"I don't keep secrets from Garvin," said Tate.
"I'm not asking you to keep it a secret, just don't mention it, that's all."
"He's not going to like it."
"Look, Tate. It's just something I have to do. If you have to tell Garvin then just don't do it until after I've gone. OK?"
Reluctantly, he had agreed.
I had phoned Katherine from one of the increasingly rare payphones and told her I needed to meet, that I had something important to tell her, and that for various reasons I wanted the meeting kept secret.
"Is this one of your games, Niall Petersen?" She had demanded down the crackly phone line.
"No. This is for real. I'll send a car to collect you. The driver's name is Dave and he'll look after you."
"What is it with you and all this cloak and dagger stuff? Why can't you just come to the house like any normal person?"
"You'll understand. I have a lot to explain."
"What does that mean?"
"I'll tell you when I see you."
"You haven't changed one bit, have you?"
"I've changed a lot more than you know. Ten o'clock. Walk down to the end of the road — there'll be a big black car that will flash its lights once. Ask the driver his name. If he says it's Dave then get into the back. He'll do the rest."
"You really love this, don't you?"
"Katherine, just do it, OK?"
"What do I tell Barry?"
"Nothing. He'll be at work and you'll be back in time to cook him supper, though you'll have more to think about than food by then."
"What do I wear?"
"I don't care. Wear something comfortable."
"Typical man, won't tell you whether you're going to be hill-climbing or attending a reception. I don't even know what shoes to wear, will anyone else be there?"
"Just me. That's it. There's no one to impress. Jeans and trainers will be fine."
"Are we going to be inside or out?"
"Outside. But it's warm, the forecast is dry. Just come as you are."
"I'll bring a sweater, just in case. And an umbrella."
"Whatever. Just come."
I would have done this without involving the stewards, but I needed to get Katherine away from anyone else before I told her. That meant I couldn't do it at her house, or anywhere near Barry, her new man. However well-intentioned he might be, this was something between Katherine and me.
I had arranged to meet in a country park, near Northampton. It was mostly deserted during the week and there was a bench overlooking a gravel pit, within sight of the car-park, where we could sit and talk. If she shouted, cried, screamed at me, no one else would be the wiser. It also had the advantage of being a hundred yards or so from a Way-point, so I could get there easily and quickly, and leave the same way.
She would want to see Alex as soon as possible, I knew that, but I wanted her to have chance to get over the shock first, and prepare herself. It had been hard dealing with Alex's loss and I didn't know how she would take the news that she was alive, especially given the circumstances. Alex couldn't go back to living with her mother, and I had to convince Katherine that this was the right decision for all concerned.
She wasn't going to like that.
I sat on the bench under the shifting light cast by the clouds. The forecast had promised to be dry, but hadn't mentioned the gusty breeze or the scurrying clouds. I hoped Katherine had remembered the sweater. The car pulled in late. It had taken over two hours to get here, and I could see by the time she emerged that she was already annoyed. It showed in the set of her shoulders and the determined pace as she walked up the rise to the bench. If she had been trying to pump Tate for information she would have got nothing. That might explain her mood.
"You really have a nerve," she told me folding her arms. "What is this, a quarry? What the hell are we doing here?"
"Take a seat."
"I'd rather stand. I've been sat in that car for over an hour and the driver wouldn't even tell me where we've been going. Where is this, anyway? What all this about?"
"Sit down."
"I will not."
"I have something to tell you, and you're going to have to sit down to hear it."
"Are you ill? Is Blackbird all right? Is it the baby?" Her voice had shed some of its crossness but was rapidly escalating into hysteria.
I stood up. The immediate height advantage meant I was looking down on her, so she sat down. I sat down, leaving a small gap between us.
"You remember last year when there was all the trouble?"
"When they fished you out of the Thames, you mean?"
It had been the Fleet, not the Thames, but I let that go. "Something happened then that I've never told you about."
"I've always thought that was dodgy. You're not after money are you? Is someone blackmailing you?"
"What? Don't be absurd. I'm trying to tell you — something happened that changed me."
"Are we talking about Blackbird? If you want to get married I won't stand in your way."
"No — I was changed. I found something out about myself, about my family and my history that meant that everything had to change with it."
This was not going well. I looked down at my hands.
"I inherited something from my family, an ability, I suppose you would call it, or a trait maybe. Something passed down from one of my ancestors."
I looked up. Katherine's face was frozen. All colour had drained from it, and she wasn't looking at me, but past me. I turned my head to see what she was looking at. A little distance away Alex stood on the grass, her hands in her pockets, a look of terrible uncertainty on her face.
"Mum?" she said.
"That's… what I was trying to tell you," I said.
Katherine ignored me. She stood, and then rushed forward, but hesitated before she reached Alex. Her hands tangled together in front of her as if she was wringing something from them.
"Alex?" Her voice was barely more than a whisper.
"It's me, Mum. It's really me."
She rushed forward and enveloped Alex in her arms, crushing her enough to elicit a squeak from Alex and then a murmur of reassuring words, "It's OK, Mum, it's really OK."
Katherine laid her head on Alex's, holding her close, her tears heedlessly running down her cheeks into Alex's hair, dripping onto Alex's face so that she tried to say something, and then they were both crying and hugging each other. Neither could speak but that the other would start wailing again. Katherine couldn't seem to stop squeezing her as if she might slip away at any moment. That gave Alex hiccoughs so that she cried and squeaked alternately.
I stood apart, watching Katherine come to terms with her daughter's return. My eyes were hardly dry either, making me realise I had finally done the right thing.
Katherine, extracted a hanky from her sleeve and started dabbing at her eyes, and then managed to blurt out, "How?" and then started crying again, which set Alex off and neither of them had breath for words for a while.
"How?" she repeated.
"How is easy," I said. "She was never dead in the first place. They took her from us at the hospital under cover of their rules and their regulations. They deceived us."
Katherine looked at Alex, "You've grown, changed, something's different. Your hair, your…" she was fishing for what was different about Alex, but it wasn't one thing. It was everything. "Where have you been?"
"I've been staying with Dad's people, just for a…"
"You knew?" She threw it at me like an accusation. "You knew she was alive?"
"I've known for a little while. It hasn't been easy."
She strode up to me and poked me in the chest with her finger. "Easy?" She poked me with her finger, punctuating her words, "Easy? You selfish, heartless, mean… shadow of a man. You self-centred, self-obsessed bastard, you…" She ran out of words, the tears running down her cheeks again. She raised her hand and slapped me full across the face. There was a crack, and for a moment my head spun.