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The old lady took a staggered breath as if struggling to breathe beneath a great weight that lay upon her chest. ‘I can’t say this to anyone else, but I can say it to you, because you don’t know me and I can tell from your eyes that you’re a good person.

’ She blinked a few times and lowered her voice to a whisper.

‘I’ve been selfish. I didn’t realise how selfish, until I lost my great-grandson.

Then I woke up. It was as if I had been hit between the eyes by a light.

It was revelatory, actually. Biblical. Sounds silly, but I cried for the first time in eighty years.

’ Her voice softened and the lines on her brow deepened.

Her shiny blue eyes lost their focus and hovered somewhere about the surface of the table.

‘I watched him die, you see, and I cried.’ She put a hand against her heart.

‘I felt , and I hurt . And I realised then that I had never truly felt or hurt before. And then I thought of all the people in my life that I had hurt. People who had loved me.’ She looked steadily at Pixie.

‘My great-grandson was the first person I had ever really loved, and he was taken from me. The moment I learnt to love, I lost it. That’s not fair, is it? ’

‘If your great-grandson hadn’t died, you might never have learnt that lesson. Maybe part of his plan was to leave the world early to teach people like you something important about themselves. We all have our purpose, Mrs Aldershoff.’

The elderly woman looked at Pixie and her eyes took on a feverish sheen.

‘I need to find that diamond,’ she said.

‘There was a time when my family was one of the richest in America, but we’re not rich any more.

I took it all for granted and lived a grand life, but I was never happy.

I know that now. I thought I was happy, but I was always dissatisfied.

I knew something was missing, I just didn’t know what it was.

Joshua, that was his name, my great-grandson.

He made me realise a terrible truth – that I didn’t really love my own daughter or my granddaughter.

Not properly. Not in the way mothers and grandmothers are meant to love.

Selflessly.’ She smiled sadly. ‘Isn’t that a terrible thing to confess? ’

‘It’s honest,’ Pixie replied.

‘It’s a terrible thing to realise. I’d rather not have worked it out, but it’s been tormenting me ever since. I never had time for them. I only ever made time for myself.’

‘As a child, did you feel loved?’

She waved the question away. ‘Oh, I was very self-sufficient. I didn’t need to feel loved.’

‘Yes, you did. We all need to feel loved, Mrs Aldershoff. How else do you learn how to love if you’re not shown by your parents?

’ A lump lodged itself in Pixie’s throat.

It was unexpected and she swallowed hard.

This wasn’t about her. But at the mention of not being loved by one’s parents, Pixie couldn’t help but think of herself.

Mrs Aldershoff shrugged. ‘My parents were too busy with their own lives.’

‘As were you.’

‘It’s true. I was.’

‘You simply repeated your parents’ example. You might have gone through your whole life just repeating that familiar pattern, but you’ve gone beyond it. That’s commendable. That’s probably what you came here to learn.’

‘Better late than never, I suppose.’ Mrs Aldershoff chortled bitterly. ‘Well, now I want to put things right. I haven’t got much time left. My life is nearly over. Goodness, I’m almost a hundred. No one should live this long! I want to put things right before I go. I need to put things right.’

‘I would say that the fact that you desire to do so is in itself putting things right.’

‘It’s not enough. I must find the diamond and then I can leave a legacy that’s worth something. Will you try to find out where it is, Pixie? While you’re sending Lester on his way, will you try to speak to my father and ask him? You people can do that, can’t you?’

‘I’ll try,’ said Pixie. ‘But the dead aren’t often forthcoming about material things. Where they dwell, material things have no value.’

‘Take the board with you,’ said Mrs Aldershoff, tapping it with her long nails, fired suddenly with enthusiasm.

‘I have a feeling that Lester is somehow connected to it. You see, a couple of nights ago, I took it out. I wasn’t going to use it again.

I was much too afraid to do that. But I took it out to look at it.

I had it on my lap when Lester came out of nowhere and sent it flying across the floor.

I know it was him. I got that cold feeling I got when we were in our seance.

Well, he gave me the fright of my life. Anyway, it got me thinking.

Lester came here only once, when he courted my sister.

There’s no reason for him to be connected to the house, but perhaps he’s connected to the board.

After all, it’s the board that gave him a doorway into our world, isn’t it, and then when I took it out again, he made it jump right off my knee.

Don’t you think it makes sense? She pushed the blue box towards Pixie.

‘Take it and see if you can speak to my father, Walter-Wyatt Aldershoff. You’d be doing an old lady a wonderful favour.

I’d be so grateful. I’ll die in peace. And you’ll solve a mystery that no one else has been able to solve. ’

Pixie put her hand on the box. Mrs Aldershoff had a point. The Ouija board did seem to be significant, and, if she needed to slide back to Lester’s time, the board might be just the object to link her to him. ‘I’ll do my best,’ she replied. She couldn’t promise more than that.

Pixie and Ulysses accompanied Mrs Aldershoff and Mrs Croft into the hall. ‘Are you going to make contact now?’ Mrs Aldershoff asked Pixie.

‘I’m going to give it a try.’

‘I hope you do a better job than that other medium Mr Stirling invited over.’

‘Oh, Mother,’ said Mrs Croft. ‘The poor man did his best.’

‘His best wasn’t good enough, Leona,’ retorted Mrs Aldershoff. She turned to Pixie. ‘You remember what I told you?’

‘Of course.’ Pixie quickly reassured her.

‘Mr Stirling can call me when you’re through.’

Mrs Croft put her hand beneath her mother’s elbow as they set off towards the front door.

Pixie saw Mrs Aldershoff pull it away and heard her strident voice, now back to its usual timbre.

‘I don’t need help, Leona. I’m not dead yet.

’ Indeed, the hope that Pixie might find the whereabouts of the Potemkin Diamond seemed to be giving her something to live for.

Pixie took the Ouija board and the white envelope that contained the photograph of Lester and Esme into the Walter-Wyatt drawing room and settled into one of the sturdy upholstered chairs.

Ulysses locked the door behind them and then placed one of the chairs in front of it just to be safe; he wasn’t going to take any chances after the last time, when Pixie was wrenched out of her trance by a naughty child.

Pixie having a seizure on the floor was not something he wanted to see again.

‘Did that box belong to Lester Ravenglass?’ he asked, watching her place it on her knee and spread her fingers over the lid.

‘Not exactly, but he’s definitely trying to use it to communicate with us.

With luck, this photograph of Lester,’ she waved the envelope in the air, ‘and the Ouija board will be enough to link me to him. Together with my intention, the law of attraction should send me back to his time to find out why he doesn’t want to move on. ’

‘And if it doesn’t?’

She shrugged. ‘I’ll come back and try again.’ She pulled a nervous face.

‘Are you ready for this, Pix?’ he asked,

‘As ready as I’ll ever be,’ she replied and gave him a wan smile.

When it came to timesliding, it was impossible to know what would happen in the past, just as it was impossible to predict what would happen in the future.

She couldn’t even predict who she would be.

It all depended on the law of attraction, her intention and the object she held in her hands.

At least she knew Cavill wouldn’t be there this time to distract her from her purpose.

She was certainly not going to lose her heart in the search for Lester Ravenglass.

‘I’ll be right here waiting for you, as always,’ Ulysses reassured her. ‘But if you could make it quick so we can head out to see the Rockefeller Center this afternoon, I’d be grateful.’

Pixie laughed and wriggled back into the chair. ‘Oh sure, I wouldn’t want to keep you from having fun!’

Ulysses put on his earphones and switched on his iPad. Pixie knew he’d be watching an Ingrid Bergman movie for the umpteenth time. He checked his watch. ‘It’s ten to eleven,’ he said. ‘See you on the other side.’

Pixie nodded, then closed her eyes and took three conscious breaths. She imagined a silver cord extending from her solar plexus, the place just beneath her ribcage, and wrapping around the Ouija board and the white envelope, connecting her to them.

She focused her mind on the photo of Lester Ravenglass, with his faraway expression and tousled hair, and put out the desire to slide back into the past to uncover what it was that kept him stuck in the Aldershoffs’ mansion, unable to move into the light.

She felt the familiar heaviness wash over her limbs and the quiet thrumming in her ears.

But just as she floated gently out of her body and slipped through the veil of time, it wasn’t Lester’s face that was held in her mind, but Cavill’s.

She saw his twinkling blue eyes and the affection in them.

She saw his mouth that always looked as if it was about to break into a smile.

And she felt her heart expand with love and ache with a deep and searing longing.

Cavill.