Page 48 of The Runner
George entered the room. ‘Hello, darling, I thought I’d pop in to have a bit of lunch with you.’
Cara looked up. ‘It can’t be lunchtime already?’
‘I’m afraid so—an early one! How’s it going with the Georgiana research?’
She ran her hand through her tousled hair. ‘Terribly,’ she said, sighing.
‘Oh?’
She pointed to the blank pages and then flicked to the section with the faded text.
He squinted. ‘I can’t see a thing, other than blank discoloured pages.’
‘Here, use my specs, she said, balancing them on his nose. Perhaps you can shed some light on why this might have happened, given your manuscript experience.’
‘Lucky, I didn’t forget everything when the timeline reset,’ he said, peering at the pages.
‘Looks like age damage to me—it’s not been properly stored. Not surprising with it having been stuck in that kitchen cupboard for goodness knows how long, and who knows where it was before that?’
‘But what about the blank pages? How do you explain that? Seems very odd…’
‘I don’t know, darling. It does seem odd,’ he said. ‘I think I’m too hungry to be useful right now, though!’
‘Nothing new there,’ she said, laughing. ‘Let’s make some sandwiches and sit out on the terrace.’
They munched on their sandwiches and drank tea, while Cara filled him in on the interesting highlights in the book.
‘Did you know your family is related to the super wealthy Cavendish family of Chatsworth fame?’ she asked.
He nodded. ‘Yes, of course. Distant relatives, but hundreds of years ago I think we were closer.’
‘You never thought to mention it? I feel like such a dimwit.’
He laughed. ‘It never occurred to me. We live in completely different worlds. They kept their titles and wealth and we faded away from the aristocracy so there’s no genuine connection anymore.’
‘In that case, I imagine you also know that a George Cavendish from the other family branch was the biographer of Thomas Wolsey?’
He paused between bites, then nodded. ‘It sounds vaguely familiar, but I must have sort of forgotten.’
‘My goodness, you come from such lofty stock. You don’t even think it’s a big deal, do you?’
‘No, I suppose I don’t,’ he laughed. ‘I suppose that’s why I’m so pleased we have Willow Manor back in the family. We may be the poor relations but at least we’ve got our family home back.’
‘It was a relief to read that your ancestors weren’t all named George! Your father in Georgiana was named William, which is a refreshing change…’
‘Well, we can’t all have the same name. George in the Georgian period is confusing enough!’
‘I’m going to see what Sylvia makes of the faded text in the book. It seems like a strange coincidence that we can’t read the exact section that we need to check how things turned out after the hypnotism.’
‘You worry too much,’ he said, touching her hand.
‘Maybe so, but that’s easy for you to say—you’re not having crazy dreams about a past life. Caroline and George are not on track to marry; they’ve not even kissed as far as I can tell. I don’t think he loves her in this version of events. I must find out what happened before it’s too late, and we can still try to avert disaster.’
George nodded. ‘I know I don’t remember but I would put money on the fact that he loves you.’
‘Let’s hope you’re right,’ she said.
‘Is there anything I can do?’
