Page 77 of The Affair of the Mysterious Letter
What brings you to this moment, Lady Eirene Viola Delhali?
I did not know. “Have I been here before?”
A thousand times, a thousand ways, in a thousand worlds.
“I’ve destroyed the only person I ever loved.” Saying it aloud almost killed me. I almost wanted it to.
Love is meaningless.
“That is the least true thing I’ve ever heard.”
You are bold for so transient a being.
“I have no reason not to be. I’ve lost everything.” I didn’t know if I was begging her or defying her. “Help me. You can name your price.”
You have already made this bargain.
Dimly, I remembered. “Then what can I do? I can’t live like this.”
Your life does not matter.
“I know.”
So it does not matter if it is undone.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
The Conclusion
“And the rest,”the elder Mrs. Viola said, “you know. I came out of a portal in Keeper’s Shallows some twenty years in my past, I made my way to the surface, and I wrote the first letter. I knew it would hurt you both, but not nearly so much as a life together would.”
Miss Viola put her fingers to her temples, murmuring in a despairing tone, “I knew I was messed up. I didn’t know I was quitethismessed up.”
“Messed up,” agreed Ms. Haas, “but terribly, terribly interesting. I’m starting to remember why I was quite so taken with you. I assume”—she turned to the elder lady, who I shall henceforth refer to as Mrs. Viola to distinguish her from the younger Miss Viola—“that was you on the train?”
“I knew Ilona was still out there, and I couldn’t be certain you’d stop her.”
“So were you trying to saveus, or did you think that you and Cora were still on board?” enquired Ms. Haas, apparently far more interested in the finer points of time travel than in the possible ruination of two women’s lives. “I’m not really sure how memory works when you come from a future that no longer exists.”
“It’s fuzzy. I remember a lot of things, and I know that some of them are true, and some of them aren’t anymore.”
Ms. Haas seemed quite unacceptably enthusiastic. “Well, isn’t that fascinating? I have so much to ask you.”
“Excuse me,” interrupted Miss Beck, “can the quinquagenarians in the party focus on the fact that Eirene and I spend the next twenty years systematically destroying each other?”
“I’m sorry.” The elder lady approached her and took her by the hand, but Miss Beck wrenched herself free.
“Don’t you touch me. Don’t you ever touch me.”
Mrs. Viola swallowed, her voice hoarse with unshed tears. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I’ve never wanted to hurt you.”
“There’s no point apologising to me. You haven’t done anything yet. Maybe you should have had this conversation with the woman you cheated on for ten years.”
“I tried. It was just too hard.”
Miss Beck stormed over to the Lake of Stars and stared furiously into the water. “It was too hard for you to talk to your ——ing wife. But it wasn’t too hard to rewrite the universe?”
“Oh, come on,” interjected Ms. Haas. “Do you not think it’s just a little bit romantic?”
