Chapter 21

Serena

Minster Lovell, Present Day

‘Serena, honey!’ Polly enveloped her niece in a huge hug and a wave of Chanel. ‘It’s so good to be here!’

‘Here’ was Oxford station concourse where Polly’s perfume was mingling rather queasily with the smell of fried food and diesel. She was wrapped in an enormous faux-fur coat and her Californian tan was drawing considerable attention. She looked exotic, like a migrating bird blown far off course.

The station was also reassuring in its ordinariness. Serena – nerves still buzzing from the coffee and even more so from reading about the lodestar – had never needed a dose of normality more.

‘You look amazing,’ she said truthfully. Then feeling a rush of affection, ‘It’s good to see you too, Aunt Pol.’ She took hold of Polly’s smart wheeled suitcase. ‘What would you like to do first?’ she asked. ‘Go and see Grandpa, or go back to the hotel to rest?’

Polly looked at her out of the corner of her eye. ‘Would it be wrong of me to put off seeing Pa until later?’ she asked. ‘I feel so grubby from travelling and want to be at my best—’

‘Of course,’ Serena said. She’d caught the slight note of uncertainty in Polly’s voice.

She’s nervous, she thought, and felt another burst of love for her aunt. It was only a few months since Polly had seen her father but she knew he was declining all the time. It would be hard for her, not knowing whether Dick would recognise her or how he might be.

‘We’ll go back to Minster Lovell,’ she said. ‘The pub isn’t exactly five stars, but it’s comfortable and—’ She was going to say welcoming but she wasn’t sure that it was. She also wasn’t sure she wanted to be there at the moment when her mind was in such turmoil and she needed to think through all she had learned about Caitlin’s disappearance. Not for the first time she wished she could talk to her grandfather. If only she knew what he knew.

‘Thanks, hon.’ Polly slid gratefully into the passenger seat of the car. ‘The journey was fine but I’ve been travelling for twenty-four hours and I’m exhausted.’ She closed her eyes for a moment, and Serena saw the lines of tiredness and worry beneath her immaculate make-up.

‘Is there any more news on the investigation?’ Polly opened her eyes again and looked out as they pulled into Frideswide Square and turned onto the Botley Road. ‘Boy, Oxford has changed! I haven’t come through this way in years. I like what they’ve done with the square and this cute little bridge over the river. Are we on an island?’

‘Osney Island, I think,’ Serena said. ‘This is the Thames. There’s no news on Caitlin,’ she added, ‘although, I’ve—’ She stopped.

Polly raised her brows. ‘You?’ she prompted.

‘I’ve recovered my memories of the night Caitlin disappeared,’ Serena said. She glanced sideways at her aunt. ‘I went to the police and told them this morning.’

She summarised for Polly what she had remembered; the fact that she had seen someone else in the ruins with Caitlin that night, that Caitlin seemed to vanish before her eyes and that there had been a blinding flash of light. She didn’t mention that she’d met up with Jack and they’d found out about the Lovell lodestar; she wanted more time to read Oliver Fiske’s book properly and think about what it might mean. She’d borrowed it from Jack and it was on the back seat ready for her to take over to show her grandfather later.

‘Oh boy,’ Polly said when Serena had finished telling her the story, ‘that’s the weirdest thing.’ She looked troubled. ‘Are you sure that’s how it was, hon? What do the police think?’

‘Unsurprisingly,’ Serena said, ‘they think that I imagined the bit about Caitlin vanishing and the flash of light. They think it was an illusion caused by the trauma. They do seem to accept that I saw someone with Caitlin that night, though, and that it was probably a woman, so I suppose that advances the case a bit.’

Polly nodded. ‘And how do you feel?’ she asked, much as Lizzie had done. ‘I’m immensely glad that it doesn’t seem to have caused you any further trauma, but it can’t have been pleasant for you recovering all those memories.’

‘It was very strange,’ Serena said honestly, ‘but I felt… as though I was ready for it, somehow. As soon as I was back in Minster Lovell, I started to remember things; my mind started to prompt me in different ways.’

‘Perhaps it was time for it to happen,’ Polly said heavily. ‘Perhaps it was time everything started to come out.’

‘I think it was,’ Serena said. ‘And I feel better now; even if they never find out who was with Caitlin that night, and what really happened, I feel I’ve done what I can now. I’ve done my best for her. That makes me feel lighter in spirit, I suppose, if no happier to have lost her.’

Polly nodded and Serena saw her aunt surreptitiously wipe away a tear from her cheek. She closed her eyes and leaned back against the headrest. ‘Do you mind if I nap a little?’ she said. ‘I know it’ll probably make the jet lag worse but I’m so tired.’

‘Go ahead,’ Serena said. A splatter of rain hit the windscreen and she turned on the wipers. They’d left the city behind now and were passing Farmoor reservoir. Gulls wheeled overhead on the ragged breeze. She remembered she needed five pence for the toll bridge at Eynsham but decided not to disturb Polly yet by reaching over for her bag. Her aunt was already sound asleep.

They joined the main A40 and bypassed Witney, Polly snoring gently in the passenger seat, snuggled down in her faux fur. As they came into Minster Lovell, though, Polly stirred and blinked awake.

‘We’re here,’ she said slowly, looking around. ‘This feels a little weird, kind of familiar but deeply different at the same time.’

‘How long is it since you were here?’ Serena asked.

‘The last time I saw Dad was about six months ago,’ Polly said, ‘but I didn’t visit Minster then. It must have been the year after Caitlin disappeared, I think, when Dad was talking about packing up and moving out of the hall. I do remember that it was a terrible summer – it rained all the time.’

It was clear from Polly’s face that she wasn’t enjoying herself as she got out of the car at the Minster Inn. She viewed the old pub critically and Serena immediately felt awkward.

‘Would you rather stay at the Old Swan?’ she asked. ‘It’s more your sort of place. I only chose this because it’s closer to the manor, but we can move out if you prefer.’

‘No,’ Polly said slowly. ‘It’s fine. There’s just something about this place that feels – not quite right…’ She shook her head sharply. ‘Ignore me. I’m just tired.’

Eve was behind the desk as they came into the reception area and leaped up to check Polly in.

‘I’ve put you in the Lady Lovell room,’ she said. ‘It has a four-poster.’

‘That sounds delightful, thank you,’ Polly said warmly. They fell into easy conversation, Eve admiring Polly’s coat: ‘You’ll feel the cold after all that lovely Californian sunshine…’ And Polly telling her about selling real estate to the stars: ‘I sometimes get to sell a tropical island or two…’

She took her key with a word of thanks, politely refused Serena’s offer to carry her suitcase up for her and set off up the stairs to her room, yawning widely. ‘I’ll see you later, hon,’ she said to Serena. ‘I’ll knock when I’m ready to go over to see Pa.’

‘Your auntie’s very cool,’ Eve said, eyeing Polly’s designer boots enviously. ‘Can I get you anything?’ she added. ‘Lunch? A drink?’

Serena ordered a cheese sandwich, a bag of crisps and a glass of apple juice and went upstairs, carrying her tray. The door of the Lady Lovell room was already closed and she couldn’t hear any sound from inside. She wondered whether Polly had simply laid down on the four-poster and gone straight to sleep. It seemed likely. Polly had clearly been exhausted, and no wonder after the stress of the journey. Serena suddenly felt incredibly weary herself, drained by the interview with the police and all the emotional trauma of reliving Caitlin’s disappearance. She curled up on the bed, leaning back against the headrest. There was so much she needed to think about…

An hour later Serena woke up to find that she had dropped off sitting upright on the bed, her sandwich half-eaten and the glass of apple juice still in her hand. She had a crick in her neck and had crushed half of the crisps into the bedcover. She got up, stretched and tidied the tray onto a side table. The sound of a door closing down the corridor made her wonder whether Polly had woken up, too, but when she looked out onto the landing she couldn’t see anyone. She wandered along to the Lady Lovell room, but the door was still shut and she decided not to knock.

The room-service trolley was on the landing, loaded with used plates and cutlery, crumpled napkins and food wrappers. There was a strange, heavy quiet in the air, which seemed to make the stale smell of the previous night’s food all the more pungent as it mingled with old-fashioned beeswax and dust, and an indefinable scent that Serena tended simply to call ‘old things’. Something about the silence felt oppressive and Serena found herself tiptoeing back along the corridor to her room to avoid making the floorboards creak.

The door of the laundry cupboard next to Serena’s room stood open, the light illuminating the neatly stacked piles of sheets and towels that surrounded an old-style water tank at the back. Remembering the groaning plumbing, Serena wasn’t remotely surprised to see an ancient cistern or hear it hissing softly. In contrast to the fusty smell of the pub itself, the linen smelled of windy days and fresh air, but even in the dim light, Serena could see that the floor of the cupboard was dirty with cobwebs and thick with dust…

A gleam of something blue caught her eye in the far corner of the cupboard. It was a vivid spark of colour amongst the cobwebs, catching the light from the bare bulb overhead. Serena paused with her room key in her hand. She took a step closer, bending down to pick it up.

It was a bead. She rubbed the dirt from it and it rolled into her palm, glowing as deep blue as the sea. Serena recognised it at once. That glorious colour was unmistakable. It was one of the beads from Caitlin’s bracelet.

A whisper of suspicion crept into her mind. She found herself down on her hands and knees in the dust, searching to see if she could find any more. There was one, trapped between two old floorboards, and beyond it in the darkest and most hidden corner of the cupboard Serena could see something else, a battered corner of what looked like a knapsack with, incongruously, a teddy bear stuffed in the top…

All the air left Serena’s lungs in a rush. She felt dizzy and put out a hand to steady herself against one of the shelves. Caitlin’s knapsack, the beads from her blue bracelet, the teddy all hidden away here in a place that no one would ever find them…

Leo, she thought. Leo had worked at the pub. She was sure that Caitlin had been planning to run away with him. But the police had said that Leo had an alibi for that night. He had been working behind the bar…

‘What are you doing?’ It was Eve’s voice, sharp and accusatory from behind her. Serena jumped violently.

‘Oh, I…’ She felt guilty, as though she had been caught trespassing. She scrambled to her feet.

Eve was standing at the top of the stairs, one hand resting lightly on the newel post. Her gaze, very dark and bright, moved to the beads Serena was still holding in the palm of her hand. There was a very long moment when time seemed to swing in the balance. Serena closed her fingers protectively over the beads but it was too late. The shock of realisation hit her and a second later, Eve spoke again.

‘You know, don’t you?’ she said.

‘Yes,’ Serena said. Her mouth felt dry. Images were flickering through her mind like old black-and-white newsreel film: the same scene she had remembered the previous night, the same scene she had told the police, except that this time the woman with Caitlin’s knapsack in her hand had a face. This time it was Eve.

‘I saw you,’ she said. ‘That night in the ruins when you killed Caitlin. I saw a woman with her and I know it was you.’

Eve looked at her. There was no expression on her face at all. ‘I didn’t realise you had been there that night,’ she said. Her mouth flattened into a thin line. ‘That sodding knapsack,’ she said. ‘I didn’t dare get rid of it. I thought the police would be looking for it and that they’d find out I was involved somehow.’

The blood was pounding in Serena’s ears. ‘Why did you kill her?’ she said. ‘Why did you kill Caitlin?’ She thought she was shouting but the words came out as a whisper.

Eve’s gaze narrowed. ‘I didn’t mean to,’ she said. ‘We were arguing and it got out of hand.’ She gave a tiny, hopeless shrug. ‘I shook her. I don’t really remember, but… I think I must have put my hands around her throat.’

‘You broke her neck,’ Serena said, remembering what Inspector Litton had told her.

Eve shrugged again. There was a hardness in her eyes. ‘Like I said, I didn’t mean to. It was an accident. I only wanted her to give me the lodestar.’

Serena felt as though her throat was blocked. She swallowed hard. ‘You knew about that?’

‘Of course I did.’ Eve looked contemptuous. My family has lived here for centuries. I know all the old stories. We had a copy of that book, the one your Grandpa owned.’ Her voice changed, turned soft. ‘I even saw the lodestar once, in the manor, when Mrs Warren held an open day one year. It was in a glass case on a shelf in the study. I recognised it at once from the picture in the book. And I thought about it for years, thinking what it could do for us if only we could possess it. So I asked your sister to steal it for me.’

‘Caitlin wouldn’t do that,’ Serena said. She felt a chill seeping through her skin, through her blood.

Eve’s face twisted. ‘You think? She was keen enough when I said I’d report her to the police otherwise. She was always hanging around in here, panting after Leo, putting my licence at risk with underage drinking. When I caught them in bed together sky high on cannabis, I gave her an ultimatum. Said I’d give her and Leo the money to run off together if she’d steal the lodestar for me. I told her to hand it over that night and I’d make sure he was waiting for her in the car, ready to go. The silly little fool believed me too.’

Serena felt nauseous. She’d known Caitlin was no saint, known she could be thoughtless and frivolous, but this wasn’t the sister she recognised. Eve’s description of her sounded so sordid. Perhaps Caitlin had got into drugs when she had got involved with Leo, but she’d also been naïve and lovestruck. Serena could finally see that this had been Caitlin’s tragedy – her sophistication had been brittle. She had no experience, only hopes and dreams.

And Eve, Serena thought, was another one who had resented Caitlin’s bright spirit and the butterfly nature that had seen her flit happily from one thing to another, rarely settling, carelessly kind, never intending to hurt anyone. Perhaps Eve had loved Leo too, with his dazzling surfer good looks and his swagger. They had worked together; perhaps they had had a closer relationship before Caitlin had appeared on the scene, radiant in all her youth. She thought about asking Eve whether she and Leo had been lovers and decided it didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was that Caitlin was dead, that Eve had killed her.

‘So Caitlin thought she and Leo were running off on a big adventure,’ Serena said. She was clenching her fist so tightly that the bead was digging into her palm. ‘She must have been so excited and happy. What went wrong?’

Eve blinked as though it was an effort to remember. ‘Caitlin realised it was all a trick,’ she said simply. ‘When we met up that night in the ruins of the Old Hall she guessed I hadn’t said anything to Leo and she refused to give me the lodestar.’

‘So you quarrelled and then you killed her,’ Serena said.

‘I didn’t mean to hurt her,’ Eve repeated. ‘I only wanted the lodestar. But I grabbed her neck and she fell and then…’ She frowned. ‘Well, the next thing I knew, she’d gone. Vanished! If you were watching, you’ll know what I mean. You would have seen it too! It was bright, like lightning, or something.’ She shook her head. ‘I’d never seen anything like it.’

‘That was the lodestar,’ Serena said. ‘I thought you said you’d read the stories about it? You knew it was supposed to possess magical powers. Wasn’t that why you wanted it?’

Eve pulled a face. ‘No,’ she said. ‘I didn’t believe in that sort of paranormal crap.’ She put her hands on her hips. ‘I wanted it to sell. I’ve been night-hawking for years around here and other historical sites. I’ve uncovered masses of old coins and buckles and small finds but never anything really valuable. Then I remembered the lodestar. Do you know how much antiquities are worth on the black market?’ She cocked her head at Serena. ‘A piece like that, almost a thousand years old, would fetch millions.’

‘So where is the lodestar now?’ Serena said. She looked around. The paint was peeling from the wall of the corridor. The old water tank churned softly. The brightness of the day made the pub look like what it was, sad and neglected, and the light falling on Eve’s face illuminated her too – her jealousy, her cruelty and her cupidity.

‘You never had it, did you?’ Serena said suddenly. ‘You never got your hands on the lodestar. When Caitlin refused to give it to you, you tried to take it from her by force but it cheated you.’

Eve’s eyes flared with a sudden fury. ‘Of course I never had it,’ she spat. ‘Do you think I’d be hanging around in a dump like this if I’d had the choice? Caitlin was holding it and I tried to snatch it from her when she fell but it slipped through my fingers. The next thing I knew, Caitlin was gone and the lodestar was gone too. It was unreal. I was terrified. So I was just grabbed the bag and ran.’ She took a step towards Serena. ‘All that trouble, all for nothing,’ she said. ‘And now there’s you. What am I going to do about you?’ She snatched up a knife from the service trolley and took another step closer.

The breath seemed to stop in Serena’s throat. ‘Don’t be stupid,’ she said. ‘It’s too late. Too many people know—’ But still Eve came closer, forcing her away from the stairs, trapping her against the wall with a flick of the wicked silver blade.

‘Just take the lodestar and go.’ Polly’s voice cut across them, making Serena jump almost out of her skin. Her aunt was standing on the half-landing at the curve of the stair and she had clearly been out. She was wearing the faux-fur coat and her cheeks were pink with fresh air, her blonde hair mussed by the wind.

Eve spun around, the knife in her hand, as Polly came steadily up the final flight of steps and stopped on the landing in front of them. Serena saw that in Polly’s outstretched hand was a misshapen arrowhead. It looked like the picture in the lodestar book, like the compass Serena had seen all those years before in her grandfather’s study. Polly was holding it out towards Eve. Her gaze was focussed entirely on Eve, concentrated and fierce.

‘You’ve taken one of my nieces.’ Polly’s voice faltered slightly on the words and then strengthened again. ‘You’re not hurting Serena. I won’t let you. This was what you wanted—’ She extended her hand with the arrowhead flat on the palm. ‘Take it and we’ll all pretend none of this happened.’

Eve stood frozen to the top step. Her eyes were huge, fixed on the lodestar. ‘You’re giving it to me?’

‘It’s cursed,’ Polly said. ‘It’s dangerous. I just want it gone. Take it.’ She gave a little nod. ‘Take it,’ she said again.

Eve darted forward as though she could not help herself and snatched the lodestar from Polly’s hand. There was a moment when it felt to Serena as though everything was suspended on the edge of darkness; time seemed to stop and then to fold in on itself.

Serena knew what would happen next. Instinctively she threw up an arm to protect her face. The flash was blinding. She was knocked to the floor amidst tumbling piles of sheets and towels, dazzled, lost. She lay there, winded, then reached out desperately and her hand closed around Polly’s and she clung on tightly for she did not know how long.

‘Are you all right, hon?’ When Serena opened her eyes, her aunt was sitting on the floor next to her, somehow looking as immaculate as she usually did. ‘That was a bit of a shock,’ she said mildly.

Serena started to laugh shakily but it turned into tears instead, and Polly reached out for her and held her as though she was a child. ‘Hush,’ she said. ‘It’s OK now.’ She rested her chin on the top of Serena’s head. ‘It’s over. She’s gone.’

Serena nodded. She knew that Eve had gone for good.

‘Did Eve take the lodestar with her?’ she asked. She eased back into sitting and pushed the hair from her face. Somewhere down the corridor the fire alarm was ringing. Soon, she knew, people would arrive and there would be lots of questions.

‘No,’ Polly said. ‘I have it safe.’ She opened her hand. Sitting on her palm was the black arrowhead. She looked up and met Serena’s eyes. ‘The stone makes its own choices,’ she said.

‘You sound like Grandpa,’ Serena said. ‘Did you know about the lodestar all the time?’

Polly smiled at her but it was a smile edged with sadness. ‘I knew about the stone,’ she said, ‘but I never knew it was connected to Caitlin’s disappearance. Not until I heard you and Eve talking just now.’

She rubbed her eyes, suddenly looking very tired. ‘I’d never heard it referred to by that name. To me it was always Lady Lovell’s arrow. Mum told me the story when I was a child: Anne Lovell, wife of Francis Lovell, had the arrow as a talisman. I don’t know where it originally came from, but Lady Lovell protected the lodestar and it protected her in return. When the time came, Mum said, Lady Lovell gave the lodestar up to save the life of a child she loved.’ Polly’s eyes were suddenly bright with tears. ‘Cute story, right? But I knew that little arrow wasn’t to be messed with.’ Her tone was dry. ‘No matter it sounded like a fairy tale, the power was real enough. I always sensed that somehow, even when I was a child.’

‘Grandpa knew it was powerful too,’ Serena said. ‘He told me so. Yet he kept it in the study where anyone could have seen it.’

‘Hidden in plain sight,’ Polly agreed. ‘I think he thought there was no one alive who would recognise it for what it was. But Eve did – and she persuaded Caitlin to take it.’

‘I assumed that when Caitlin vanished, she took the stone with her,’ Serena said, ‘but it turns out I was wrong.’

Polly nodded. ‘Like I said, the lodestar makes its own choices. It belongs here at Minster Lovell.’

‘But if that’s the case,’ Serena said, ‘how did you come to have it, Aunt Pol?’

Polly was silent for a moment, looking at the arrow. ‘I found it,’ she said. ‘I found it in the ruins of the Old Hall the last time I came home. I thought it must have got lost – dropped or thrown away when Dad moved out of the manor, you know – and so I just picked it up and tucked it away in my pocket for old times’ sake. But it didn’t feel right to take it away from Minster Lovell for some reason so I popped it onto the sundial in the walled garden at the manor and forgot about it.’ She rubbed her fingers thoughtfully over it and it seemed to Serena that for a moment the lodestar quivered in her palm. ‘Then this afternoon a weird thing happened,’ Polly said. ‘I was so tired when I came up to my room but for some reason I couldn’t rest. I thought it was jet lag and that I might feel better for some fresh air, so I went out…’ She paused. ‘I felt so strongly that I had to go to the manor. And then when I got there, I just knew I had to go to the walled garden and find Lady Lovell’s arrow. But the gate was locked because they were renovating it and I couldn’t get in.’

Serena was remembering the girl in the green coat, the ghost she had seen on the manor stairs who had led her to the doorway into the garden. Leading her to the lodestar…

‘I didn’t know what to do,’ Polly was saying. ‘I was in a sort of panic by now because I knew somehow that it was really important that I get that arrow and bring it back to you. And then someone came.’ She smiled. ‘A girl your age. She had red hair and she was very pregnant. I sort of recognised her – I think she used to be a friend of yours when you were young? Anyway, she had the arrowhead in her hand. All she said was: “I found this. You must take it to Serena now,” and handed it to me. I didn’t know what was going on but it seemed to make sense, so I did.’

‘That would be Lizzie,’ Serena said. Her throat closed and she blinked back the tears. ‘She’s fey that way.’

‘Well, thank God she is,’ Polly said with feeling.

Outside there was the wail of sirens and the flicker of flashing blue lights. A door crashed open. Someone shouted. Serena recognised Jack’s voice, heard the pounding of his footsteps on the stairs. She scrambled up and held out a hand to Polly, who got to her feet a little stiffly, smoothing her skirts down.

‘It’s a shame the police didn’t make it before Eve ran away,’ Polly said quietly. ‘They’ll never find her now.’

‘No,’ Serena said. ‘They never will.’

Then Jack burst onto the landing and hauled her unceremoniously into his arms. She was quite happy to stay there. She could hear his heart thudding hard against her ear and his arms were tight about her. ‘Thank God,’ he said, against her hair. ‘When Lizzie said she’d given you the lodestar, I was afraid I’d lose you.’

‘Lizzie’s amazing,’ Serena said a little shakily. ‘Between them, she and Aunt Pol saved the day.’

There were more people on the landing now – it seemed as though there were hundreds of them: various police officers, Stuart from the café, some of the villagers and Ross, the barman. Serena drew away from Jack and saw Polly looking at them with a twinkle in her eye.

‘And there I was thinking you’d told me everything that was going on, hon,’ she said. She held out a hand to Jack. ‘Hi, I’m Polly, Serena’s aunt.’

Jack looked very slightly disconcerted. ‘Hi. I’m Jack Lovell.’ He glanced at Serena. ‘Sorry, I—’

‘It’s OK,’ Polly said, smiling widely. ‘I understand. And it’s good to meet you, Jack Lovell. Now’ – she looked around – ‘let’s get out of here.’

‘The others will be here in a minute, Grandpa,’ Serena said, ‘but I wanted to talk to you on my own first.’ She settled Dick’s chair under the big oak tree in the gardens of the manor and wrapped a bright tartan rug over his knee. The house was closed today but the formal gardens had been opened specially for them, as had the walled garden, which was still under restoration.

It was a fortnight after Eve had disappeared and spring was most certainly in the air now, air that felt softer and gentler than when Serena had arrived back at Minster Lovell. Wild primroses peeped through the grass and wrens scurried about their nest-building in the hedges. She had spent the previous two weeks tying up the loose ends of the investigation into Caitlin’s death and Eve’s disappearance with the police. Inspector Litton, with a confession witnessed by Polly and the evidence of the rucksack, had accepted Eve’s guilt despite the anomaly of dating of the burial. There was an international warrant out for Eve’s arrest, although Serena suspected that Eve might be in a place it could not reach.

She angled Dick’s chair so that the spring sunshine warmed him and sat down on the cushioned bench opposite.

‘I’m going to tell you a story, Grandpa,’ she said. ‘I think you already know it but it might help me get it straight – and accept it – if I say it out loud. And if I get it wrong’ – she smiled at him – ‘you can put me right because you are the only person who knows the truth.’

Dick smiled back at her, head slightly on one side as he waited. Serena had the strangest sense that he understood everything that she was saying to him, although it was impossible to tell.

‘The last few weeks,’ Serena said, ‘in between talking to the police’ – she pulled a face – ‘I’ve been finding out about our family history.’

She saw Dick’s chin come up and his blue eyes seemed to focus on her even more intently.

‘I’d never really thought about it before,’ Serena said, ‘and I realised that it was odd, in a family where we all valued the stories of the past, that we never spoke about our own history.’ She traced a pattern on the smooth wooden armrest of the bench. ‘Polly was able to give me some information and I went online to look up birth certificates and other details. I found the record of your marriage to Gran in London in 1962 but there was nothing before that.’ She looked at him. ‘I knew that you had been adopted so I wondered whether Richard Warren wasn’t the name you were born with.’

Dick shifted a little in his chair. ‘Richard,’ he said. ‘I was always Richard.’

‘Yes,’ Serena said. ‘You were always Richard, right from the beginning. There were lots of clues once I knew what I was looking for. There was the “rose en soleil” engraving on the necklaces that you gave to Caitlin and to me. There was the name Warren. There were your drawings – the one of the Gyrfalcon – one of the emblems of King Edward IV – and those yellow flowers, which were broom.’

‘Plantagenet,’ Richard said. ‘Planta genista. It grows here.’ He gestured to the garden.

‘Grandma grew it here,’ Serena agreed, ‘along with the Rosa Alba, the white rose of York. When I started to work all this out, I assumed we must be descended from Edward Plantagenet, Edward IV. But then I thought, if that were the case, why keep it a secret? It’s the sort of thing that we would all know, even if it was only talked about within the family. It seemed odd.’

A little breeze rippled through the oak tree where the first new leaves were starting to unfurl.

‘In the end,’ Serena said, ‘it was understanding what had happened to Caitlin that helped me to work it out. How could Caitlin possibly have disappeared eleven years ago and yet be buried in the eighteenth century? It seemed impossible, yet not only was the archaeological evidence clear, there was even a witness account of it from 1708.’

She saw Dick’s hands clench together and leaned forward to lay her own hand over them. ‘I’m sorry, Grandpa,’ she said. ‘I know it hurts to talk about what happened to Caitlin. It hurts you more than any of us, I think, because you blame yourself. You shouldn’t do – Caitlin died because of Eve. It was Eve who killed her, not the lodestar. We know that now.’

Dick’s head was bent as he stared down at her hand resting over his. Then she felt the tension leave him and he nodded slowly.

‘I tried to keep it safe,’ he said.

‘I know you did,’ Serena said. ‘You kept it in a locked box on the highest shelf in the study. And then on the night Caitlin vanished you realised that the lodestar had gone too. You saw the flash of light and you knew what had happened.’ She squeezed his fingers. ‘You knew because you had seen it happen before, hadn’t you? You were the only living person who had; in fact, I think you are probably the only living person who has experienced it.’

Dick was gazing out across the garden as though he was seeing past the present to the Minster Lovell he had once known. ‘Anne sent us away,’ he said. ‘She sent us to safety.’

Serena caught her breath. She remembered the story Polly had told her, the fairy tale about Lady Lovell and the lodestar. She wondered who Dick had meant by ‘us’.

‘So it is true,’ she said in a whisper.

‘The lodestar possesses the power to move through time and space.’ She looked up to see that Jack was standing beside her seat. ‘You saw it do it with your own eyes,’ he said. Then, apologetically: ‘Sorry, but the others are coming. I thought I should warn you.’

Serena nodded. She released Dick’s hand and sat back. Although she had talked to Jack and Polly and Lizzie about what had happened, no one else knew the truth. ‘I think we’re done,’ she said. ‘We both know.’ She smiled at Dick who nodded gently back. ‘We both understand.’

Jack glanced across the lawn, where Nigel and Stuart were approaching with picnic tables and crockery. Behind them came Polly carrying a huge teapot, and Lizzie and Arthur with what looked like several plates of cake.

‘Before they get here,’ he said, ‘there’s one other thing you should both know.’ He paused. ‘You know that when Caitlin disappeared, they took DNA samples from all males in the local area as part of the investigation?’

Serena nodded. ‘I remember. Dad was tested, and Grandpa as well.’

Jack nodded. ‘Well, before Eve allegedly ran off and put herself in the frame, I was talking to Sergeant Ratcliffe and he let on that they were planning on retesting your grandfather and father. He shouldn’t have mentioned it, of course, but he’s a mate of Zoe’s and he knew I was interested in the forensic archaeology side. He said that there had evidently been some major flaw in the original DNA tests because when they put your family’s results into the national database, it came up as a match that was completely impossible. Inspector Litton was absolutely livid.’

‘Why on earth?’ Serena said.

‘Because it was a close match for King Richard III,’ Jack said, with a grin. ‘They had his DNA from the dig in Leicester in 2012 but I imagine they weren’t expecting to match it to anyone in 2021.’

A breeze stirred the branches over their heads and ruffled the edge of the rug covering Dick’s lap. He was looking quite tranquil, as though he perhaps had not even heard, but Serena knew that he had.

‘Well,’ she said, ‘they won’t need to waste resources on a second test now, will they?’ She stood up. ‘There’s just one thing I’m wondering, Grandpa,’ she said. ‘When you said that Anne Lovell sent you away, you referred to “us”. Who were you with?’

There was a long silence. Dick’s gaze was vague and distant and Serena wondered whether he had not understood her or remembered his original comment. His mind could have drifted away at any moment and she had probably tired him with her questions. But no. Just as she thought she would never know, Dick looked up. He wasn’t looking at her though. He held out a hand to Jack and he smiled, so suddenly and vividly that he looked exactly as she remembered him before his illness.

‘Francis,’ he said.

They had all had tea and several cupcakes and slices of Victoria sponge cake, and Dick was dozing comfortably in his chair, when Serena opened her bag and took out a little wooden box. She put it on the table.

‘Is that it?’ Lizzie said. She looked slightly anxious, Serena thought, as well she might.

She opened the lid. The Lovell lodestar sat neatly on a bed of blue velvet, looking for all the world like what it was – a small, shiny black arrowhead. Serena’s fingers shook slightly as she touched it. It felt smooth in her hand, and warm, and she thought she felt the tiniest vibration from it. She gave Lizzie a smile. ‘It’s OK,’ she said. ‘I’m getting good vibes from it. And anyway, you don’t need to worry. It entrusted itself to you that day when you gave it to Polly. You’re not going to disappear in a flash of light.’

‘I wasn’t worried for me,’ Lizzie said, with dignity. ‘I’m used to these things. I’d just rather not lose you somewhere in time.’

‘Fair enough,’ Serena said. ‘But I have a sense we are all safe.’ She put the stone gently in its box. ‘It’s back where it belongs,’ she said. ‘Back for good.’

‘Have you decided what you’re going to do with it?’ Polly asked.

Serena slipped her hand into Jack’s. ‘We’ve talked about it a lot,’ she said, glancing at him, ‘because really it’s Jack’s decision. The lodestar was entrusted to the Lovells centuries ago. They were the custodians of the relic of St Kenelm, it was stolen from them and that was when it began its journey. Now it’s home.’

‘It also feels important that it should stay here because of Caitlin,’ Jack said, squeezing Serena’s hand. ‘It’s the right place.’

‘I agree,’ Lizzie said, staring at the lodestar as it sat innocently on its blue velvet bed, ‘but is that safe?’

‘Well,’ Serena said, ‘we could put it in a museum, because Eve was right when she said it’s an ancient artefact that is actually worth a lot of money. It would have twenty-four-hour security and everyone would know that it was the Lovell lodestar and it was reputed to have magical powers. Or’ – she looked around at the spring garden, the sun patterning the grass and the blue stars of the scilla flowers planted in a drift beneath the trees – ‘we could hide it here in plain sight. After all,’ she looked at Polly, ‘it was in the gardens unnoticed ever since you put it here, and we’re the only people who know what it is. Let’s keep it that way.’

She stood and picked up the box. Polly stood too and went over to stand by Dick’s chair. ‘Dad’s dozing, I think,’ she said, touching his hand, ‘but I’m sure he’d agree with us.’

They all walked over to the sundial, their feet sinking into the soft grass. It was a perfect late March day, the trees starting to show their new green and the birds chattering above them. Serena took the arrowhead from the box and slipped it onto the pin in the centre of the sundial. It fitted perfectly. Around the base of the pillar, on the lichen covered stone, she could see carved the words she remembered:

‘Shadows we are and like shadows depart…’

She felt the tears sting her eyes. Caitlin, she was sure, would always be with them, but no longer as a shadow haunting, a lost memory. She could once again be the bright and vibrant spirit they remembered.

She ran her hand over the bronze plate beneath the arrow. It felt warm from the sun. ‘Caitlin and I always loved the sundial,’ she said softly. ‘This is for her. To close the circle.’ The lodestar quivered. It spun for a few seconds and Serena held her breath, then it pointed north. Across the garden a blackbird called with its piercing note. Dick dozed on in his chair. Serena slipped her arm through Polly’s.

‘The last daughters of York,’ she said. ‘How does that feel, Aunt Pol?’

‘I’m damned proud of it,’ Polly said, ‘and I need another piece of cake.’