Page 44 of The Book of Lost Stories

‘The elder daughter, Vicky, married an archaeologist and worked alongside him. They had one daughter, but that line is now extinct.’

‘I suppose they were a Yorkshire family,’ I said, thinking about it. ‘And yours is too, so it’s not quite such a massive coincidence.’

‘Coincidences happen – and history can repeat itself,’ he said. ‘You know, while I was reading the journal and then your novel, it struck me that we’re just like Alys and Rayven – we fight like cat and dog most of the time, but we enjoy our verbal sparring matches!’

‘I suppose so, except that in our case we’re just friends – best friends,’ I said uncertainly, because there was something in his eyes as he looked at me that I’d never seen before …

Once again, I felt that strange, swooping sensation in the pit of my stomach that I’d had when he arrived.

He moved a little closer. ‘Cleo …’ he began, then stopped and ran a distracted hand through his hair. ‘Goodness, this is difficult!’

‘What is?’ I asked, puzzled.

He took a deep breath and said, ‘Cleo, you’re the reason Marcy and I broke up.

She said that since I FaceTimed you more than I talked to her, I was obviously with the wrong woman and should be with you – and I suddenly realized she was right and it was you I loved …

only I had no idea how to make you see that, too.

I was afraid of losing you altogether, but now I’ve burned my boats and told you I’m in love with you, haven’t I? ’

For one moment I thought he was joking – he had a mischievous sense of humour – but then I saw the strangely intent and serious look in his eyes and knew he meant it – and in that moment the old, familiar Tris and the new exciting stranger coalesced into one and I exclaimed, with astonished realization, ‘I’m in love with you, too! ’

‘Well, thank goodness for that,’ he said, and pulled me into his arms. After that, we didn’t say anything at all for a considerable time.

*

‘Unks is going to be so surprised when we tell him we’re going to get married!’ I said, when we finally resurfaced.

‘No, he won’t, because he asked me last night when I was going to make an honest woman of you.’

‘Really? I can’t believe he realized we loved each other before I did! He never seems to notice much beyond the covers of a book.’

‘I think the way we rushed into each other’s arms in the shop when I arrived might have been a bit of a giveaway,’ he said gravely, but his grey eyes danced with the old mischief. ‘How long does it take to get married?’

‘A couple of weeks, I think, unless you have a special licence.’

‘I’ll check it out online – I think we’ve wasted enough time.’

‘OK,’ I said, ‘but you realize I’m only marrying you because I want to connect myself to Alys, don’t you?’

‘You know, Cleo, you are so much like Alys that I think I’ll have to ask Dad to trace your family tree too,’ he said.

‘You mean, I might not have to marry you, after all?’

‘No, you can’t get out of it now,’ he said, and we had another long interval before we spoke again.

‘We can have our honeymoon at Priory Chase,’ he suggested. ‘It passed out of the family a long time ago, of course, but it’s a country house hotel now.’

‘I’d like that,’ I agreed. ‘I wonder if they’d let us have a look at those cellars Alys loved.’

‘I expect so. The furthest bit is under the ruins and those are a big draw for tourists staying there.’

‘We need to go before the end of the university vacation, so Tom is here to help Unks,’ I pointed out. ‘He’s already had to fill in for me while I was writing the novel, but he’s really glad of the extra money.’

‘It should all fit in very well, because it so happens that I need to be at Priory Chase on one particular evening early next month anyway, so I can kill two birds with one stone.’

‘What on earth do you mean?’ I demanded. ‘Why do you have to be there?’

‘It’s an annual meeting and I’m taking Dad’s place.

He says he’s too old now to keep jetting over every year for it,’ he said evasively.

‘The house may have passed out of the family, but there is a clause in the deeds that any owner has to allow a certain small group of people to meet there, in the furthest part of the cellars, the old crypt under the ruins.’

I gazed at him. ‘You don’t … you can’t possibly mean that that weird secret society, the Order Alys wrote about – not the Hellfire Club one but the other, that sounds like a weird Masonic thing, all funny handshakes, leather aprons and stuff – is still going on?’

‘There aren’t any leather aprons or funny handshakes,’ he said patiently. ‘It’s just a few descendants of some old families meeting together, that’s all. There are only six of them now, since I embody two family lines in one gorgeous person.’

‘ So, what’s it all about?’ I asked curiously.

‘Dad swore me to secrecy,’ he said virtuously. ‘But it’s not exactly Dan Brown exciting or anything, so you won’t be missing out on any great revelations.’

‘Not the Holy Grail, or a bit of the True Cross or the Ark?’ I asked, but he just smiled at me, infuriatingly. I could only hope he talked about it in his sleep.

‘We can have a working honeymoon the rest of the time,’ he suggested. ‘You can tidy up your novel, ready for submission and I’ll turn it into a script for a TV series. It’s episodic, so it will lend itself to that really well.’

‘Sounds good to me,’ I agreed. ‘And maybe the place will inspire some ideas for another novel, because I think Regency Gothic might be my genre.’

‘Great – I’ll be marrying a bestselling novelist.’

‘You know,’ I said, snuggling up to his shoulder, ‘my finding Alys’s diary and telling the world she was the author of the Orlando Browne books, and then our marriage, linking me to the family, seems to pull all the threads of history together in a strange way.’

‘Yes, like fitting the last pieces into a very difficult jigsaw,’ he agreed.

‘A double-sided one – and we’re about to start fitting the pieces into the new picture!’

‘You always have to have the last word,’ he said, and kissed me.