

A Spell Broken

A Seven Spell Story

T Stokes

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This is not a new story. It is re-edited, re-written, revised, and re-formatted for all new kindles, and all e-readers. There is a new cover on this edition. Formerly published as, 'The Spell Breaker' book two of the Seven Spell saga.

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Copyright 2013 T Stokes all rights are reserved worldwide

The moral right of the author has been asserted

All characters and events in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictitious and any resemblance to actual people living or dead is purely coincidental.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return toSmashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

All rights are reserved worldwide.

ISBN 978-1-908210-87-6

Cover designed and produced by T Stokes copyright 2013

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A Spell Broken

Chapter One

'Hello Oliver, we used to know you in a past life. You had my cell phone whilst I was in another dimension, which turned out to be back in time, 1190 in fact and... er, we've changed your life, sorry dude'.

"Chloe, Oliver is out there somewhere, we'll find him I feel sure of it."

I sighed. "I hope so, Tristan. I hope he's living a good life out there somewhere, and that he didn't just cease to exist."

Tristan turned my face to his. I had been staring at my clasped hands in dismay, thinking about Oliver again.

"I feel he's out there, don't you? Think hard, doesn't the feeling come over you that he is out there?"

I smiled a little at Tristan's speech, but I felt despair.

Then Tristan kissed me, and looked at me with such a look of hope, I searched my heart. Was Oliver out there somewhere? If I believed it, would it make it come true?

I rested my forehead against Tristan's, concentrated hard, and waited. The despair I'd felt before came again, and then I felt it, the conviction that Oliver was out there somewhere.

I leaned back from Tristan, and said, "Yes, let's believe that. Let's try to find him. You know he had my cell phone. Tristan, let's ring it, oh you have no phone, let's use the landline."

Tristan was smiling, and he let out a sigh of relief at my sudden lift in spirits.

"Okay, let's do it, but if I remember correctly you don't know your own number."

I smiled regretfully at him. He was teasing, still trying to cheer me, but he was referring to when I had been down at the waterfall right at the beginning of our relationship. It had been when I was there to photograph him, as he appeared when the magical waterfall water showed him as an aristocratic, Norman knight.

"I wrote it down, but I know it now anyway" and I gave him a hug, because he was trying so hard to help me.

We went downstairs to the telephone that was in the middle drawing room. I heard my brother Steven and his friend John in the kitchen as we were about to pass it, and suddenly thought to use Steven's cell phone instead of the landline.

We went into the kitchen, and I asked Steven if I could borrow his cell phone.

"Oh yeah, that's right you had yours stolen or something," he said, as he threw me his phone. I told him we would only be a minute, and we went back into the hall to use the cell phone.

Of course, Steven had my cell number listed and I called it. I put his on speakerphone so Tristan could hear too. My phone rang and rang, with no answer. I looked at Tristan and shrugged.

"Well it was worth a try, and if Oliver does check the calls then the number will come up as Steven McGarry. He might call that back."

Tristan grimaced sympathetically and asked if we should leave a message, but we decided against it as what would we say.

'Hello Oliver, we used to know you in a past life. You had my cell phone whilst I was in another dimension, which turned out to be back in time, 1190 in fact and...er, we've changed your life, sorry dude'.

Back in the kitchen, I gave Steven his phone back and Tristan made some more coffee. I wanted water. It was like a luxury after the unpleasant, almost waterless experience I had recently left behind in eleven-ninety. I thought about that, and it suddenly occurred to me that we should check out the Tarrant Estate. Maybe Oliver lived near to that now.

We went up to my room again, and Tristan began to drink his coffee, as usual, standing by the biggest window. I told him about my idea.

"We should go to the Tarrant estate, maybe he lives on it now, and it's not a ruin anymore. Who knows? It's as good a place as any to start looking for him."

Tristan nodded.

"I think that's a great idea. Let's try to go soon. I'll get the flowers Liz told me about ready for the florist tonight, and deliver them first thing. Do you think we could go tomorrow? Is there anything to stop us?"

I couldn't think of anything.

He hugged me close saying, "This time we can use your Wrangler instead of horses, unless you'd prefer a horse again?"

I smiled at this, and shaking my head, I replied, "My Wrangler thanks."

We agreed Tristan would come over about nine in the morning for an immediate departure to the Tarrant estates.

I went downstairs with him. Mom and dad were just coming in. They smiled and said hello. They went straight into the kitchen and I heard them saying hi to John and Steven, as I walked with Tristan to the car.

He kissed me, hugged me, and said it was strange to be leaving me instead of being together against the night, as we had been on our adventure in the past. He left to do his work.

I went inside and talked with dad and mom for a while. I told them I really wanted to go shopping the next day for a new cell phone and a few clothes. I added that it didn't look like my stuff was going to turn up any time soon. I had to continue to lie a little about the art workshops and Cornwall, where they thought I had been. I didn't like it, but it was to keep them from worrying. I expected dad to mention Oliver but he didn't. He didn't mention Laura working for him either. I excused myself, and went up to bed.

I folded the jeans Liz had lent me and put the T-shirt and underwear to launder. I took a shower and as I was standing there in the water, I thought about how I was now immortal like Tristan.

I finally understood how Oliver had felt when he realized it had happened to him. You don't know for sure you are immortal. You know you are healed, and there is no sign of the wounds Tristan healed, but you don't really know if you are fully like him.

I realized I had grown a little, not too much, but the same as Oliver had said about his experience, maybe a couple of centimeters. I could see better, and having looked out of my bedroom window with Tristan I knew I could see further than before. I felt good physically, but mentally I was a mess. I got out of the shower and dried my hair. All the time I was thinking of Oliver and even lying in my bed, thankful to be home in my own time, I couldn't help thinking of Oliver repeatedly.

Chapter Two

Sometime in the early hours of the morning, I would have finally fallen asleep. I woke up to the sun shining through my window realizing it was quite late. Looking at my computer to see what the time was, I found I only had a half hour before Tristan would arrive.

I showered and dressed as quickly as I could, aware of the empty space in my heart where I grieved for Oliver. I used Liz's jeans again. I found a T-shirt and a thin shirt to go over it. I slipped on my shoes, and picked up things I would need. I tried ringing my cell phone again from the landline downstairs. No answer, but it was ringing, so it still existed.

Tristan was exactly on time, he parked the truck he was driving next to mom's Cherokee, and we left in my Wrangler. I had put water and fruit on the back seat and it reminded me of the journey to the Tarrant estate in eleven-ninety, only this time I was not riding my horse, Meadow.

I knew the way from when we had been there with Oliver, and was soon on the motorway crossing the next county. I felt as if we were flying along.

Tristan was telling me about the abbey stained glass restoration, and that it looked as if nothing had happened, no burn marks at all. He said that the museum and shop re-modeling was well on the way to being finished and that in reality the fire had not done that much damage. It was remarkable too that Jack was so well after his heart attack. It felt as if all things were beginning to return to normal at the Dearing place.

I knew Tristan was trying to fill the space that was between us as I drove almost silently to the Tarrant estate. I don't know why I couldn't really talk. I just knew I wanted to get there and see if anything could lead me to Oliver.

Tristan finally asked me, "Chloe, should I just shut up? You're so quiet..."

I laughed a little at him.

"I'm sorry. I'm on edge waiting to find out what the Tarrant estate looks like now and if it could lead us to Oliver. It's not you at all Tristan, thanks for trying to cheer me."

"I feel the same way and that's why I was prattling on." Tristan said with a smile.

We fell into an easier silence, and just before the Tarrant estate, we stopped at a village and had tea.

It was weird because we both wanted to get there, but we were also somehow afraid. I felt Tristan felt the same as me. A pensive atmosphere surrounded both of us.

When we reached the estate, it was obvious from the outset that things had changed. I was astounded that something as tangible as a historic site could have been changed by what we did in the past. It hadn't seemed that we'd done that much.

We parked in the car park and walked towards the entrance. There was a shop and ticket office as an entrance. We went through, and to the right was a museum that had not been there on the first visit. The most astounding thing was that the ruins were so much more intact. A whole wing of the castle was standing. It had only a partial roof, and no real insides like plastered walls or stairs left, but it had ruined walls and chambers that had not been there. Other walls and half buildings were on the site nearby, and the church was half standing. The tombs were intact in the castle crypt area, and the stone undercroft was totally intact.

Tristan hadn't said a word. We had a guidebook and I read that an adjoining estate held by the same family had a church ruin and much of the fortified manor house built by Richard Tarrant in the early twelve hundreds was still standing. His tomb and that of his second wife and immediate descendants could still be viewed in the church. It talked about the estates surviving the Dissolution. The nearby abbey hadn't survived, and was almost razed to the ground. The guidebook stated that the castle had been slighted in the civil war beyond recognition, but that the manor house had been spared. The family still lived on the estate in a new manor house built in the Elizabethan era, and the Falconry there was established in the early twelve hundreds. It was still run by descendants of the original Tarrants.

I read it all aloud to Tristan who had stopped and was standing still, his hands in his pockets. He looked down at the lawn where we were standing thoughtfully.

I took his hand and we went into the castle crypt where I expected to see Eleanor's tomb, and it was there. Only a few feet away was the tomb of Sir Edmund Dearing, and by his side the tomb of Sir Wesley Tarrant. This astounded me. 'How come Wesley Tarrant was there now', I thought glancing at Tristan? Eleanor's effigy was in better condition than before. Edmund's tomb nearby was the same and instead of Richard's tomb, all busted up there was Wesley's.

Tristan held on tight to my hand.

"Chloe, the inscriptions are the same. Does the guidebook say anything about Eleanor's lost love?"

I couldn't find anything.

"I think the historians are probably leaving that out because there are two men by the side of Eleanor, and two crests on her tomb. It might seem weird to everyone."

We walked over the lawns to the church where Richard's tomb was to be found.

The church though partially ruined was lovely. The rose window high up in an intact wall was beautiful. There were some tiles still in situ, protected now by a small fence. The tombs were of Richard and Matilda, Eustace and William, and they were beautifully carved and preserved. Fences were around them now to protect them from the tourists. We could still see them well and Tristan was intent upon reading the inscriptions.

Matilda was Richard's second wife and the two other tombs seemed to be his children who had survived to adulthood. There were also a couple of empty tombs, and stones laid in the floor of the church, which clearly marked deaths. They had variants of the Tarrant griffins on them as well as other carvings. I looked at Tristan and his face was unreadable. I asked him what the inscription on Richard's tomb said because it didn't just say 'Richard' as before.

Tristan told me the Latin words said, 'Here at rest a traveler who never stayed at an inn'.

I looked at him kindly. This was a message from Richard to Tristan, and it must have been an emotional thing to read.

I put my arm around his waist and then I said, "Tristan, you made a good difference to Richard. Eleanor's house didn't fall into disrepair so soon, and Richard had his own place alongside her. What you did gave him a better life."

I had noticed the date of Richard's death and it was not twelve hundred as before but twelve-twelve. Tristan had not replied and I said, "Tristan you gave him an extra twelve years of life. He had another wife after Rosalind, and other sons. It can't be a bad thing can it?"

Tristan sighed and hugged me.

"Yes he had another twelve years to be with his family just as I'd asked him to. The fact that nothing seems to have changed for the Dearings means that he never did come back to me and it would have been as if he was dead for me. Everything would have happened just as before, but someone has been hurt instead of me again."

I knew he was talking about Oliver. I stopped and put my arms around him.

"Tristan, don't fall into despair. You just convinced me we would find Oliver. I'll stop believing if you do."

"Sorry Chloe, I just feel so responsible. It seems someone has to suffer instead of me. If it wasn't Richard, then it's Oliver. It just doesn't seem right."

I hugged him tighter.

"Some things are just going to happen I guess. Let's keep looking around. I wonder what happened to Rosalind, Richard's first wife?"

We walked around a little and then went into the museum. That was a revelation because some surviving pieces of the abbey were arranged on a sort of gallery as we entered. There were models of how the castles, abbey and manor house with its church would have looked. A couple of archaeological finds were displayed, a long sword and a piece of Richard's shield. Tristan caught his breath at the sight of the piece of shield.

"That's from his jousting days. There's not much of it left and it's lost some color, but what a sight, Chloe." He sounded wistful. I looked closely at it. Had I seen it in Richard's chambers by his table in eleven-ninety? Maybe I thought.

We moved on to the second glass display case and this time Tristan was stopped in his tracks. Two whole pages of writing were preserved. I hadn't a clue what it said, but Tristan knew.

He ran his hand through his hair a couple of times. He turned away from the case and then back to it, he shook his head, and then he finally smiled.

"What, what is it?" I asked him.

"Richard wrote down information about the last part of his life. It could have been a diary. It says when Rosalind died, he took his children and came back to live with his stepbrothers at the Tarrant estate. He had his own inheritance and established a Falconry there. He made peace with the Tarrant name and finally was known as Richard Tarrant. He had the fortified mansion built and the church.

There is more, but it's the last part of that introductory paragraph that is touching, he says his only loss in life was his friend the knight who was a brother and loved companion.

Chloe, Oliver was before and still is a descendant of these guys, he's out there somewhere I just know it." Tristan sounded excited.

I was relieved to find his faith restored. I smiled at his happiness in finding that Richard had named him as a loss and as a brother. It was a relief too that he firmly believed Oliver would be found.

He put his arm back around my shoulders and we went around the corner to a tapestry held in a glass case. It was labeled by the museum as 'Stitched by Eleanor Tarrant', and I have to say it shocked me, so I don't know what Tristan might have felt when he saw it. I didn't even ask, I just gasped and he looked at me and then we both looked at the tapestry.

It was so similar to the painting Laura had done of the first pane of the new stained glass window in the little church that either one could have copied the other. As I looked at it, I recalled something one of the group of archaeologists had said to me about Laura's painting reminding him of something. This must have been it, talk about coincidences. How weird was this, because did this exist before Tristan and I changed history, or what?

I looked closely to see the differences. The knight was side on, not facing the waterfall, and there was not as much vegetation represented. The knight was by the side of his horse not on it. The waterfall had fish falling within it.

Tristan didn't comment at all, and so I ended up asking if he thought it was significant in any way he sighed and said, "As much as we could read something into it, I think it must be coincidence. It's interesting certainly. Maybe she did this after a visit to the Dearing place with my father as a sort of remembrance piece. Maybe it would have been destroyed in the other past when our Oliver was around and only survives now. It's creepy actually now I come to think of it."

I almost giggled at this. It was not like Tristan to call anything creepy.

We left the museum after seeing a display about falconry and information that told us the Tarrants still had a raptor conservation and falconry establishment nearby.

We went into the café that was adjacent to the shop and ticket office. Tristan got us some sandwiches and drinks, and I went into the shop for postcards and things, because I love that stuff. I got postcards of everything, all the ruins, tombs, and museum exhibits and best of all I got the map and information to get to the present day Tarrant falconry establishment.

I showed Tristan this when I sat down at the table he had found for us in the courtyard. We decided that would be the next place to go as we ate our food. I felt better than I had done all day. This could be where Oliver was.

The sun was very warm as we walked to the Wrangler and Tristan drove whilst I read out the directions to get to the present day Tarrant's place.

It was not far, maybe only a couple of miles down a track near the old manor house. The Elizabethan manor house was big and had obviously had outbuildings added in more recent times. Also to one side and a way off, there was a new building, which seemed to be an office, but also it looked as if there were some accommodations there too. We walked towards the office structure after parking a little distance away in the car park. As we passed the gap between a series of outbuildings and the old house, we could see down into the land beyond. It was lovely rolling greenery with a couple of stands of trees, and it looked like a small river wound across the closest field. Inside the modern office it was clear this was a very professional place, conservation information was displayed everywhere.

The Tarrants had been royal falconers and still held training with captive birds as a sport. There were huge photographs of the birds and people holding them around the walls.

A young man at the desk looked up and asked, "Hello how can I help you? Do you have a booking?"

Tristan smiled answering, "We don't sorry we're actually looking for Oliver Tarrant."

The young man looked puzzled.

"Sorry I don't know Oliver Tarrant. I suppose he could be a cousin. We have some in Dorset. If you will wait, I'll ask my grandfather to come down and see you."

He showed us to a group of chairs at a small table and went back to his desk. I watched him telephone someone, maybe his grandfather, and I took Tristan's hand in mine on the table.

Tristan was alternately looking around and then down at the table in nervous anticipation, when an older man in a business suit came from a door behind the desk area and approached us. He smiled as he reached us and holding out his hand introduced himself as Robert Tarrant, we told him our names and as he sat down opposite us.

I said, "We are looking for a friend. We've lost touch with him, Oliver Tarrant is his name and we thought this would be a good place to start looking for him. We've been away and he seems to have moved."

The older man looked puzzled for a while and then said, "You know I think you might be referring to someone in the branch of the family who has lived in Dorset for many years now. Some of the Tarrants moved there many years ago. They have a big horse stud down there and breed ponies. I don't remember an Oliver.

Then there's the branch that moved over to Oxfordshire in the early fifties. I haven't seen any of them in about ten years. I can't think of an Oliver, but it could be someone in the Oxford family."

Tristan nodded. "Thank you for telling us, if this is prying please forgive me, but why did they go to Oxford?"

Robert Tarrant smiled and then replied, "No I don't mind saying. They were academics that side of the family. One was an Oxford don in the fifties and then someone had a law firm. We're rural types and we just lost touch in the last ten years after Jerome died. He was the one who used to get us all together for reunions and such."

We stood up and shook hands thanking him again. He gave us a look then as if he was about to question our motives, but I think he decided we were sincere, and he just cordially showed us out of the office.

When we were back in the Wrangler, I turned to Tristan.

"You know I think the Oxford Tarrants may be the people to look amongst. After all that's not so far away from where Oliver was living in his life that we knew, maybe the other life pathway only deviated slightly."

I was hopeful and Tristan nodded his agreement. I leaned over and kissed his cheek and he caught hold of me and kissed me for longer. He smiled at me as we drew apart. He was happier than I had seen him all day.

"I feel as if we are getting closer to Oliver, do you? I just want the grief to lessen for you Chloe."

It was so sincere that I put my arms up around his neck and kissed him again. That he felt wretched too said something about his lovely character. Some guys would have been only too pleased the rival for the girl they loved had vanished.

Chapter Three

I drove us halfway home and then I told Tristan I needed and wanted to do some shopping, so we stopped at a big shopping mall on the outskirts of a city we usually passed on our journey.

It was a novel experience shopping with Tristan. He kept wandering around looking at things and wanting things. He was great to shop with really, because he was never bored and wanting to leave the shop. I wanted a sweater and ended up with two thin ones because it was out of season to get anything thicker. I did buy a nice checked shirt and waited for Tristan who was buying jeans. The last person I was with who bought jeans was Oliver and I felt suddenly sad.

I was thinking about a cell phone when Tristan joined me and we went into a shop that only sold phones. I got a phone that was relatively inexpensive and would be fine until I got my old one back, if I ever did.

We picked up coffee and juice, and went on our way.

Tristan was thoughtful. He had taken a turn driving, and I thought maybe he was just concentrating but he suddenly said, "Let's check out the internet for Oliver or someone who could be him. We might be able to check out all the Tarrants in Oxfordshire with the amount of directories and stuff published on the net."

I agreed with him and didn't tell him, but that was what I had planned to do that night as soon as we had left the Falconry. I said we could do that this evening unless he had other plans, but he smiled and glanced at me saying, "None at all, Chloe. I'm making it my priority to locate Oliver."

I took a drink of my juice and thinking ahead to the internet search I checked with Tristan, "Tristan do you think he would still be called Oliver? I mean he could be called anything. Similarly, he may even have been born at a different time, well you know ten or so years ago. I just keep wanting the old Oliver back, but he could be five years old and called Freddie."

Tristan laughed at this even though I didn't find it funny at all, but then he stopped laughing and answered me.

"I understand what you mean, but I don't think so. I think we are looking for the same aged person at least. He may not look like our Oliver, or even be called Oliver, but I think the age will be the same. I think if he was going to be a different age, something would have happened to me too that would mean I am in a different place. Something would be different I'm sure of it."

"How, how can you be sure" I said, fascinated.

Tristan smiled again answering, "I don't know if you will believe me, and I wouldn't ordinarily tell anyone, but I've come across things like this before. I've actually seen some things and heard some things that no one would think possible. That's why I didn't really think the magic stuff was out of left field."

It always amused me when Tristan used sayings like 'left field' or 'you guys'. I smiled but asked him, "Like what for instance?"

"I'll tell you just one example and then no more unless really necessary. I was fighting in a battle, you don't need to know where, only that it was in the fourteen hundreds. I had known this man for the whole year and we were together as usual on the battlefield. He was struck down and I ran to check him out. Another knight was fighting behind me, kind of guarding my back as I checked our fellow knight. It looked like he was dead, but suddenly he opened his eyes. He asked where he was. I kept calling him Henry because that was his name and he said why are you calling me Henry, my name is Alfred, where's the cathedral. I dragged him away from the battle, and in a thicket of trees, he sat up and told me he had just fallen from the walls of a cathedral where he was setting in place a carving. He had hit the tiles below and knew he lay on his back with his arms out to each side. He had opened his eyes and he was here in the battle on his back with his arms out to each side.

He was not Henry and he was from a future time. He knew the knight's clothes I was wearing he said, but they had been gone for five hundred years and he began to panic. He was screaming my name is Alf repeatedly and then he fell backwards again. He lay there on his back with his arms out in the ferns and bits of the trees in the thicket. I thought he was dead, but as I stood up from looking into his face, he opened his eyes. 'Tristan', my companion knight said, 'I have just had the most amazing dream. Get me up. Where is Alaric, and why are we in the trees, has the battle finished?

Henry was back. He told me later that he had opened his eyes, and was lying flat on cold tiles and around him was a huge church, the walls were incredibly high, and carved pillars were around him. He could see other men dressed strangely looking down at him from wooden ladders and walkways, they were all shouting Alf, Alf, Alf.

He thought that this was another language. He had turned his head and seen a man running towards him, but as he caught a glimpse of a wonderful golden cross behind the man, he had woken up again in the thicket of trees."

I shook my head. "That's just incredible," I said.

"That's not all," Tristan commented, continuing "but seriously I don't need to go into other stories, let's just say I think Oliver will be the same age as when we lost him."

I didn't comment further and we had hit the rush hour traffic in the city near home so Tristan stopped chatting and we negotiated the absolute madness that was on the roads then.

As we hit the countryside once more and headed home, Tristan started to hum. I knew the tune. I pressed the button on my CD player, and it started up. We could hum along with the artist.

We were home and Tristan said he would go up to the Dearing place and check things out and would call me if I sent him a message from my new phone when it was charged. He kissed me and drove off in his car that had been parked in the drive all day.

Chapter Four

Inside the 'team' was sitting in the kitchen drinking coffee and talking animatedly. Let me tell you it would have been weird if they had not been in the house. It seemed as if this group of archaeologists had taken up permanent residence.

When they saw me, they all said hello. I asked them what the news was on the tunnel under the house, which brought me a huge amount of smiles, and Phil put down his coffee cup and told me about the latest find.

It was the box they had found built into the tunnel wall, and it had been successfully removed. The cavity had been wadded and the box had been found to have no back. It had yielded its treasure easily, a carved stone, which must have been from another relic box as it was a votive offering stone, which said thank you to a saint for gifts received. I listened to this and thought Tristan may like to know he's now a saint. I also thought he must have given up on or forgotten his plan to tell them how to open the box in the wall.

I said how exciting this all was and let them enthuse a little more, and then saying I needed to get some work done I excused myself and went up to my room.

The first thing I did was boot my laptop. I thought I would get a head start on looking for Oliver, and in the yellow pages, I put a search for Tarrant in Oxfordshire. I was rewarded with several, a lawyer, an advertising agency, a firm of estate agents, and a Web developer. I stared at the web developer for a while. It was not an 'O. Tarrant' and I thought this would be too easy anyway. I printed out my results. It was late to call businesses, and I had to be content to do any ringing around the next day. I tried the white pages and there were only two Tarrants in that search. I printed it out anyway. Maybe he wasn't in Oxfordshire. Maybe he was in Dorset.

I had put my new phone on charge and it was ready to send a message. I blue toothed my address book from my netbook to it and messaged Tristan.

He rang me about a minute later to say he was having a short meeting with Jack about the new buildings for the estate. He would call as soon as possible again.

It was dark and yet it was still warm. I saw the moon in the sky, which looked as if it had sailed from behind a cloud and back, but I knew it was really the clouds that were moving. It felt as if there could be a thunderstorm and I leaned out of my window thinking, 'Oliver where are you tell me.' I concentrated on that message for a couple of minutes hoping somehow he could sense it, which deep down I knew was silly, because this Oliver had no idea who I was.

I rang my old cell phone number and after a few rings with no answer, it went to the message bank. The phone was somewhere out there, and still working. How long before the battery ran out? I cursed. It had been an expensive phone and had a fair bit of standby time, plus I had just charged it, but it must be about to blink out by now.

I went downstairs and wandered over to the restaurant. The walk was minimal, although I knew mom wouldn't want me doing it in the dark on my own. I reached the lake paths full of fairy lights and lanterns, and the bushes decked with lights. I walked up to the low wall by the patio tables. Some were occupied, and I thought dad must have a full house inside.

I sat on the low wall and looked at the lake and the lights. The warm breeze moved my hair from my face. I felt a sadness so great I could hardly breathe for a moment. All I could think of was that I missed Oliver so much it was as if someone had torn out half my heart. I felt the tears splashing on my hands in my lap rather than knew I was crying. I had my head down and the tears just streamed down my face silently, dripping off my chin, some ran down my neck from the sides of my eyes.

I wished Oliver was there with me. I wished things were different and I suddenly remembered when I was telling Oliver I loved him, and he had asked as much as Tristan and for a moment it had felt as if I was going to say more.

I thought now, was it more, was this it, the time I realized which one was the one I really loved, and which one was a love, but not as strong. This made me angry with myself and I stopped the thoughts, after all, they could do no good. I got up from the low wall. It reminded me too much of sitting there with Oliver, and I started to walk down the path to go home.

I didn't hear my name being called, and only knew Clare had been trying to catch up with me when she took my arm and stopped me on the path before the group of Camellia bushes.

"Chloe, you look so sad. Is it Oliver? He hasn't shown up at work and no one has seen him for a few days. Did you two split up? Was it because you went down to Cornwall? How awful, first Tristan is thought drowned, now Oliver just clears off. I am so sorry." She put her arms around me.

I took the hug she gave me replying, "It is Oliver, yes. I miss him so much. I don't know where he is. You know Tristan is okay I guess?"

She let go of me looking at me kindly. "Yes I heard about that, weird stuff huh?"

I didn't want to talk any more about that, but a thought had occurred to me.

"Clare, at your engagement party someone was taking some photographs, could I ask you, was Oliver in any of them and if so may I have copies? I have nothing to remember him by and I would love a photo of him." I sort of croaked the last bit of the sentence out and swallowed so that I wouldn't cry.

She realized this and she answered quickly, "We have photographs and you are all in them. I'll email them to you. Let me have your email address."

I told her it was easy, my name with a dot in the middle at gmail.com and she nodded.

She went back up to the restaurant and I got home by promising myself I would approach every single Tarrant in the country until I had located Oliver. It was what I would do after that, for which I didn't have a plan.

At home, the house was quiet. There was a note on the hall table. 'Ben had rung looking for me. Oliver had ordered something at the Glazers, and in his absence, Ben thought I might like it. It was paid for by the way.' I stared at the note and looked around as if someone might be there to tell me what it was that Oliver had ordered.

Once in the kitchen, I made myself some tea, and I stood there looking out of the big windows at the yellow and white glow of all the garden lights with moths and other flying insects spinning around them.

I didn't hear from Tristan until midnight when a message came onto my new phone telling me he was sorry, Jack had gone on forever, that he loved me, and was outside the middle drawing room doors if I would like to see him. I smiled at that.

I looked in the mirror to see how bad all that crying had made me look. Well here was a benefit of the immortality blood I had received. I looked perfectly okay. No bulbous nose, no red eyes, and dark circles. I ran the brush through my hair and took my jacket with me.

I opened the doors to the garden as silently as possible and stepped out. The lights in this part of the patio were a sort of white rather than yellow, and Tristan looked pale as he stepped forward and put his arms around me.

We went inside as rain started to fall. Sitting looking at the rain falling in sheets onto the patio paving, I felt calmer. Water does that for me.

Tristan asked me had I had the chance to look for Oliver on the internet and I told him my findings. We agreed that it was no good expecting to be able to look for an Oliver Tarrant, that we would just look at each Tarrant in the hopes someone could tell us something of use. I told Tristan about the message from Ben and we both thought it was intriguing and could only be something glass. Tristan didn't want to leave, but said he must, and although I offered to drive him home because it was pouring with rain, and there was an occasional fork of lightening in the sky a way off, he insisted on walking. I let him go.

I didn't sleep much. I just wanted it to be morning so that I could ring Ben Glazer and start ringing the Tarrants.

Chapter Five

It was still raining when I got up and I watched from the kitchen windows for a couple of minutes as it bounced down on the patio.

I took out my phone and called Ben. He was in the workshop.

"Hi Chloe I'll bring the item Oliver ordered around to you at lunchtime when I come to the restaurant. It's a roundel."

"Thanks Ben I will be in."

I took my printouts into the middle drawing room, and after sitting down at the table in there, I used the landline to start calling people in my search for Oliver.

The hunt proved futile. The residential numbers were useless as no one was in. The businesses were answering, but I didn't know what to say really. I ended up just asking to speak to Oliver Tarrant, and no one had an Oliver Tarrant. I sighed. This could be harder than I had thought.

I was very disheartened after exhausting all the Oxfordshire leads, and wandered down to the big drawing room. The rain had meant that the tunnel under the house was wet because somehow the rain was seeping in on the ground floor of the tunnel. The 'team' wasn't doing anything in the wet, and anyway they needed to get permission again for further opening up of the walls. I hadn't really listened to them when they told me because my mind was on Oliver.

It was almost lunchtime and they had left for the day. It was bizarre when they were not there. I closed the door to the big drawing room and was about to go up to my own room when the doorbell rang. It was Ben. He came in, wiped his feet, and shook a little rain from his hair. I offered him coffee, but he wanted to leave quickly for work he said, and he gave me the flat square box that contained the order for Oliver. He asked me if I had heard from Oliver, as he was shocked that the guy had just disappeared so to speak. I had to say I hadn't heard from him and Ben left.

As I opened the box, I realized my hands were shaking and I almost couldn't look as I moved the packing to reveal what it was. It was another roundel. It was the one of Oliver and Tristan but this time in the middle was an angel, and I could see it was a representation of me. I wondered how Oliver had got this made, because the Glazers had given me my design back that featured Oliver and Tristan as knights. I wondered at the image of myself there. How had that been made and then I remembered Oliver had taken a photo of me on his cell phone.

I didn't yet want to draw attention to anything by asking the Glazers about my design for Tristan and Oliver.

I held the roundel up to the light. It was very pretty and had ivy trailing all the way around the outer edge of the circle. I was wearing blue, and my hair was down and I had angel wings. It made me sad.

I took it upstairs and put it next to the existing one.

I sat on my bed and rang my old cell phone again. It went to message. I thought, 'should I leave a message?' Then with my heart thumping in my chest, I left a message. Oliver if you hear this please ring me, please ring and I left my new number, not that my old phone would not have recorded it, but I just did it anyway.

The rain had stopped and the sun had come out lighting up the grass, trees, and pathways. I looked down at the flowers of the garden below from my window. They had been pounded down by the heavy rain.

My new phone rang and I leapt back to my bed to answer it. For a few seconds I thought it might be Oliver. It was Tristan and he said he had the most bizarre news ever, as if both of us being immortal wasn't bizarre enough.

I raised my eyebrows to myself and waited to hear this bizarre news, but he didn't tell me over the phone.

"Chloe, I am bringing it over, stay there, I'll be a couple of minutes," he said, and he ended the call.

I sat there on my bed thinking what could it be. I remembered my dirty clothes had been left at the Dearing house, in a guest bathroom I had used. I had been tired from time traveling and I had forgotten to put them in the bin bag. Could it be them? Surely, nothing more bizarre than filth could have been found in them. No mementoes of eleven ninety could have been in them. I walked down to the kitchen and put water to boil because Tristan would walk in and start making coffee. I still found this amusing. I don't know why

His truck drew up in the driveway and I opened the door.

He was carrying a small brown box.

"I know what this is going to be like for you..." he started saying, and he held out a hand to me." I had to get some floral orders done and was in the greenhouse. Jack had gone to see his specialist, and Liz had driven him. I was cutting roses and suddenly McPherson is at the door. She says Tristan sorry to disturb you but this package was delivered for Jack yesterday and it has been in the study. I've passed it twice and each time it has rung, you know, not ring, ring, but like a cell phone ringtone, music. I have Mozart on mine. I thought it might be important and Jack is out again for the day. Will you open the package?"

I knew then it had to be my old cell phone and I closed my eyes with despair. Opening them, I nodded at Tristan, and he took the phone from the box. It was in bubble wrap and he took that off and handed the cell phone to me.

I had it in my hand but I didn't believe it. I felt some kind of lurch in my stomach. This had been my connection to Oliver, and now it was here in my hand. I looked up at Tristan and he threw the box down on the table and put his arms around me. I just leaned against him with the stupid phone in my hand and felt physically sick.

Tristan kissed my forehead and leaned against the table gently pulling me against him. "Chloe you look so sad. It's not all bad, there is a compliments slip with it" and he fished a piece of paper out of the breast pocket of his denim shirt.

"Hello Mr. Dearing, We must have somehow accidentally picked this up from the table at our recent meeting with you. It does not belong to any of the consulting team. We are returning it to you, as we believe it belongs to a member of your family. Looking forward to our next meeting. Kind regards, Amanda Tarrant."

He read this out to me and handed me the paper. I took it and looked at the heading, Tarrant, Tarrant, and Travis Pty. Ltd. Marketing consultants, Public relations, Haddeningham Business Park, Haddeningham, the phone number, fax number, email, and website address.

I looked at Tristan and he had a smile in his eyes, then he smiled more, but just a little as if waiting for me to smile first.

I didn't know if it was good news or not, then suddenly I found I was smiling and Tristan took the paper and the phone from me, put them on the table and twirled me around towards the French doors.

"This must be him. It has to be him. How about that, we don't need to go looking for him he's found us?" Tristan was jubilant. He stopped twirling me around, and kissed me.

"You do know I love you?" he said, letting me go and stepping back just a little.

I stepped the pace that had opened between us and whispered, "I do know and I love you too."

This made him smile again and then he said, "Chloe could I make coffee?" This made me smile again, and I nodded. I had already put water to boil.

I looked at the compliments slip one more time and at my phone, just that second the thing died on me. I hardly believed the battery had lasted this long, but then it was on standby. I put them both down on the table and as Tristan took a sip of his coffee, I said I wanted to get my netbook and look the company up.

Chapter Six

I ran two at a time up the stairs and got my computer. Downstairs again I launched my browser and put their website into the address bar, the site loaded quickly. It was an attractive user-friendly site. What I wanted to know about was the people, who were Tarrant, Tarrant and Travis. In 'about us' there was information, Amanda Tarrant was the founder of the Public relations department, some of her clients had been, blah, blah, I didn't want to know this. Then I read Annabelle Tarrant a co-founder, was the marketing guru and more recently there was the addition of Thomas Travis with a Marketing and Advertising specialty. There was no sign of an Oliver.

Tristan was looking over my shoulder and we looked at each other after I had read this out loud. He commented that it didn't mean there were not more Tarrants in the firm. We looked at the rest of their site, which more or less dealt with their excellent reputation, examples of their work, and contact details.

Tristan said he really wanted to talk to Jack about the meeting, but he was not home until six. "I came straight here when I had opened the box with your phone in there, but I think the only reason they could be meeting is to market the new craft experience venture. The buildings were started just a week before the fire at the museum, over from the greenhouses, in the flatter area between 'White Woods' and the big house. They are going up quite quickly because they are pre-fabricated special purpose buildings. I don't expect you would have noticed them yet since we've been away and you do have to go to the right of the big house to see them."

I shook my head no I hadn't seen them, but this arts and craft venture had been talked about for a long time now so I knew what Tristan meant.

"We could check with Jonathon, despite him being a bit deaf he still has a head for the business especially the financial side of it and with Jack having been just out of hospital he would have met them along with Jack and the accountants. I'm surprised they didn't have Liz with them too, but then again she's had a couple of weddings and the museum etc. to take care of."

I thought for a moment.

"Tristan what if one of these Tarrants is Oliver? We did think he might be called something different, could he be a woman in this pathway?"

That was hard to take, but no male Tarrants appeared on the website.

Tristan laughed aloud, and then stopped when he saw my face.

"Sorry, it just seemed funny the way you said it. I don't know, but I seriously doubt that." Then he put his arm around my shoulders and hugged me.

"I thought I was doing a good thing when we were back in eleven ninety and all I seemed to have done is made you sad and made Oliver disappear. I wish it hadn't happened this way, it's the damnedest thing to have people just disappear. He did exist and people knew him. Then I told Eleanor something that in those few days changed the whole pathway Richard took. It had to have been that because surely what I said to Richard would not have kicked in until some years later." He shook his head and looked down at the floor.

I closed my browser and turned to him.

"Tristan we both did it. It's too late to regret it. It can't be undone, even though it's horrible and sad, it's done now."

"I know. I'm sorry, because we can't have our Oliver back. It will not be the same you know. When we find this Oliver, he's not going to be who we met. He's not the guy I got out of the rat-hole where Max had him prisoner. He's not the guy who loved you. I am so sorry Chloe."

We looked at each other, and I realized something, maybe we should not even try to find him or her. These two women had my phone maybe my Oliver was impossible to find. I kept feeling the pain of his loss like some kind of wave of despair, and one of the waves came over me then. I looked away from Tristan.

"Chloe, do you want to do something to take your mind off it all, like see a movie or we could drive to the sea tomorrow. You probably haven't seen a beach since you left California." Tristan was really trying to help me, but I just wanted to find out what happened to Oliver, even if it was that I would never see my Oliver again.

"Let's just solve the Oliver puzzle, Tristan, it's too hard for me to just let go of that until I know what or who he is now."

Tristan sighed and stood up.

"Well we could just take a walk now, and I'll talk to Jack this evening to find out what he knows about this company. He didn't really know Oliver so it wouldn't have occurred to him about the Tarrant name. If Liz had been there, she would have, but she wasn't."

I took my computer back upstairs and went back down to Tristan.

We walked out into the sun, it was very bright, and we both fished our sunglasses out of pockets and put them on.

It seemed natural to head to the restaurant, and we were hand in hand when we circled the lake and found a table on the patio. The seats of some of the chairs were wet and Will was there turning them upside down and wiping everything down. Some of the umbrellas were dripping because they had not been inside when the heavy downpour came this morning. Will grinned and bounced up to us saying hi, we smiled at him simultaneously saying hi back to him.

"You should come inside. This place is very wet as the downpour was blown sideways into the patio. Clare and James are in the staff room. Come and have coffee. We hardly have any customers this afternoon, even though the place is booked out for dinner tonight."

We went inside and through to the staff area where everyone was having coffee. After saying hello, James started talking to Tristan about the latest on the excavation under the house and Clare edged close to me, pulling her chair along to be next to me.

"Chloe, I found the photos for you. I'll email them tonight when I get home. They are big so I'll zip them and email them. There are a couple of nice ones of Oliver. I hope they don't make you sad. Have you heard anything at all from him? Ben says even his landline isn't picking up."

I didn't want to say anything at all, but what could I do? I answered, "Nothing from Oliver. Thanks for the photos. I do miss him badly and they might help. How are you and James doing?"

She told me they were happy and everything was great in her life. Just as she was speaking, Laura came into the staff area via the back door. She must have just arrived and come from the car park. She said hello and people responded 'hello Laura'. I asked Clare quickly how Laura was going with everyone, and Clare told me 'remarkably fine, polite, civil, no drama.'

I looked at Laura as she got herself some coffee and sat down at the end of the table near to Clare and me. She knew I was looking at her, and she seemed to hesitate, then she asked me how I was doing, and that she thought my hair was longer and she liked my shirt. Obviously, she was making a huge effort, and I responded positively. You have to give her the benefit of the doubt, as she seemed to be sincere.

Marcel came in suddenly and said sorry to break up the rest period but could they start on some preparation with the tables for the dinner service. I looked at my cell, my new cell and found it was quite a bit later than I had thought it was. Tristan and I said see you to everyone. Clare squeezed my arm in a gesture of empathy, and we left. Laura didn't once speak to Tristan, and outside he told me she had already said to him at home, that she was sorry about her former behavior and intended 'just to get a life' now.

I smiled at that phrase, but it summed up what she was trying to do 'so good luck to her' I thought.

As we walked back to the house Tristan told me that when the 'team' had actually removed the stone box there had been something we had not found when we were down there looting the place. I laughed at this, but I guess that's what we were doing. Apparently, they got a stonemason in to take the box out, and there had been a cavity in one wall of the box on the outside against the real wall and inside that, a ring had been found. It was right now being cleaned up and cataloged, but that technically it did belong to the Dearings. We both wanted to see it.

Tristan stopped on the path, and picked a daisy from a whole patch of them that seemed to have sprung up in the lawn beside. He gave it to me. I took it and looked into his lovely blue eyes. It seemed to me that he thought I didn't care for him as much as I used to, unless I was imagining that, and he was just trying to keep my spirits up. I did still love him. The intensity of feeling was still there. I think I was a little numb though from the shock of Oliver's disappearance. I must have been because the immortality thing hadn't even sunk in properly yet. I knew that because shouldn't I have been happier about it, and thinking I could do all kinds of things with my life?

I put my arms around Tristan and hugged him close. He was a lovely guy, really you couldn't wish for better. The old ripple of intense feeling for him surfaced a little more as I kissed along his cheek and back to his mouth. I didn't kiss his lips just left my face against his slightly touching him. We stood like that for a few seconds just close and silent. He finally kissed me, and then we went back to walking home hand in hand.

At the house, we split up. Tristan wanted to catch Liz and Jack and he said he would ring me as soon as he had any news.

Chapter Seven

I went inside and up to my room. I put my old phone on charge and checked my email. Clare wouldn't have had time to email me yet, but even so, I left my mail program open, hoping that when she said tonight she had meant she got off early and not late.

I looked at the roundel that Oliver had ordered, and decided I would casually ask Ben how it could have been made without my original design when I next saw him.

I checked the Glazers site and saw my designs up there on the page for people to order. Oliver had designed and built that site. I stood up and felt like throwing something. All I could think was how the hell had this happened to Oliver, what did Eleanor do? The only thing I could think of was that she went off and got hold of the money, treasure, or whatever from where it was hidden, and maybe the acknowledgement to Richard that Sir Edmund cared for him had a ripple effect from then on. We had taken a different route home so maybe she had gone quickly to the safe place and taken the money, who knew?

I realized I had passed through the complete sadness about Oliver to being angry and sad now. It was not a nice phase because it felt even more futile than the complete sadness.

I heard the 'wav' sound that announced new email and went to my computer. There was the email from Clare. She must have been on the afternoon shift after all, thank heavens. I opened the zip file and looked at the photographs, She was right they did make me sad. I cut two down to just being of Oliver and saved them as different files, then I printed them out on some good photo paper I had. It was agony to see them and yet I had to have them. I propped them up on the desk where I would see them as I passed.

About ten o'clock, I was eating a sandwich standing on the bottom of the French door in the kitchen, balancing on that part where the door at the bottom comes back into a higher bit ready to be locked. I was looking out at the moths circling the nearest garden light and the night colors of the garden. My new cell, which was on the kitchen table, rang, and I caught my shoe on the metal bit of the thing I was balancing on when I turned around. My foot went down on the metal and because it hurt, I yanked my foot up and stubbed my toe hard on the part where I had been balancing. When I had finished saying ouch, ouch, I looked down and there was a deep gash straight across the soft part of my big toe at the front. I wanted to see who had called, as I had missed getting to the phone so I didn't do anything about my toe.

When I picked up the phone, the missed call was from Tristan. I called him back saying sorry I missed your call but didn't get anything more out because he immediately said, "Chloe, it's tomorrow."

"What is Tristan?" I asked him, smiling to myself at his excitement.

"The next meeting with the Tarrants. Chloe, its tomorrow and this time Liz is in on it. I asked her outright if she knew anything about the marketing people who were dealing with the new craft venture and she said 'not yet, but I get to meet them tomorrow I have a folder on my desk to read from Jack about the last meeting, but I just haven't got to it yet.' Then I asked her what she knew about the disappearance of Oliver and if she was ready to hear about what happened in the alleged other dimension. She said 'okay then let's hear it but only whilst I make coffee and something to eat because seriously I am so over all this stuff.' I was a bit annoyed by that, but let it go and told her that what I did had changed the life pathway, since we don't know what else to call it, for Oliver.

I said to her that we were trying to locate him because how diabolical is it going to be when he's walking down the street as someone else, and Will, Clare or Ben goes up to him and starts ranting on about him just going off.

I said there is some slim chance he will be at the meeting tomorrow because the company is called Tarrant. She then said she thought Oliver's company was IT. It was really exasperating, but I told her no, that was our old Oliver, we don't know what the new Oliver will be into."

He stopped talking then, and if the topic had not been so serious I might have been laughing at his description of the conversation with Liz, but I was a little shocked at the news.

"Tristan did she even get the folder for you to check on who will be at the meeting?" I asked him.

"She did and it's Annabelle Tarrant and Travis Thomas. It's at ten in the morning here. I think we should hang out at a distance and try to get a glimpse of them, somehow. Don't you?" Tristan replied, and then somehow found himself amusing, and laughed a little.

I was determined we should do just that and I asked how we could do it without seeming obvious.

"It will be easy to see their arrival from my bedroom window. Meet me at the greenhouses around nine forty five tomorrow morning, Chloe," he asked.

"Great Tristan, I'll be there."

We ended the call after Tristan told me he loved me and wished he was actually with me in person right then. I whispered it back to him because I knew from his voice that he still expected me to stop because of what had happened to Oliver.

I went to the French doorway to collect my stupid shoe, and putting it on realized that there was no cut on my toe, and no sign of the stubbing I had done. I had actually forgotten it until right then when I put the shoe on.

I sat at the table and turned my phone over in my hands nervously. It suddenly hit me that I really was changed. I was like Tristan, an immortal who would heal. I thought I had understood, but just like Oliver and his paper cut, this toe-stubbing incident was like a spotlight on it.

Eventually it would mean I was on the same path as Tristan hiding every ten years, maybe a little more, so that it would not be noticed that I had not changed at all, and still looked like an eighteen-year-old girl. I was glad I had already started to look grown up and not like I did when I was fifteen.

If only we had Oliver as well. It would have been a good thing to have the three of us so that the journey would be shared.

I didn't sleep much that night.

Chapter Eight

The next morning I was at the greenhouses ten minutes early, so was Tristan. I laughed at him as I said, he was early, and he said so was I.

He kissed me and hugged me.

"I hope that this is not really horrible Chloe," he said as he took my hand and we went into the big Dearing house and up to his room.

We looked out of the huge window to the right and down onto the car parking area. I was standing there thinking 'what will happen.'

Tristan went to his desk and brought a paper with him. He gave it to me and put his arm around my shoulder. I leaned close to him as I read the paper. It was information about the marketing of the arts and craft experience that Jack wanted to get going. The company Tarrant, Tarrant and Travis were engaged as marketers, and the people assigned were headed by husband and wife team, Thomas Travis and Annabelle Tarrant. I looked at the words, husband, and wife a few times. Maybe this was Oliver. I read a short description of their marketing talents, and what they could offer the Dearings as their clients. The schedule of meetings and then deadlines was printed at the bottom.

Tristan said that the notes about the first meeting were with Liz, and this was a copy of information he thought might be of use to us.

Tristan suddenly called out, "They're here."

I looked up from reading to see a silver four-wheel drive vehicle pull up in the car park.

We stared down. I didn't think they would see us. We were quite high up, and unless they stood staring up around themselves, we were probably safe.

A man maybe in his late forties got out of the driver's side. He was wearing a business suit. A woman got out of the passenger seat. She had blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail and a cream skirt suit on, and she too was in her forties. They looked like a professional couple on business, which they were. The man had a briefcase, and was saying something to the woman, when the back door of the car opened, and out of it climbed a young man. Tall as he stood up, slim, blonde spiky hair, black business suit and a laptop. It looked as if we had found Oliver.

I gasped, and Tristan said, "I think that's him. Yes I'm sure of it."

I watched Oliver walk behind the other two people, towards the big main door of the house. It was like a dream. I wanted to run down and hug him, and say Oliver remember me. I turned instead to Tristan as they had disappeared from view and put my head on his chest. He held me close for a moment and then he asked if I was okay.

We sat on Tristan's bed and planned what to do next.

"Do you think Liz will show some surprise or try to get him to know her? In this meeting I mean?" I asked Tristan

"No, we talked about that and agreed she should simply act as if she has never met him, which she hasn't because he's not our Oliver remember. She's going to get as much information as possible without looking suspicious. We thought when we talked about it, that he was going to be Thomas Travis, not front up exactly like Oliver, so I hope she can do that."

I felt a bit sad and told Tristan that I could hardly wait to find out what Liz knew from this meeting. He got up and after pacing up and down for a minute, he went to the door at the end of his room and made coffee. I wandered down there to look what it was. It was a sort of tiny kitchen in a cupboard. I looked around thinking his bathroom must be through the other door. His room had books and music very neatly arranged on two shelves. His desk was set up to catch the light from the big windows. I wandered back to the windows and Tristan came to stand next to me drinking coffee. I don't know if it reminded him of the last time we were there with Oliver, but it reminded me, and when Tristan's cell phone rang, it was almost a replay of the scene but without Oliver.

Tristan looked at me with a sort of kind questioning look as he walked to the desk and picked up his phone. It was business and he ended the call quickly.

"That was the florist for tomorrow's wedding they need more white flowers. I have 'Baby's breath' in the garden next to the greenhouses. Seems like a field of them, so I'll go and cut it and get that to the florist. Come with me, Chloe. This meeting may go on for hours. There was some talk of a break for morning tea. Let's not just wait here counting the minutes." He had put down his coffee cup on his desk and held out his hand to me. I took it.

"You're right, Tristan, it's a bit agonizing especially when the guy looks like Oliver, but we don't know what his name is or anything. It will be better to go and do something."

We went off to the greenhouses, and once there Tristan got some kind of pruning shears, and we walked around to the bed of white flowers he had talked of. The flowers were tiny and white, but there were masses of them on the stalk and the effect was pretty. He cut what seemed to me like a huge amount and put them in one of the long boxes I had seen him use before. He did this twice and then we walked down to his truck and he put them on the back seat. Did everything have to remind me of Oliver? The springs and the torn seat material of the back seat set off the memory of taking him out of that building where Max had him tied and drugged.

'I needed to start calling Max, Rene,' I thought, as Tristan opened the door for me and held my hand as I got in the truck. He went around to the driver's side and we were soon on our way to the florist. This turned out to be in the next village but one, and right next door to a bridal shop, which I thought was genius logistics.

When Tristan had delivered the flowers, he swung the truck out into the flow of traffic and circled the village via another parallel road. We had turned around to go back the way we had come via this maneuver.

On the way back, Tristan asked me how it had felt to see Oliver and I said it was weird, which it was, but it was also heart stopping and I didn't say that.

We reached the Dearing house very quickly and I thought we would have a heap of time to wait to find out anything from Liz, but no sooner were we up in Tristan's room than she was knocking on the door.

Tristan opened the door at the same time as saying come in, and she came in and saw me standing by the window.

"Hello Chloe, I didn't realize you were here," and she looked sympathetically at me. My heart lurched because I thought she was going to say something terrible about Oliver.

"Hello Liz, how are you doing, did you come to tell us about the meeting?" I just went straight to the point.

Tristan was looking at her and lifted his hands in a 'well tell us' gesture.

I smiled at this and Liz said, "He had no idea who I was. He's still called Oliver. Annabelle and Thomas are his parents. They introduced him as 'our son, Oliver Tarrant', and he will be doing some of the marketing campaign as well as designing the web pages for the new venture ready for our technology people to add to the existing one. When we had coffee, he told me his mum uses her maiden name because she and her sister Amanda founded the marketing consultancy years ago. They moved up from Dorset to this area before he was born, and get this, his grandfather is called Richard. That's Richard Tarrant, Annabelle and Amanda's father."

"You found all this out at the coffee break?" Tristan asked with raised eyebrows.

"Look I just wanted to establish a connection. I thought you'd be pleased. Oh and they just moved to their new offices in Haddeningham plus the reason you couldn't find a business in Oxfordshire for them is, that's the next county."

I cursed inwardly because I would normally have widened my search, but at that time, the grief over Oliver had just shut me down.

Tristan came to me and put his arm around my shoulders, turning to Liz he asked,

"What's the story on the next meeting? It looked like next Friday on the schedule from out of that folder Liz."

"Yes, sorry, I mean what can we do? The guy has a totally different life. He looks like our Oliver, and I think he would be the same age. I don't know what you plan to do, but you can't just be going up to him and saying 'hey Oliver we went back in time and changed your life, but you used to live nearby and had your own IT business and a stable conversion'."

Liz went to sit on the desk chair, and Tristan sighed heavily.

"I know it, we know that. I don't know what the plan is, or if there is even one," and he tightened his arm around my shoulders, like a half hug.

"Sorry Liz, I know it's hard. I just think it will be the spookiest thing if any of the others run into him. I don't know if we have a plan, not now I have seen him. Maybe we just have to let him go." I said this, but the pain I felt at this prospect was just devastating.

An idea came to me, maybe I could just secretly watch him, from a distance, which sounds suspiciously like stalking, but that's not what I meant. Naturally, I didn't voice this idea.

Liz said she had to be going, but that any information she gathered she would pass on to us, and by the way the clothes and stuff I had left after my trip into the past had been disposed of, she hoped I didn't mind.

I assured her I didn't and she smiled a little at me, then she came over and actually hugged both Tristan and I together so that we were in a little circle.

When she had gone, Tristan was quiet, he had let go of me and walked over to his desk. He just leaned against it for a few moments. I stood watching him. I had no idea what to say or do now.

His lovely dark hair fell over into his eyes and he looked like a beautiful work of art leaning there.

He looked up. "You still love Oliver don't you?" he asked me.

"I loved the Oliver we had before. I don't know this Oliver, and more to the point he doesn't know me. The sight of him is painful yes, but he's lost to us as a friend or anything else. Well, that's how it seems." My voice wavered a little then and Tristan stood up and came to me.

"I think in retrospect it was Oliver that you loved most of all. I can see the pain in your eyes when you talk about him, and I know when you are thinking about him because the same pain is there then. I'm thinking of going to Aristide and asking him if there is anything that can be done about the situation."

I stopped him from saying any more, clutching his hand I said, "No please Tristan it might draw attention to you, and I doubt anything can be done. Don't get involved with them again. You just don't know what might happen. I love you, and I don't want anything to happen to you."

He smiled sadly, as if he wanted to smile happily, but couldn't let himself.

"Let's go and get lunch Chloe. It's quite late, let's go into the village and sit in the sunshine."

I could tell Tristan wanted to cheer me up. I agreed and we started down the stairs to the truck.

On the drive into the village Tristan was too quiet, it felt as if there was something between us unsaid, something had broken.

I wanted to fix it.

"Tristan you know I desperately do not want anything to happen to you for your own sake if not mine, don't go to the Magus, promise me."

Tristan glanced at me and shook his head, this time really smiling.

"I will not go to the Magus, I promise," he said, and as we parked in the library car park, and he came around to my side of the truck to get me out. I put my arms around him kissing him. I kissed him a lot, lovingly, and it felt good, intense, and special. He kissed me back, and we stayed hugging each other for what seemed like a long time.

We finally closed the truck up and walked around the corner and down the street to the café where the ghost of my Oliver would always be sitting at a table waiting for me.

It took me a couple of minutes to realize this was not in my imagination. The new Oliver was at one of the tables. He and his parents were sitting there with coffee cups in front of them and the laptop was open on the middle of the table.

Both Tristan and I stopped walking at the same time. We looked at each other and then we went to a table close to the actual café entrance, at a distance from the table where Oliver was sitting. We were sitting opposite each other. I was facing outwards so that I could see Oliver. Tristan was watching me. I kept my eyes on his face, on his gorgeous navy blue eyes and I leaned forward and put my hands across the table to have him hold them. He leaned over and took my hands. I wanted to keep him safe, to make sure he knew I did love him.

"This has to be some kind of bizarre twist that we find Oliver here," he said just as someone came to take our order.

When we were alone again, I answered that it was extraordinary, but at the same time it was lovely weather and this village was on the route to the Tarrant's office, maybe they just stopped for coffee in the sun.

Tristan had a sad look in his eyes and I looked down at my hands and then back up at him. What I really saw was Oliver over his shoulder and this Oliver was closing the lid of the laptop and at the same time staring straight at me.

We held each other's eyes until he stood up, and picked up the laptop from the table. He only stopped looking at me when he put the machine in the sleeve he was holding and zipped it up.

I flicked my eyes to Tristan's face, he was looking down at the table, when he looked up I smiled at him.

He smiled back a little sadly. The order came and I found I had to push my food around the plate, as I couldn't eat. When we left the café, I noticed that was exactly what Tristan had done too.

At the truck, I hugged Tristan again, but something had happened to him, he was wary and it almost felt as if he was distancing himself from me.

The drive back home was short and mercifully so, as Tristan had fallen silent. In my driveway he kissed my cheek, even though I tried to get closer to him he leaned away and said he still had some work to do and would call.

In my room, I looked at the photographs of Oliver that I had printed out, and I took them down and placed them with my drawings and other printouts. I went to lie on my bed because I hadn't had any real sleep for days.

I sighed as I suddenly realized how bad my own behavior could appear, being in love with both Oliver and Tristan, and then continuing on that path even when one of them was living a different life and the other loved me. I was not a nice person. It was horrible of me and weird in a way not clear to me. I had chosen neither Oliver nor Tristan before this miserable spell stuff had happened, and now there was no choice. The whole thing had been sorted out by life for me. I would have to accept that. I closed my eyes and I could see the new Oliver as he stared at me this afternoon at the café.

Mom insisted that Steven and I have dinner with her around the big table in the kitchen that evening. She said we hardly ever saw each other let alone ate together. That was true and we had a good time catching up with where she was with her work and what Steven was doing with his music and the band. It was only when she asked me where that lovely Oliver was, the one I was friends with before I went to Cornwall that I stopped enjoying the time we were having together. I said he seemed to have got work somewhere, and that he might even have moved, 'the whole family has' I added for effect.

We had lemon meringue for pudding, which I had the tiniest piece of so mom would not fuss, but I finished up quickly and said I would load the dishwasher. Steven wanted to practice a little in the library that he had commandeered as a rehearsal place, and went off. Mom waited until he had gone and then asked if I was upset about Oliver, as we had seemed very close. I told her I was a little upset, but really what was I thinking of when I had Tristan, who was lovely, and cared for me. Mom joked that there's no law against liking two boys, it's only if you married the two of them and we laughed a little together. I finished loading the dishwasher. I helped mom take the laundry out of the washing machine and we put it in the dryer. She told me that the dig under the house was finished. Jack had said don't bother going on to find the exit to the tunnel, that it might compromise the building's foundations. The 'team' was packing up tomorrow and the fireplace would have a glass back. It could never be used as a fireplace and the wall painting would be accessed at any time with the glass door. The junction of the lawn and the building had a special channel now to run the rain down to the flowerbeds that would have otherwise poured in.

I was surprised that all this had happened, and yet it seemed like years since Oliver and I had found the rain leaking in.

That memory was like broken glass in my heart, there were tears forming in my eyes, and I went away to the kitchen where mom couldn't see my face. I started to boil the kettle and asked mom if she would like coffee or some tea maybe. I was doing anything to stop the tears from falling. I made us both tea and she kissed my cheek saying, "I'm off to my office now to do a spot of work."

She didn't know enough about the situation to know how serious it all was, and that was okay because she couldn't be allowed to know.

I took my cup up to my room and found myself staring out at the night from my window again. It was remarkably warm and humid. I hoped it wouldn't rain the next day because I wanted to go somewhere, just go off, and maybe wander around the shops or something uncomplicated, on my own. I stood there for a long time as the moon went behind the clouds and it became even darker. The pools of yellow and white light from the garden lights couldn't compete with the darkness cast by the cloudy moonless sky.

When I went to bed I couldn't sleep again, and it was dawn before I fell into an uneasy sleep, which only lasted a couple of hours.

Chapter Nine

It was early when I woke up.

After showering, I took my old phone, which I had charged, knowing I preferred it to the new one, gathered up my keys, and cards, and went downstairs intending to go out.

The 'team' was packing up the technical gear from the big drawing room and I held the door for one of them who was carrying a big spotlight on a stand.

Driving along I passed the three closest villages and went on into the town where some of the nicest shops were to browse in. There was a big shopping mall in another town in the opposite direction, but I just wanted to walk down the same streets Oliver and I had walked down. I wanted to try to let go of him. I knew it was madness to search for something that no longer existed, and in doing so drive away Tristan who loved me.

There was a food festival on and lots of stalls selling all kinds of different food were all the way up and down the street. There were musicians and entertainers set up all over the market square.

It was good to be amongst lots of people and noise.

I turned down the high street after a while.

I had been wandering around the shops for about an hour and went into the shop where I had found such nice T-shirts before. I looked along the racks of dresses and saw one that I really liked. I picked it up and went to the fitting room. The dress looked good. I had grown for sure just a little, but it was a help, maybe I was just destined not to be very tall, immortal or not. The color was a blue violet and not something I wore much of and I was surprised how much it suited me. Deciding to buy it, I joined the line up to pay. I took out my phone and checked for messages, nothing. I had the phone in one hand and the dress in the other, and a familiar voice from behind me said, "The girl from the café. I recognize that phone. I feel sure I just posted that or one very like it back to its rightful owner."

I was almost overwhelmed by this. I turned around. Oliver was standing there and he was holding a pair of jeans. This was not even déjà vu. This was unbelievable, and spooky in the extreme. He must have thought I disliked his approach because he continued, "Sorry really it's not a line. I did post a phone just like yours to someone only a few days ago. I did see you in a café only yesterday didn't I?"

Incredibly, he was looking at me in just the same way Oliver had looked at me when we first met back there in my dad's restaurant during the new wait staff break. He wanted to continue to talk to me. Except that I had said nothing.

Finally, I found I could speak. "Hello, yes, I did see you yesterday at the café and this is the phone you posted back."

His smile was just as heart melting as ever and he introduced himself.

"Oliver Tarrant," he said. "You must be a Dearing since you got the phone and since that's where I must have got it from in the first place."

We moved up two places in the queue to pay and I answered him.

"No, I do know the Dearings, but I am not one of them. My name is Chloe, Chloe McGarry. Where did you find my phone?"

It was our turn to pay and we did this then Oliver said, "Let me tell you about the phone, will you come and have coffee with me?"

I answered softly, "Thank you, yes I'd like that."

The coffee shop was not far away and we went into it. As I was standing next to Oliver, he turned to me and asked, "Was it tea you preferred?" I nodded because really how much more weird was this going to get, how did he know this?

We went to sit at a table out on the pavement under the awning, and I put the bag with the dress in it down by the side of the tea I had. Oliver sitting opposite me was smiling in the same old lovely way.

"The phone just turned up in my jacket pocket. The one I had worn to the first meeting with Jack Dearing, and I thought I had picked his up from the table where we had been sitting by mistake. So if you're not a Dearing how come your phone was in Jack's office?"

I was watching him as he spoke. His tiny scar was back under his left eye high on his cheekbone. His slightly tanned skin and blonde hair were the same, and his lovely kind chocolate brown eyes sparkled at me. I realized he was flirting with me, and I answered him with the only thing I could think of.

"I had visited Liz and left it there by accident." I smiled at him. I couldn't help it.

"Well sorry to have deprived you of your phone for a few days Chloe."

"No that's okay it was an accident," I said not really knowing how to continue the conversation.

"A happy accident since it gave me a good excuse to talk to you back there in the shop." He smiled again and then drank some of his coffee.

"It's interesting how you know I drink tea, Oliver," I said to him. Something was odd about that and I needed to know how he knew.

"I just felt that, yeah that just came to me, good guess huh?" and he was smiling again.

I wanted to tread carefully and at the same time, I felt like hugging him, and telling him how much I had missed him.

He was watching me too and he suddenly said, "We haven't met anywhere before have we?"

At first, I thought if I answered that, it would have to be with a lie, and then I realized that was not really so, this was a different Oliver, I could say no, and so I did.

He started to tell me he was doing a little freelance work outside of his work in his parent's business, that he was interested in starting an offshoot business in the IT field. He was still studying marketing part-time, and he was doing this for his parents, but it wasn't his first love, and he didn't really like it all that much.

I was like a rabbit in the headlights, just glued to his voice and his gorgeous familiar face.

I sat there and drank it in, here was Oliver talking to me and telling me about himself. He was attracted to me just like before. It's meant to be I told myself as I watched him. I had forgotten the idea of letting him go.

He asked me what I did with my time and I found that incredibly funny, the word time especially. I told him about my designs and he said he would look at the website.

We had long since finished our drinks. He took out his cell phone and looked at the time.

"I don't really want to go, but I have to. Do you think you could meet me tomorrow? I'll be here seeing a client and we could have lunch or just coffee, if you'd like."

'I certainly would like' I thought, and I said that would be cool. We arranged to meet there at the coffee shop around one thirty. As I picked up the shopping bag and put my phone in the back pocket of my jeans he said, "No wait let's exchange numbers just in case."

So we did that and then he leaned forward and giving me a look, which was like a kiss, he picked up his own shopping, turned to me again, and this time brushed a kiss across my cheek like a friend does. It was both ordinary as if from an old friend, and moving at the same time. Our eyes met afterwards and I saw the kiss had affected him too.

We went in opposite directions. The shoe shop was close by and I went in there to buy some shoes that had a bit more of a heel on them than the shoes I had at home. I had grown but not enough I thought. I found some blue shoes that were perfect, which was a first for me, as I can never find shoes usually.

When I got home, music was coming from the library. Steven, John, and David were in there. I looked in on them and then took my shopping up to my room.

It was hard to think straight and I felt so incredibly happy I was surprised by it. I knew it was because I had met Oliver again.

I was so happy I put together another design for stained glass and emailed it to Joshua Glazer. It was late when I had finished and I decided to get to bed in the hope that I would sleep that night.

As I opened my window a little wider to let more of the warm night air in I thought there was an extra shadow at the edge of the garden, not even as far away as the beginning of the wood, though I could see that far now with not much light at all. If it was Tristan, he must be back to his night wandering. He had not contacted me at all today and although I wanted to send him a goodnight message, I still had that sense of distancing he had given me the day before. It was strange to say the least considering all we had been through together. I wondered as I fell asleep what was really going on. The last thought I had was of Oliver and his enchanting smile.

Chapter Ten

Steven knocked on my door about nine, and said Will's car had packed up and could I drive him to John's place as they were meeting for a gig starting that afternoon in the Kool Kafé. I told him sure asking when did he need to leave and it was about midday. I was surprised I had actually slept the way I had. I showered and dressed, considering what I was going to wear. I decided to wear my favorite T-shirt the antique green one with its ribbons and lace randomly placed upon it, and my 'Liz' jeans.

I checked my email and found a reply from Joshua Glazer. He liked the design I had sent him, and told me he would get it added to their website just as soon as he could. He also told me that he had three orders for the floral design that was already up on the site and was pleased by the way things were going. This was cool I thought looking at my other emails.

I was on the way downstairs to get some juice, when a message came onto my old phone. It was Tristan saying, since I was not answering my new cell phone, he was using this number. I had totally forgotten that I had left the new cell in the kitchen. That's why I hadn't heard from Tristan. I felt horrible then and immediately rang him. He was so pleased to hear from me and said that although he was super busy he hoped I could meet him later to have dinner together.

It felt like a path already trodden, see Oliver at lunch, then meet Tristan in the evening, except this time they neither knew about me seeing the other.

Was I really going to do this again I asked myself after telling Tristan eight o'clock was good and we could walk up to dad's restaurant.

I drove Steven into the Kool Kafé. On the way, he told me that the band would be playing until midnight if I wanted to drop in. As he got out of the Wrangler, and then started to take his guitars out of the back, Will came running out to help.

"Hi Will, what's wrong with your car?" I asked him.

"It's the battery, which will not take much doing, but it needs a new one, and it's halfway between the restaurant and town. I'll have to wait until I'm free to get it sorted out."

"Will it get stolen there?"

He grinned at me. "Not overnight, and it's been pushed into a local farmer's drive so doubly unlikely."

As they went into the café to set up, and practice before it opened, I told them to have a great time, and that I may call in later to see them.

I drove on through the next couple of villages to the town where I was to meet Oliver. My heart was thudding when I thought about him, and I had a trickle of guilt too, which threaded its way into my happy frame of mind.

I parked at the end of the main street in the car park, which was for visitors to the big old Church, but if you pay and display you can park there for any reason. The main street at this end had lots of those black and white, and brown on brown old buildings including one, which claimed to be a real sixteenth century inn. This was chalked on a blackboard situated outside on the sidewalk. I believed it. It was a fascinating building.

I had reached the coffee shop at exactly one thirty. I looked around the tables, but didn't see Oliver, and then as I looked down the street I saw him coming towards me from the opposite direction. He was wearing a gray business suit and he looked beautiful, like one of those models airbrushed into a glossy magazine picture for Armani suits or something, only Oliver was real and was right in front of me. He was already smiling at me halfway to the table I had stopped next to, and having reached me, he put a hand on my arm and kissed my cheek again, as he had done yesterday. We sat down at the table. He put his laptop on there and smiled as he sat down saying, "I hoped you wouldn't have forgotten or changed your mind."

I raised my eyebrows at this and said, "Never," which was about as close to the total truth as I have gotten in the last few months I thought.

We just looked at each other and smiled.

I asked him about the business he had been dealing with, had it been successful, and he answered as he undid the dark blue tie he had around his neck.

"Great, it went really great. I have my first client, all of my own I mean. I'm designing a website for them."

He undid the top three buttons of his pale blue shirt. I watched him remembering a time when this had happened before.

After we had ordered, he took his jacket off.

It was warm, and he commented saying, "Can you believe the weather? Even when it's raining it's warm."

He wanted to know about me, had I been in the UK long as he knew 'that was a Californian accent I had there.' I told him the minimum because I didn't want to complicate anything.

He knew I was not really giving much away, and said, "Okay, I don't mind telling you about myself."

He told me, he really wanted to make his way with his own business, because he had always had such a lot of help from his family, and had wanted for nothing as he grew up. He said if he could strike out on his own he wouldn't feel so bad when he got the inheritance he had been left by his great grandfather. Which he had coming to him when he was twenty.

"Even then, my mother and father are talking about converting the top of the house for me into an apartment. Spoilt rotten huh?" he said and smiled again. His lovely eyes sparkled at me. Funny I hadn't noticed my old Oliver flirting so much with me before.

When the food was delivered, he bit into his steak sandwich. I looked around at the other tables, and thought how many of these little café places I had been in with Oliver, and with Tristan, and how many different scenarios had been played out in them. There was no one I knew at any of the tables, no Rene, no Laura, maybe all that weird stuff had ended.

Oliver asked me what I was deep in thought about and I shook my head saying nothing really, just looking around at all the people here. He said yes it was a busy town, definitely on the tourist map because of the ancient church and various old places.

Then he looked at me with a little more of a question in his eyes and asked, "The guy I saw you with at the café in the village, when I was with my parents, is he a relative, friend, what? Sorry I have to ask. I really like you and it's not in my nature to steal another guy's girl, so..." and he looked intently at me waiting for an answer.

That was awkward. I sighed and gazed at him. Right up until then I had tried not to look at him with the love I felt for him in my eyes, and suddenly I realized I was looking exactly like that at him. He held my eyes with his, just as he had done when we saw each other at the café a few days ago, so that it was hard to look away.

"He's a close, very dear, friend. We've been through some weird stuff together recently as something happened to another person we were both close to," I told him. It was the closest I could get to the truth.

I desperately didn't want him to spook and go from my life, and so when he smiled and said that it sounded intriguing, but he would not pry. I smiled back at him covering my relief.

He was expected at his office around three he said, so he asked if he could call me, and we might do something together in a few days, when he had a whole day off. I said I would love to hear from him.

He wanted to know where I was parked and because I was at the Cathedral, he asked if I would walk with him to his car just down the street and then he would drop me at my car.

"I just want to keep you with me a little longer," he said taking my hand as we walked along. It was just so good to be hand in hand with Oliver again I could hardly believe it was happening. I thought once more that it must be meant to be.

The car he was driving was the four-wheel drive I had seen his parents arrive in at the Dearing estate. I didn't know the make, but it wasn't a Land Rover. He opened the door for me then he put his laptop on the floor of the back seat and went around to the driver's side. On the short drive to the cathedral car park, he said the car was a company car and he had a beat up Jimny, which he loved and didn't want to part with. I didn't comment because I thought that the web of life had woven in one too many coincidences for this new Oliver and me. I didn't want him to disappear in a puff of smoke.

At the Cathedral car park, he let me out, and kissed me very quickly on the lips. I closed my eyes against the wave of emotion that I felt.

I got out then, and he said, "Expect me to call really soon, Chloe," and smiled his gorgeous smile.

I walked to my Wrangler happily.

I drove home thinking about what I had said. Had I lied about Tristan? No, I had just not said too much, and the part about me being Tristan's girl, well that had never been spoken about ever by any of us. We had just fallen into, well what exactly? It had been the same with Oliver. We had just fallen into our relationship.

When I got home, I had to make myself stop worrying about the situation. What if I just let things evolve again as they had before? It was just so good to be back in touch with Oliver that I was questioning the bond I had with Tristan. 'Here we go again' I thought, but something was different this time. I could almost believe that if I was not meant to be with Oliver he wouldn't have been at that café with his parents. He wouldn't have noticed me and we wouldn't have been in the shop together.

Chapter Eleven

I decided to wear the dress I had bought to have dinner with Tristan.

I spent part of the late afternoon and early evening drawing from the early photographs of Tristan at the pool. I had decided that if I hid his identity, I could do some designs for the Glazers with a medieval theme.

I started the design for one scene before I decided that I would get ready for dinner. I looked at the roundel that Oliver had commissioned, and it seemed such a statement of love from Oliver when I had gone to get Tristan back from the past, that it brought tears to my eyes. It said to me that he accepted I had gone to get someone else I loved.

At about ten minutes before eight, I was waiting for Tristan at the kitchen patio doors. I decided not to balance on the bottom metal thing this time, since I was wearing my new shoes. My new cell phone was demoted to spare and was on the work surface by the kettle not even charged. My old cell, which I had returned to me by Oliver, was on the kitchen table and a message chimed onto it. I looked, expecting Tristan was going to be late, but it was Oliver. 'He had just got in from work and the highlight of his day had been lunch with me. Would I like to go out tomorrow night he knew a lovely café that had music and a good band was on.'

I texted back, 'love to, text me tomorrow'. He texted back 'thank you xoxo'. Interesting, I thought.

The doorbell rang and it was Tristan, he looked at me and smiled slightly.

"You look good enough to eat. That dress suits your eyes really well," he said softly.

I looked at him, dear Tristan, such a gentle, good person. How had he done it being alive so long? Maybe that's why he was. I reached for my jean jacket that was on the hall table. Closing the door behind us, we walked up to the restaurant.

The usual path, decked out with fairy lights and lanterns, was familiar and felt like home now. Tristan put his arm around my shoulders and started to tell me that he had phoned my dad today, and asked if he could bring Harry around to see the archaeology in the fireplace room and the tunnel. He was going to bring him Sunday afternoon. Tomorrow he and Jack had a meeting with the county archaeology department about the finds and their protection, as well as the ring that was being given back to the Dearing family.

We had reached the restaurant and found a table close to the windows where if it started to rain, the drops wouldn't get to us so easily, although it didn't look like rain and dad had the awnings replaced yesterday. They were longer and reached almost to the low wall where they were secured to the two balustrades at each end like a big sail. There was a peacock on the wall. It was just staring at the lawn and acting like one of the actual statues of peacocks that were on a segment of the low wall at the other side of the restaurant where you walked to the car park.

Patricia came to take our order, telling us it was a busy night inside, but nicer out here adding how much longer could these warm nights last. I had noticed that the local people always had something to say about the weather.

When she had gone inside Tristan told me that it was time for the annual and sometimes bi-annual visit by the twins to see their mother in France.

"They are only going for four or five days this time. Liz is trying to get Will to go with her on Sunday because the gig at Kool Kafé will be almost over. The band isn't performing for another week, I think, after that." He smiled then and took my hand over the table. "You look so lovely tonight," he said.

My heart kind of lurched for him because I loved him, and because I knew I looked better because I was so much happier since I had re-met Oliver.

"Tristan, doesn't their mom live in the Languedoc?" I asked him, knowing full well she did.

"She does, in the lovely Sète. Her husband owns tourist boats, quite big ones, and they tour the Canal de Midi. You know Sète is on the Mediterranean and it's sort of 'Venice like', which I guess accounts for her husband's love for the place since he's actually Italian." Tristan grinned continuing, "I know you instantly thought of René when you heard about the twins' mother, but I seriously doubt René and Aristide live near their mother. Her husband is seriously wealthy, and I somehow don't think Aristide and René are."

"Wow, what happened though between her and Jack, and what's her name?" I thought this was a most interesting topic of conversation, far away from that of Oliver and the past.

Tristan laughed and drank some of his iced water.

"Well her name is Sophie de Infangati, and she has another daughter, a step sister for the twins, Melody, who is seventeen. She, Sophie I mean, just left one day after a holiday in Italy. The twins were two, I think. Jack and she got a divorce and it seemed friendly enough. The twins started visiting her when they were about six in Sète, to where she and Bruno de Infangati had moved. That's all I know really. Well, they go to visit on Sunday, but will be back on Thursday, and yes as I said Liz wants Will to go with her, but it means he will have to pull out of the last night of the gig at the Kool Kafé. Apparently David can step in and sing, but really the band just isn't the same without Will, so I don't know if she has persuaded him to go or not."

I found it odd though that they never talked about their mom and said this to Tristan.

"They used to when they were younger, but I guess they just got to the point where they don't just come out with it unless asked."

I had to admit I had not asked nor thought about it at all really, it was just that she was not there.

Tristan suddenly said he was sorry he had been a little distant last time we were together, but that he had realized I still loved Oliver for sure and somehow that had suddenly saddened him.

"It's not like I didn't know before, nor accept it, or even want it to change, but somehow a sadness just came upon me. I hope that it's not some premonition, and you're going to stop seeing me. I really don't know why I am even talking like this."

I looked at him and it was on my lips to tell him I had met Oliver again, but I didn't. Nothing had changed in all the months, through the weird stuff we had experienced I still loved both of them.

"Tristan I love you, I do, and you're right I still feel the same way about Oliver as I did before the spell incident. I never understood it before, it seems unnatural, well certainly unconventional, but there it is. I'm sorry, I thought it would go away when Oliver was gone, but it hasn't. I wouldn't blame you if you stopped seeing me." It was all I could say.

I pushed my food around on my plate again a little and Tristan noticed, but he didn't comment. "I can't, I just can't stop seeing you I mean, and it's horrible to think of."

He smiled a sad smile and ran his hand through his hair. Then he pushed his food around his plate a little too.

"Next week I have to manage quite a bit of seeding and planting, plus there are two conferences to get the floral décor ready for. I want to make sure Charlie gets some walks so maybe we can do that together. Charlie really likes you."

"I like Charlie too, that would be great," I answered.

We did eat a little of the food and when Tristan had coffee I had some raspberry sorbet.

As we walked home, I asked Tristan how the new Arts holiday venture was going. Were the Dearings going to advertise for artists to run courses there?

Tristan who had his arm around my shoulders stopped walking and looked at me.

"Hey Chloe, you could run a course couldn't you?"

I smiled at him saying, "Well I hadn't thought of that. I don't think I could classify myself as an artist yet, but I could give drawing classes. I think that Jack will have something a bit more commercial in mind than that."

"I'll see what he's up to, maybe you could do something, you never know" and he kissed me.

We walked back home. I asked him if he would like another cup of coffee and a look at how the archaeology had been left by the 'team'.

Inside the big drawing room, we saw that the place was just the same as the last time we had seen it. I told him about the plans the archaeologists had outlined for the preservation of the room behind the fireplace.

He nodded. "Yes that must be something Jack and I will be dealing with at the meeting. I suspect Harry will be very interested in this when he comes to see it on Sunday. It was totally unexpected. It's weird isn't it, Chloe, how things have developed? It's almost as if you coming here was a key that was needed."

I didn't know if that was right, but I knew I had some connection to Tristan that was not just ordinary. I wasn't a descendent of Richard like our old Oliver had been, so maybe our paths crossing was something else. I thought then of the new Oliver, it had to be the same thing, we were all three linked. I had always thought that and now I was sure of it.

Tristan and I went along to the kitchen. He leaned against the work surface and pulled me close to him.

"I sometimes think about the journey we took together, and how brave you were to come after me in the first place, and of Oliver watching you disappear at the pool, as he must have done. Thank you for coming after me, and if I could have told him I would have said thank you to Oliver for not talking you out of it."

He kissed me then and I hugged him.

"How could I not have come after you? If Oliver could have come too, he would have. He desperately wanted to but the spell wouldn't allow it."

When Tristan had left, I went up to my room. The thought of not having said I had run into Oliver and we were seeing each other was uppermost in my mind, and yet I didn't know what to do about it. I had been wrong. Life had not chosen which one of them should be in my life. It was obvious to me that they both were meant to be. Why was this happening and how would it work? I had no answers.

Chapter Twelve

Saturday was a lovely day. It dawned bright, and stayed bright. There was a little wind, but the sun was shining and the sky was blue, and almost cloudless. I looked out of my window and knew that a message would come onto my phone from Oliver today, and I would meet him tonight. When I thought about it, I wished I was back in time, a few weeks ago, before Rene and his spell. I thought about this for a little while, maybe Aristide could throw us all back in time and stop Rene from doing his spell, but then Tristan wouldn't have been able to make anything right for Richard, and would he then have grieved over him forever?

I looked out of the window again, and I thought hard, if it's not right for me to get to know Oliver again please let me know somehow, give me a sign. I don't know to where I was sending that message.

I had showered and put my cargos and a T-shirt on. I was about to put my phone in my pocket when the sound came that meant I had a message. It was Oliver. 'Was I busy, could he call me?' So much for a sign, I rang him.

He sounded just like my old Oliver, and asked me if I would like to be picked up or would I prefer to meet him? I chose to meet him. Then he said where would we meet? Did I know the Kool Kafé? Did I know the Kool Kafé? Funnily enough, I knew it well, and yes, we could meet outside at about seven thirty. As we ended the call, he said he was really looking forward to seeing me.

Now this was interesting. I could only hope that we would go on to the venue where the band was playing before someone who knew the old Oliver saw this one at the Kool Kafé, and regaled him with questions. I would just have to make sure we got on the way quickly.

The day was about to drag I just knew it, so I went to see dad up at the restaurant and find out if there was anything I could do to help him since it was Saturday.

The walk was good and I noticed all the flowers were still blooming. New ones had grown where the former ones had been beaten off by that heavy rain we had a while ago. I wondered if Ben would be in, and I could casually ask how the design had been done for the roundel Oliver had made.

Dad and Patrick, Marcel, Joe, and another chef whose name I did not know, were sitting around the big table in the staff area. They seemed to be planning a new menu, and I was worried I had interrupted. Dad laughed when I said this and told me, that to offer help was never an interruption. He excused himself for a moment from the other chefs and said, "The thing I need most today, Chloe, is a gopher service. Will you go for the table linen that is missing from the laundry service this week? I rang them as soon as I realized the delivery was short. They apologized profusely. They have people on holiday and someone off having broken their arm, so it was just a mistake. If we could pick up, they have it at the laundry, but the Saturday trucks have gone and it will be late if they wait for the delivery vans to come back. Frankly, I feel sorry for them. They've been excellent until now, so I was going to go myself since everyone else needs to prep, but if you can go, that would be great."

I told dad I was happy to do it and to give me the address, the list of what was missing, and I would be on my way. As he was getting me the address dad was telling me they couldn't do without the special linen because of the double wedding celebration that day, otherwise they would have spare stuff.

I walked back home and picked up the little street directory we sometimes used. It was an easy place to find, three villages away, and it would be a nice drive as the countryside in that direction was lovely, plus I didn't go that way very often.

I drove along listening to music, the lovely weather, and the idea of seeing Oliver that night making me smile every so often. I was thinking I might wear the green flowered dress that Oliver had seen me in when he was my old Oliver. This time I would also wear the blue shoes I had bought.

Arriving at the laundry, I parked on the forecourt, and I rang their bell as the door was closed. I couldn't see through it because it was mirrored, and all I could see was my own reflection.

It opened and a young woman smiled at me when I told her who I was and why I was there. I followed her inside the place and waited in a cool office area until she brought the missing items. I had expected it to be a few things, but it was two large boxes of stuff, and she carried one of the boxes out to my Wrangler whilst I had the other. She sent her apologies to my dad again and I told her it was okay that he understood. She went inside the mirrored doors and I closed up the trunk.

I was just about to turn the key, and get going, when I heard my phone ring. I looked at it to check who was ringing and it was Tristan.

He told me he was taking Charlie out for a walk, and would I like to join them? I explained I was away doing an errand for my dad and we talked for a few seconds.

I set off for the restaurant again. There was a fair bit of traffic on the roads this time and at one point, we were a long line of cars behind a tractor with no way past, on a very thin road. I didn't mind as I listened to music and went more slowly. I saw lots of the lovely scenery.

Suddenly the tractor had turned into a field of some kind of grain, and we were off again racing along the road.

When I got back to dad, I told him the laundry had apologized again, and he smiled at this. Peter came out to get the other box of table linen from my Wrangler and I asked him if Ben was in today as we walked back, he said that Ben was in and right now was checking glasses for the wedding.

I went through to the restaurant and saw the big window doors were open, as I approached them Ben came through with an empty crate. He needed to get more glasses down to the first marquee. I said I would help and we took a small crate of champagne flutes and a crate of water glasses down there.

The marquee was hired from a different company than they usually used, Ben said, and rather than ones we had seen before, it was striped in maroon and cream, sort of like a University blazer. The décor inside for the wedding was also totally different from the light colors I had previously seen. The flowers were deep purples and maroon with some cream, large headed flowers. It was quite striking. The florist was still there putting the finishing touches to the bunches of flowers, which were at each end of a long table. As Ben and I set up the glasses, I called to her that I loved the color scheme, and she said yes the bridesmaids were in burgundy, she had done their flowers. It had been nice to work with a less traditional color scheme than she usually worked on.

As Ben and I walked up to the restaurant, I remarked, "Ben that roundel your workshop made for Oliver is lovely. I was wondering. How did you get the design? It looks like the one I had made of the two knights, but of course the angel and ivy are new additions."

"Oh yes, of course, Oliver asked if we kept computer records of the designs we had made just in case a client broke something and wanted an exact replica. Well we do, and he really wanted the two knights, and an angel made from a photo he gave the workshop, plus a floral border. Which I noticed when I packed it, was ivy. That's about it, Chloe. I never saw the actual photo used for the angel. I do know that he had to persuade Joshua that you would have no problems with them using your knights. I think Josh had decided not to deliver if you had any problems, but it ended up coming to you anyway" and he finished with a look of questioning, and then shrugged his shoulders.

I said, "Sure Ben it's good, I have no problems," and we were at the main restaurant again. Dad was talking with a group of agency staff and Clare was in the staff area. When she saw me, she skipped over to me.

"Hello Chloe, what are you doing here? How are things?"

"Things are fine. I helped dad for a while as it's a bit of a slow day for me, and he had a few things I could do. What about you how's work, how's James, how's the Drama group?"

Clare was beaming. "Well James is lovely, work is good. I enjoy coming here and being amongst people, it sort of helps my drama skills. As for the group, we have funding now, and will be a permanent theatre in the town. It's so cool because the council is actually building a theater and we will be the resident company. We'll need a bit more of a professional company manager and sometimes recruit in other actors, but it's such a positive step. I'm so pleased."

I smiled at this. It was great I agreed. I asked her if she was working for the evening and she said yes all day and night, hurray she needed the money. She had a break at five for an hour and James was coming over, they would pop into the village for a break, did I want to come along.

I said it was lovely of her to ask but that I was going to be busy. She smiled and said seeing Tristan the question in her tone. I didn't actually answer which was not nice but just smiled at her. She took this as a yes and I felt bad but what else could I do she couldn't be burdened with the whole story of Oliver.

At that moment she needed to get to work anyway and I noticed it was after four, which was a shock as I had no idea time had gone so quickly.

The first wedding party had arrived down at the marquee. It was a small group as weddings go from the looks of it.

I asked dad if he had any other jobs I might do, he said none, and so I gave him a kiss on the cheek and left for home.

I had successfully used up a hefty chunk of the day and decided I would eat a sandwich, then dive in the shower to wash my hair and get ready to go to meet Oliver.

Mom was making a sandwich herself and we ate on the patio in the still glorious sunshine. I told her I was going to meet friends in the village and would be out until late. To stop more questioning from her I launched into telling her about seeing Clare and her news about the theatre. I just couldn't risk having to tell outright lies about who I was meeting. I could hardly say it was Oliver.

I went up to my room and made sure I was ready to leave, looking I thought, passable.

Chapter Thirteen

I parked in that pub car park. You know the one, but as far to the front near the street as I could. It was all I could get, the road was chock full of cars. I walked across to Kool Kafé. I could see Oliver at one of the tables near the stream. My heart started beating louder. I felt suddenly nervous and worried. I had never felt nervous about meeting Oliver before.

He stood up as I reached the table, and pulled the chair nearest him out from under the table. I sat down and he did too saying, "Chloe, you look great. Thanks for coming. It's lovely to see you."

I answered him. "Thank you, it's lovely to see you too."

We sort of smiled a little at each other and then he asked if I would like to have something to eat or drink out here, since it was such a lovely evening, and the band did not come on until eight-thirty for their first set. I suddenly realized he meant the band here at Kool Kafé. This was the venue. The band was Will's band and Steven was in it too, yikes, well more than yikes, this was going to be tricky. I thought the only thing to do is roll with it. I couldn't say let's not go in there.

Oliver had some coffee and I asked Samantha who came to serve us, for tea. She looked at me a little quizzically since I was studiously avoiding giving the impression I had ever met her.

I asked Oliver what he had been up to that day as it had been such gorgeous weather. He told me he had been helping his dad. They had another property, a hobby farm with a large cottage, which they were doing up. He smiled then, saying it wasn't really his idea of 'fun in the sun' re-building walls, but at least it was good for keeping fit.

He asked me what I had been up to and I told him coincidentally I had been helping my dad too, giving him a run down on what I had done. He had turned his chair in to face me keeping eye contact, so that it felt as if he was really watching me as I talked about these ordinary things. He reached forward touching a strand of my hair that had fallen down, but then not putting it behind my ear, his hand just brushing my cheek, and I thought for a moment that he would kiss me the way he used to. Instead, he smiled a little smile and said, "Chloe, there is something so familiar about being with you here, it's like déjà vu."

I didn't know what to say. I thought 'if he feels like this, then maybe he will remember another life somehow.' I looked into his eyes, saying I agreed. I could hardly tell the truth and that was the closest I could get.

He did kiss me then, quickly. I put my hand over his on the table.

He just started to open up then. He said he had come in his much loved, old Jimny and I told him about my Wrangler. I told him my mom was a games software developer and all round computer junkie. He found that great because he had always loved computers and was so hoping his business would go ahead. I wanted to say to him it did, it does, there are people out there now wondering where you have got to.

Finally, we were going to go inside the café. The band could be heard starting their first song and I heard Will's voice. I normally love to hear Will sing, but it was stressful this time, and I thought 'what if Liz is in there too?'

We went inside. Oliver had his arm around me, and the place was quite dark. The fairy lights were really the only lights on, except for some soft lights aimed at the band. We were at the back of a number of people, and stopped there listening for the length of the song. Oliver held me quite close to him. I looked around where I could actually see people and saw no one I knew. 'So far,' I thought to myself, and my tension must have transferred to Oliver as he hugged me and looked at me.

He said, "Do you want to get closer to the band, Chloe," which he had to say in my ear, as the music was loud. I smiled and shook my head saying this is fine.

When the band had finished their first group of songs, it was easier to see there were a couple of free tables to one side of the café. They were dangerously close to fairy lights in my opinion should Will or Steven come by. We sat down and the taped music was so much quieter that it was possible to talk to each other. Oliver took my hand in his, leaning in close to me, and said, "Even though the band is cool it might be nice to take a walk. The stream is still pretty in the moonlight."

I said that was a great idea and we left, the girl at the door stamping our wrists with a big blue 'K' stamp just in case we wanted to get back in.

It was good to be walking with Oliver, his arm around me, the sky was clear and the moon was bright. There were streetlights like little glass lanterns all the way along the side of the stream. Some of them had hanging baskets of flowers.

"I feel very close to you Chloe, strangely as if I have known you for a long time, not just a few days. It's weird, but even your dress seems familiar. Sorry, I sound a bit odd," and then he laughed, and looking down just stopped walking, and turned to me.

I put my arms around him because to me this was my dear Oliver. I couldn't stop feeling the same way I had always felt about him. Oliver kissed me then, and it was just as if we had not been parted by that spell. I could hear in my head my own Oliver saying he didn't want me to go, and to promise him I would come back at the first seven-hour time limit. I realized I was kissing him back maybe too much for the situation we were in now, supposedly only having just met, and I stopped. Oliver hugged me to him and said "Chloe I am so glad I met you."

We walked on a little, following the stream down the street, but then it turned in and went under a sort of wall to flow straight down like a waterfall about a meter high. We turned back at that point and walked hand in hand up to the Kool Kafé again. It seemed a shame not to go and listen to Will again. We could hear him singing as we approached the building. Inside Oliver held my hand and we listened to the last group of songs.

At the end, I thought I saw Liz by the side of the raised area that served as a stage, and I turned to Oliver in an effort to conceal him, and my own face should she turn around. Oliver held me close as I turned to him and bent his head to mine. I looked at him, and as our eyes met, he was definitely looking at me the way the old Oliver used to.

"Let's leave shall we?" he asked, and I nodded by way of an answer.

Outside on the paved area he asked where my car was parked, and we walked over to my Wrangler. As we walked, he took my hand, and as we approached my car, it didn't seem as if he was aiming for the right hand side. I didn't lead him. This was interesting he somehow knew I had a left hand drive. He walked straight to that side of the car. We were at the door of my Wrangler and he put his arms around me.

"Chloe, I was thinking, would you like to come over to the cottage tomorrow. I still need to help dad, but we could skip out to the local village and have some lunch, a couple of my school friends still live around there and we often have lunch on Sunday together."

I somehow had forgotten he would have different friends. It worried me a little, that he wanted me to meet his friends, suppose they asked awkward questions? At the same time, I knew Harry was coming around in the afternoon to see the archaeology and how odd would that be if I had gone out. Not to mention I wanted to see Tristan because it would be letting him down too not to be there.

I replied with regret in my tone.

"Sorry Oliver, but we have visitors at home and I need to be there, but thank you for the invitation."

He was visibly disappointed and he sighed.

"Okay, of course. I'll just have to miss you instead," and then he kissed me and it was just as if he had never become another Oliver. It was hard not to treat him as if I had known him for months, and had seen him in hospital, after dragging him from the outbuilding at the back of this pub. It made me shudder thinking of this. Oliver realized and asked what was wrong.

"Nothing really this pub car park always gives me the creeps, but there was no other parking when I arrived."

"I know what you mean I don't like it here. I've never parked here myself, but it has an aura of something unpleasant happening. Maybe you shouldn't park here anymore, not on your own," he answered, and it was another strange thing that he had these feelings. Some residual other life feelings must be there. How, a mystery, but then we were not dealing with science, were we?

I didn't want to let him go and I hugged him saying it had been lovely to see him and the band was exceptional. He hugged me back and kissed the top of my nose and then my lips. It seemed without thinking he stepped away then for me to get in my Wrangler. I unlocked it and suddenly he said, "Oh it's a left hand drive." He seemed confused for a moment then smiled and said, "American huh?"

When I was in the car, I put down my window and he leaned in and kissed me saying he would call me if that was still okay and I could call him too. Maybe we could get together soon if not tomorrow. I said yes it would be lovely to see him again and I started the engine because what I really wanted to do was wrap him up and take him home, tell him the whole story, and have my Oliver back somehow. That was unfair and wrong, so I smiled and started to back out of the parking spot, and drove away whilst he watched me.

On the way home I was panicking a little thinking what if he doesn't call, this is so different from when he lived closer and worked at dad's restaurant. I sighed and put the high beams on for part of the journey as the country road was pitch black, and then took them off as another car approached. I wasn't really concentrating on the drive, but I was home quickly.

I went inside and up to my room. I wanted to get changed, and check out the websites of the companies that Oliver had worked for in the past. Did they still exist or what? I knew the Glazers site did, and it was a mystery to me how this whole thing had worked. Usually in science fiction movies the person who has ceased to exist as that person, never did exist, and no one knows them, but in this case, in real life, he had existed. It was not understandable, but then we had messed with magic and accidental time travel, so who knew what anomalies were to be expected.

I had booted my net book as I showered, and then I leapt in my bed to do the research or stalking depending upon your point of view.

'Here we go' I thought, the concrete window frame site existed, and was exactly the same, then the new age shop with crystals and beautiful colors existed, oh my god his own site existed, Oliver Tarrant Web Design International. I was perplexed. It was something you couldn't just have rules for I supposed. I emailed him at this site saying 'Oliver where are you I am so unhappy without you.' I didn't expect a reply.

It started to rain at midnight and I was still awake, just surfing the internet. I got up and went to my window. I could see the rain below on the patios because of the lights. The big drops bouncing up, the puddles already forming and the reflections of the lights were always fascinating to me. To my surprise, Tristan was down there. He hadn't phoned or texted, and there had been no noise to suggest he was down there. He was standing in the middle of the path, stopped as if he was on the way here or on the way to the wood's edge. I called him, not loudly but enough for him to hear, and he spun around. Looking up at me he smiled, and started to walk down to the house. I hung out the window a little and called, "Wait, I'll come down."

I pulled on my jeans and one of the thin sweaters I had bought when Tristan and I had been shopping. I went quickly to the middle drawing room and let him in.

"Tristan what are you doing? Why didn't you text or something?"

I asked him reaching up to and kissing his cheek.

"Sorry Chloe, I was going to, I was on my way to see you because I just started to miss you, and then I realized how late it was, and it started raining, and I just stopped, and was watching the rain."

"What? You know I don't care what the time is. I would always answer you unless I was fast asleep or something, and didn't hear. Are you wet now? Come into the kitchen. I bet coffee would not be unacceptable." I took his hand and started for the kitchen.

I knew something else was going on.

With the coffee made, I sat close to him, and I asked him,

"What's going on? Something is, tell me Tristan." I took his hand, then let go so he could pick up his cup, but then put my arm around his shoulders. He had taken off his jean jacket and it was on the back of one of the chairs. I could feel his muscles through the linen of his gray shirt and I ran my hand along them, and kissed his cheek again.

Tristan took a deep breath. "Liz thinks she saw you with Oliver tonight in the Kool Kafé. You were wearing your green flowered dress. She was almost sure."

I looked at him. I swallowed, and thought no point in telling him a lie. It was almost a relief to tell him what had happened.

He listened, and sighed a couple of times. I kept hold of him. At the end of the story I said, "I wanted to tell you right from the start. It was so hard not to tell you. I'm glad Liz saw us, and I wish she had approached us and said something."

He was silent for what seemed like a long time and then he asked how I really felt about him.

"Please tell me, did you decide it was Oliver you cared for most after all? This is so hard for me because I do so love you."

Instantly the times we had shared came into my mind. I could picture us on the horses riding to the Tarrant place in eleven ninety. I could see us hand in hand on the upper path to the waterfall. I loved Tristan I knew that for sure.

"Tristan I love you. I came after you into what I thought might even be a void. I seriously care for you. I love you. The thing is, and has been since I met you and Oliver, I care for you both. When you disappeared, I was frantic to find you. When Oliver had changed or whatever we want to call it, I was so sad."

He approached me as I said, "It seems as if he is supposed to be in my life Tristan, just as you are, unless you want to stop seeing me? I don't know what to do about it. Do you remember how we all seem to be connected, but we don't know how? Well it has to be because Oliver is a descendant of Richard, far down the line, but Richard was your half-brother. How I fit in, I don't know, and I feel bad about it sometimes. I think maybe I should stop seeing you both and let you meet someone who only loves you Tristan or him, Oliver, but I just haven't had the strength to do it."

It was the same old story and I knew it would only be a matter of time before Tristan, or maybe Oliver if he got to know about Tristan, would in colloquial terms, dump me.

Tristan sighed again.

"Well thanks for not denying it was you and Oliver out there tonight. I told Liz she had to have been mistaken, but she wasn't too convinced she'd made the mistake. She and Laura are going over to France to see their mother as I said, and Will is going with her. They plan to stay for three or four days. So maybe she'll forget about seeing you. I asked her if Will had seen you and she said no. I sometimes wish it was only me you loved, but at the same time I know you love us both the same and that's what stops me giving up."

He got up to leave, and I stood up too, close enough to kiss him if I stood on tiptoe, but instead, I slipped my arms around him, and hugged him.

He hugged me back and then kissed me. I knew he was somehow still sad and I felt that it was my doing.

I asked him what time he was bringing Harry around tomorrow, which was actually today now, and that got a grin out of him. He was coming around two in the afternoon, and I said if Tristan was picking Harry up, I would go too, and bring him back here, if he wanted.

Tristan was happy about this. We arranged for him to come down to the house about half past one, and then we would go from here.

I was still hugging him. I leaned back to look at his lovely face, his beautiful eyes, and the haphazard way his glossy, brown, hair fell over his forehead. I must have had some kind of loving expression in my own eyes because he kissed me then lingeringly, and it felt as if we had regained our closeness.

When he went to the French doors, the rain had stopped and he went out into the night.

Upstairs I put my netbook on the stool by my bed, and after cleaning my teeth, I tried to sleep. Instead, I thought about Tristan, and the way he had protected me, and saved me in that other time we were in, and how we had faced that journey together.

Chapter Fourteen

The next day after tossing and turning for most of the night I got up late having fallen asleep at dawn.

In the kitchen, Steven had only just surfaced too. He told me he had an early rehearsal because Will had gone off to France with Liz. David was singing lead and had a friend in to help. Like a fool I said, "I saw you last night and you were awesome." Luckily, it didn't really sink in with Steven that I might have been there with anyone, he just basked in the praise and went off eating rolled up pancakes and grinning.

When I went to sort out my clothes, as I really needed to get a few things laundered, I saw I had a message on my cell. It was Oliver, the new one. He found 'he missed me lots and was there any chance I was free tomorrow afternoon because he was not in the office until Tuesday when he was helping his parents with a meeting at a client's premises.'

I texted back saying I would love to see him the next afternoon. He rang me then, and it was so good to hear his voice. He asked if he could pick me up. I needed to avoid that and asked if we could meet in town at the coffee shop we had gone to, after we met in the clothes shop. That was good he told me and we ended the call.

I did put some clothes to launder, and then I was in my room looking at the Glazer site and my design on there, when I suddenly remembered Tristan's sword, and went to my cupboard to check it. I thought how great it would be to use it in a design for stained glass, and decided to photograph it to use for drawings.

I used my phone, to take the photo because it has eight mega pixels. It would do fine since I was going to redraw the sword anyway. I wrapped the sword back up and hid it again. Then blue toothed the photographs to my computer.

I realized I needed to make sure I was ready to go to pick up Harry with Tristan. I put my hair up and added a little eye makeup. I went downstairs as the doorbell rang, and seeing Tristan in jeans and a light blue T-shirt standing there half smiling, I threw my arms around him and he hugged me back

"That was a lovely welcome. Shall we go and get Harry?"

We went in my Wrangler and on the drive, I asked Tristan about his sword.

"Tristan, do you mind, or can you think of any reason why I shouldn't draw your special short sword and make a design for the Glazers with the drawings?"

"I can't see why not. It's a great idea." Tristan grinned at me.

When we arrived at Harry's place, he was happy to be coming over to see the archaeology. As I drove back home, we talked about the protection measures for the painting that were going to be put in place.

As Tristan showed Harry the wall painting, the tunnel, and walled up door, I filled the electric kettle for tea, and then went to see them in the fireplace. They were down the spiral stairs in the tunnel, and I could hear them going on about the stonework and the tiles on the floor, and how the area must flood occasionally like the fireplace room. I went to wait for them in the kitchen and looked out through the big windows at the now very blue sky. There was no sign of last night's rain.

They came along to the kitchen, and Harry was still talking about the stonework. He felt that definitely there was a tunnel behind the other walled up area, which looked to him old enough to have been built in the eleven hundreds. We had tea and Harry talked about how James was doing with his County archaeology work. It was a good afternoon and Harry had really enjoyed seeing the wall painting, which he said was special. We drove him home and told him we would keep in touch.

As I turned the Wrangler to drive back to my house, Tristan leaned over and kissed me. When I smiled at him he smiled back saying, "It's a lovely afternoon come up to the ruins and see how the shop has been refitted. The museum is up and running. We might even walk around the ruins. I'd like to do that with you."

I took a different fork in the road to go up to the ruins, and then parked at one end of the car park. The last time I had been up there was the night of the fire, and it felt like years ago.

Tristan and I walked hand in hand to look at the refurbished shop. When we went into the museum, I half expected the people in there to dash up to Tristan, and say 'aren't you the guy in the stained glass windows.' No one did and only Oliver and I had ever recognized him in them.

We were walking around the ruins. Tristan had his arm around my shoulders. Suddenly, he stopped, and after kissing me, told me he had something he wanted to give me.

I looked at him quizzically and then from his jean jacket pocket he took a ring. It was obviously very old, and the stone was quite big and chunky. The metal must have been gold. It was his ring, one of the rings that appear on his fingers, as he changes his appearance when touching the water of the waterfall pool. He put it first on his little finger, and then took it off and held it out to me.

I was stunned and stepped back a little.

He said, "I want you to have this. It was another of my things I took from my chambers when I went up to the castle and stole food and stuff. I left it with my sword. I don't know how it got there, but it's been under the house all this time. You mean a lot to me. I want you to have this, in case anything happens. It can always remind you of me and our time together, especially when you came to get me in the past and we made the winter journey across country."

I took a deep breath.

"What could happen? You're immortal, and so am I, since you saved my life. What's going on Tristan? This is too much. I can't take your ring from you. It's from a time when you were the heir to that castle, and I feel like there is something wrong that you are giving that to me." I stopped talking. I was shaking my head to emphasize 'no', and looking first at the ring, and then at him a couple of times.

He put it on his little finger and put his arms around me, holding me close he answered,

"Nothing is wrong. I love you, and just once or twice recently I have felt a little strange. It's just that sometimes I think, my life has been so long now, and what with all that has happened maybe it's, well maybe some change is around the corner."

This put a shiver up my spine and terror in my heart.

I looked at him saying, "No don't think like that. What are thinking might change? There can be nothing. Rene is gone, and he can't do a dangerous spell for seven years. I love you, and the stained glass windows are fixed. There is nothing."

I took both his hands in mine. I could feel the big ring on his finger.

"Chloe, I was thinking that maybe Oliver, maybe because you love Oliver too, maybe he's there so that you don't get left alone when I, well if I'm not here."

I didn't get it. Where was this coming from? "Tristan has something happened? Please tell me. I can't take this. I can't lose you." I was frantic.

He sighed then.

"I haven't handled this very well, sorry to have worried you. It's just a feeling that came over me, when I realized Oliver had fallen back into your life and without any effort. I suddenly thought it must be for a reason and the reason may be that I might come to an end."

I couldn't take this, and I put my arms up around his neck and kissed him a few times telling him that he had to be wrong.

His reply was not even remotely convincing.

"If I am wrong then take the ring, to show me you don't believe anything could happen. Take it because I love you and always will, wherever or whatever I am."

This was astoundingly flawed reasoning, but when he took the ring from his little finger holding out to me again, I took it, and put it on my middle finger. It was big for me and spun around. The only thing stopping it from spinning all the way around my finger and the stone ending up at my palm was the fact that the stone was so big. I could feel the weight of it on my hand.

I sighed and looked straight into his blue eyes.

"You can be sure that if something happens to you, I'll try to get it undone, with or without Oliver, I'll find you. This feeling of yours is madness anyway. It's just you trying to think why Oliver is still in my heart and life."

He smiled a sad smile then and kissed me. I didn't let go of him for a long time because this was too much. I was going to protect him at all costs.

We walked back to the Wrangler and I said,

"I'm taking you back to my house, well it's yours really I know, but I'm not about to let you go home to the Dearing house until you have to go because, what the hell, I will worry myself sick after this episode."

Back at the house, he seemed to have shaken the mood. We got him coffee and as he went out onto the patio with it I watched him. He was tall, slim, but strong, very good looking, lovely manners, intelligent, educated, masses of skills and so sweet. I know that's an American thing to say, and since I am I can be excused, but that's what he was. He was good hearted and kind. I looked at him and wondered how had he lived all these years, sometimes with no real friends and stayed a lovely person. There were so many endearing things about him too, like his love for coffee. An eight hundred years and something gorgeous guy who loved coffee, was a vet and who knew what else, could still wield a sword, save lives, what has started him thinking these weird thoughts really, I mused.

He realized I was staring at him. He put down the coffee came to me. He picked me up, spun me around and out the door onto the paving, and we walked around to look at the lawn. We went to the area where the special measures were in place to stop the rain from going into the fireplace room.

"Who could have known in all these years there is a room down there? Funny how it was hidden when the tower was taken down. It must have happened during some of the time I was away. Makes you wonder if someone else knew about the painting and who it was, don't you think?" He grinned and we walked back around to the kitchen.

"Come and see the photos of your sword, Tristan. Have you thought of a better place to hide it yet?"

I had the photos on my screen and sketched what the window might look like quickly for him, he liked the ideas, and as he was looking at them, I took the big ring from my finger and placed it between the two roundels.

Suddenly Tristan saw the one Oliver had ordered. He looked at it, and then at me.

"May I see that?" he asked nodding towards it.

I replied, "Of course, Tristan. I didn't think about it, but I should have let you know. Oliver ordered it before he disappeared, and Ben brought it round to me because Joshua had wanted my okay anyway since the two knights are my work."

Tristan was looking intently at it, and then he said, "The angel is you. How did he do that?"

"He took a photograph of me with his cell just a couple of days before I left to find you. I think he must have used that."

Tristan put it back where it had been. He looked at me, quizzically and with thought.

"There's something in that, we three together in that picture. I feel some kind of reassurance from it."

I smiled at him. "You see. You and your strange ideas. Oliver clearly thought we are all linked."

I reached for him and he took my hand. It was then that I suddenly thought about Oliver's Land Rover, and his cell phone, on which he had that picture of me.

"Tristan, you know how some of our belongings just anomalously came and went with us through time, well what might have happened to Oliver's cell, and his Land Rover? Do you think there is still a chance they could be out there somewhere? The new Oliver has a Jimny, and a different phone."

Tristan raised his eyebrows and grinned.

"Now that is a cool idea that the Land Rover, and the cell phone might be hanging around somewhere waiting for him to come back. Chloe let's look for them."

I didn't know if he was joking. He was grinning, and the idea might seem ridiculous to most people, so was he joking?

"Do you mean it, Tristan?" I asked him putting my arms around his waist.

"Or are you joking like as in 'that's a crazy thing to say Chloe!'"

He smiled.

"No I mean it. Let's think of where he may have been, and check out if the Land Rover is there. I always liked that thing. I might even have to look after it for him if we find it."

I laughed at this, and saying it sounded as if he thought Oliver might come back for it, I kissed him.

"Let's think of some places now and take a look, seriously I don't feel like going home. What do you say, or did you want to do the design, sorry?"

"No Tristan, let's do that, it might be fun. Okay let's think, it can't be at the restaurant, it can't be at the Glazers place, or where he used to live. Maybe it's parked near either of the cafés or a client's place."

Tristan was smiling at me.

"We could check the cafés out quite quickly, but the clients who are they?"

I told him then about the websites still existing

"You know something odd too, this new Oliver wants to have his own IT business."

We were on our way downstairs to my Wrangler when Tristan said,

"Have you tried calling Oliver's old phone?"

"Well no, I haven't I only tried my own cell when I thought Oliver had it."

We had reached my car and once we were on the road to the café by the library, and then Kool Kafé Tristan got out his cell and called Oliver's number.

"No answer, but then I didn't expect there would be," he reported.

We reached the library car park and no Land Rover. Then we cruised by the other likely roadside spots he could have parked in. After that, we drove around to the Kool Kafé. It was weird because I had already seen the new Oliver here. I looked quickly at Tristan to check his expression but he looked at me and smiled.

I drove up, and around the pub car park, and up and down the road right to the end where Clare's mom's house was. Nothing to be seen, well Oliver's Land Rover was not to be seen. I thought about it for a moment when we stopped at the lights going out of the village. I headed for the next town where I had met both Olivers, and where I was to meet the new Oliver tomorrow afternoon.

"He may have been in this next town, Tristan, I think he may have had a client there. I was trying to remember who his last client was. The one I knew about anyway, and I think it could have been a music shop. He had been rendering a little movie for the site, and I think it was of a band playing. Do you know if there are any music shops in town?"

Tristan laughed and said, "You're asking the wrong man, but I can ring Will, and ask him."

Will told us there was a music shop right at the end of the high street by the bridge.

Soon enough we were in the town and passing the coffee shop where I was to meet the new Oliver. I didn't look at it and I didn't look at the shop where both Olivers had bought jeans.

Tristan was checking the cars parked along the roads as we passed some angle parking, and a few meter car parks, with no success. At the end of the main street, the music shop had its own car park, but Oliver's Land Rover was not there. I asked Tristan if maybe we were being silly and should give up.

"No Chloe, let's just cruise around the back of the church there's a car park there which I use sometimes."

I knew the place myself. "Of course," I answered him.

Since I had been there recently I didn't think the Land Rover would be there. It wasn't in the main parking area, but Tristan knew the overspill car park area behind a stand of trees, which I didn't, and there it was, Oliver's Land Rover.

To begin with when Tristan clutched my arm and said, "Good lord, there it is." I thought it would be a car that looked like Oliver's, but then we parked almost next to it, and I knew it was actually Oliver's car.

We got out of my jeep and started to peer into the Land Rover.

"Tristan how bizarre, I didn't really think we would find it, but it is his, and look there's his jean jacket on the back of the driving seat."

I looked at Tristan and having pushed my car keys into my jeans pocket I took his hand, for some kind of reassurance. Seriously, this time travel stuff is so unpredictable. It does make you think you may be about to go 'pouf', so maybe that was why Tristan had been weird earlier.

Tristan walked around it saying, "It's clamped. I'm surprised it's not been towed. There's a notice on it, yikes two hundred and fifty pounds to get it unclamped, within seven days then impounded. Well seven days are up, but it's not towed and impounded, maybe the record of it ceased to exist," and then he laughed. He had brought me with him all the way around the Land Rover as I was still holding his hand, and I stopped when he stopped.

We peered through the window again.

"We need the keys you know, to do anything. I wonder where they would be or how we could get another one? Well this is a pest," Tristan said with a frown.

"Tristan in the States you can just ring these guys called 'Auto key wizards' and they will come and get you in your car, and make a new key, but you have to prove it's your car. Maybe there's one in the city, we could check."

Tristan sighed. "How to prove it's ours that's the trick."

He was walking around the Land Rover again and suddenly tried the back, the lift up door. I couldn't believe my eyes when it opened.

"Oh my god," I laughed. "I don't believe it. What gave you the inspiration to try the trunk door? Obviously no thieves have, well not before it was clamped that is."

Tristan was laughing too. "Unbelievable," he said as I tried the other doors, but they were locked.

Tristan called me to the back of the car and said,

"Crawl in and get his jacket, check the glove compartment and anywhere you know he stored things. Is there a middle of the seat compartment like in your Wrangler?"

I shook my head but crawled in. I handed the jacket to Tristan first.

"I can't believe this. His phone is in his jacket pocket," Tristan called to me.

I looked in the glove compartment and found nothing. I had my hand under the seat feeling around, and then I lifted the catches on the doors for Tristan.

He opened the driver's door as I was feeling under the passenger seat.

"Don't bother Chloe. His keys are here too, buttoned down into the top pocket. I think he must have been getting ready to leave the car. He had everything he needed, but before he took the jean jacket out, 'pouf', he was gone. Sorry Chloe, I don't mean to be flippant, but why else would this stuff be in there? He was maybe going to go to the machine just over there to get a ticket." He nodded at the nearby pay and display ticket machine. I got out of the car and stood there thinking of this, it sounded like a plausible theory.

I took Oliver's jacket from Tristan. He looked at me kindly as I took it. I got the phone out, put it in my other pocket, and then handed Tristan the keys.

"We could lock it now, and get it unclamped," I said.

Tristan rang the number on the notice stuck on the windscreen. Sure enough, they had no record of it, and Tristan said regardless of that, they needed to come and unclamp the vehicle. 'Of course, he could pay cash,' I heard him say. Then he turned to me and said,

"They will be twenty minutes, so let's go to the ATM on the high street, for the money to pay."

We got a parking ticket for my Wrangler, and having placed it in full view of any roaming inspector, we walked down to the ATM.

I had locked Oliver's Land Rover and put his jacket into my Wrangler. Tristan put his arm around my shoulders. The sun was losing its warmth as evening was arriving. He leaned in and kissed me and I sighed.

"Tristan isn't this stuff weird?"

"Yes and no, but it's been great to hunt the Land Rover down. Don't you think? Don't tell me it hasn't been fun."

I had to admit that apart from the thought of Oliver going 'pouf' it had been fun.

I also thought, 'what else is out there that we don't know has changed? Did we change other people's lives as well, people we will never know about?' The thought was unsettling.

Tristan sensed my feelings and tightened his arm around my shoulders. We had reached the ATM, and he got out a heap of cash, which he stuffed in his pocket.

We walked back to the cars. We were sitting in the Wrangler, when the 'unclamping people' showed up ten minutes late. I stayed in the car as Tristan dealt with them.

They argued with Tristan for the barest time, then took the cash and unclamped the car. After they had driven off, Tristan told me they tried to get proof of ownership and he had dangled the keys at them, and said since you have no record on this clamping it's illegal anyway.

We had been remarkably lucky, I thought.

Tristan was going to drive the Land Rover to my house and followed me as I swung my Wrangler out of the car park to drive home.

On the way I thought about this odd turn of events, it had cheered Tristan up anyway.

At the house, Tristan parked Oliver's Land Rover close to the hedges that bordered the far side of the drive. I had parked and walked to him as he got out of the Land Rover. He locked it up and gave me the keys.

"There you go, Chloe." He smiled and put his arm around my shoulders to walk to the front door.

Inside he made some coffee and I poured some cranberry juice. We were standing together looking out at the darkening sky. There were stars starting to shine out there. I put down my glass.

"Tristan I need to tell you, I'm seeing the new Oliver tomorrow. He asked me to meet him for coffee in the afternoon." I said it in a rush, and watched his face for any signs of dismay.

Instead, he smiled and said, "Well I need to tell you I am seeing this Oliver on Tuesday morning. Jack asked me to be at the meeting since Liz is away. Annabelle Tarrant and company will be back to discuss the plans they have made."

He had put his coffee down and I went to him. He put his arms around me, kissed me, and said, "Just like old times then."

I didn't quite know what to say to this so I said nothing, and kissed him back.

He needed to check his horses and walk Charlie so he said he would call me the next evening and I went out to the drive with him where the little white car had been all day. As he started the engine, I leaned in, kissed him, and told him I loved him, and to remember that.

When I was upstairs in my room I went to the computer still booted with the photos of Tristan's sword on the screen, and then I saw the ring between the two roundels. I picked it up and took a deep breath. This was a serious item. When I looked at the sword and the ring, I felt a deep connection to history. It was a good feeling. The objects were not just beautiful, but somehow they bound you to them with this feeling.

I worked on the design with the sword, and wanted desperately to have it held by a hand, but it felt too Arthurian, and so I had it horizontally, slightly on an angle, with a flying bird at each end sort of holding it up. I had the birds be falcons and made the whole thing rectangular. The border would be triangles in all the beautiful blues and reds of thirteenth and fourteenth century stained glass windows. I was still working at midnight and suddenly realized I was hungry.

I went down to the kitchen for a sandwich, and found Steven down there. He was plucking a melody out on his acoustic guitar. He looked up grinning at me, when I came in.

We chatted for a while as I made a sandwich, and he told me that the band had been okay even without Will, although they had shortened the last group of songs.

I left him scribbling on his notepad, no doubt composing, one of his favorite pastimes.

I didn't want to send off the design to Joshua Glazer until I had shown it to Tristan. I felt he should 'okay' this portrayal of his short sword.

I did open the Glazer website and navigated to the page of designs that people could choose from. To my surprise, the design for the roundel that Oliver ordered was up on the site. I checked, yes that was it all right, and it was under the artist's name, mine, as a design that clients could choose.

I was perturbed by this. There was Oliver, Tristan, and me out there on display. Then I calmed down, no one would recognize us, the Glazers hadn't. Ben must have thought when I had said okay to the roundel design I meant it could be used for general purposes. I would ask Tristan what he thought tomorrow evening.

I was asleep quite quickly that night.

Chapter Fifteen

Monday morning went by in a flash as I worked again on my sword design and I went to meet Oliver at the coffee shop. I parked ironically in the church car park, and walked down to the high street. I could see him from a distance, his familiar and loved figure at a table near to the small fountain that was set in the paving there outside the coffee shop.

He saw me too and smiling as I approached, he stood and kissed my cheek.

"Chloe it's great to see you."

I sat down opposite him answering,

"It's good to see you too, how's work, and did you do any more on that cottage with your dad yesterday?"

"We did a little more. It's a slow process. In reality, I don't think my dad wants to finish it. It's like his escape from work." He smiled at this notion and reached across the table for my hand. I was fiddling with my keys, which I had taken out of my jeans pocket when sitting down. He took them out of my hands and put them on the table. I watched him do this and saw him become serious.

"Chloe, the strangest things have been happening to me recently. I had this feeling of déjà vu with you a couple of times, but it's as if I really do know you." He faltered for a moment as if he was thinking should he go on. "Last night I looked at the website you told me your designs were loaded onto, the site for stained glass windows, well I saw a design that seriously spooked me. It was one of yours. Under the artist's name, it was you, Chloe, Chloe McGarry right? I thought that was what you'd said." He stopped then and waited for my confirmation of my surname and so I nodded and tightened my hand around his.

"Well the design seemed to be me and another guy, with you as an angel in the middle. The other guy was so familiar to me, and I felt such a strong sadness when I looked at it I was spooked half the night. How did you design something with me in it before we had even met?"

I felt spooked too at the thought that I had been looking at the design myself last night not knowing Oliver was, and thinking no one would know who it was.

I leaned over the table a little.

"Oliver maybe it's still that déjà vu stuff."

I couldn't think of anything else to say.

He looked at me as if he didn't think so, but then he smiled.

"We don't need to order yet do we? Perhaps we could walk a little, and then come back here. I'd like that."

I nodded an okay and stood up, put my keys back in my pocket, and stepped around the table where he put his arm around me.

As we walked down the street, he told me again that he had a meeting with his parents at a client's premises the next day, and that he had felt some of this déjà vu stuff the last time he had been at the place.

I just gave him a sympathetic look. We had reached the bridge over the river. This walkway broke away from the road and the top walkway, and then it went down to a path by the river. We went that way. Oliver stopped and we watched the sun sparkle on the water for a moment, then he turned to me. His face was white and he said, "I know for sure I have been with you watching water before. Sorry you must think I am some kind of weirdo, but seriously I remember quite clearly being with you, next to water."

I put my arms up to his head and held his face after he said this. I felt like I must reassure him because this would be scary stuff for anybody. I shook my head.

"I don't think that. I've had some weird experiences myself, don't worry." He was looking into my eyes and I kissed him. I wanted to tell him everything right then. I wondered would that have driven him away? Dear Oliver how was this happening?

He kissed me and we hugged each other for a couple of minutes, and then we walked a little further. He was quiet and we took the small bridge over the river. It was narrowed there, with paved embankments, so that people could cross at this point. We walked up the other side.

"Where do you live Chloe?" he asked, and glanced at me as if he was working something out.

I couldn't lie. "On the Dearing estates, the Peacock Estate part, my dad has a restaurant."

"Really" he said. "That's a coincidence as the clients I'm seeing tomorrow are the Dearings. Do you know any of them well, other than Liz?"

"I do know them, yes. Is the meeting about their new venture?" I asked hoping this would lead him away from how well I knew the Dearings.

"Yes, although strictly speaking I can't talk about it. It's confidential."

"Sure, I get that," I replied.

We had come to the street again. We walked along to the coffee shop where we found a table. The ones by the fountain were taken this time, so we were close to the windows. Sitting next to him, he took my hand and held on to it in the space between us.

I asked him about his friends who still lived in the village near his dad's hobby farm, had others left?

"Yes, they've gone off to different universities and made new friends. It's surprising how people move on quickly, and I sometimes wish I had gone further afield to university instead of starting in the nearby city. I stayed for family reasons. They have more than one business. Amanda has a Wedding planning business with a quite famous Wedding party venue about twenty miles from Oxford. She only has her name on the marketing consultancy in reality, as she's cut back considerably in the last few years. The idea is that I should finish my marketing degree and then join the marketing business full time, but I really wanted my own IT business."

He smiled a little regretfully and I felt like hugging him, but I just held his hand tighter and he continued to tell me about his friends who had remained in the village.

"One of my friends is the son of a farmer and he wouldn't dream of going anywhere else or of doing anything but join his dad on the farm. Another is a girl and she has opened a small shop selling local produce. It's doing really well. She initially stayed because her mother is not well, and then she just stayed because she likes it here."

I was watching him. This was a slightly sadder Oliver than the one who had disappeared. I felt like telling him about the clients he already had, after I saw how wistful he was about having his own business.

I was almost going to, when out of the coffee shop came James, Phil and Leslie. They saw me straight away, and saying hello launched into telling me some details about when the work would be done on the archaeology in the house. Then they digressed to talking about their new dig up in a Saxon churchyard.

I said, "Wow that's great." They were smiling in their usual enthusiastic way.

I noticed James looking at Oliver in a questioning way, because let's face it, he knew Oliver from working in the restaurant and suddenly he said, "Hey it's good to see you Oliver. Ben's been wondering where you have got to, well we all have. I hope nothing is wrong."

The others had stopped talking and were about to walk up the high street. They were just waiting for James a few paces off.

Oliver looked at him as if he was speaking an unknown language, and grimaced.

"Sorry, but you must be mixing me up with someone else. I don't know anyone called Ben," he said.

I looked at James and he looked at me with raised eyebrows. I gave him a stare that meant 'I'll talk to you later,' but he shook his head saying to Oliver.

"You know a lot of people are thinking of you when you are ready Oliver."

Then James gave me a smile and said, "Chloe" nodding at me and walking after Phil and Leslie, and I said, "James" as he went.

Oliver took a drink of the coffee he had in front of him, he let go of my hand and then turned to me, moving his chair to face me.

"Now that was one of the weirdest things that has ever happened to me. Who is he and why does he think he knows me? He obviously knows you."

I was thinking it's not the weirdest thing lovely Oliver, but you don't know it.

I said, "James Parker, an archaeologist, what can I say, he thinks he knows you. You don't remember him from anywhere Oliver?"

"No, no I don't. This is another strange thing to add to the weird stuff and feelings I have been subject to just recently." He looked dejected.

I did put my arm around his shoulders then, and I kissed his cheek, after all what had I got to lose by showing my feelings for him.

He cheered up a bit then and asked if I would like to go look at some premises he was thinking of enquiring about. It was down a small street off the high street and had an apartment over the office and shop front.

"We can only see the outside, but still the front is important, and the location." He said to me, picking up his phone and moving back his chair.

"Is it for your IT business?" I asked him, as I moved away from my own seat.

"Yes, I thought, maybe see clients in the downstairs, and live in the apartment. It has a shop front so I could do some computer techie stuff as well as the web design."

He seemed cheered by this and took my hand to walk up the high street for a short way then we turned off into a small lane, which had a number of shops on it. Picture framers, a shop selling leather jackets and coats, a bridal wear shop, and then the empty shop that Oliver had talked of. The lane was nicely kept with colored paving and baskets of flowers hung on the cross bars of the streetlights. The shops were modern looking although I could see the buildings were not modern. They had whitewashed walls and big glass frontages.

Oliver stood back from the one he was interested in to show me the apartment on the second floor, he pointed it out as going over the next-door carport building, as well as the shop. It had a 'For lease' sign and Oliver said he had already looked online at the real estate agents description and photographs of the place. I told him it looked good from the outside and it would be nice to get a look inside. He was pleased with this and I thought how great it would be to tell him about the clients he already had. Could it do any harm to aim him at them at all? Of course it could, what was I thinking of, I berated myself.

We walked hand in hand to the Church car park where he had parked too, and I was shaking my head thinking of last night when Tristan and I were just behind the tree screen there retrieving the old Oliver's Land Rover.

"Let me see your Jimny, Oliver. I thought about getting one once, before mom had shipped my Wrangler over."

We walked down the car park to the edge where a wall was designating the end of it. I saw that his Jimny was a dark blue, and mud splattered at the back. He had a waterproof jacket over the driver's seat back and CD's scattered on the passenger seat. An empty bottle of spring water was on the floor, and a pair of boots next to it. He looked at me grinning.

"It's a bit of a mess, and I never seem to have time to clean it."

I smiled at him. "It looks like you Oliver," and I was thinking of his Land Rover where much the same stuff was scattered about.

I was glad the thing was not silver gray like the one I had looked at.

He put his arm around me to walk down to my Wrangler and I leaned in a little to him. When we reached my car, he hugged me then stepped away a saying, "Since I'm around where you live tomorrow maybe I could see you? I can meet my parents at the clients so that I have my own transport. What do you think? I really would like to see you Chloe."

I didn't want to leave him right then so it was easy to say yes and because I didn't know what else to arrange I said to call me when his meeting was finished and we could meet.

I was looking into his brown eyes and thinking how much I cared for him when he held me closer and kissed me. Then he started to laugh and picked me up in a hug saying that it felt like he had known me all of his life not a few days and that was really nice. When he put me back down, I kissed him and if he didn't know right then that I loved him he never would. I think he felt it, because he was quiet for a few seconds with his head next to mine as I held him close.

I moved and opened my driver's side door. I hadn't thought to move his jean jacket, which Tristan and I had taken out of the Land Rover last night. There it was on the passenger seat of my Wrangler. I know he saw it, but jean jackets, unless someone is wearing them, they can look alike tossed on a seat. He would have thought it was mine.

I leaned out of my window before I drove off and said, "I'll hear from you tomorrow."

He held the door with one hand and my face with the other kissing me, and then said, "You bet."

Chapter Sixteen

At home, even though I was desperate to tell Tristan what was happening, and that James had seen Oliver, I would wait and see if Tristan came around or called that night. Mom wanted Steven and I to walk up to the restaurant and have supper with dad. We went up there in her Cherokee because the breeze had turned cold. We were just inside the restaurant where it was warmer, but we could see out of the window doors to the lights and the lake lit up as usual. Dad was telling us about two of the agency staff that had helped at the weddings this weekend and how he had said if they ever wanted more work he had two vacancies to fill.

I said, "Who are you replacing Dad?" and it was James, and of course Oliver. I didn't say anything at all, and no one else did.

We had finished supper and gone home. I was in the kitchen making a cup of tea for mom and me when my cell rang. Tristan would really like to see me if I was not busy. I laughed at him and told him I was desperate to see him, which made him laugh, and he told me he would come over. The red truck was pulling into the drive as I came back from taking mom her tea.

I went to the door, and opened it before he rang the doorbell. I took his hand, kissed his cheek, and we went into the kitchen where I had poured some water onto some coffee granules for him as I had made tea.

"So tell me or show me, you choose, why you are desperate to see me," he said.

I laughed again at him, and putting my arms around him hugged him saying it was good to see him.

He kissed the top of my head and then asked, "Well what's going on then?"

I sat down facing him and told him everything that had happened with Oliver that afternoon, how he was having déjà vu, how James had seen him, and what James had said. All about how awful it was to know Oliver wanted a computer business and his old clients were out there waiting for him.

Tristan was sympathetic. "I think it's probably worrying for him but what I'm most worried about is James seeing Oliver."

He had just finished speaking when my cell phone rang again.

"James says you were seen with Oliver today, and he didn't know who he was, James that is. What's going on Chloe, everybody is worried about Oliver?" Clare sounded concerned.

I had her on speaker, and Tristan raised his eyebrows at me, and shook his head as if to say 'don't tell.'

"I know what it looked like, but Oliver is going through some things at the moment, family stuff, and seriously he just needs space. Clare, please apologize to James for me. I did give him a look that I hoped meant I would get back to him, but I don't know if he read it on my face."

I had nothing else I could say, and Tristan was smiling and nodding as if the stuff I had said was okay.

"Well if there is anything any of us can do, just tell Oliver we hope he gets back to us soon."

"I will. I'll talk to you later, okay Clare?"

She said okay and rang off.

"Tristan this is so hard. I knew someone would see him eventually and now it's happened sooner than I thought. Oh no, I forgot to tell you that the roundel our Oliver had made was somehow put up on the Glazer's site and he, I mean the new Oliver saw it. That was one of the spooky things. I wonder what will happen when he sees you tomorrow in that meeting, because he no view of your face at the café that afternoon when we first saw him?"

"Who knows, this whole thing is a singular mess. We need to let it play out a little, and then try to help Oliver if he suddenly has some kind of mental breakthrough, or breakdown. Was he okay when he left you today?"

"Well yes, he was okay, I thought, I hope so anyway."

I had got up to answer my phone and had been pacing up and down. Tristan came to me and held me to him, and I put my head on his chest, and listened to his heartbeat for a moment. I looked up at him and he kissed me and said, "Whatever we need to do for Oliver I'm with you, seriously. He seems destined to be in both our lives and you love him still, even though he is different, I can see that. It doesn't even hurt because it's obvious you love me too. This whole thing is not something any one of us would have expected is it?"

"No, no I would never have dreamed any of it so far. When I was on the plane, here from LA I was thinking I would more than likely go home, live with my grandmother, and go to UCLA within a few weeks. Now I could never leave, not you, not Oliver, and not this place."

Tristan sighed and kissed my cheek, giving me another hug.

"Tristan, come and see the sword design I have worked on for the Glazers. I don't want to send it off without your approval."

He looked at me with a smile, "Okay," he said.

In my room I had my computer booted, and showed the scanned work to him. He looked intently at it for a while and then turned to me with a smile.

"I love it," he said. "I really do. I like the composition. I like everything about it."

I grinned at this. "Do you really, I know it's a little on the romantic side?"

"No I do love it. It's actually very medieval in design. You can go ahead and give it to the Glazers."

He was sitting in my desk chair and I went to him. I put my arms around his neck and kissed him leaning over his shoulder.

"Okay I'll do that tomorrow," I told him.

It was not late but Tristan needed to go and said he would let me know what happened at the meeting as soon as he could. I reminded him that Oliver might do that too. I went downstairs with him to the old truck he sometimes drove and watched him drive off.

Chapter Seventeen

I thought I might try to get some sleep and got to bed about eleven.

I had slept for a short time when I was woken by some kind of noise. I went to the window and saw Cedric down there on the lawn. Tristan was standing under my window and I said, "Hey there, Cedric needed a midnight jaunt I guess."

"Come for a little ride with me, he likes you."

I put my jeans on, pulled on my boots and a sweater, and got my jacket because it was a little cold out there.

Downstairs Tristan grinned as I closed the door behind me quietly.

We walked towards Cedric, who put up his head and walked to meet us. Tristan got me up there into the saddle in front of him and Cedric walked off up towards the woods. With Tristan holding me and having my jacket on, only my nose was cold.

I sighed. "This is great. I miss Meadow. You know it's weird but I felt after a while he understood what I was saying to him, I mean really understood me."

"I know, and they do, horses are so very clever," he answered and he let Cedric trot a little to the end of the field by the wood. The moon was very big and white, but half hidden by clouds. The night air made it feel as if we were back in the eleven hundreds and I rested my head back against Tristan. We had something special him and me. Where had it come from really?

We turned and came back to the lawn where Tristan helped me down from the lovely horse. We walked to the French windows and Tristan said I could ride one of the other horses with him if I would like to, maybe not at midnight though and we smiled at each other. I told him that would be great. He kissed me and I went back up to my room and looked out the window. He was walking up the lawn and Cedric was following him, they looked like best friends. When he reached the wood, he turned, and I waved at him. He mounted Cedric and they went into the wood.

It was hard to go back to sleep, because I remembered the last time we had ridden Cedric and only a few days later Tristan had disappeared. I stopped myself from thinking about it, and must have drifted to sleep shortly after.

Chapter Eighteen

The next morning I was acutely aware that both Oliver and Tristan were going to contact me shortly after the meeting. I sent off an email to Joshua Glazer and tried to fill in the time with odd chores that need doing. I had tidied my room, and done some tidy up of files on my computer, when I heard my cell get a message. As I picked it up, I noticed it was midday.

The text was from Oliver and he wanted to meet me at 'The Peacocks' of all places. I was panic stricken for a moment and then I had an idea, 'how about the abbey café' I texted back and I could be there in fifteen minutes. He agreed and I quickly cleaned my teeth, put on lip-gloss, and grabbed my things. I was off in my Wrangler in next to no time, thinking, 'can you believe that 'The Peacocks' of all places', dad's restaurant full of everyone who might know him.

I parked in the abbey car park actually next to Oliver's Jimny and walked up there to the shop and café.

Oliver was at a table and had some things on the table in front of him. He looked up as I reached the table and smiled, but was sort of distant too.

I said hello looking at what he had in front of him. There were postcards of the stained glass windows that showed Tristan.

"Explain to me why I think this knight guy here looks exactly like Tristan Dearing, whom I have just had a business meeting with, in his massive ancestral home." He tapped the postcard on the top of the pile, which clearly had Tristan on it. Well clearly to me and obviously to him too.

I hadn't thought anything about asking him to meet me here. It was just better than the restaurant, but now it looked like this had backfired.

"Do you really think so?" I asked picking up the postcard.

"Chloe, please, you know it's him. Just as it's him in the stained glass roundel on the Glazer's website. It's a twin if not. Oh well maybe it's his ancestor, but really I thought it was him when I saw it just now in the museum, as I was waiting for you..." he faltered and took a deep breath.

I couldn't lie to him anymore it was just not fair. He might think he was losing his mind or something.

"It's him, yes. Sorry Oliver, you need to know otherwise you'll think you're cracking up or something." I just said it and looked closely at his face to see the effect my words had on him.

He shook his head, frowning at the same time.

"It's him? But how?" he asked, as I put the postcard back down.

"It's a long story. Tell me what you thought of him when you met him today in the meeting first."

"I thought I knew him from somewhere and I guessed it had been him with you at that café when I saw you first of all. I liked him, he was fair, and business like. As we talked, I grew certain I knew him, and was trying hard to remember where from. We had coffee, and stood around for a few minutes as Thomas and Jack chatted about a painting. I asked him then did I know him somehow, where had he been to school or college. He laughed and said I wouldn't have met him at either, maybe just around town. As he talked, I knew for sure I had met him before, just something about him. Then we got on with the meeting."

He paused then and shook his head. He picked up the postcard.

"Extraordinary" he said. "So now tell me how do I know him?''

"Could we go somewhere else for me to tell you, because as far as I know, not one other person has ever recognized Tristan in the stained glass?" I asked him. I looked around to check the proximity of other people. The café had two other couples, but they were engrossed in their own chatter.

He gathered the things in front of him saying, "Okay, that's fine, let's go."

We went out into the car park and I led the way to the cars parked side by side.

When we were there, I sighed. I wanted to take his hand, but I didn't know if he would let me. Then he leaned on the Jimny, and opened his arms to me. I went to him and quickly put my arms around him.

"This stuff is so weird, Oliver, and yet it's true. I want you to know I am counting on you not to tell anyone what I say to you, well apart from Tristan, you can verify it with him if you want to."

He sighed, he looked a little resigned, and then worried.

"Okay I realize it's weird, but tell me."

I told him the story of Tristan except for the part where he as the old Oliver came into it, and the part where I went after Tristan and we changed his life for this one.

He looked at me, and I saw a range of emotion, mostly disbelief, go over his face, until eventually he believed me.

"This is truly unbelievable, and yet I do believe it. It doesn't explain how I fit in. How do I know him? How do I know you? Don't say it's déjà vu because I dreamed about you last night. I dreamed you came to see me and I was in hospital. It was bizarre, I had been stabbed."

"Oliver, follow me home and I'll tell you other stuff, will you do that?"

He nodded and I lifted my face up to kiss him. He closed his eyes and let me kiss him.

He followed my Wrangler and we drove into the big area out front of my house.

I got out of my Wrangler and went to meet him at the Jimny taking his jean jacket with me from my passenger seat.

The keys to his Land Rover and his old cell phone were upstairs on my desk.

I took his hand and he smiled at this. He had parked next to mom's Cherokee and said nice car as we walked past it to the front door. Suddenly he stopped dead and I turned to look at him. "What is it Oliver?"

"Well it's just that I had a flash of something just then. You and I walking to this door, I've done it before, but I can't have."

I gently pulled him by the hand and got him inside.

"I want to show you the house, just show you around and you don't need to say anything until we are upstairs in my room, okay?"

He smiled at me with a mystified expression in his eyes. I showed him around and I knew he recognized the place. We went into the kitchen last and he sat down at the big table. I put the jean jacket down on a chair as I intended to tell him about it last. I offered him coffee and as I was making it mom came down the hall, she was on her cell phone, and then as she saw Oliver she smiled and after her call ended she said, "Oliver, how great to see you. How did that bit of code I helped you with work out did it do the trick? I have a level of a game that I think you would love to see later, if Chloe can spare you."

Oliver looked at me with a wide-eyed stare and then said, "The code was great Mrs. McGarry, thanks." I was grateful for this.

I had made mom some coffee too and she picked it up, and then put it down as her cell rang again. She went off down the hall to talk and I took Oliver, his jean jacket, and his coffee up to my room.

When we were up there, I put the coffee down on my desk. He followed me to it and saw the two roundels. One by one, he picked them up, and held them to the light from the other big window. I watched him, and waited for the questions.

"Well this is cute, I'm with you and Tristan in these two stained glass pictures, and he is in the abbey stained glass that has to be a thousand years old. I don't know if I am mad or dreaming."

He sat on the end of my bed. I looked at him from where I was leaning on my desk.

"Oliver you are neither, this is real, Tristan is real. I am too. If I tell you the rest of the story will you stop liking me do you think? I care for you so much, and it's been torture for me over the last few weeks. I know that sounds selfish, but I need you to know I'm here for you if you feel overwhelmed by the story."

I went to him and sat down next to him.

"I never expected that you would recognize things so soon after I had met you again, and this must be a bit scary."

I tried to hold his hand but he turned to me saying,

"Met me again, so you have met me before, where?" Then he took my hand and continued. "When I saw you sitting with Tristan at the café the afternoon my parents and I stopped for lunch, I felt such a strong attraction to you it stopped me in my tracks. I was going to come over to you then, but you were with another guy, so it was impossible. Then when I saw you again shopping, I thought it's got to be more than coincidence, seeing you again so soon. I feel as if we know each other very well, and I already feel strongly about you. Tell me the story, your mother knows me, so there has to be more, and it may not be all bad if she was helping me with a program code."

I told him the story little by little then, until we got to the part where he had disappeared. I said he had ordered the roundel with me in the middle.

I showed him the websites he had built with my netbook, which was booted and on the stool next to my bed. I showed him his jean jacket, his cell, and the keys to his Land Rover. I told him that Tristan and I were devastated to think that by saving Richard we had changed his life. I had been distraught because I love him. I told him Tristan and I had hunted down his Land Rover, and it had been clamped in the church car park we had parked in yesterday. I told him I would take him down to his Land Rover and show it to him. He stopped me then.

"I am completely overwhelmed by all this, but at the same time I know it's true. I know in my heart that it's all true. How it really works, you know the science of it, is a complete mystery. My parents are real, everything is real that exists now. The Tarrant Estates, even though I haven't visited since I was sixteen, they are as you describe. It's actually touching that you and Tristan went there looking for me. Chloe we must still be meant to be together or I wouldn't have met you in this other version of myself. I loved you before, and it feels very much like I love you again. I feel happy when I'm with you, have I told you that?"

"You used to say it. Oliver, I'm so sorry these things have happened. When I saw you in that café where you had stopped with your mom and dad, I wanted to run to you and hug you. It was agony not to call out, 'Oliver please remember me'. We've had some strange times together, and you've helped me through some stuff too." I was shaking my head, and suddenly I realized tears were falling out of my eyes.

Oliver saw them and he put his arms around me.

"Chloe, don't cry, you've found me again now. It feels good to be loved. It feels like coming home."

He kissed me then, and we hugged and kissed each other for a few minutes.

"Let me see the Land Rover, Chloe," he asked.

We took the cell phone down to the kitchen with us and I left it on the table. It was dead and needed charging. I thought that maybe Steven's charger might fit it since they were both the same brand of phones. I would look for it and put the phone on charge.

I went out to the Land Rover holding Oliver's hand and we unlocked it and got inside.

Oliver grinned. "I like it, but I can't drive two cars at once, so maybe it better stay here for a while. It feels like an old friend. How weird this all is."

I told him Tristan had thought of driving it since he just drove anything that was free on the estate. He nodded and we got out and locked it up, he handed me the keys as we went inside again.

I told him I was going to check if Steven's phone charger was down in the library where the band practiced sometimes, and Oliver grinned.

"I bet that's the band we saw at Kool Kafé, isn't it?"

I nodded at him and he picked up the jean jacket and started to put it on as I went out of the kitchen door. Steven's charger must have been in his room as it wasn't in the library and I went back down the hall to see Oliver standing looking out of the French doors to the kitchen patio, wearing his jean jacket.

We went up to my room and on the way, I went into Steven's room, and found his phone charger on his desk. Putting Oliver's cell to charge I decided to bring up the idea of the website clients, and how he could get in touch with them. I showed him his own website 'Oliver Tarrant Web Design International' and he was stunned. It took a couple of minutes for him to speak again and when he did, his voice was a bit shaky.

"Chloe, it's all just sunk in, I don't know why, but it's all true isn't it, every word?"

I nodded and I said, "You have a business Oliver. If you get the premises you showed me, you have clients to add to that one you got the other day, you are Oliver Tarrant."

"What if I run into people like James again, how do I deal with that?"

"We'll think of that later. Are you hungry it's way past lunch time, and did you need to get back to the office because it's nearly five?" I wanted to keep him with me, just in case it all became too much.

We did go downstairs and had some food, he ate a little, but drank more coffee, and I watched him intently just in case the fact he had found out all this information altered time again somehow, and he vanished into the ether. He didn't and we went up to my room again to check the progress of the charge on the cell phone. It had charged enough to check if there were messages from clients, and we left it plugged in to do this anyway. There were two messages from clients, and one from Ben saying 'where are you?'

There was one from the Glazers telling him the roundel was ready. There was another from Ben saying 'what the hell was going on', and there was my last message to him arranging to meet him and telling him I loved him. When Oliver heard it, he put the cell down on the desk and came to me at the window where I was leaning on the sill watching him. He held me tightly and kissed me.

"I still love you Oliver," I told him.

He sighed and smiled at me.

"I do have to go home, but I want to see you tomorrow, if I can. Can I come over? I think I'll take up the website and the clients. It's not as if I didn't do the work before. You know as weird as it may sound I feel freed somehow, knowing this stuff. I've felt a bit down in the last months, and this is like a new beginning for me. I have more friends when I can face them, you love me, and obviously Tristan is a friend. It's kind of enriching to know."

I thought about this, and smiled at him. He was going to be okay.

I went with him to the Jimny and kissed him through the window. I told him to text or phone tonight anytime if he wanted to. I watched him drive away and I got out my cell and texted Tristan.

'I thought you were going to tell me about the meeting what's happening?'

He texted back, 'I had to do a new order for the conference tomorrow, the other was wrecked by the idiots at the venue, will be by about eight if that's okay'.

I texted back, 'that sounds good'.

Chapter Nineteen

I realized Tristan's old truck had crunched onto the gravel beside my Wrangler, and he was humming as I opened the door to him. I smiled at him and kissed his cheek.

"Hi Tristan, how did it go getting new flowers to the conference?"

He was happy and smiled, "Okay I've fixed it."

"Tell me about the meeting with the Tarrant Marketing people?" I asked, meaning Oliver really, and I smiled to myself.

Tristan picked up on it and said, "You mean Oliver. Well he was very professional. I think they will do a good marketing campaign. He kept looking at me in a strange way. Then we had a ten-minute break, and had some coffee, during which he quizzed me. Did I go to the same schools or colleges as him? Where could he know me from, as he was sure he had met me before? I could see he was puzzled because there is obviously a strong memory of us both there. Well I am saying memory, but it can't be a memory can it? Let's say it's something we don't know about. He's struggling, that's obvious, and it must be strange for him to say the least. I just smoothed it over saying I didn't go to any of the places he mentioned and luckily the break ended and then after the meeting they just left. I saw the parents go off in the big silver four-wheel drive and he got into a blue Jimny, scruffy, which is a good sign. That car is the closest he seems to his old self, because the old Oliver seemed intrinsically happy, whereas this one doesn't. Oh perhaps that's not true I've only really seen him in that meeting."

We had naturally gone into the big kitchen and Tristan for once was drinking orange juice. The night was growing a little dark and we had wandered out onto the patio. I hadn't said anything to Tristan about Oliver yet and I wanted to tell him the whole story as quickly as possible and find out what he thought.

I took a deep breath and said, "Oliver contacted me after the meeting. He had wanted me to meet him at 'Peacocks' for lunch, but I panicked because what a place to have chosen. I said why not the abbey café, next thing I know he had recognized you in the stained glass at the museum."

Tristan drew in a breath and raised his eyebrows. "Really, did he, that's incredible, well maybe not, what happened then?"

"Well he had bought postcards just as I did when I saw you, and he asked me about you. I had to start telling him things."

I told Tristan the whole story and he periodically sighed, and then raised his eyebrows, but at the end, he shook his head and told me there was nothing else I could have done. He added that he hoped the guy would not have a nervous collapse or something tonight. I was alarmed by this and it showed. Tristan crossed the paving quickly and put his arms around me.

"I don't think he will, and it may have helped, he might have thought he was losing his mind otherwise. I have a question, Chloe. Did you tell him you love me as well as him?"

There it was, the one thing I had not made totally clear.

"I didn't say the words outright, but I will when he's regained his equilibrium. I didn't tell him I might be immortal too. I skipped that, it's hard enough for me to think about it. I know I heal, but I'm not going to know if I am totally the same as you until I have lived for a few years without changing."

Tristan looked lovingly at me and his voice was gentle.

"You have changed a little in ways that tell me you are just like me now. You are immortal. I know it's hard." He kissed me then and kept me close to him for a minute or two before we went indoors.

I told Tristan that I had said I would see Oliver tomorrow afternoon, and he sighed, but didn't say anything.

It occurred to me that maybe we could all meet, and I said this to Tristan.

"Let's all meet at the café by the library, Tristan. I think that would be a really good thing. Let's get our friendship moving again. I know it's kind of odd, but we were all good friends."

"Okay, yes, that's a good idea, after this morning's meeting, and then what you told him, I do need to meet him again soon. Yes how about arranging it, try him now, you have his number, but who knows he may answer his old cell now too. I could be available after two. It's only nine thirty now so not too late to call." Tristan urged me.

I rang Oliver's old cell and it went to message, so I rang his number that he was using now. He answered that. He was so happy to hear from me and told me he had found my photos on the other cell phone, and it was really moving for some reason. I asked him about the next day, saying Tristan and I would like to meet with him. I told him that it seemed right for the three of us to get together. He said that was a great idea. He would look forward to it.

When I'd ended the call, I realized Tristan had been watching me closely.

"How did he seem?" he asked me.

"Okay really, and happy that it's all three of us tomorrow."

Tristan and I hung out for a little while longer and then he left to check on Charlie.

Around eleven he texted me and told me he loved me.

Chapter Twenty

Wednesday started out cloudy and I thought it was definitely going to rain, but around midday, it cleared up, and the sun came out. I waited for Tristan to arrive and then we went over to the village to meet Oliver. Tristan drove my Wrangler and we parked in the car park opposite the church. As we passed the library car park, I noticed Oliver's Jimny in there.

We saw him at a table as soon as we walked around the corner.

As we approached, he stood up, and smiled. We were at the table, and Oliver shook Tristan's hand saying, "Hello again Tristan. It's good to see you out of business persona." Then he kissed my cheek and pulled out a chair next to his for me.

We ordered from the waiter who came out quickly to our table, and then I asked how Oliver was doing. He seemed a bit reluctant to open up at first.

Tristan must have noticed this because he said to him, "It's such a relief to have you back in our lives, Oliver, and if there's anything you want to know just ask me."

Oliver smiled at this. "What should I do about people like James?"

Tristan thought about it, he said, "I can only suggest that you say some family thing had happened, but you're back now."

Oliver sighed and said, "It's going to be hard because I don't know anything about them."

Tristan offered to fill him in and I pitched in occasionally. We didn't want to give him information overload, but he seemed to enjoy hearing about the people. He did say that he didn't know who to start with, and I said maybe my dad, and if he wanted to go back to doing a bit of work there, maybe he could meet everyone again in one go. I could see he was nervous about this and left the idea with him. I said I was hungry since I had hardly eaten a thing for weeks and would go inside to order a sandwich, did anyone want food, but neither of them did.

I went inside and asked for a roast beef and salad sandwich, and I waited around for them to make it, opting to leave Tristan and Oliver alone for a short time. When I had been given the sandwich to take back to my table, I hovered around a little before I joined them both again at the table outside.

They were laughing about something when I joined them, and that was reassuring. I sat down and they both smiled at me.

As I ate my sandwich, I watched them both. Oliver was asking Tristan about the new venture. Tristan was saying it was really Jack's project and that Liz would be at the meetings when she came back from France.

It was around four thirty and we had gone through two more cups of coffee when Oliver said he would like to know where he used to live.

It was in the next village on and we walked to the Wrangler to show him.

Tristan drove and when we approached, I took Oliver's hand just in case he felt some emotion that was unpleasant. He didn't recognize it at all. I told him it was so changed from when he lived there that maybe this was understandable. Driving back to the spot where Oliver had his Jimny he kept hold of my hand.

We drove into the car park next to the Jimny and Oliver got out.

"I'll call you both soon," he said. I smiled at him wishing I could kiss him goodbye.

We left him getting into the Jimny. Tristan stopped at the end of the village, and I got into the passenger seat.

"He asked me outright if you and I were seeing each other, Chloe," Tristan said as soon as I was next to him.

"Did he, oh, and what did you say?" I was suddenly afraid.

"I said that you loved us both, and that we had accepted it before the travel back in time thing because it had been too horrible for any of us to walk away." Tristan glanced quickly at me as he drove.

"Did he say anything then, when you told him that?" I already knew there was something just from Tristan's demeanor.

"He said that he didn't know how to handle that right now and would need to think about what it might mean. I left it at that and told him a few things about the others that might help him. You understand I couldn't just lie to him?"

I was silent for a couple of minutes because I felt a sadness that I couldn't explain.

Tristan was stopped at the lights just before the road that led to my house and he put his hand out to me. I put mine in his and he pulled me to him and kissed me.

"Don't be sad Chloe. I don't think he will choose to stop seeing you, he didn't before."

I felt bad, not just because I might lose Oliver, but because I was going to be the cause of it myself with my inability to let go of loving both Tristan and Oliver. Tristan let go of me to continue driving, and I tried to stop being so selfish as to want both of them in my life.

When we reached my house, Tristan turned to me.

"Chloe, come with me to take Charlie for a walk and to see Cedric. Maybe we can have dinner together at the restaurant tonight too." He was smiling and I knew he wanted to make sure I was okay.

I told him it all sounded perfect.

We went in the old truck up to the stables and saw the horse first, and Tristan introduced me to the lovely gray horse he told me I could ride if I wanted to. His name was Starbuck and he was a lovely horse not quite as tall as Cedric.

We walked Charlie along to the greenhouses and Tristan showed me some small conifers in rows outside, which he was getting ready for the winter conference displays. He held my hand and Charlie snuffled around happily.

"Chloe, you never told Oliver he had been immortal did you? He knows we rescued him and he went to hospital, but you left that other part out didn't you?"

"I did because it seemed wrong to tell him, just as he doesn't know about me. Why?"

Tristan had stopped walking and was holding me around the waist looking at me seriously. "It's okay and nothing really. I just feel that it might be better he never knows."

"I thought that too, but only because it just seemed too much."

"I agree," was all he said, and then kissed me. Charlie came up and tried to squeeze in between us, which made us both laugh, and we walked him back to the Dearing house where McPherson took him off to the kitchen to feed him.

I went with Tristan up to his room because he wanted to change and I was staring out of the massive windows as he was in his bathroom and then came out looking gorgeous.

"Tristan I have never seen you in a suit, you look great. Now we'll have to stop at my house so that I can change too."

Tristan stayed in the kitchen talking with mom and I quickly showered and put on my new dress, which reminded me of Oliver because I had been buying it when we re-met. I put my hair up and dashed on a little makeup. I drew the line at the blue shoes with their heels and put on the cream pearly ones.

As I went down the stairs, I could hear Steven as well as Tristan, and mom. They were all having a good talk and it was nice to hear this friendliness.

When I went into the kitchen, Tristan stood up and mom smiled at me.

"You look nice sweetheart," she said.

Steven looked around and said, "Actually you do, Chloe."

Tristan and I left and took the Wrangler to the restaurant as it was threatening rain again.

At the restaurant, we had a table near the windows. I looked towards the lake, the lanterns and fairy lights, everything looked its usual cheery self, and I was with Tristan who looked like a dream. Why did I feel not quite happy? Maybe it was the memory of the nights with Oliver looking at those same lights and the lake. There was something else too, an uneasy feeling, as if all the things I thought had fallen into place were about to unravel.

Tristan took my hand over the table.

"If you want to see Oliver and he can't accept you and me, well I was thinking, I'll wait for you. You could be with Oliver, you know and then when, when it's over, you and I, we, we are still around... Sorry this sounds terrible, but I mean, I love you enough to wait for you."

"You mean to say, you would wait for me for Oliver's lifetime?" I was shocked nothing like this had come into my mind.

"Sorry Chloe, just that I can see you love him. I don't mean anything other than I'll wait for you. I have always said, even before you became the same as me, that I would. It's hard, but I've lived long enough to make that kind of decision. You just seem so bereft when Oliver is gone."

I watched him as he moved his water glass around and around, his eyes very blue and glistening. If Oliver decided he couldn't take me loving Tristan as well as himself then it would be his choice to stop seeing me. I would accept that and not dump Tristan to wait for me for a lifetime. That would be the pits in behavior.

He was still holding one of my hands and I put the other over the top of his hand. I closed my eyes and opened them to see him looking intently at me.

"Tristan you have to be the loveliest and most thoughtful person I have ever met, or known, or even read about. If Oliver stops seeing me, that's it. I will not go running after him saying wait, wait I'll dump Tristan. I'll be sad, but I will not be able to do that. Perhaps this is how it should be, one of us walks away, I mean one of us three."

Tristan smiled a little wistfully. "I just feel responsible because it was okay before I changed his life."

He stopped talking because Clare came to take our order. We talked for a couple of minutes. I told her Oliver had said he would get in touch with everyone, now the family thing was settling down.

She went off to put in our order. Ben came over just after taking food to another table and asked me about Oliver. I gave him the same story and he seemed okay with it.

Tristan had leaned back, and watched me as I talked to Clare, and then Ben, he was still wistful.

"Chloe, look at the mess I made by changing history, going after Richard. It was selfish of me, I did it without really considering and now there are queues of people wanting to know about Oliver, and you there having to deal with it." He seemed to use what was happening right then to illustrate everything, poor Tristan.

I shook my head. "Don't say it, don't say anymore, I can't hear this. I don't agree with it and it's pointless. Tell me you will stop this line of thought please."

He nodded and we pushed our chairs close so that we were nearer to each other. I kissed his cheek and our food arrived. We started to talk about going riding, and managed to eat a little more than last time we were there. I asked Tristan if Jack had decided to advertise for artists to teach at his new venture and we actually didn't mention Oliver again for the rest of the evening.

Driving home, I asked Tristan if he would stay a while, that I didn't want to go to sleep yet.

We got him some coffee and went up to my room. I put music on my computer, and we talked about the response from Joshua to my sword design as I checked my emails.

I told Tristan my idea about a medieval themed series of designs and we talked about our time together in eleven ninety. We laughed a little about a few things and Tristan went to my desk and picked up his ring turning it over and over in his hand. I went to him and put my arms around him and he put his head down to mine. We stayed like that for a little while before he kissed me.

When Tristan left about eleven thirty I went back to my computer and checked the Oliver Tarrant website. Oliver had changed the email and phone number on it for contacting him. I thought just a little about him and felt that he was slipping away from me for sure. It didn't hurt as much as it had before. I don't know why, perhaps it was because he really wasn't my Oliver, the one I had left by the waterfall as I went after Tristan. My Oliver really had gone.

Chapter Twenty-One

The next morning it was raining and I looked out at the drops splattering down and pooling on the patio paving. Rain, so calming, and so uplifting at the same time. After having a shower I found my cargos and a shirt to put on with my T-shirt, and loaded my pockets with my usual clutter.

Downstairs I opened the kitchen patio doors to stand looking at the rain and drank some orange juice. I was thinking of Tristan when my cell rang, it was Oliver and he asked was it possible to see me. The library café was okay again and he was already in the village. I said I could be there in about fifteen minutes and I left straight away.

The rain was still coming down and I got a little wet running from the car park around to the café and then went inside.

Oliver was at one of the back tables and I walked down there. He was smiling at me, but there was something wrong I could feel it rather than see it. I sat down opposite him and he launched straight into it.

"Chloe, when I asked you about the guy you were with when I first saw you at the cafe, you let me think there was only friendship between you, but there isn't is there? He loves you and you love him. It's no good saying you love me too, I can't accept that. I'm not the Oliver who accepted that. I watched you together, you and Tristan. How did it ever work? I'm so sorry, but I am going to try to forget everything you told me. It's actually helped me in a way, but the thing that was the best was you, that you loved me. I could never forget that the day you were not seeing me you might be with Tristan and kiss him, look at him the way you look at me. It's just not what I can cope with."

I was staring at him, his brown eyes, the little scar high on his left cheekbone, his short blonde hair. His lovely slightly tanned skin, the long eyelashes, the slight bump in his nose that made him beautiful but not boring, and the hint of a dimple when he was about to smile. I heard the words he was saying, but it was his lovely voice, and the way he talked that was in my ears. I looked at his hands folding and unfolding the paper table napkin, and I wished he was holding my hand, and telling me he loved me, not this, not this goodbye.

He waited for me to speak but I couldn't. I just kept looking at him and tears slid down from my eyes, soundlessly, and with no warning. No pricking of the eyes, no trembling in the face, I felt them wet, but the rest of me was numb.

He looked stricken, but there was no retraction, and I suddenly found I could speak.

"It's what I expected right from the start. I always thought sooner or later one of you would say 'sorry but no thanks, if you can't choose me then it's over.' Oliver the sight of you is like heaven for me. I have loved you from the minute I met you, and we had something special, but I see that's gone because you aren't the same Oliver that I met in my dad's restaurant. I wish you the very best Oliver, take care." I got up and walked back to my Wrangler.

I didn't get in. I stood at the front of it where it faced the trees that were there by the wall. They were dripping wet with rain. I stood there in a puddle, and I was wet through in no time. The rain and the large drops collected by the leaves suddenly spilling onto me. The tears that were streaming down my face joined the drops of rain that hit my cheeks and ran down, dripping off my chin onto my blue shirt.

I thought about the time I worked at the wedding with Oliver and how we had sat on the low wall looking at the lake, how we had just fallen into the best friendship I had ever felt. How we had loved each other and I could hear him saying 'don't go Chloe', the night before I went into the spell after Tristan.

I stood there until the wetness actually woke me up with coldness and then I got into my Wrangler and drove home.

The house was quiet when I got there. I went up to my room and showered. I got warm and dry. I went to my desk, and started to draw. I sketched an idea for the medieval theme and planned the colors. I drew it all in properly and scanned it to my computer. It was a rectangular panel, two people on horseback in the snow passing a castle in the background. On the horizon a stand of trees and in one corner a shield in the snow, you could just see the griffin that was on it as snowflakes covered it.

Chapter Twenty-Two

It was late afternoon and I had worked solidly since I had come in from seeing Oliver. I felt a massive sadness, it threatened to choke me, or drive me into the ground. I walked down the stairs hoping no one would be around, as I couldn't face speaking. There was no one and I made some tea and stood looking out at the continuing rain.

How many times had I told myself in the beginning, if Oliver walked away, I would have to accept it, and when Tristan had said I needed to tell Oliver how I felt about them both I had known it. I had told myself I could let him go because I loved him. I went over this now. I loved him enough to let him go, I did. It hurt more than ever I expected. I expected real sadness and pain, but this was as if my whole being was torn apart. I must accept it. Surely, I could face it. Had my self-talk just been that, talk, when I didn't think it could happen?

I sighed and opened the kitchen patio doors, stepping out. The rain was no longer heavy and was just sporadic drops. I stood there in the freshness and sighed. I was lucky I had what I did with Oliver before. It had been special and lovely, and I would never forget it.

I went back up to my room and noticed a missed call on my cell.

Tristan had called. He had left a voicemail, 'please call me urgently'.

I called him right away, and he asked would I come over to the Dearing house as soon as I could. I drove over immediately and as I got out of my car, he came out of the front door and met me putting his arm around my shoulders.

"Chloe, you're not going to believe this."

I felt a shiver of trepidation as I walked next to him to the big door of the Dearing house.

We went into the morning room where Liz was sitting on the edge of a sofa. She stood up and nodded at me. I looked at Tristan, 'what the hell was going on this time?'

I sat down next to Liz, and Tristan offered me tea or something as if I had come for a social visit. I said, "Okay I'll have a cup of tea thank you, but let's hear it, what's going on?"

Liz began to speak.

"Before I start I want you to know I had nothing to do with it. I tried hard to make it okay, but I don't think I have. We were out with mummy, Laura, Will, Melody and I. Bruno was showing clients around the cruiser that they were going to hire. We had gone off for the day sightseeing, because Will has never seen the Canal Midi. We went for lunch in a restaurant and as we were sitting there who should come in and sit at the very next table."

I stopped her. "Let me guess, Rene?" I said as my heart sank.

She was nodding. "Not just him but Aristide and Angelique. They somehow got us talking. Mummy, who knows nothing about the situation naturally, and is such a sociable creature, had them come to our table and we were like old friends. It was horrible, anyway, what should happen, but Melody says to René, 'you might want to ask Laura out again Rene, she's totally free, and over her cousin because he and the girl down the road are seeing each other seriously'. Then she bursts into giggles and adds, 'must be something to do with the fact that the girl's other boyfriend just disappeared whilst she was away for the week'. Then Laura who is as red as a beetroot by now says 'shut up Melody' and Melody giggles again like an idiot and says 'well you did say you still liked Rene the other night Laura'. We were all a bit quiet after that, and when we got home, I asked Laura what she had been saying to Melody. It appears she told Melody that her dreams of having Tristan love her were shattered because of you Chloe, and that she had said that Oliver had simply disappeared and since then Tristan was always with you. During the last time she saw Melody and mummy on her visit when she was at the art summer school, she had been spilling all to Melody about Rene and Tristan, and this time Melody had asked about Rene, and Laura had told her this stuff."

She stopped talking again and looked down at the floor.

I felt this was not such a drama and there must be more. I took a drink of the tea Tristan had given me and said, "There's more isn't there?"

She raised her head.

"Yes, unfortunately there is. I got a phone call. You remember Aristide has my cell number? He wanted to meet me saying it was important. I went and met him at this little café by the canal. He asked questions about Oliver's disappearance, but all the time he knew it was because of you, Tristan, and the spell. He was just making sure I guess. I tried to say no, Oliver went off because of work, but he knows something is wrong. He said to me that he felt some responsibility, that something strange must have happened with the spell, and that he would like to see you and Tristan again."

I sighed. "So do we expect a phone call or what?" I already felt destroyed by the loss of Oliver that morning, and this news was just not as bad as that pain right then.

Liz swallowed. "I don't know what will happen next to be honest. He just left the café and said thank you for meeting me."

"Sorry you have to be worried by all this Liz," I said to her. "I hope he doesn't bother you again. What about Laura she's not back with Rene, courtesy of Melody is she?"

"No, thank heavens. It's all over between them." Liz got up. She had to get on with going to work, her holiday over, she wanted to get back to normal and was also meeting Will at the restaurant.

Tristan was sitting silently and pensively on the other sofa. He got up when Liz left and came to me.

"I wonder what will happen, will they be after Oliver again, or me this time?" he asked.

"What if it's nothing like that, what if Aristide just wants to help? I can't think why it would be a threat at this stage."

"Okay maybe not, maybe I'm just overreacting, but now you have Oliver back I just didn't want the spotlight falling on him again."

When he said this, I felt so sad and tears came into my eyes. I tried not to let him see, but he did.

"What's wrong Chloe?" He asked and came to me putting his arms around me. I told him what had happened and he held me close as I got out the whole story.

"I'm so sorry. This is my fault all of it,...if I had not meddled with time," he was saying.

I wanted none of that. I felt bad enough and I stopped him.

"We've had this talk and it's wrong. I have to let Oliver go, it could have happened before, it didn't, now it has. I have to deal with it." I stood back from him and nodded, confirming I would deal with it.

"Please Tristan, no more of that talk. You mean too much to me to have you torture yourself."

We walked out to my Wrangler and Tristan came home with me, we were in the kitchen when his cell rang. It seemed as if it was just a florist about the order for flowers. I heaved a sigh. I just wanted to spend some time with Tristan and not think about Aristide calling, and maybe he wouldn't call.

We watched the rain come back again and fall heavily. Tristan went and checked that the drawing room was not leaking. Sitting down together at the big table in the bright familiar kitchen, I leaned against him and said I had worked on a design that day if he would like to see it. We went up to my room and I showed him the work on the page and computer. He was very impressed and said this was great and he would love this design for a window in his room. We sat together for a while talking about the kinds of things I could put into the design of panels like this. Neither of us wanted to mention Oliver, but he was there in the roundels in front of our eyes.

I got up and moved to look out of the window at the rain and Tristan came to stand behind me folding his arms around me. I leaned back onto him and just let the comfort of his presence warm me.

He told me he loved me, I turned to him, and kissed him, and we stayed like that for a few minutes.

It wasn't late, but I felt really tired and said so to Tristan, he said he would leave me then to rest, but I really wanted him to stay and we ended up cuddled together on my bed, just like when we had traveled together through the cold in eleven-ninety.

I closed my eyes as he held me close until I fell asleep.

I woke up and it was dark, my computer was the only light source. It had a display of stills from my current favorite movie as the screen saver, and that was what I saw.

Tristan was asleep next to me and I put my arm around him snuggling closer. It woke him up. He asked what the time was and I got my cell from out of my back pocket to look. It was midnight.

We got up and went downstairs quietly, I made us tea and coffee, and found there were some sausage rolls in the fridge, which looked nice, so we were eating and generally being happy when dad came in.

He said, "Hi you two. Isn't that Oliver's Land Rover in the drive these days?"

I glanced at Tristan before I answered.

"Yes, it's there because he's moving and has nowhere for it at the moment."

I don't like this ability to lie but it's necessary and has saved a bit of parental worry lately.

Dad nodded satisfied with the answer, got some water, and said, "I'm turning in. Make sure everything's locked up when you're finished Chloe."

Tristan smiled at me and drank some coffee. I smiled back.

"No wonder you go out riding in the night it's all the coffee you drink."

This made him smile more, and I went over and kissed him, because he looked so happy sitting there, and because I love him.

He needed to go home and I remembered he had no car with him. It was raining and past midnight. He was going to tell me it was okay and he would walk, I could tell. So I said, "Tristan, why not drive the Land Rover tonight? You can bring it back in the morning if you feel weird about it." I went to get him the keys and he put our dishes in the dishwasher. Then I went to the door with him and we kissed each other. He held me extra close and told me he loved me. I told him I loved him too. I watched him go to the Land Rover and then drive off before I shut the door and locked up as dad had asked.

I wanted to go back to sleep when I went up to bed, but I couldn't, so I put my current favorite movie on my laptop and balanced it on the stool where I could see it. I watched that for about the twentieth time until I fell asleep again.

Chapter Twenty-Three

When I woke up the sun was back in a blue sky and the rain of the day before was already dried up.

Mom and Steven were having breakfast on the patio and I joined them. Steven told me the band was playing at a birthday party in the next town, and that Will would be by to pick him up around midday. He was so glad Will was back from holiday as the band was booked ahead for a few gigs and they needed to rehearse all together.

I asked mom what she had planned for the day and if she would like to go shopping or anything. She accepted the offer saying we needed to get groceries and could do a bit of browsing too in the retail park on the edge of the city.

I put on the jeans that Liz had given me, wondering not for the first time why she wouldn't want them back, and one of my thin sweaters. It just happened to be the same green as my eyes, and I thought I liked it as much as my blue one, which needed washing.

We went out to mom's Cherokee, and I noticed the Land Rover was already back. Tristan must have brought it early that morning.

Mom drove us along happily and I looked out of the window. It was good to be with her and we had a great time buying all kinds of stuff in the massive supermarket. We put the foodstuffs in the car and then we went off to look around a couple of other shops in the retail park, but mom was keen to get the foodstuffs home to the fridge and that was okay.

As we came out of the car park, I thought I saw Oliver in his Jimny parking just a short distance away, but I didn't dwell on it. I felt the weight of sadness at his loss, but I was determined to be brave about it.

At home, we unloaded the jeep of groceries and put stuff in the fridge and cupboards then made some tea and we tried some cake that had looked so nice in the shop.

I went up to my room to get my sweater and T-shirt that I wanted to wash. I looked at the roundels as I passed. I put the one that Oliver had ordered flat on my desk at the back. I would not torture myself with it.

I took my things down to the laundry and put them in the hamper ready for the next wash, and as I came out, who was at the patio doors but Charlie, wagging his tail, and looking inside hopefully. I went to him patting him and saying hello. I still had some cake on my plate and gave it to him quickly before Tristan, who I knew would be arriving soon, saw me.

Tristan still saw Charlie eating the cake as the old dog had dropped some and had to nibble it back up. I went to the cupboard and got a bowl out to give Charlie a drink of water, and a cup for Tristan to have coffee.

"Tristan, you must have brought the Land Rover back when I was still asleep this morning," I said to him. He nodded and fished the keys out of his pocket. I took them and put them on the work surface where a few things had ended up, post-it notes, pencils, and Steven's phone charger.

Tristan looked very attractive. He had on a pale pink shirt with a blue stripe through it, and black jeans, and I went to him and kissed him. The pink made his hair seem darker, and it suited him.

"You look good in that color, Tristan."

"I had to get an order out early this morning so I used the Land Rover and then walked back through the wood. It was a nice walk but then I needed to get old Charlie moving this afternoon so here we are. Thanks for the compliment, Liz bought me this shirt, just appeared with it one day." He smiled as he said this, held onto me and kissed me.

"Do you have plans for the rest of the day? I'd love to spend time with you."

"I don't have anything planned, Tristan, what would you like to do. We could go off somewhere."

We decided to drive over to the big river a few villages away, where there was a weir and in the opposite direction from all the cafes and places, I might have been with Oliver.

We took Charlie home and then left with Tristan driving my Wrangler, and it was good to be with him driving along in the lovely countryside.

The river was flowing very fast, was very wide, and the weir itself impressive. The nearby village had a number of tourists in it and a couple of little shops were overflowing as people bought postcards and such.

We spent a couple of hours walking by the river and watching the weir. It was cool for a water lover like me. We had coffee in a small café alongside the river.

I drove us home and Tristan talked to me.

"I need to have dinner with Jack, Jonathan, and Liz tonight. They have the accountant round, plus another couple of business people so sadly I will not be able to see you later."

I insisted on driving him to the Dearing place just to spend more time with him.

Parked there in the big Dearing house car park, he kissed me through my Wrangler window and I held his head, his hair was so soft and his kiss so tender, it was hard to leave him, but I did.

At home, mom had made some food and I sat down to eat with her. Steven had gone out to his gig and as she chatted with me, she asked me about Oliver. I told her he had dumped me and it felt good to say it aloud.

"Chloe, you're young, it will be okay and anyway don't you have the beautiful Tristan to console you?"

"Mom, I do yes, but I really cared for Oliver and it does hurt."

She patted me on the shoulder as she passed to the fridge.

"Hey why is Oliver's Land Rover still in the drive then, Chloe?"

I told her what I had told dad and she accepted this, but said,

"Oh you're still friends then?"

I didn't comment because it seemed even that was not going to happen.

We stacked the dishwasher and it was full enough to set going. Mom was going to work, and so I went to the middle drawing room and tried to watch TV. About ten-thirty I gave up and went up to my room to check my emails and the internet for various news items.

I found it easier to sleep that night, so maybe the walk with Tristan at the river had helped me.

Chapter Twenty-Four

The next day I was meeting with Joshua Glazer as he had some orders for my work and we wanted to discuss this.

I drove onto the workshop forecourt and parked. As I was getting down from the Wrangler Ben came out to me.

"Oliver's texted me to say sorry for just disappearing, and that he was working, but would get back in touch soon."

I raised my eyebrows, not because of what Ben said, but because I was surprised the new Oliver had done this.

Ben continued, "At least Oliver's showing a bit of consideration now."

I nodded, I didn't want to say too much, and Ben went off to his own car, he waved as he drove off. I went in to see Joshua.

We had a good meeting, and I left feeling as if I could make a living doing this kind of work for a while. I really didn't want to go to University after all. I would broach the subject of maybe some external study to mom and dad soon.

There was no sign of Tristan, and late that night he texted that he was tied up with work and sent his love.

I was drifting through the next day thinking that I wished Tristan would call or appear, but he never did, and late evening I walked over to the greenhouses before it got dark to check if he was in there.

Another man was in the first greenhouse. I hadn't met him before, and when I said I was looking for Tristan, he told me, "Mr. Dearing's gone to a meeting with clients, sorry."

I hoped Tristan would text me or call even as late as midnight. I fell asleep still hoping that.

Chapter Twenty-Five

When I was woken by birds the next morning at dawn, I hung out of my window hoping Tristan was down there on Cedric or with Charlie, but it was just birds all over the lawn.

After breakfast, I walked up to the greenhouses again, and still there was no sign of Tristan. I got out my cell and rang him, but it went to voicemail.

I left a message, 'Tristan I miss you please call me.'

I didn't think anything was wrong. I just thought he was tied up with work, but when he had not called me by midnight I couldn't sleep, and I decided to contact Liz the next day to ask about him.

The next day was the third day of not seeing Tristan and I felt very anxious. I called Liz as soon as it seemed a polite time to do so, and she said he'd been working and she hadn't seen him for a couple of days. She said she would check his room and give him a message for me.

I wandered about the house and then started drawing. Around midday Liz called, she said she was unable to find Tristan and he must be off with florists or something. She wanted to drop by as a package had been hand delivered to her, and she felt sure it was a mistake and was for me really.

I asked her what it was, and she said, "One of those designs in stained glass you've been doing. I'm going to the restaurant to work so I'll drop it off."

I was mystified by this. I was at the door waiting for her and dashed out to the sleek, gray car when it drew up in the drive.

She handed me the package through her window saying, "Here you go. I feel sure Ben gave my address instead of yours to his delivery people. He was talking about getting something Oliver had ordered delivered to you a while ago when we were working together. It's not mine so, there you go, see you later." I took the package and she drove off.

Ben had brought the roundel Oliver had ordered to me a couple of weeks ago. This must be some mistake especially since I had just been to see Joshua. I was thinking all this as I took the wrapping off the package. I was astounded. It was another of the roundel that Oliver had ordered, and exactly the same. 'How odd' I thought. I didn't immediately think to check the one on my desk, and was about to call Ben or Joshua when I decided to compare them.

I went to my desk. My roundel wasn't there. It was not facing downwards at the back of my desk where I had put it so that I couldn't dwell on it, and it was nowhere to be seen.

This must be it, the one I had just brought back up the stairs that had been delivered to Liz. What was going on? I felt a chill of fear.

I put it on the desk, and then I picked it up again and took it to my big window. I held it up to the light, had anything changed? No, it was exactly the same. The light shone through it and Tristan was lit in gold, blue and red. I tried not to look at Oliver, but I was there in the middle, the blue of the angel dress shining.

Puzzled, I put it back down on my desk and I saw the ring Tristan had given me glinting in the sunlight. I picked it up, and put it on my finger, turning it around and then took it off and put it with my other roundel next to the side where Tristan was portrayed. I sat down in my desk chair and called Tristan, still no answer. Spooked, I went downstairs to drive to the Dearing place. Surely, someone knew where he was? McPherson might.

I reached the front door just in time for the mail to thud onto the mat and I picked it up to put on the hall table. I saw a blue envelope addressed to me and took it with me to the Wrangler. When I was about to throw it on the passenger seat to open later, I noticed it had the Dearing crest on the sealed down flap. My heart was thudding as if it was coming out of my chest as I opened the letter.

Dearest Chloe,

I love you and I always will.

This is what's happened.

Aristide and Rene came after me. Aristide was doing all the talking and said he and Rene had been to the Tarrant estate, and they knew it was extremely changed from what it was before the spell Rene had done to send me into another dimension. He told me they knew Oliver was of the Dearing bloodline as well as the Tarrant, and that must mean the spell cast on me had changed Oliver's life somehow.

Rene seemed put out as his grandfather actually apologized for that and then he said, but that means you may carry the healing blood and we would like to think you will offer us a sample. The bargain with Sir Edmund is still not met and they could still do some good with the blood if it had been handed down to me and not to Oliver.

I asked didn't Aristide remember that he had told Rene it was very unlikely the healing blood came down the family line from so long ago. He told me that was true, but there was more than met the eye about the changed Tarrant estate. Oliver and me must be much more closely linked than he had thought.

I told him he wouldn't get any blood from me unless he took it by force. Then he said he would go after the twins, since he had established a connection between the Tarrants and the Dearings, somebody must have inherited something.

I begged him to leave them alone, saying surely the male line would be the one most likely to be of use. Then he went to a different idea, he would go after Oliver again, because he might be changed if the Tarrant estate was and his blood might now be the healing blood. I said to him why not just stab me like Rene had done to Oliver. Why not just get the payment from me?

He sent Rene away then.

When we were alone he suddenly had a change in attitude, and told me he knew who I really was, that it was our secret, and that what he had been saying was just for show, for Rene. He said he had no intention of going after the twins or Oliver, and that I had to pay what I should have done nearly a thousand years ago.

Then he told me because of the original spell the payment had to be given by consent and that he couldn't just take it as Rene had tried to do with Oliver, but that if I would not give it then I would become what had saved me from death in the first place.

It took me a few moments to realize that he meant the stained glass. I said to him how was that possible since I had just refused payment and nothing had happened. He said he only had to say the words to make it happen. That if the original Magus had asked my father for payment and it had been refused, it would have happened then, only your father went away and got himself killed.

I knew I couldn't let him have any of my blood, you know why, and so I said, was it possible to choose the stained glass I was to become, and he said remarkably yes, as long it is your true image. I said I would meet him with the piece of stained glass at the hotel in town and I took the roundel Oliver had made. I wanted to be at least next to you if I was to be glass and for you to have me always with you.

I told Aristide it was to go to my family and he promised he would get it delivered to Liz. I asked how he could do this so calmly and politely and he said honor, family honor. That was why Rene was not to be involved, as he had let them down already, and had to be saved from himself this time.

I wrote this letter and posted it to you on the way to meet him.

If you get this and if you find the roundel at home with Liz it's happened the way Aristide said it would.

I love you and I am so very sorry that you have lost Oliver and me, and have the burden I had all those years. I hope you find someone who loves you very soon. I can't think straight because of the sadness that envelopes me as I write this to you. I love you always, Tristan.

I was shaking when I had read the letter, and I got out of the car and walked around on the driveway, then back to the front door in a sort of daze. I went in and up to my room and then put the letter with the roundel. I daren't pick the roundel back up because I was afraid I would drop it, and then, and then what? I shuddered.

I couldn't cry and I felt sick and faint. I wanted Tristan to be here with me and for this not to have happened so badly, that I sat on my bed and just stared at the floor thinking what can I do? How can I fix this?

I went downstairs for some water and saw my blue sweater and T-shirt on the drying frame in the sun on the patio. Mom must have washed them and put them there for me.

I stared at them.

I've always loved the color blue. I told you this at the beginning of my story, when I first met Tristan and it was his blue eyes that had me taking notice rather than what he was saying, which it should have been, because what he was saying has changed my life. It was because of him I have become what I am now.

What am I now?

Heartbroken, immortal, terrified for Tristan, desperate to get him out of the stained glass roundel where he's consigned until I can figure out what to do. How can this be possible? What kind of spell puts a human being inside glass? I went to the fridge, and got the last little bottle of spring water out. I put it on my head to calm me down. I rolled it over my forehead as I went back up to my room. I looked again at the roundel and carefully carried it to my desk. I put it down again next to the one I had designed.

I just couldn't think straight. I was floundering around in my distress. I opened my water and took a drink. I kept feeling faint, or afraid. I missed the desk as I put the bottle down and spilt some before I could pick it back up again. Suddenly I thought about Tristan's short sword. I went to get it out of my cupboard to have near me. To my horror it wasn't there, the pile of towels was there and the sketchbook, but the sword had gone. I was totally perplexed, where had the sword gone? It was there on Friday, well I thought it was, well certainly it was there on Wednesday.

I was very upset and I just sat on the floor in front of my cupboard and finally cried. One of the only things that I felt connected me to my lost Tristan was gone. He had the ring on his finger and the short sword at his belt not long ago. I had felt their weight of history as a welcome link, and now the sword had gone. I found myself sobbing, until I thought I would be physically sick. I got up and drank some more water. I washed my face with cold water. I saw my nose was red and my eyes were puffed up. My immortality hadn't kicked in yet then to cure the sight of grief on my face.

I went back to my cupboard. Had I put the sword back properly when I had it out to do the designs a few days ago? I wanted to check the whole cupboard. The cupboard is big, almost a half wall size. You can get into it, even my old Oliver got into it. I knelt in it and felt around. It was a bit dark and I felt what I thought was the other side of the wooden cupboard. It didn't seem as big as usual, and then my hands found a ledge. This was weird. I went to get my torch and moved aside my hanging clothes, towel pile, and spare quilt, and then knelt in the cupboard again. The wood I had thought was the side of the cupboard was a box, an old carved box. I heaved it out and onto the floor in front of the cupboard.

I knew then it was Tristan's old traveling box, and it hadn't been put there whilst I was present. Tristan must have put it there when I was out, well he did have keys. I looked inside the box and the short sword was in there, diagonally placed. I breathed a sigh of relief. I pushed the box along until it was by my bed. It was the only thing I could reach out and touch that I knew for sure Tristan had recently touched. Apart from the roundel which housed him, and that was cold, and hard and recently touched by Aristide. I had put my water on the floor and now I accidently kicked it over, and the rest of it went on the polished boards. I grabbed a towel from my cupboard stack, and mopped it up and cried the whole time.

I dimly heard my cell ringing through the fog of sobs. I picked it up, and it was Liz.

"Chloe, I've just opened a letter I got this morning and took with me to work to open at break time. I was in a hurry, as you know. Well it's from Tristan. He's gone back to Cornwall. He says he thinks this is best for everyone at the moment. The letter doesn't say much more except to tell you he's sorry and does care very much about you, but it might be safer for us all if he goes. He says to get the sweater you left behind in his room as soon as you have the time. Chloe, I'm so sorry. I know you'll be sad about this, but let's leave him to it for a while shall we? Do come and get the sweater, and any time you feel like talking come and see me, call me. Are you okay Chloe?"

I was stuck on the sweater information. What sweater?

I told her I was upset but could understand why he had done it and we ended the call. So that had been his cover to his family for vanishing had it? I supposed this was a good excuse for them as he had traveled to and from Cornwall and other places throughout history.

I felt as if I was really going to be ill. I put cold water on my face again. I was so very upset. I didn't know what to do. I went around in pain. I folded the letter from Tristan and put it under my pillow. I put the roundels in the sun coming through the smaller window by my desk. I tidied my stuff back into my cupboard. I got one of my photos of Tristan from when I had seen him in the waterfall, and I put it in my jeans pocket so that I would have an image of him with me. My lovely Tristan, how would I cope without him? It was hard enough without Oliver, but Tristan, his was too much to bear.

I had no water left. I wanted a drink. My lips were dried up. Deciding to go and get a glass of water, I looked around my room. 'What sweater,' I thought suddenly, which one could it be? I had no memory of leaving a sweater in Tristan's room. I decided to go over to check his room, and vaguely remembered that I was on the way to see McPherson before Liz came with the roundel. I would go now and on my way, I would get a drink of water. I thought about my lip-gloss and went into the bathroom to get it. I put some on, and my lips felt a little better.

I was in the kitchen and had a glass of water in my hand, when I heard a car on the driveway. I went to the door listlessly and opened it. A small blue hatchback was next to my Wrangler and getting out of it was Oliver. He came straight up to me and hugged me.

"Chloe, Chloe, it's so good to see you, can we talk, you look ill, what's the matter?"

I stared at him, what the hell was this? How could he come here and ask this? I turned away and went into the kitchen.

Oliver followed.

"Chloe, what's going on, did you find Tristan? I can't tell you how sorry I am I wasn't at the waterfall for you to come home to. I don't know what's been going on to tell the truth. I've just woken up. How long have you been back? I thought the time for the spell to work was five o'clock?"

What was this? Through the cloud of despair I felt, I realized what he was saying didn't make sense. I stared at him. He was standing in his familiar way. He had on his Levis, white shirt and a jacket that he had said he loved, sort of khaki colored with epaulets and a breast pocket. His shirt as usual, not tucked into his jeans. His face was pale as if he was upset. As I looked at him, he gave me one of the kind, caring, questioning looks I loved him for. This was my Oliver. It wasn't the new Oliver. I dropped the glass, and it smashed on the flagstones of the kitchen floor.

Chapter Twenty-Six

"Oliver, oh my god, Oliver, I'm so confused and upset. I thought you didn't love me anymore, but it wasn't you." I went towards him stepping around the shattered glass and he folded me in his arms. He kissed the top of my head and hugged me.

"What's going on Chloe, and an additional lesser, but still important question, why is my Land Rover here and where are my keys?"

He was my Oliver, the tone of his voice the sort of happy character he had. This was my old Oliver, not the new one.

"Oliver, there's so much to tell you and you will find it bizarre, but thank god you are back, it's been hellish. I don't know where to start."

He held my face. "Not just you." He kissed me and smiled a little smile.

I went over to the work surface and got his keys giving them to him. He kept hold of my hand and pulled me into a hug again.

"Oliver, unfortunately I don't have your cell phone. Who knows where that might be, and I have given away your jean jacket."

Oliver shook his head and made a sort of dismissive gesture about the jacket.

"I have two cell phones, none of them yours, which means I didn't call your mother and cover for you whilst you were off saving Tristan. I take it you did save him, or is that why you are so upset and look so ill? You didn't save him. I can't think why I have two phones. They were just on my desk when I woke up. I'm so sorry. I fell asleep at my computer."

"Oliver you didn't. You've been gone in time. It's weeks since Tristan and I got back from the other dimension, which by the way wasn't another dimension it was back in time."

"What? Maybe we could have some coffee, sit down and you tell me everything, but not before I go to look at my Land Rover. I can't even remember driving it here."

He shook his head in his familiar gesture. I was so glad to see him. I took his hand and we went to the Land Rover. He opened it and looked inside. To my surprise, his jean jacket was back on the driver's seat, but I said nothing.

Then he closed it again and said, "Well it will have to stay here again tonight since I borrowed my mother's car. I nearly reported this stolen, but I wanted to get to the waterfall having thought I'd missed your arrival." He patted the hood and turned to me.

He put his arm around my shoulders to walk back to the house and I leaned into him. This was so odd. How had he returned and was there another one of him out there?

We went into the kitchen and he followed me around closely whilst I made us hot drinks, then he sat next to me.

The length of his thigh was against mine, he held one of my hands and his coffee cup with the other. He sighed and put his cup down. He held my face and he kissed me.

"Chloe, it was the most horrible thing waiting for the first seven hour time limit on the spell, and then you didn't come back. It nearly frightened the life out of me. Then Aristide says 'the next time is in seven days at five o'clock exactly.' I couldn't sleep for the first two nights. Hey, I got a roundel made of us, and Ben was going to ring me when it was ready. God it's good to see you." He was talking in snatches and still confused. He kissed me again.

I sighed, this was like a dream, maybe I was dreaming? I did as they do in the movies and pinched myself. It hurt, so I was awake. Oliver watched me do this and grinned.

"Doing a little am I dreaming test there, Chloe? Don't worry I've done it before now."

I smiled at him. The terrible sadness about Tristan was like a brick in my chest, but Oliver would help me get him back, we would all be together again. This Oliver thought that Tristan was a friend not a rival.

I drank half my cup of tea then started the story.

"Oliver, like I said, it's been weeks since Tristan and I got back. We stayed for seven days because he desperately wanted to make it right with Richard."

Oliver looked wide-eyed at me. "Chloe, I asked you not to hang about in there."

"Oliver, it's such a long story you have to let me tell it."

He nodded and kissed me, and I put down my cup and held onto him. I felt the old comfort and happiness at being with him. Then I continued the story.

"In making things right with Richard we changed history, and you had disappeared when we came back. Then suddenly a new you dropped into our lives, but you were not the same and eventually you dumped me. Well a couple of days ago actually. Look Oliver, this is so hard to tell you the whole story just sitting here, let's take your mother's car back, and then I need to go to the Dearing house and whilst we are doing things I'll fill you in."

Oliver was shaking his head again. "Okay, this is bizarre and what the hell was the new Oliver thinking of, dumping you, what a jerk. Follow me in the Wrangler home and then we will go from there."

I was wondering as I followed Oliver if he would suddenly be back in his stable conversion home, but things were so extraordinary that I fully expected he not be, but some amalgam of the old and new Oliver's trappings would be evident. When I saw his mom and dad's place with his conversion as he pulled in two cars ahead of me, I felt a burst of happiness. I drove in behind him and got out of my car. I ran up the path and around to the back to see his little patch of grass and the old garden table and chairs. He followed me. He was frowning with puzzlement as he met me running on the way back down the path. He caught me and hugged me.

"Chloe, you look as if you've found an old friend not a badly tended bit of garden." He smiled and put me down from the hug.

"Oliver, it's so good to see your home again, you see you didn't live here anymore."

"You're kidding. Let's get back on the road, and tell me the story." He took my hand and we went to the jeep.

I drove and told him the story, he interspersed it with 'oh my god', and 'you've got to be kidding', and 'no that's unbelievable.'

I smiled at him every time, and had only told him half of the whole story when we were at my house.

"Oliver, I want to show you the roundel that you had made."

I let us in and ran two at a time up the stairs. Oliver followed asking how the archaeology was going in the big drawing room. I told him it was finished, and he was surprised, but we were in my room. I picked up the roundel and showed it to him. He smiled a broad smile. "Very cool don't you think? I really like it, do you?"

I told him I did, I loved it, and for more reasons than he could imagine, but I had not got to that part of the story and would eventually.

As we went downstairs, he got out his cell phone, and was doing a text message with one hand and holding my hand with the other. I remembered the broken glass in the kitchen and that I needed to clean it up. I asked who he was messaging?

"A group text to all in my contacts list, 'So sorry guys, please forgive me, some nasty unexpected things happened, but I'm back now and I want you to forgive me, please reply'. I saw him press send to all and I wondered if that would include dad.

"Oliver, if you still want your work with dad you need to call him now and say so, he was about to fill your vacancy," I told him. He got on the phone to my dad right away.

I left him talking to dad and went to the utility area for a dustpan and brush. In the kitchen again, I picked up the biggest piece of glass and cut my finger.

"Damn I cut my finger," I said aloud to myself, and threw the offending piece in the kitchen bin, then thought 'oh well it will be healed shortly,' and I brushed up the other bits throwing them in the bin too.

I took the dustpan and brush back into the utility area, and ran my finger under the tap. It hurt a bit, and I saw the cut was quite deep. I took no real notice because it would heal, but I didn't want blood on my clothes so I got some paper towel and wrapped it around my finger.

Back with Oliver, he told me he had talked to my dad and narrowly escaped being fired, but was expected in to work on the weekend. He grinned at me, then he raised his eyebrows when he saw the paper towel and said, "Chloe did you cut yourself? You should have let me do that job, let me see."

"Oliver it will be okay. When I was back in time with Tristan, I was shot with an arrow. He healed me with his blood, and now I'm immortal like you and him. Well like he was." I said sadly, because now he was a stained glass image.

Oliver paled. "Bloody hell Chloe, you left that part out of the story so far, let's look at the cut anyway."

I showed him my cut, fully expecting it to be healed, but it wasn't. We both looked at it then at each other.

"It looks bad Chloe, it's not healing." Oliver was concerned.

"No it's okay. I may be taking a bit longer to heal because I've been very upset today. I'll just put a Band-Aid on it and we'll go to Tristan's and I'll keep going with the story."

Oliver looked skeptical. He let go of my hand.

I went to one of the kitchen drawers where I knew mom had a first aid kit. I put some antiseptic on the cut. It stung and then I wound a big Band-Aid on it tightly as the cut was still wide open and bleeding.

Oliver drove my Wrangler and I kept on with the story. I shortened it a little so that he got the picture more quickly and said the fine details would get filled in eventually. I told him about the business the new Oliver had started. He wanted to check his website and his clients he said through gritted teeth, and opened the jeep window throwing the cell phone that had belonged to the new Oliver out of it onto the side of the road, where it smashed and another car ran over it as I watched in my wing mirror. That almost made me smile.

He told me he loved me a few times when I told him about how sad I had been to lose the new Oliver when he dumped me.

I told him that Tristan was missing again and we were going to check out if I had left a sweater in his room. Oliver sighed, and glanced at me, then looked ahead and went silent.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

We had reached the Dearing house, and walked to the front door hand in hand. McPherson opened the door, Charlie was in the hall behind her and as she showed us in I cuddled him and said, "Don't worry Charlie I'll take you for walks."

I explained to McPherson that Tristan had one of my sweaters in his room and Liz had called me and said that I could go up for it.

She said to go ahead.

Oliver and I went up to Tristan's room. I walked in first, his bed was made, and the room was really tidy. I found tears were coming into my eyes and I turned and took Oliver's hand.

I walked around the room. His desk was tidy and he had removed his laptop. I went to his big cupboard and looked inside. There were still clothes in there and the shoes that he had shown me to catch Rene that time. Maybe he had taken some, but the thing is, why would he and I didn't know for sure he had, as I hadn't looked in here before properly.

We went into his bathroom and the place was tidied up, no toothbrush or toiletries to be seen. Perhaps he had thrown things away to look as if he had packed. If he had wanted me to look for my sweater, where would I need to look? What about in his laundry basket? I looked in there, the shirt he had been wearing the last time I saw him was in there and I took it out. There was a flutter of blue paper out of it and Oliver picked it up.

"It's a note, 'All is not as it may appear, I love you, think about me, and although it's a moralist term, I guess I have only got what I deserve'.

"Well that has to be to you from him," Oliver said, and gave it to me.

I was holding Tristan's shirt. It somehow still had the shape of him. I looked at the note. It was Tristan's handwriting. There had to be a message here besides the one so obviously in the words of the note.

"What do you make of it Chloe?" Oliver asked, and I had to say I didn't know yet.

"Why would he deserve this?" Oliver asked.

"I don't know, I don't think he did, does, but then I love him," I said sadly, and Oliver put his arm around my shoulders.

"Did you leave a sweater here or what Chloe?' he asked, and he was about to take the shirt from me, but I rolled it up and put it under my arm.

"I don't think I did, I can't see one anyway. I wonder what he did with his laptop."

We looked in the little kitchen area he had in his room. Nothing, cups washed and hung on hooks, the coffee jar on the little shelf next to the kettle.

This made me cry. "He loves coffee," I told Oliver. Oliver nodded and hugged me.

We had a look around again to make sure there was nothing else. I thought there was nothing, but I didn't want to go in case there was some other message from Tristan. I went to his desk drawers and looked inside. The top drawer just had bits of stationary in there. The middle one had a quarter packet of printer paper in it, and the bottom one nothing in it.

Oliver went to the big cupboard and fished about in it. He came up with one of Tristan's blue T-shirts saying, "We need to pretend we got your sweater. This would pass for it, if you rolled it up."

I rolled it around Tristan's shirt. I was taking that with me.

We went downstairs and I went along to the kitchen where McPherson was rolling out pastry. I called to her that I had the sweater and we would see ourselves out.

She looked up and said, "Okay and if you mean it about taking Charlie for a walk, he will need a walk tomorrow."

"I do mean it and I'll call by in the morning."

Oliver and I left. It hadn't really been necessary to get the T-shirt to pretend we had my sweater.

Oliver drove us home and I filled him in on the last part of the story saying he could read the letter from Tristan when we got home to my place.

He was silent then and only when we were getting out of the Wrangler did he say, "So far this story is nightmarish, Chloe. You said the last few weeks had been hellish, and it sounds exactly that, meanwhile I ceased to be me and became some privileged idiot."

This was funny since Oliver had a very educated accent from a very good upbringing, and a stable conversion to name two things, which denoted some privilege. I smiled a little at him.

We went inside and mom was in the kitchen.

"Oliver, hello," she said, and she gave me a look over the top of her reading glasses that said back together huh.

Oliver responded.

"Hello Mrs. McGarry, it's nice to see you. How's the game going you were showing me the time you helped me with that code I needed?"

She said, "Great. I'll let you see the finished product in a week," then she said, "Are you two eating in because I'm going up to see your dad for dinner later this evening? There's plenty to eat in the fridge, just help yourselves." She kept looking at me with this tell me later look on her face and then off she went.

Oliver said he was starving and felt as if he had not eaten for weeks, which I found mildly funny, and then he added that maybe we could get something to eat now. I nodded.

I decided to look at my cut to see if it had healed as expected and wash my hands to get food. I ripped the Band-Aid off, which hurt, and found the cut was as bad as ever.

I sighed telling Oliver and he frowned.

"Chloe, you can't be immortal like Tristan, if you were, now you're not, if you get what I mean. It would have healed twice over by now. Hey, I wonder if I am still, er, you know what?" and he looked around as if someone may hear.

"Oliver, I was the same as Tristan. I wonder what this means?"

He came over to me and held me.

"Get another Band-Aid on that cut it's quite deep," he observed. I went to the first aid kit and dressed the stupid cut again.

Oliver got some chicken, salad, and bread rolls, and made some sandwiches. He said I should eat, but I didn't think I could. He made me a half sandwich, and said maybe just a little.

I wanted to let him read the letter from Tristan, but we had the food and drink, well Oliver did, I just couldn't eat, but I drank some tea.

Upstairs in my room, we sat on my bed and I got the letter out from under my pillow. I gave it to Oliver and he read it, then he went to the roundel and looked closely at it, turning to me he said, "Do you think he's in there? I mean, it seems incredible."

"I really don't know. Let's face it the whole spell thing is incredible. It's just as likely he's in there as anywhere else." Then I felt so bad I thought I was about to throw up and ran into my bathroom. I splashed cold water on my face and stood there leaning on the sink waiting for the feeling to pass. This was the same feeling as I had before when Tristan had disappeared. It's the sick with worry syndrome back again.

I turned around and suddenly noticed that the chair I had under the door handle to the secret stairs was moved. I was in such a state before I hadn't seen this.

I considered that perhaps Tristan used the passage to bring the box and take the roundel, but then he had keys to the whole house and this chair would have to have been moved when he was already inside the place.

I went to get Oliver who was reading the letter again and had the note in his hand too.

"Chloe, something is going on. The note we found in his shirt, it's cryptic, like a clue. He's a clever guy you know, he's left you clues to something."

Chapter Twenty-Eight

He looked up and saw my face, put the letter and note down and came to me. Putting his arms around me, he told me we'd sort it out, we had before and would do so again, but whatever it was this time, he was going to be with me.

"No more going off to other dimensions without me, also if I am with you I can't very well disappear again can I?" He was trying to cheer me up with a little smile at the end of this speech, and I loved him for it.

I told him about the chair in my bathroom having moved. We went to it and opened the door to the old stairs. My key had still been in the hiding place I had for it, so Tristan hadn't moved that. I flipped on the lights when we had the door open and on the third step was Tristan's bunch of keys, just lying there. I picked them up and looked down the stairs and as far as I could see, there was nothing more.

We closed the door and I locked it and put the chair back, although strictly speaking no one had keys now as far as I knew, so it was probably irrelevant.

Oliver and I were standing at the big window looking out just as Tristan and I had so often done recently. He had his arm around my shoulders and he said softly,

"I don't much feel like leaving you tonight. What a horrible day this has been, I can only imagine how you are feeling."

I walked over to my bed and I put Tristan's letter and the cryptic note under my pillow. I had left his shirts in my car.

It was only early evening and I asked Oliver if we might take a walk up to the lake. That it would be good just to walk up there after everything that had happened.

I took a jacket, because the breeze was slightly cool. The sky had red streaks in it, and it looked as if the next day was going to be sunny and warm.

I had my arm around Oliver's waist and he had his arm around my shoulders. It was so nice to be with Oliver, but the thought of Tristan embedded in glass was still there at the top of my thoughts.

"You're thinking of Tristan aren't you?" Oliver asked me as we reached the path to the lake.

"I am Oliver, I think of both of you always when you are not with me, but when I think something is wrong, and either of you are in danger it just freaks me out," I told him.

We walked around the lake, which was lit up as usual. A marquee had been put up close by where some little orange and lemon boats had been moored. There must be some event about to happen.

I asked Oliver if he wanted to go into the restaurant and just touch base with anyone, and we decided to sit outside, have coffee, and see what happened.

Oliver sat next to me and held one of my hands in both of his. He smiled at me as I looked to see how he was feeling as Ben approached.

"Dude, I got your texts just in time to stop me from writing you off as a friend," Ben said to him.

Oliver immediately stood up and put his hand on Ben's arm saying, " Sorry Ben, some family stuff, we were away for a while and I thought we would never get back, but it's over now, hope we can pick up where we left off."

Ben laughed. "Yes, and next time just tell people why don't you, we might have been able to help. Okay, now I've come over to take your order so what'll it be?"

Oliver ordered coffee and I ordered tea and asked Ben if anyone else was at work, Clare for instance. She was and so was Will and they came out one by one to see Oliver and pick up their friendships.

Clare brought the drinks we ordered and two pieces of peach tart, which she said my dad had sent saying it was a new recipe and would I try it.

I did eat quite a bit of it, because the atmosphere was so happy, and the night was falling softly around us bringing with it the fairy lights, and lights in the lake that came on as the sun went down. It was still quite light really, but you could tell the days were becoming a little shorter.

We walked back to the house and on the way Oliver suddenly said,

"Something major happened to have me put back on my life path again. I mean the one I was on originally. Chloe, tell me what did in the past that you think changed my existence before?"

I wasn't certain. "Well it had to be giving Eleanor the letter from Edmund Dearing, and also telling Richard not to return to Tristan, not to stop at the inn to catch the plague. I'm not sure really that any one action did it. It must have been all of them combined. You seemed to disappear two days, or maybe three before Tristan and I got back."

"You know it stands to reason that all the things you just talked about have been undone, somehow. Perhaps Tristan being cast into glass has undone it all somehow. It must be that. I think that the journey you took has been erased. You are no longer immortal, and so it must have been. The Oliver who appeared instead of me wasn't immortal, was he, because he hadn't been saved by Tristan." Oliver hugged me to him as we walked along the path, his arm around my shoulders. I nodded thoughtfully.

"Oliver that sounds plausible, it really does," I said.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

At home, we went up to my room and Oliver read the letter and the note again. It was as if his re-reading them could change things, and I knew how this felt.

"I don't know what to make of it. Why do you suppose he left his keys there on the step? More intriguing is why did he bring the box and put it in your cupboard and yet leave this weird little note in his shirt in his own room?"

I went to the box which I had pushed close to my bed and opened the lid again, the box was really old and yet so well taken care of by Tristan it must mean something to give it to me.

I put the lid back on as Oliver came up behind me and peered in.

"A short sword. Is that Tristan's?"

"It is," I said, and took it out placing it on my bed.

"Oliver, it's as if he wanted clues scattered around to make sure some at least were found, like if we didn't see the note, then we would see the keys, or the box. What do you think?"

As I said this, I was tracing the griffin that was carved on the lid with my fingers. Following the outline of the griffin, it suddenly came to me that the griffin might be a clue. It had featured strongly in the story of Richard and Tristan so far.

"Oliver, the box might be the way to get me to think about the griffin. Do you think it's too late to go over to the little church, you know the one close by the Norman door?"

"Why, what will be there?"

"I hope to find a letter," I replied adding, "the one that Sir Edmund had left for Eleanor."

"We need a torch for sure, and we should drive to the abbey car park to save time. Okay let's go. Have you got a torch?" Oliver was as eager to solve some of the puzzle as I was.

I had my flashlight in the Wrangler and so we set off for the abbey car park.

We got there and it was maybe the last fifteen minutes of daylight. Zipping the torch into my pocket, I locked the Wrangler and we went off down the path that led to the Norman door and the little church.

From this way, the church was the first thing you got to, which was great as within the trees it was very nearly dark already. Oliver kept hold of my hand as we almost ran to the church.

Inside it was dark, and I got the torch out. The renovations were still in progress and the place had a small generator, which powered some lights.

I didn't think we needed to worry about trying to get that started and went straight to the font that was now in place in the little side part, on the way up the nave. Oliver was following me and as I went straight up to the font and started to push on the griffin, he came to help.

"Chloe let me do this. If you cut or graze yourself it will not heal for days." He took over whilst I held the torch. He tried to push it in from the middle then tried the bottom. It didn't seem to want to move. Suddenly, he put his hand on the top and leaned on it, the griffin swung in, and I trained the light on the cavity. Oliver pulled out the old leathery tube that housed the letter from Sir Edmund Dearing. He looked at me, and I smiled at him.

"It's still there, how extraordinary. I thought it might have been with Harry, but there it is."

Oliver was trying to close the stone griffin back, finally he took a paint scraper from the materials around the place and levered it just about in the space it should occupy. He had the leather cylinder thing and looked around for something to wrap it in. There were some old printed leaflets from when the church was on the tourist trail, and they told the history of the church. Oliver wrapped a few around the leather object. We went out of the church and Oliver commented on the fact that it was such an historical treasure and yet here it was unlocked.

I glanced at him. "Hey that's true and it was locked last time I was around it. Tristan has keys, maybe he left it unlocked on purpose for us to get in and take the letter."

"Maybe he left you the keys on the step to unlock it, but it just had been left open anyway," Oliver said, and then yowled and stopped walking. He was behind me and I turned to see him with a big bramble stuck across the back of his hand.

"Oliver, that must hurt those brambles really fierce," I said concerned.

He pulled it off of his hand and it trailed down to the ground. His skin was all torn and bleeding.

"Let's just go, it's really dark," he said.

We made it to the car park. I had a nettle sting where the plants had managed to catch my bare ankle between my turned up jeans, and my clogs as I passed too close in the dark. The torch had not thrown enough light in that wooded countryside.

At the Wrangler, we thankfully got in and I drove us home. Oliver had the package and we took it down to the middle drawing room where there was a desk. I didn't want to open it up really because what if it fell apart?

Oliver started to unwrap it carefully. We just made sure that it was the letter we had seen on Tristan's desk that day when James and Clare had found it, and then we wrapped it back up.

"So that means Tristan being made into the stained glass has changed things again for sure," I said, as we stood there looking at one another and then at the package.

"What shall we do with it Oliver, any ideas?"

"I think we need to hide it again, but where?"

Oliver had not washed his bramble scratch, and I was annoyed by the nettle stings, we went to the kitchen, leaving the letter on the desk.

Oliver ran his hand under the cold tap in the laundry and came out to find me coating my ankle in Calamine lotion from the first aid kit. He held up his hand, "Sorry Chloe, the cuts have gone already. It seems I'm still immortal, and you lost the trait, shall we call it."

I looked at his hand. There was next to no mark on his skin, and it had been nasty.

"Would you like something to drink Chloe? I'd like to make some coffee." He grinned then adding, "I'm getting as bad as Tristan at drinking coffee. Oh sorry Chloe," he said as if just mentioning Tristan was somehow becoming inappropriate.

As Oliver was making his coffee, I put away the first aid kit. I told Oliver it was okay to talk about Tristan that in fact we had to.

"What are we going to do with that letter Chloe? We need to hide it, but where? It needs to be somewhere we can trust no one will find it, and yet still accessible in case we need it."

I went over to him at the work surface and put my arms around him. He wriggled around in my arms to face me grinning and kissed me.

"I don't know how the other Oliver could not just love you, Chloe," he said.

I was smiling at him, and just about to kiss him back, when I thought of a hiding place.

"Oliver, the stone box, the stone box in the tunnel below here, that's where we could hide it," I said.

Oliver shook his head. "No idea Chloe, do you mean the one James found in the dig at the Norman door?"

"No Oliver there's another in the wall in the tunnel down in the big drawing room. Come on I'll show you."

I got my torch again from the table and we went down to the big drawing room, collecting the leather cylinder wrapped in old leaflets on the way. None of the protective measures for the wall painting and the tunnel itself had been started and we still had the benefit of some of the spotlights at the top of the spiral steps down to the tunnel. I switched on every light I could find and we went down the steps gingerly, there was a bit of dampness, but not too much. Oliver held my hand and kept hold of it when we were in the tunnel.

We came to the stone box set in the wall and I gave the flashlight to Oliver to hold so that I could open the box in the same way I had seen Tristan do it. When it came to pulling the round part out, I needed Oliver's help. We put the torch down propping it to shine on the stone box and took the circular stone bit out to lay it carefully on the stone tiles. Oliver picked up the torch and being taller than me shone the light into the box cavity. You could see the back of the stone box and the bottom was below the edge of the circular hole.

He put his hand in and took a deep breath. "There's something in here," he said softly.

He took out a leather pouch, and it was very heavy when he gave it to me to hold as he took out another, and to my surprise yet another. I put them on the tiles. Oliver looked at the three pouches and then at me, and suddenly it dawned on me as it did him, that the stuff in the leather pouches was Eleanor's treasure.

There must have been a way in here that only she knew. Tristan had just found a blocked up passage when we were back there in the eleven nineties. Now the treasure was here and so she had not collected it. I told Oliver about how Tristan and I had found his sword and a thank you in here before. Now the treasure being here was in keeping with Oliver reverting to the real Oliver, and the letter being in the font, and me not being immortal.

It looked as if the things Tristan and I had done on the trip in time had been undone by Tristan being made into stained glass.

"This is bizarre Chloe, you would have expected his whole life be erased not just the journey back in time, well maybe, wouldn't you?"

I was thinking. "Who knows? Maybe those are the only things that had changed and shouldn't have. After all, it wasn't about negating his existence, just casting him in glass to pay the debt."

"I still don't get it," Oliver said.

"Let's just put the letter in the box and put back the treasure too," I suggested. We didn't look in the pouches. It seemed somehow scary to know exactly what was in them.

We put everything in the stone box cavity and then made our way back to the kitchen.

The coffee Oliver had made was cold and we poured both that and my tea away. I wanted to think so I was making more, and I poured the water over the next lot of coffee granules just as the front door opened. Mom came in and smiling at us said, "You two still here then. Did you eat? If there's coffee going, I'll have some. I'm going to do an hour's work before bed."

I looked at Oliver, and he was beaming at my mom. I made her coffee too and took it down to her study, where she had already sat down to work.

I went back to the kitchen. I felt tired. It had been such a hellishly emotional day.

"Maybe we could go up to my room, Oliver, and take our drinks up there. Do you want something to eat too, because we never really had dinner?"

"I'm good Chloe, but you didn't eat maybe you should."

"Oliver, I ate peach tart," I reminded him. He smiled in agreement and we took our drinks up to my room.

Chapter Thirty

I went over to my desk and looked at the roundel.

"Tristan if you are in there, don't worry I'll find a way to get you out," I said to it.

Oliver was standing at the window. "Strangely, I miss him too. I know that might sound a bit odd, but what I mean is, it's as if a piece of us is gone isn't it? Sort of the third part of our particular puzzle is missing. I thought of him as a friend and even though I love you and know you love him too, it was acceptable. I don't get that bit, human beings are supposed to be jealous, but I just found I couldn't be. It's because we are somehow linked I guess."

I was watching him, it was a garbled sort of speech, but I understood what he was trying to say.

"Oliver you and Tristan are some kind of very distant family. You're a descendent of Eleanor Tarrant, very probably of Richard Tarrant, we don't know. Maybe it's a long time ago, but it's still there in history."

He raised his eyebrows at that and was silent for a moment.

He put his arm around me. "I could stay with you tonight, Chloe, just like we did before. We could get some rest and then start over looking for Tristan."

I nodded. It seemed only minutes ago that I had fallen asleep holding Tristan, and now it was going to be Oliver. Was there something wrong with that? Not so far, I thought.

I cleaned my teeth and gave Oliver the last spare brush from my multi-pack.

We got rolled in a couple of sheets and were side by side, holding hands, and giggling like little kids at a sleepover.

"Chloe, do you ever wonder if your relationship with either Tristan or me went to the next level so to speak, one of us would finally feel jealous?" he asked.

I stopped giggling, this was something never spoken of, the next level. I had to imagine he meant physically.

"Oliver, since none of us are at that stage, maybe we don't need to speculate on how any of us will feel about it," I said softly. This was not something I wanted to think about right now. I could feel his warmth through the sheet and I loved him, but complexities like that were not yet on my agenda.

Oliver didn't say any more about that. After about two minutes silence, during which I had been thinking, I said, "I have to admit to still not quite understanding how it's worked. Just because Tristan is in the stained glass, it's undone what we did together when back in time. Actually I speculate that we didn't even do it."

Oliver was amused. "How do you remember what you and he did if you didn't do it, that's a twist."

"I think that I remember because I was there in some weird ethereal time. Maybe because I am strongly connected to Tristan, I had some of his blood heal me, I love him, that stuff. It's not easy to explain. The other Oliver started getting flashes of knowledge about you, about the life you had, about me. He felt so strongly connected to me that must mean there is a difference between people and things being changed, for instance the whereabouts of the Sir Edmund letter. Everyone remembered you, so you did exist before the new Oliver. It's a mystery really."

Oliver half sat up and looked at me.

"There must be more clues to the Tristan being in stained glass problem than just the ones we have found, don't you think? I mean did he intend for that just to be it that his life was over?"

I didn't know and I remembered that weird stuff Tristan had said when he was giving me the ring, I told Oliver this and added, "I think you're right, there probably are more clues."

Oliver kissed me before he lay back down again and then took my hand again.

"Chloe, it's going to be really hard to get him back this time, sorry, but we might as well face it."

"I know it Oliver, but that's what I thought about you. I was making myself come to terms with losing you, when you came back, just like magic, what am I saying? It is magic."

We fell silent after that comment.

I could see the moon through my window, it was a silvery moon, and it reminded me of traveling with Tristan across the frost-hardened ground. That strange journey we had made all the way to the Tarrant estate and back to the hunting lodge on the lovely horses. The hunting lodge, this very house, I smiled.

I closed my eyes.

Chapter Thirty-One

I had obviously gone to sleep because I woke up with my arm around Oliver and my head on his shoulder. It was morning and the sun was shining. I didn't want to move, but the brightness of the sun told me it wasn't early morning. So I moved a little and Oliver opened his eyes.

Having dashed in and out of the shower, Oliver with his hair wet, and me with my hair just clipped up in a twist, we went downstairs to grab breakfast and then run out to the Dearings. It was nine thirty, but then it must have been two thirty in the morning before we had drifted off to sleep the night before.

No one was around, which I was glad of, but something made me take some coffee down to mom's study. She looked up from her computer.

"Chloe, just so I know, are you and Oliver back together, and am I right in thinking he stayed the night?"

"Two affirmative answers Mom, but seriously we just fell asleep and nothing happened nor is it on the agenda, it's all safe."

She grimaced. "Just concerned for you, any time you want to talk, you know where I am. I accept you fell asleep, but one day..." and she didn't finish her sentence just looked at me over her glasses.

"I know Mom, seriously we are okay," I said to her, and kissed the top of her head leaving her to watch me going out of her study door.

I went down to the kitchen and Oliver had made some raisin toast, which we ate as we drove the short distance to the Dearings in Oliver's Land Rover.

"I don't remember not driving the Land Rover I have to admit, but it feels good to be driving it." Oliver grinned at me as we parked at the Dearing house.

We walked to the front door and rang the bell. I could hear it echo down the hall and a minute passed before McPherson answered. She let us in telling us it was great to see us, old Charlie was missing Tristan, and Liz was busy.

I hurriedly asked her if I could quickly check Tristan's room as I thought I had left my cell phone there yesterday. She gave me a look, which verged on disbelief, but said okay.

Oliver turned around and gave me a look too, his was definitely disbelief, but he followed her to the kitchens where Charlie seemed to have a basket and keep her company often during the day.

I ran up the stairs two at a time, and burst into Tristan's room. I went around as quickly as possible looking for Tristan's laptop. I knew he used it quite a bit and I couldn't shake the feeling there might be something on it that would help us. I couldn't find it, and I nearly tripped on the stairs racing back down them.

When I walked into the kitchen, Oliver was having coffee with McPherson and she had poured a cup of tea for me.

"Did you find your cell? I must say when I went up to check Tristan's windows had been closed last evening I saw nothing around the place. He left the place very tidy, not even any laundry," McPherson said.

"No it must be somewhere else," I lied, thinking it better not ring until I get out of the house.

I hurried the tea and said that maybe we could get going with Charlie.

We took him out of the door we used to get to the path that led down through the gardens, and the woods, which took us ultimately to my house.

"What was that about then Chloe?" Oliver asked. "What were you looking for?"

"For Tristan's laptop, I feel like it's a clue that it's missing."

Oliver raised his eyebrows but said nothing.

I suddenly thought about what McPherson had said that Tristan didn't even have any laundry and started to laugh.

Oliver looked at me smiling at my laughter. "What, what's funny Chloe?"

I told him there was no laundry as I had taken it and for some reason it just made me laugh more. Oliver looked at me amused and shook his head, but laughed a little too.

It was a good walk and Charlie was snuffling around and having a great time. The sun was out and it would have been a lovely time except for the fact that Tristan wasn't there.

We discussed all the clues over again, and agreed something was missing, but we couldn't think what. Oliver expressed surprise that Tristan should think that we might moralize about if he deserved to be put in the stained glass and I agreed it was weird.

At my house, we went in for a drink of water. We gave one to Charlie, who lapped it up out of the bowl I had designated his the last time Tristan had brought him. Mom came down from her study and because of Charlie, thought Tristan was with us. I told her he had been called away and we were walking Charlie to make sure he wasn't lonely. She patted him and said it looked like a lovely day and that she might take a break in the sun.

Oliver and I left shortly after and walked Charlie back to the Dearing house.

When we delivered him back to McPherson, I said I would come around at the end of the week and walk him again.

We drove back to my house and went up to my room to try to think what to do next.

I was feeling a little sick with worry again. It just came over me when I realized we were no nearer freeing Tristan. The task seemed impossible.

Suddenly I remembered.

"Oh no, Oliver, I've just thought about the Tarrant Marketing Company that the other Oliver was part of, and that the Dearings were using for the campaign to market the new arts venture on the estate. What will have happened there I wonder? Liz knows about the new Oliver, and since she wasn't there at the restaurant last night when we were, she will not know you're back. It's a bit messy to say the least," I told him.

"I don't even want to think about that, especially since there is nothing we can do. Let's concentrate on Tristan." Oliver put the note and the letter down on my desk. He picked up Tristan's bunch of keys that were there next to the roundel where we had left them last night. I was walking up and down my room, trying to think what to do next and failing.

"There are quite a few keys here, are they all for this house?" Oliver asked.

"I don't know actually, why?" I walked over to him.

"Well there's a really interesting one, a little key, look it's sort of an old fashioned key and small, as if it fits a secret door." He held it for me to see.

It was too tiny to be for a door, and I said this to Oliver, more like a moneybox or even a diary I added.

"A box, well he left you a box, where is it?"

I shook my head. "No the box isn't locked, the lid just lifts out remember. I imagine when it was used they had a strap or something to lock it and keep it on a horse perhaps for traveling."

We were kneeling by the box and Oliver put the keys down having seen that the box had no keyhole in the lid.

"I think that's a dead end Oliver," I told him, retrieving Tristan's keys and resuming walking. I had got to my window and was looking out at the perfect blue sky when he let out a sound of triumph.

"Yes, here's a lock. Chloe bring the keys back."

I looked around, he had the box tipped up, and on the underside was a little key hole. I ran over to him.

"Hey, I've never seen the underside. I just hefted the thing out of my cupboard and slid it along to be near my bed. Here try the key."

Oliver put the box up onto its side to get to the underside without having to hold the heavy old box up completely. The lid fell back off the top and I checked to see if it was undamaged as Oliver put the little key in the lock.

"What gave you the idea to look at the bottom of the box Oliver?" I asked him putting the lid carefully down on the floor.

"Nothing, I was just looking at the box, you know just looking at it."

He looked at me then turned the key and the bottom came away in a square that had looked like raised decoration. A letter was in there.

We both looked at each other smiling.

Oliver gave it to me, and I read it out.

'My dearest Chloe,

I love you and if a man made from stained glass can miss someone, be sure I am missing you. I have left blood in a container in the fridge in the second greenhouse, don't worry it's sterile, and anyway it's mine so if you find that my becoming the stained glass that once saved me has changed anything for you, you know what to do with it.

Do it soon. The refrigerator is at an extremely cold temperature but you don't want to risk leaving it in there too long.

I really expect that what we did together in the adventure we had, when you came to find me in the past, will at least in part be negated and I hope that our old Oliver is back with you.

I love you so much, please be there when I find a way out of this. I love you, Tristan'

I was silent after I finished reading for about two minutes. I just sat there on the end of my bed looking at the letter. Oliver was standing at the window where he had walked as I read. I was aware he was watching me. I sighed and folded the letter up. I put it under my pillow, where Tristan's other letter was placed, and as Oliver stood silently by my window I went over to him.

He put his arms around me.

"Well one thing is for sure, Chloe, he suspected that you are no longer immortal, and wanted you to be. Leaving the blood for you is significant. Don't you think that part of what he meant by 'please be there', is 'please don't let anything happen to yourself'. He almost says it in 'you know what to do' we need to make you immortal again Chloe."

I felt sad and went to the stained glass roundel, there it was next to the ring and the sword, and I looked around at Oliver.

"Rather than use the blood myself, I'm tempted to use it as a bargaining tool to get him back. I don't know right now what difference it could make my being immortal, but the Magus might free Tristan for the blood."

"No you can't do that, we need to think," Oliver stated emphatically.

I thought deep down that might be the only way to get him back. I said, "Okay," but only because it was true that we needed to think.

The letter had sort of shocked me into realizing Tristan was in the stained glass, somehow I had hoped it was a mistake and he would appear soon.

I walked back over to Oliver. "I must get him back Oliver."

Oliver nodded. It looked like he was thinking. He put an arm around my shoulders as we were leaning back against the windowsill. I turned my face to him and kissed his cheek.

I knew if there was anything Oliver could do to help, he would.

"It seems to me he has hidden clues scattered around the place so that no one snooping around would just find the whole cache of them. Maybe he expected Aristide would still be checking up on him."

I nodded at this, as it seemed likely.

"I better go home even if only to just show my face. Chloe, come for the drive to take your mind off things. If we have a breather from thinking about the problems, we may just have inspiration." He leaned over then and kissed me, giving me a hug. It was true we needed inspiration, right then I felt the problem insurmountable.

We decided to go in Oliver's Land Rover and as we drove along, I realized what a lovely day it was. The sun was shining and the sky was really blue. There were no clouds at all. It seemed as if I had woken from a dream and just realized that it was actually day.

Oliver asked me if my cut had healed and I had to look under the big Band-Aid that was covering it. It hadn't healed but it didn't look so bad.

I told him this.

"Maybe you could drop some of Tristan's blood in it, maybe that would be enough to reinstate your immortality and heal the cut," Oliver said glancing quickly at me.

Somehow, I felt I couldn't use Tristan's blood yet.

"I think it has to be bleeding, but then again, I'm not sure because I don't know if my arrow wound was still bleeding when Tristan healed me. Maybe you're right maybe I could do that, but not yet, I have a glimmer of an idea forming about how to get Tristan back."

I was actually thinking of using the blood to pay the Magus, but not Tristan's, my own, I didn't tell Oliver this. He was driving and nodded saying, "What's the idea Chloe?"

I repeated it was just a glimmer of an idea and I would tell him later. He glanced at me again, but I saw his expression. It was one that said he wondered what I was up to.

We reached his place, and after he let me in, he went next door to see his mom. I wandered into the office part of his place, and saw one of his computers was on. I touched the mouse and I saw the screen fill with his own website homepage. I leaned over and checked the contact details. I shook my head in amusement when I saw that they had reverted to Oliver's, this address and his old number. This messing around with time stuff was outstandingly bizarre. Then I thought, unless he had done it himself of course.

Oliver came in. "I was updating my site when I seemed to have fallen asleep, weird huh?" He smiled at me. He had woken up and come straight to find Tristan and me. That was very endearing.

We had some juice and went out to the little garden table and chairs. The sun was warm and I turned my face up to it.

I thought of Tristan and the pleasure of the warmth of the sun just dissolved. Oliver seemed to have become telepathic.

"You're thinking of Tristan again Chloe. I wish you could stop for just a little time and recuperate. It will be so much better to problem solve if you are not exhausted with worry or sadness."

This felt like déjà vu and I shook myself. He was looking at me with his kind expression in his eyes, and I knew he was right. I tried to give him my attention, and I took a deep breath and said, "I know and I agree, but it's so hard. I do try to stop thinking about him so that I might be able to think less of the sadness and more of the solutions. Maybe we should go somewhere."

"Yes we could. How about checking out the second greenhouse?" Oliver had an expression of regret for saying this, but continued, "Seriously we should, there might be more than just the blood, maybe there is more information with the blood."

I laughed at this. "Oliver you've just been telling me not to think about Tristan and now you suggest we go look at his blood."

Oliver started grinning and then he started laughing. It was infectious and I started to laugh too. We were both just laughing when it occurred to me to ask what Oliver was laughing at.

"Nothing really, nothing is funny, I think we are hysterical. No really it's because did you ever think you would be sitting in the sun discussing how to get an immortal man back from his transformation into some stained glass. We should be driving over to the festival in Oldbury, with Liz to watch Will and your brother, and the other bands."

"Do you want to go Oliver? We could go. Steven asked me to go since I didn't go to the last festival they played at, out past Oxford."

"You know it sounds good, except that I'd be thinking about this situation all the time, and wanting to get on with doing something about it. What about you, would you like to go?"

Oliver was sincere.

"I feel the same as you, but the festival actually goes on all week and the band is not performing until Friday night, so we could still go later, unless you're working."

I had started thinking about the idea of going to check out the blood in the fridge.

"I am working in fact, because Will and Liz aren't. I can't let your dad down since I've been missing for so long, sorry Chloe."

"No it's okay. I don't think I would concentrate too well. Oliver I think we need to go and check out the greenhouse fridge after all. Shall we?"

Oliver grinned and got up from his chair.

"Let's go," he said, and offered me his hand to pull me up from the chair I was sitting on.

He pulled me close to him and kissed me. We held hands going to his Land Rover, and he opened the door for me.

Chapter Thirty-Two

The sun was warm and I opened the window of the car as we drove along. The breeze was fresh and welcome on my face.

We reached the fork in the road that meant we could drive up to the Dearing house, park in their car park and then walk over to the greenhouses.

Oliver said maybe we should go to my place and walk from there so that people would not wonder why we were there.

We drove to my house and parked next to my Wrangler. Mom's Cherokee was gone so she maybe had gone out shopping.

I felt warm and I had a quick drink of water before we set out on the path to the greenhouses. I noticed Charlie's bowl was over by the kitchen patio doors. I couldn't remember if I had left it there earlier, but I must have. My heart flipped a little thinking Tristan might be back and have brought Charlie down for a walk, and mom had given the dog more water.

It was just hope playing tricks on me.

Oliver was holding my hand and we were silent for a while, just walking in the sun. I was thinking about the situation. Oliver let go of my hand and put his arm around my shoulders.

"I have to be honest I have no ideas how to get Tristan back from something like this, have you?" he said sadly.

I shook my head. "Not yet, Oliver." We reached the greenhouses, and I looked around wondering how we would explain ourselves if anyone saw us.

We went around to the second one, going through the door and down to the office area at the end. The office was a building added on at the end of the greenhouse. It was very cool in there, and that was where the fridges and a cool room were.

I opened the door and saw some white cardboard boxes, which seemed to be full of cut flowers with funny little moisture pouches at the base of the stems. The little fridge by the desk in the office only had milk and a boxed cake in there. Oliver went over to the fridge, which was by the door of the cool room. He opened it and was looking through the contents, there was a white plastic box labeled 'Do not use without the permission of Tristan Dearing'. I heard Oliver read it out before I got a look and I knew that must be the blood. No one would touch that box and Tristan knew it, we would be the only ones.

Oliver opened it and inside was what looked like a small vial of blood. I gasped as Oliver took it from the box and held it up to the light.

"This is it," he said looking at me. "Nothing else though, no note."

I took it from his hand and looked at it. This had come from Tristan and had been running in his veins. I wondered what it would be like to receive someone's kidney or even heart. Does a residue of the donor remain I wondered? This even looked like Tristan's blood to me.

We put it back into the box and into the fridge.

"How do you suppose he got it from his body?" Oliver asked. "He couldn't have wandered into the local hospital and said 'oh just take a bit of blood for me would you, I need to leave it for the girl I love'."

I looked at Oliver and grimaced. "Knowing Tristan, well having been in the eleven hundreds with him, I think he more than likely just sliced his hand open with a sharp knife and let the blood run into the test tube thing."

Oliver grimaced. "Oh, yes, more than likely. How will we get it to your house? It's really warm outside. We can't let it get warm. It's freezing almost in that fridge, without that it might perish." Then he did a big sigh. "I don't know what our next move should be, but I do know he would want you healed. Let's drop a tiny bit on your cut."

"No, not yet Oliver, I have the beginning of a plan forming. I've been thinking of using blood to pay Aristide to get Tristan back. Not his blood but my own. We could say Tristan left it to pay Aristide if we wanted him back, you know, make something up, like, that he didn't think the spell would work, but if it did here was the payment. If the blood is no good to them, as they found yours wasn't, then it has at least been paid to him and Aristide is off the case again. What do you think?"

"I think it may be a good plan except for one thing, the old guy is going to test the blood isn't he? It would have some healing powers even back then when Tristan was first saved, that was the whole point of the payment requested. I mean to say Aristide knows who Tristan is, it's not like he's a descendant, he's the real deal. He might even have tests for male or female blood. Then the other worry is how are you getting yours in the vial? I don't feel like watching you slice your hand open. Chloe, I know I have no other ideas, but this one is kind of, well, full of holes."

Oliver had put the blood back in the fridge and came to me. He put his arms around me and hugged me. I sighed, what he said was true, but I still thought we could use that plan somehow.

Just then, one of the other Dearing estate workers came in. I thought I had seen him once when I was here with Tristan.

"Can I help you?" he said looking at us with a frown.

"We were looking for Tristan's laptop actually. He sent me a message to pick it up, and do some work to it whilst he's away. Oliver Tarrant, Computers, and Web Design," Oliver said in a charming manner, holding out his hand to be shaken.

The guy responded to this saying, "Oh hello there, yes Tristan's laptop, it's in the filing cabinet. He told me someone might come looking for it." He went to the filing cabinet by the desk, and took out Tristan's laptop from the top drawer. I knew as soon as I saw it that it was Tristan's. I had seen it on his desk in his room and admired it. I was surprised by all this but tried not to show it, naturally.

Oliver took the laptop, and we left the greenhouse having said thanks. I was desperate to say 'what got into you Oliver?' but waited.

On the path back to my house I shook my head and looked at Oliver who grasped my hand and said, "Well here's hoping there is something of a clue left on this machine, why would he hide it like this otherwise?"

I was grinning. "How did you think up that excuse so quickly Oliver, that was inspired."

Oliver grinned back as he glanced at me. "Maybe I've learned the art of making up good stories on the spot, from a certain person."

"That's more than likely." I couldn't help but keep smiling. You had to have your wits about you when trying to free Tristan from one spell or another.

Chapter Thirty-Three

At my house, we took the laptop up to my room, and Oliver booted it straight away.

I went to look over his shoulder and I kissed his cheek. "What are you looking for Oliver?" I asked, watching him looking through the files.

"Anything really, just a message, or something odd. You know like another message from Tristan."

"But what else would he say, we've had two letters, a note and several clues left us, he's in the stained glass?"

"I don't know what I am looking for Chloe, that's why I am looking, but I just have the feeling we still have some clues to solve. How weird was that when I straight out lied to the guy in the greenhouse and yet it was true? The other guy just gets out the laptop and hands it over. It's weird, the only thing that explains it, is Tristan knew we would look for his laptop and had guessed the exact excuse I might use to get it. Uncanny guesswork I call it."

I had to agree and I stared at the stained glass roundel, my dear Tristan was in there. I looked at it sitting there innocently on my desk with the afternoon sun glinting in it.

"Here we are, this is interesting," Oliver looked around to me his eyes sparkling. "I think this is a message to us too."

I looked at the page he had on the screen. It was a webpage that Tristan had copied to his documents file. I could tell that from the pathway on the address toolbar. Oliver had opened it in the browser.

It was a page on Homeopathy. "Why do you think this is a clue from Tristan?" I asked glancing at the page feeling just a little puzzled.

"Because it was alone in his documents file so not just a webpage in the history amongst many others, and because it's about the fact that Homeopathy is based on the tiniest amount of an agent being used in simply water, and that water remembers the agent and cures the patient. Well that's a synopsis, but get this, the tiniest amount is so small even a drop in the oceans would not be small enough to illustrate how small an amount of the original agent would be in a bottle of remedy. It's highlighted too, like look this is not the original web page coloring, Tristan has highlighted that part I just read out to you in blue."

"In blue, blue, it is a clue?" I said.

"You know that rhymes don't you?" Oliver laughed at me.

I wasn't amused. "Is it a clue, Oliver?"

"It is a clue, but to what?" Oliver was shaking his head.

"There can only be one thing it's referring to, the blood. He wants us to water down his blood for the Magus, pay with it, and get him out of the glass," I gabbled, and dragging my stool over to my desk, I sat down beside Oliver.

He turned to me and kissed me.

"I think you're right, but we can't water it down with water, it will be too thin to fool Aristide. It will have to be blood, and it can't be mine, so..."

Oliver looked at me, he raised his eyebrows, and then he kissed me again and sighed.

"Sorry Chloe, I would do it if I could. So what we need to do to pay off Aristide and get him out of our lives forever, freeing Tristan in the bargain, is get a vial of your blood and put the very tiniest bit of Tristan's in it to make a healing blood."

I was thinking about this, it seemed to be the solution but something was nagging at me. I got up and walked to the window. The sun was out there still warm, a bee was buzzing in the big flowers that had appeared amongst the ivy trailing up and down the wall below my window. I rubbed my head. I felt there was something wrong with this idea but what.

Oliver came over to me, and put his arms around me. I looked into his eyes. He started to kiss me, and I closed my eyes. I kissed him back and held his head to mine. It felt good to be so close to Oliver and I left my face against his as we stopped kissing each other, and held on to each other as if we were anchoring one another against something.

"You do know I love you, you do know how much you mean to me?" he whispered against my lips, as he kissed me again.

It was a few moments of pure comfort as we stood there in the late afternoon sun. I could still hear the bee buzzing and somewhere in the distance maybe a car engine. The air seemed strangely absent of many sounds, and suddenly I remembered when I was with Tristan in eleven ninety, the sky had been empty of airplanes and their tracks. I had looked up at the sky as we left the little shed place where Tristan had healed me, thinking how different even the sky was.

"What are you thinking?" Oliver asked leaning back from me.

Looking at him, I thought, 'he is lovely, I wonder if he knows how lovely he is?'

"I was thinking how much I love you Oliver."

He smiled and I could see this made him happy. I kissed him and then said, "I don't think we are supposed to give Aristide blood at all Oliver because couldn't Tristan have done that himself instead of being made into glass? I think I'm supposed to use the blood, well some of it to become immortal again. How that will help us get Tristan out of the glass I don't know."

"Maybe we are supposed to do both, pay with diluted blood then make you immortal after we have used your blood. Maybe Tristan couldn't bring himself to do it." Oliver let go of me and went back to the laptop.

"I don't think that's it." The nagging thought had crystallized.

"I wonder if it was something he was researching and thinking of doing, and then he changed his mind. I can't help wondering if even the tiniest bit of his blood would make the other blood an immortality agent. Maybe he couldn't risk that."

I walked over to the desk and watched Oliver as he closed the browser and the documents windows.

"If there is anything else it's not evident. It just seems like his business documents and some games like crosswords and word puzzles you know people have these things on their computers."

He sighed and stood up. "Chloe let's go and get something to eat. Let's go to the coffee shop. Let's go to Kool Kafé. That would be good, the evening is lovely, and we can sit out by the stream. Maybe some idea will come to us. It's as if we are going around in bloody circles. I'm beginning to feel stupid and useless. It's all so frightening."

I thought that would be good. I was completely out of ideas. I hated Aristide for this ridiculous payment idea after all these centuries. To have kept up the request and done this for family honor, I found it exasperating. I told Oliver it would be okay to go to Kool Kafé.

"Oliver, I feel angry enough to track Aristide down and slap him silly. Going to Kool Kafé might calm me down a little."

I think Oliver agreed because he just looked sympathetically at me. We couldn't smile this time.

I went into my bathroom and changed my T-shirt for my antique green one. When I came out Oliver was looking at Tristan's sword, and we hid it under a pile of stuff in my cupboard again before we left.

Chapter Thirty-Four

I drove us in the Wrangler and we looked for parking spaces on the road but there were none and we had to go in that pub car park again. It had become synonymous with Rene holding Oliver captive and stalking me, so I didn't like to be in there.

Oliver got down from the passenger seat as I walked around the jeep and he took my hand as we crossed the road.

We sat at a table near the little stream. There were several people around, and it was lucky there was a table left there. Samantha came along and took our orders smiling at us. Let's face it she wouldn't know the difference between the last Oliver I was here with and this one.

Oliver leaned over the table and took my hands.

"Are you okay Chloe? I don't know what to do to help you, except get Tristan back and that eludes me at the moment. I'm sure we'll do it, sooner or later. It will just be a matter of holding up until we do."

I smiled at him. "I'm okay Oliver, what about you? We have hardly talked about how you must be feeling just dropping out from, well 'who knows where' back into your life."

"Seriously I'm okay. It was just like waking up, and I did wake up at my computer, that's why I thought I had missed you and Tristan coming back from the other dimension. I think I probably did fall asleep at it and then during the time I slept, the past and my future got changed. Painless really." He smiled again and I had to smile back at him, he was back to his upbeat self.

When our order came, Oliver pulled my chair around next to his and we sat side by side and ate some of the food. I felt better for eating something. I watched the other people coming and going in the sunlight, and hearing their chatter, I almost felt normal.

We sat there until the sun started to sink and the red streaks across the sky heralded another day of beautiful weather to come.

"I would love to stay with you again tonight Chloe, because I worry about leaving you alone with your sadness over Tristan. Not to mention the whole business of trying to find a way to get him back, but I think your mom might have something to say about it, did she notice I was there last night?"

I was amused by this.

"She did notice Oliver, but she was okay with it, although you might be right about not staying tonight." I was smiling, but I didn't really want to be on my own.

There was a little more breeze now as the sun was almost down. All the fairy lights were on around the café, and on the trees and lampposts. It was very atmospheric.

"We could go inside, we don't need to go home yet do we? Especially if I have to just leave you there then," Oliver said.

There was music on inside the café, and the lights were dimmed in there, we found a little table by one of the big vases full of twig lights and sat down close to each other.

Oliver leaned over and kissed me, and then put his arm around my shoulders. I saw Clare come down the room towards us. I said to Oliver, "Clare's coming over."

She sat down when she was at the table, and we leaned over to hear her better. She was telling us about the progress of the theatre premises that were being built, then about the new project to which James had been assigned. Ultimately, she got to the news that Tristan had left for Cornwall, Liz had told her, and she was sorry to hear it.

I thought she gave me a look then that might have been accusatory. She must have been thinking the worst of me. I must look to the rest of them as if I just couldn't make my mind up between Oliver and Tristan, and it had driven Tristan away. It couldn't be helped, not least because that was true, about the decision stuff, but I couldn't explain anything to any of them, so I was stuck with whatever they thought of me.

"I don't think he will be gone long Clare," I said to her hopefully, and she seemed to abandon that as a topic of conversation and asked Oliver when he was next working. They talked about work for a moment or two and then she told us she was meeting James in town after his work meeting and had to go.

When she left, Samantha came up to us with her order pad, and asked if we needed anything else, but we had decided to leave too.

We walked along the street and crossed hand in hand to the pub car park. There was truck parked next to the Wrangler on my driver's side and not much space to get to the door. The old joke about leaving a can opener sprang to mind as I turned sideways and sort of levered myself down between the vehicles. Suddenly I had an excruciating pain in my foot. I jerked it up from the ground holding onto one of the back door handles to stop myself from having to put my foot down on the ground, the pain was that bad. I had yelled out a little as it happened and now Oliver was at the back of the Wrangler saying, "What's happened?" and "Damn it we should have just got in through the passenger side."

I kind of hopped out of the tunnel made between the vehicles, and we looked down at my foot. There was a big chunk of broken glass sticking out from the side of my foot, where my little, flat, pearly shoes dipped down. My foot was bleeding badly and the piece of glass had gone through some of the shoe it was so big.

"Oh my god, let's get you to the hospital quickly."

He opened the back passenger door and lifted me into it, and then he went around to the front passenger seat and climbed through to the driver's side. I was a bit scared now, as I didn't know if I should try to get the glass out or what. I couldn't remember my first aid and felt queasy looking at my foot. I passed Oliver my car keys from my pocket and Oliver started the jeep. He had to maneuver quite a bit to get us out of the parking spot, as the truck next to us was so big and close.

As we approached the roundabout to turn for the hospital, a thought came into my head.

"Oliver, we should go and get Tristan's blood that will be the best thing for me, pull the glass out, and pour his blood in."

"God, Chloe, what if we can't get in the greenhouse and have to drive back here? You could be in big trouble by then. It's too risky."

"No Oliver, its fate. I'll be okay. Even if we had to turn back, you only need get the blood later, bring it, and cure me then. Go to the greenhouses."

"Oh no Chloe, I don't want to, are you sure? We are only seconds away from the hospital." Oliver was distraught.

"Yes, seriously go to the greenhouses, I'm certain I should use Tristan's blood. It's not that far anyway." Somehow, I felt sure this was what I should do.

I had put my foot up on the bench seat and was using Tristan's blue T-shirt that had been left there to catch the blood. It wasn't flowing all that fast now really. I still felt queasy looking at the glass in my foot and covered it over with the T-shirt so as not to see it.

We did reach the greenhouse quickly and all the way Oliver was worrying and asking if I was okay. He parked at the very end of the Dearings car park space and the greenhouses were still a little walk away.

"I can't get any closer by car to the greenhouses. That tiny space they have there is usually occupied at night by a trailer, and I hope no one comes to see why we are here," he said hurriedly. "You can't come not on that foot."

"Oh but I must, it will be better if I come, the sinks are there, the water, there are lights. I have to hop there," I said trying to get out of the Wrangler.

Oliver caught hold of me and just about carried me to the second greenhouse. The place was not locked and we went the length of it to the bottom office end. He had his arm around me keeping me off the ground almost completely so that I did hop on the good foot.

I wished I had brought Tristan's keys in case the office end was locked, but it wasn't, and we switched on the lights as we got through the door. Oliver sat me on the desk chair and went to the fridge where Tristan's blood was.

Then he got the kettle from the table by the desk where the other smaller fridge was and filled it with water from the nearby sink. I was looking at the glass in my foot and had taken Tristan's shirt from around it. Oliver kept asking how I was and I kept saying I was okay really, but my foot hurt like hell. It was bleeding again and now I could see the injury again I felt dizzy.

Oliver placed a tub thing under my foot and bent down to it. I closed my eyes as he gripped the glass with the biggest corner of it as it stuck from my foot and I felt the thing come out of my foot. Then Oliver was pouring water on my foot and had the shoe off. I opened my eyes. The cut was bleeding badly now. Oliver sighed and yanked off his T-shirt. He dried the foot up a bit and then got the vial of blood and poured quite a bit right into my cut.

"Dear God," he said. "I hope this works and the blood isn't useless for some reason. He wadded his own T-shirt up, asked me to press it to my foot, and then went to put the rest of the blood back in the fridge. He threw the glass in the bin by the table after showing it to me. It was a broken beer bottle piece, a whole bottom half side by the looks of it. He tidied everything up that he had used, and then came to look at the wound. Lifting the wadded T-shirt, he held his breath. I had my eyes closed and was feeling a bit better now the glass was out of my foot. It was as if the alien thing that was hurting had gone, and now I could get better.

Then he put the pad down and kissed my forehead as he stood up.

"You know what? It's working and really fast too. I'm surprised, but I think give it half an hour and the injury will be completely gone, no trace left."

He looked around then at the office.

"That was gruesome Chloe. I was scared of pulling the glass out. It's funny this place was open. I'm really surprised there's no security in here, there's nothing, maybe they think no one would want to steal anything from here." He was talking quickly, and rubbed a hand across his forehead, stressed I guessed.

I nodded.

"I think more like they don't expect anyone would come up here. It's kind of out of the way unless you really know the grounds."

I looked at the sorry mess my shoes were in and the T-shirt that belonged to Tristan and now Oliver's too, which was wadded against the injury.

"Oliver, there's Tristan's other shirt in the Wrangler. Are you cold? It's cold in this part of the building." Oliver was just dressed in his jeans, and I put my arms out to him to get him to come to me, and be hugged.

He lifted me up out of the chair saying, "Let's get out of here just in case."

I held onto the desk as he put the tub in the sink and ran water over, and in it, and then replaced it on the side of the sink, where it had been next to some upturned coffee mugs. He bundled Tristan's T-shirt and my useless shoe up, and I held them as he half carried me again out of the office and down through the greenhouse. We emerged into the night air, which was still quite warm and made our way down to the Wrangler.

Once there he lifted me into the back seat and I put my foot up again on it. I had put the useless shoe and Tristan's T-shirt down on the floor behind the driver's seat. Oliver took the striped shirt and put it on, he left it unbuttoned, and stood by the Wrangler with the door open for a moment.

"Okay, let's see the foot Chloe," he said, and took his T-shirt away from the injury. It had stopped bleeding completely and looked as if it was almost healed in the dim light of the Wrangler interior. It had stopped throbbing too and I felt so much better.

Oliver put his ruined T-shirt with the other things on the floor and carried me to the passenger seat.

He drove us away from the Dearing House.

"Chloe, I think we need to park up somewhere and let the cut finish healing," Oliver said as we drove.

I was actually thinking about appearing at home shoeless. It would be hard to explain if mom was in the kitchen just coincidentally making coffee or the hall going back to her office. There was a gas station at the end of the village that sold sunglasses, hats, T-shirts, and funny little backless canvas sandshoes amongst other stuff. I asked Oliver if maybe we could go there and he said, "Certainly." with a small smile.

On the drive, he shivered. "Chloe, that was horrible and I wonder why you think it was fate, and you needed to use Tristan's blood not the hospital? Now you can't give your blood to Aristide to get Tristan back. Not that I thought you should anyway, but well that option has vanished."

"I know, but I just had this feeling I should do that. Tristan would have expected me to do it. He would have cured me if he had been here. I can't really explain it. It was suddenly clear to me that he left the blood for me, I mean just me, not to make a payment for Aristide. Does that make sense to you?"

Oliver glanced at me and he was smiling. "It's what I have thought all along, Chloe."

We reached the service station and Oliver pulled into the parking area, he went inside and came out with a few things a few minutes later. A pair of the sandshoes for me, blue ones, and remarkably the right size, a black T-shirt, which he took from the packet and put on, stuffing Tristan's shirt in my glove compartment, and two bottles of orange juice.

He handed one to me and drank half his own, then started up the Wrangler.

We had gone halfway home when he said, "I feel even less like leaving you tonight now than I did earlier. It's nearly midnight maybe I can just hang around for an hour or so, and then go home."

I laughed at this. "That would be great if you did hang around for an hour Oliver."

We arrived home, parked outside the house, and I put the sandshoes on. Oliver shook his head in disbelief.

"Look at that, two more minutes and your foot will be like new. Maybe there was still some residue of once being immortal in your own blood. It seems to have worked really fast."

I didn't comment because I thought his wounds had healed super-fast when he had been stabbed, and it was just seeing the phenomenon again that was surprising.

He came around to the passenger side and helped me out, even though I didn't need it really, and had his arm around my waist as we went to the front door.

Inside I looked at my foot. There was a little bit of dried blood on the bottom of my foot. The big gash I had was gone but for a fine line running in three directions where the skin was still healing.

Oliver put my Wrangler keys on the big table and started to make coffee. I put a tea bag in a cup for myself next to a cup where I put a heaped spoon of instant coffee granules. Oliver had switched on the electric kettle and now came to me and picked me up in a hug. He put me down but didn't let go. He just held me close until the water was boiled and we made the hot drinks.

"I don't want you to park in that pub car park ever again, ever, Chloe."

I thought that reminded me of something, but I couldn't think what, and I nodded agreeing with him, I'd had enough of the place too.

Looking down at my foot, I could see it had completely healed. Oliver raised his eyebrows.

I got a black bin bag from the utility room cupboard and went quietly outside. I put my shoes and the two T-shirts inside it and I threw them in the wheelie bin at the end of the drive. Oliver watched me from the front door drinking his coffee. I brought Tristan's striped shirt that was in the glove compartment in, and put it in with other clothes that needed washing in the utility room hamper.

Oliver watched me closely. "Erasing all signs of the trauma, I see. There might be blood on the Wrangler seat," he grinned at me, teasing.

"I think I'll leave that until daylight," I replied and I went to hug him because he was going to leave soon.

I went out with him to his Land Rover and kissed him through the window. He told me he loved me and would call me when he got home. I said I loved him too and thanks for being so great about the accident and everything. He nodded and I went in as he drove away. I put the cups in the dishwasher. I went to the fridge for water to take up to my room and noticed mom had replenished the stocks of bottled water in the fridge as well as other food. She must have gone out to the store today as I had thought.

It was just after midnight and I thought dad would be in soon. I went up to my room. Tristan's laptop was on my desk, Oliver had left it booted, but it had gone to sleep. I checked Tristan's note and letters under my pillow, then his sword in my cupboard with his keys, and finally his ring, which was there beside the roundels. I looked at the one where Tristan was imprisoned. It was hard to believe he was in there, but then I looked at my foot. Was it any harder to believe than the fact that there was no sign of the huge gash that had been in my foot?

I touched Tristan's face in the stained glass and told him I loved him, who knows maybe there was some way he would know.

It was warm in my room, and I opened the big window wider. I half expected to see Tristan out there on Cedric as I looked down at the lawns and the trees, but of course, he wasn't. I thought of Cedric as I took a shower. Maybe I would go around to the stables tomorrow and see Cedric. I thought the horse would be missing Tristan.

Climbing in my bed, I heard my cell ring, and thought it would be Oliver.

"Chloe, I'm home and I miss you already." He laughed at himself then, and I said I missed him too. We arranged that he would come around tomorrow afternoon, because he needed to check up on his web design clients in the morning. We ended the call, and as I lay looking at the moon through the window, I drifted off to sleep even though I'd expected not to.

Chapter Thirty-Five

It was Wednesday, and the sun was out warming everything up again as I woke. I wanted to see Cedric and decided to go over to the stables as soon as I could.

I was drying my hair and as I passed my desk I woke Tristan's laptop thinking I would look for myself at his files, there may be some message I would recognize and Oliver would not.

After I had been down to the fridge and taken a small bottle of cranberry juice, I sat down to look at the laptop files. I looked in the documents file and saw exactly what Oliver had. I noticed Tristan had been using a 'make your own word puzzle engine' and smiled at that. He had made a shortcut to it on his desktop. I looked in his online history files and saw he had researched the Magi and their history, just like me I thought. There were links to legends about them, and he had been to the Glazers site and seen my page of designs. I stopped looking after that and I found I couldn't finish my cranberry juice. I felt a great wave of sorrow at Tristan's loss, and I thought seeing Cedric might help. I took some apples and cut the cores out of them. I checked the Wrangler seats for blood from last night, and satisfied there was none left after giving it a good wipe down, I drove to the Dearing stables.

On the short drive, I thought about the note that Tristan had left for me. Did he really think he deserved to be cast into stained glass? Surely not, it had never been his fault that the payment couldn't be made.

The stables were empty of the horses that were usually there, and I thought that maybe the grooms had taken them out for exercise. I put the apples down in the stall where Cedric usually was to be found and left again.

I was disappointed not to see Cedric. The horse was like a connection with Tristan, so feeling sad I went home again.

I was up in my room looking through the photos I had taken of Tristan, when I had been at the waterfall with him and pretending to take pictures of the vegetation and water there. I felt such a longing to see him that I was on the verge of tears when my cell phone rang.

It was Oliver.

"Chloe I'm about to come over if that's still okay?"

"How could it not be, Oliver?" I was desperate to see him.

The sun was warm coming in my big window, the sky was blue and life was going on without Tristan. I was wearing the little sandshoes Oliver had bought for me in the service station last night. I saw them through a mist of tears because I thought about how Tristan had still thought of me when he was facing yet more magic from Aristide and had left his blood for me.

Oliver arrived and he kissed me at the door then we went up to my room. As we walked, he was saying how he had been thinking that the laptop being left for us must be a clue and there must be something on it.

"I've been looking this morning, but found nothing really. I looked in the browser history, and saw Tristan had visited some sites about the Magi, but who of us haven't?"

Oliver nodded in agreement.

I went to my desk and sat on my desk chair at the laptop to show Oliver the site addresses I had noticed.

Oliver leaned over my shoulder and picked up the roundel.

"Tristan, you, and me. How could he be in there, and how can we get him out? Do you think it could be a cover story for him being somewhere else Chloe?" he asked and he went over to the big window where the sun was streaming through.

I turned around. "I don't think so. Why would Tristan do that?"

"I don't know really. I was thinking maybe he was being held captive perhaps by Rene," Oliver answered and he held the roundel up to the sun.

I watched him holding the roundel up to the sun, the brilliant colors were lit up, it was so pretty, and it was falling. What was happening, the roundel was falling out of the window?

"Oh my god, oh no, I dropped it, Chloe I dropped it," Oliver was calling.

I had stood up and begun running without thinking. I opened my bedroom door and started to run down the stairs. Oliver followed, and he was saying he was so sorry repeatedly.

I ran along the hall and out of the middle drawing room doors to the patio below my room. I could still hear Oliver. I could hear my own breathing. I ran to the roundel on the paving. It was shattered.

The big pieces of colored glass were semi-held together by the lead work, one or two small pieces flung across to the grass. I was absolutely panic stricken and I was saying 'Tristan' repeatedly. All those centuries the original glass had been taken care of and then my lovely Tristan had been put into this roundel, and it was destroyed.

Oliver had reached me and knelt beside me.

"Chloe, I am so sorry, I can't believe it. I don't know how it happened, it just did, please Chloe," his voice was breaking and he didn't go on, but put his arms around me. I picked up the piece of glass with Tristan on it. It was broken just below his feet, and he was broken away from the trio on a line of flowers that wound up the glass. He was still whole but the glass picture was busted, wasn't that what was meant by destruction? I felt the tears come down my face, and I knew I was whispering 'Tristan' over and over. Oliver was holding me, and I was holding the piece of glass. I felt it slippery now with tears, and I sat down on the paving with it in both hands and just cried over it for what felt like a long time. Oliver was still kneeling beside me and he had started to rock me a little in his arms. He had his head resting down on mine, and was saying something again. I turned my face to him.

"Oliver it's all over; this will have destroyed him," I whispered, and sobbed.

"Chloe, I can't tell you how bad I feel. Maybe because it's in big pieces we could get it mended, look it's only his feet that are slightly gone," Oliver said. I looked again, and yes, there was a line of breakage across his feet now too. It must have cracked as I had held it.

I had turned around in Oliver's arms to face him.

"Oliver he's gone now, for good."

I saw Oliver was very white, and as I said this he looked distraught saying, "I feel as if I have killed him" and a couple of tears fell from his eyes.

They joined mine on the piece of glass that was all I had left of Tristan.

"I am so sorry," he said again.

I nodded at him. I knew he was sorry.

I put my head against his, and whispered, "I know, Oliver, it was an accident."

We got up slowly, and Oliver picked up the rest of the pieces of the roundel. He brought them to the kitchen table and we put all the pieces on there in the shape of the roundel. Oliver hugged me and I hugged him back. He had ordered the roundel and Tristan had chosen it because I was in it and Oliver too.

I sighed and looked at the pieces. I let go of Oliver and went to get a drink of water. I sat down on the chair with it next to the broken glass on the table. Oliver was pacing up and down, and he kept saying, "Maybe it's still okay, maybe he's still okay in there."

I took a deep breath to stop from crying again and stood up to go to Oliver. He was as distressed as I was.

I left the roundel pieces in their pool of tears on the kitchen table and put my arms around Oliver.

"We can ask Ben, we'll ask Ben about fixing it later," I said to him, but I felt it was hopeless.

"Okay, okay, we'll do that. What if we straight out asked bloody Aristide too? We could call him and ask him what it would mean if the stained glass was broken." Oliver was still trying to fix things.

I put my face up to him and kissed him. We clung together for a minute and my own sense of fixing things kicked in. I went to make coffee and Oliver opened the kitchen patio doors, a small bee buzzed in and out again.

We took our drinks outside and standing in the sun, I felt the warmth of its rays on my shoulders. I looked at Oliver and he looked at me. Our sadness was tangible like a curtain over us. He came to me, and we just sat together on the low balustrade thing out there. It was a few minutes of calm, and then I went in to collect the pieces of the roundel together. It was still very wet with my tears, but I didn't care. Oliver helped and we took it upstairs, and put it on my desk next to Tristan's laptop.

We both went to the window and looked out. Oliver put his arm around me and sighed.

"I still love you Oliver," I told him, because if I had been him I would have been wondering.

He kissed my cheek by way of acknowledgment.

"Should we call Aristide, Chloe? I think I'll call him. His number is in my cell phone," he said. He took it out of his pocket and called Aristide.

I listened as he talked and saw him wince at some answers he was given. He just ended the call. He didn't say goodbye to Aristide.

He came and put both arms around me, his face was very pale again, and I already knew what he was going to say before he said it.

I heard the words, 'as far as Aristide was concerned the glass shattering would have killed Tristan.' It felt so final, like it was completely the end, and I couldn't cope with it. It had to be a mistake. Tristan just couldn't have ended. I was breathing fast. I wished I could undo it.

Let's go for a walk, Oliver, I can't be still right now. What I meant was I felt like running and running to a place where things could be fixed.

We went downstairs and out of the kitchen doors. We walked up the garden path towards the outer garden and the woods. I was holding Oliver's hand and looking at the pathway when I heard rather than saw Charlie. He was snuffling in the grass a short way off. I looked up to see this and as I did a young man came walking from the edge of the woods. I was seeing Tristan but I didn't believe it and I heard Oliver gasp. He must be seeing Tristan too I thought in a fog of disbelief.

Tristan was smiling and he broke into a run. Oliver and I did the same. Charlie must have sensed the urgency of the people around him because he started to run too in a sort of waddle.

We reached each other. It really was Tristan. I flung myself at him and he picked me up in a hug. Then Oliver was hugging us too and we both were saying almost at the same time, "It's really you." "Where have you come from?" "We thought you were killed." Then all three of us just fell around onto the grass laughing at each other, as we hugged.

Anyone seeing us would wonder what was happening as we got up and I put one arm around Tristan, and one around Oliver, and we walked with Charlie down to the house.

The kitchen was cool and Charlie had found his water bowl. I filled it with fresh water and Oliver was holding Tristan by the arms saying, "My god, am I glad to see you, you can't imagine, we only just got off the phone to Aristide and he said you would have been destroyed."

He sort of shook Tristan's arms as he gabbled this and Tristan was shaking his head.

"You didn't get my message then, so how did you free me?"

He was smiling and he was holding Oliver's arms. They were so happy.

Oliver left Tristan to hug me again and then he started to make coffee. I hugged Tristan and put my hands up to his face. He felt cool, and I kissed him quickly then hugged him again.

"We didn't get a message. We got a cryptic note and two letters. We also got your laptop, your box, keys, and sword."

Tristan was smiling, and I said, "What, what?"

He answered, "I don't know how you did it then, but thank you both for breaking the spell. What I need to know now is why you've been crying Chloe, unless it was you Oliver? He looked at Oliver with a delighted expression. "You're obviously back to normal too."

I was puzzled, why had I been crying?

I told him about the roundel falling from the window. About how I had cried all over it, as it lay shattered on the ground, about how Oliver had shed a few tears on it too.

He raised his eyebrows, and then laughed a little and said, "By accident, you got me back by accident. Did you use my blood Chloe, or didn't anything change for you when I was gone this time?"

I felt as if he was speaking code and I told him about the broken beer bottle and using the blood to heal me and he laughed again and shook his head.

"This is incredible, but it must mean I'm supposed to be back. It's all an accident? You didn't break the spell on purpose?"

I was smiling, but didn't get it. "Tristan we would have done it on purpose if only we knew how."

He took a drink of the coffee Oliver had given him and Oliver asked, "What was the message Tristan? We looked at your laptop and just didn't see one. We were desperately trying to find out how to free you."

Tristan told us then. "There was an anagram in the note I left in my shirt, and the word puzzle engine I had on my laptop was supposed to lead you to the idea to type the note into it. I did it to hide the spell breaker information from Aristide and finally be free of him. After all, he couldn't be allowed to find out I'm immortal, or that there were others out there that had the power to break the spell. Meaning you Chloe and Oliver, if the journey we made into the past had been erased as I suspected it would be. Aristide assumed I had kept living because of the stained glass, and I let him keep believing this. It was a gamble. Count on you solving the clues or just let Aristide had blood that makes people immortal. I had to choose you."

I was alarmed.

"Tristan we could have missed the message about how to free you for ages. We could have missed it completely, how awful."

"No you would have worked it out eventually. I felt sure of that when I did it."

He drank some more coffee and we sat together at the big table. I smiled at Oliver and at Tristan and they smiled back.

"So it was the crying that had done it?" I just wanted to make sure, and Tristan nodded.

If Oliver felt as I did, he would be amazed at how we had freed Tristan.

"So Oliver dropping the roundel was a good thing? It must have been fate." I was shaken up by this even though I was blissfully happy to have Tristan back.

Oliver sighed. "Thank heaven I dropped it, and hey, what about this weirdness, it was glass which led you to use Tristan's blood, Chloe. Everything is so weird, but so it's so great to be back to normal."

I nodded and so did Tristan, and then we all started smiling huge smiles.

My mom came into the kitchen. Charlie was lying down by his water bowl. She saw him and looked at the three of us.

"Hello Tristan, you're back too now. You all look very pleased with yourselves. Oliver did you make coffee?"

We sighed, all three of us together, and then we realized and looked at each other smiling again. Mom had gone over to the kettle. I caught hold of Oliver's hand as he sat on one side of me, and Tristan's hand as he sat on the other side.

I could see the very blue sky out of the patio doors. I had always loved the color blue.

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Look out for a new adventure with the three friends and lovers as the spell takes a new turn, in 'The Seven Spell, Dangerous'

