Page 43 of The Runner
George rose early and went down to the kitchen. ‘Good morning,’ he said, when Eddie answered his call. They were both early risers and had a habit of catching up in the mornings when they had time. ‘Ah, Lord Cavendish himself, I was just thinking about you and wondering how it was all going at the centre.’
‘I’ve been meaning to catch up with you and tell you about our discovery, but it’s been crazy here, trying to make the deadlines for the opening,’ said George.
‘Ooh,’ said Eddie. ‘What discovery?’
George could hear the eagerness in his voice. Eddie loved nothing more than a new discovery, which George supposed was the motivation for his becoming a quantum scientist.
‘You know how when you were in the priest hole, you said you had a sense of deja-vu?’
Eddie said he did and added that the feeling had lingered, and he still wondered whether he too might have been present in Georgiana. ‘After all, we’ve been together in several lives. Why would I not be in that one too?’
‘That is quite possible, but what I found points to something simpler,’ said George.
‘I’m all ears—go on,’ said Eddie, making a show of holding his rather large ears and peering at George through the screen after switching to video call.
‘I don’t recall whether I told you I found a book of the family history, but anyway, I found a reference to you in it!’
‘To me—how so?’ said Eddie, his eyes widening.
‘The book mentions a tutor to the family in the Tudor period.’
‘Gosh, how exciting. If I’m not mistaken, this is the first time we’ve found something to prove my existence in Tudorville.’
George nodded. ‘Correct. I hadn’t thought of it like that. I was just thinking that no wonder you had a karmic memory of being in that priest hole. But you haven’t heard the best of it yet,’ said George.
‘I’m listening… still all ears,’ said Eddie, who was in a jovial mood that morning.
‘You, my friend, have gone down in the history books as a local hero, no less! You apparently saved the Jesuit priest’s life…’
Eddie sat down on a hard wooden chair in his lab as he absorbed the news. ‘How bloody fantastic. I must say, it’s good to know we did something useful between all this flitting about between timelines and dodging the endless disasters coming at us.’
George poured fresh coffee into his cup and raised it to the screen. ‘Can I get you one?’
‘I’d love one—you make the best coffee. I must invent a way to send coffee through the phone line. Now that would change the world! But never mind that now. Where can I get a copy of this book that proclaims my former self a Yorkshire hero?’
‘Ah, yes, well… about that.’ George ran his hand through his hair and continued, ‘When I said “books”, it’s more accurate to say “book” as it’s a volume of the one-of-a-kind Cavendish family history.’
Eddie rolled his eyes. ‘I see. Just my luck, I would be proclaimed a hero in a book that was never published.’
CHAPTER19
Willow Wick, York - Georgiana
The next daydragged by as Caroline went about her duties and deliberately stayed out of George’s way. She needed time to think—not that he made any effort to seek her out. She wouldn’t blame him if he avoided her, after the uncomfortable and embarrassing scene that occurred between them in the stables.
They only met when she joined the family for dinner, which had become somewhat of a routine for the three women when George was in London. Now he was back, Caroline was concerned he would think her presumptuous and overreaching her station, but she did not wish to risk offending the countess, so she attended as usual.
‘Olivia and Caroline have been most accomplished in their studies while you were away,’ said the countess after they took their seats at the table, with George opposite her, and Olivia and Caroline on either side.
George raised his head and Caroline felt his eyes on her. She had no appetite, such were her nerves at dining with him again, but she went through the motions as though her entire world hadn’t spun out of control and crashed upon his return. His dark eyes appraised her, and her cheeks burned as he studied her with his infuriatingly confident air, dashing as ever in a white ruffled shirt, elaborately embroidered waistcoat, and velvet breeches.
She thought him the epitome of assured elegance, which only unnerved her further.
‘Yes, so I understand from Olivia,’ he said, sipping his wine. ‘And Mistress Caroline was kind enough to reply to my letter, detailing the books and subjects they have been studying with such dedication.’
Caroline tried to steady her hand while she raised her glass to her lips. Her other hand gripped at the skirts of her gown, out of sight, beneath the table. She hoped the undercurrent of irony in his voice, so apparent to her, went unnoticed by the countess, but Caroline saw Olivia watching them with unabashed curiosity.
‘Perhaps, if they weren’t quite so occupied riding back and forth to the village, my dear sister may have been even more dedicated to her studies,’ he continued.
