ballroom was exactly as it always was. Light, bright and elegant, lined with beautiful watercolours and little oil paintings produced by the Teague family at the height of their occupancy here.

‘Okay. I’m sorry. You did startle me, though.’

‘Okay.’ He walked towards her, carrying what looked like a hatbox. ‘I guess I’m sorry too — for startling you. I came up with Sybill in the van after work so I could drop this stuff off for the Halloween trail. She was heading here anyway for the weekend and I kind of suggested I drive us so I could get this done.’ He raised the hatbox slightly as if to show her. ‘Coren’s apparently taking her back home Sunday evening. Like I said, he thought you might be in here so I headed along to see you.’

‘It’s fine. And thank you. I was in here looking for this.’ She gestured to the sketch. ‘Truth be told, I’m kind of pleased you’re human company.’ She could have bitten her tongue off as soon as she’d said it. How stupid did that make her sound — especially when she saw Ryan’s expression change from his habitual scowl to one of surprise and disbelief.

‘You expecting non-human company?’ he asked.

Oh, sod it. She had to tell someone and he was as good as anyone, she supposed, and, actually, she was still quite relieved it was him and not a see-through person instead.

‘Think I had it.’ She closed her eyes briefly in embarrassment. She opened her eyes again and looked straight at him. ‘Non-human company, that is. Downstairs. And in here.’ She shivered. ‘Just — voices, And the sense that someone’s with me. You know?’ She looked across at the sketch. ‘I came to look for that and it’s creeped me out. It’s Viola. Elsie’s bridesmaid.’ She stared at it for a moment longer. ‘It’s creeped me out, because she kind of looks like me, I guess. Same hair, same smile. It’s just a bit weird.’

Ryan came closer to her and looked at it. ‘Ah,’ he said after a moment, in an odd little flat voice. ‘So it is. She does look a lot like you. Um. Do you want to see what I have here? I have another photo of her. But it might creep you out more. In fact, I was pretty creeped out myself when I saw a couple of the pictures I found.’

‘Oh, God. Okay then.’ Tegan was slightly scared of what she’d see and she didn’t know if the ballroom was the best place to look. But the whole house could potentially be swarming with ghosts, so there was probably no “good” place to go to. ‘Come on then. Let me see what you found.’

‘I found a load of Halloween artefacts, bits of costumes and the like.’ He put the box down and opened it. ‘See? Cat ears and things. Witchy gear. And, believe it or not, a dog’s ghost costume. I can prove that’s what it is, because I have evidence. And the evidence is in this photo album.’ He took a black, ornately embossed book out of the box and Tegan saw he had it bookmarked with a card or something at one of the pages. ‘It’s family photos, from a party. The 1911 one we had the invite for. I can maybe guess at some of the characters involved, but it’ll take more of an expert than me to name them all.’

‘Wow.’ Tegan leaned over as Ryan turned the pages carefully. ‘I recognise these people. They were in the wedding photo.’

‘Perfect,’ he said. ‘But the most interesting page I thought — for us, anyway—’ Tegan noticed he didn’t look at her when he said that, and his voice was oddly guarded — ‘is this one.’ He slipped the bookmark out and presented the open album to Tegan.

On one side of the page was a girl dressed as a vampiress and on the other was a young man who looked angry and annoyed at something, but enormously sexy in billowing white shirt sleeves and a waistcoat, both of which were artfully distressed, or perhaps just tatty. Tegan didn’t know which it was.

Again, she had that weird feeling that she could remember the photograph being taken . . .

‘Stand still, Viola. You have to hold the pose for a few seconds so we can get it right. You can smile if you want, but you don’t have to.’

‘Can I just look kind of spooky and scary?’

‘If you want to.’

‘Wunnerful. I’ll do that then . . .’

Then, later on, she was aware of a banging pain in the side of her head and the most excruciating embarrassment she had ever felt in her entire life.

From above her, she heard Elsie say to him, ‘Actually, on that note, vile sibling, I invite you to have your photograph taken for posterity.’

‘I don’t think—’

‘Hush, hush, hush. Marigold is too small to remember much about this, so the photographs are for her. Please tell me you won’t let your niece down, Laurie.’

‘Blackmailer . . .’

The present day swooped back in on Tegan, along with one, resounding word in her heart, in her mind, on her lips. ‘Laurie!’

‘Yes. Elsie’s brother.’ Ryan’s voice brought her fully back to her own world. ‘This is him in 1914.’ He handed her the card he’d been using as a bookmark. She took it, her hands shaking. It was a photograph of a young man, who looked very much like Ryan, practically smiling as he posed in his army uniform.