Page 113 of Right Place, Right Time
‘Because I’ve been with you all along,’ she says, her voice getting ever fainter.
I raise my head to see Dotty smiling serenely at me. The light from behind her at the end of the tunnel is making her look like she has a halo all around her.
‘I was always with your grandmother, your mother, your sister, and now you, Eve. I never left any of you. And I never will.’
And then, instead of going through the doors and returning back to Edwardian Cambridge as I expect her to, Dotty simply fades away in front of me.
‘Eve?’ I hear being called down the tunnel from behind me. ‘Eve, are you there?’
I call back to Adam, ‘Yes, yes, I’m here. I’ll be back in a moment.’ I take one last look at where Dotty was standing moments ago, and then, very calmly, I walk the few steps towards the doors and close them up, securing them with the two planks before returning down the tunnel to Adam.
Adam is standing in the office waiting for me as I emerge through the doors. Behind him are three cups of freshly brewed tea, with milk and sugar all on a little tray. Next to that, where Dotty was sitting, is a single bright-red apple.
‘Where’s Dotty?’ Adam asks, looking behind me into the tunnel as I step back into the office. ‘Didn’t she have time for a cup of tea in the end?’
‘I think Dotty has always hadall the time in the worldto do everything she needs to do,’ I say, gazing at the apple shining like a beacon of hope under the dim light of the office. ‘And do you know something?’ I say, smiling at Adam. ‘Nowwehave that same, very precious gift too.’
Epilogue
Clockmaker Court, Cambridge. February 2044
Adam and I sit together on the bench underneath the old oak tree in the garden at the centre of Clockmaker Court. Some welcome winter sunshine is currently keeping us a lot warmer than we might have been if we were sitting out here in the shade.
‘They’re on their way,’ he says, looking at his phone.
‘You know they think you’re almost antiquarian using that old thing now,’ I tell him.
‘I can’t keep up with all the modern ways of communicating these days,’ Adam says, putting his old iPhone in the pocket of his warm winter coat. ‘I’m more than happy to continue using this for now. It suits me. Plus, we need to keep a few old gadgets around us, for when we need to look authentic.’ He raises his eyebrows at me, reminding me of when we were both much younger and Adam would cheekily do the same thing when he was teasing me or winding me up.
Nothing too much has changed with the two of us in all the years we’ve spent together since. We still own shops next to each other in Clockmaker Court, with allour friends still close by. We still enjoy a takeaway and a quiet night in more than we enjoy eating out at a fancy restaurant, and we are still very much in love with each other after twenty years together.
What has changed, however, is we are both a bit older and greyer, with a few more lines and wrinkles now Adam is sixty and I’m fifty-six. And we’ve also spent seventeen of our twenty years together as husband and wife.
‘If we’d kept all our old gadgets, I could probably sell most of them in the shop now as antiques,’ I say, casting my gaze across to Rainy Day Antiques. The shop currently has itsClosedsign hung in the window, while Adam and I wait snuggled together on the bench, and it’s the same for Adam’s bookshop next door.
Today is an important day for our family and we’re currently waiting for our two children to arrive from the townhouse we all share not far away. The same house I lived in when I first met Adam, and the house that originally belonged to my grandparents.
‘What do you think our grandparents would make of what we’re about to do today?’ I ask Adam, taking hold of his gloved hand with my mitten-covered one.
‘I think they’d be very proud of us,’ Adam says without hesitation. ‘Our great-grandparents would as well.’
‘Me too. We’ve had some adventures, haven’t we?’ I ask, resting my head on his shoulder. ‘In the last twenty years.’
‘You could call them that,’ Adam says, smiling ruefully as he puts his arm around me. ‘I’d call some of them lucky escapes.’
‘That too. But we’ve guarded our secret well and used it only for good. Just like we promised we would.’
‘Technically, you promised that. I don’t actually remember having much of a choice in the matter.’
‘You’ve loved every minute of it!’ I reply, knowing he’s just teasing me.
‘I have. But it’s not over, you know? We can’t retire just yet.’
‘No. We’re not quite passing on the baton. We’re simply training up the new team. Seriously, though, do you think they’ll be all right with it? It’s quite a thing we’re entrusting them both with.’ I turn to Adam, a worried expression on my face. I’ve been going back and forth about today for weeks.
‘They will be absolutely fine. They’re good kids. We’ll let them make their own decision, of course, but I’m pretty sure they’ll step up. Just as well they’ve inherited their mother’s bravery, eh?’
Adam leans in to kiss me.
