“I don’t either, really. I just know that I am living a life that was cut short a long time ago. The sword is central to that life, and I simply have to make things right.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Everything and nothing. Look, I told you that first time we met; it’s complicated, but think of it like a computer game that crosses time zones. We exist here in the twenty-first century, but the events of around eight hundred AD are pushing through the space time continuum to impact my life here.”
“Why?”
She touched her torque.
“I think through this torque; I possess part of the spirit of a girl who lived back them. I share her name, and possibly a heck of a lot more.”
“You what?”
“Just like that bloke – Matthew, he possesses something of the Saxon Warlord Brandt who killed me and stole my sword.”
Lee blinked a few times and said nothing. A girl appeared carrying their food.
“Two pies?”
“Thanks.”
She gave them their food and pointed to a mug containing cutlery.
“Your cutlery is there. Do you want anything else?”
There was salt, pepper and sauces in plastic sachets on the table.
“No, that’s fine thanks,” said Tamsyn, as Lee was still thinking over what Tamsyn had said.
“I know you said this all to me back home, but I’m not sure I really believed you. You’re saying you’ve lived before?”
“Yes and no. This is hard to explain. I am me, and yet I perhaps haven’t always been like this. I think I am linked to the Tamsyn of old. Somehow, through the torque, I can link old events and even some of the spirits of those who lived back then. That’s how I knew how to find the sword - my sword.”
“This is weird.”
“Good pie, though,” she said, smiling.
“What do you mean; you’ve not always been like this?”
Tamsyn paused, not sure how much to share and how much to bury.
“I wasn’t born like this. The Torque has changed me, certainly on a mental and spiritual level.”
He frowned.
“You mean, you were someone else?”
“I’ve always been Tamsyn. I mean, how long have you been playing the game?”
“Four years.”
“I was in the game then. It’s just since I came to Cornwall and found the Torque, it made me more like the character and less like the person I was before.”
“Who were you?”
“It doesn’t matter anymore. I’m never going back, so get used to me as I am.”
“Are you very different?”
“Why?”
He shrugged.
“I’m not sure. Probably not.”
“If you want to know the truth, I’m finally the person I always knew I should be.”
“Aren’t you worried that you might change back?”
“No,” she said, touching the torque as if to reassure herself.
Lee felt an overwhelming sense of excitement tinged with out and out fear. He didn’t know exactly why he was afraid, nor of what.
“I need a pee,” he said, and left the table to find the gents.
He walked into the toilet and stared at the vending machines on the wall.
“Shit!” he said aloud, fumbling in his pocket for some pound coins.
Tamsyn had finished her food by the time he returned.
“What’s up with you?” she asked, seeing he was behaving very oddly.
He grinned knowingly and sat down to finish his food.
She glanced at the toilet door and then the penny dropped.
“Ribbed or flavoured?” she asked.
He went a lovely shade of red.
“Ribbed, if you must know,” he mumbled.
She said nothing, for which he was grateful. Then, it dawned on him that she was as nervous as was he. The knowledge made him feel so much better.
They finished their meal and sat talking. Tamsyn really was taking each moment as it came, as she had no idea as to what was going to happen. She had been truthful in that she simply felt she was doing the right thing.
It was still pouring with rain when they left the pub. Their leather jackets were still damp, so they ran back to the B&B. They got to their room without meeting Ann or her husband. It was half past ten.
Tamsyn used the bathroom first, and so, she got into bed before Lee finished and returned. He found her coyly snuggled into the big bed. Then, he saw her nightdress still in her bag.
He swallowed.
She smiled and held up the duvet.
He stripped off and slid in next to her.
Neither was experienced nor were they experts in the art of love, but as enthusiastic amateurs, they gave it their best shot.
Tamsyn shut off all memories of her previous life and simply went with who she was now.
She adored every fumbling minute.
Lee forgot the condoms, leaving them in his pocket. That caused her to giggle, which didn’t help his nervous disposition one jot. That caused her to giggle more, which started him laughing.
In the end, they were successful and Tamsyn lay there simply stunned with the experience. All her imaginings and dreams were simply shadows of the reality.
Lee performed perfectly well under the stressful circumstances. His first effort was something that he could have been proud of, had he known. Instead, he lay next to her thinking he’d just died and gone to heaven.
“That was my first time,” he said, unnecessarily.
“I know. Mine too.”
He said nothing. She continually surprised him.
“Why?” he said, at last.
“Why what?”
“Why now; why me?”
“Because I wanted to and we could. Didn’t you want to?”
“Yes, but…”
“But what?”
“I don’t know. I think, oh, I don’t know what I thought. Perhaps I thought you’re too good for me.”
“Don’t be daft,” she said, chuckling and kissing him gently. “You’re lovely.”
“Once this is over, are you going away?” he asked.
“Where would I go?”
“I don’t know. If you were brought into being for this, it stands to reason that you will cease to be when it’s finished.”
“Does it?”
“Does it what?”
“Stand to reason. I mean, this is all so unreal and unique, I don’t think there are any rules. I hope I won’t disappear at the end.”
“So do I.”
“Don’t worry about it now. There’s no point.”
“Doesn’t anything worry you?”
“Would it help?”
“What?”
“Worrying; would it help if I did?”
“Not really.”
“Then I won’t bother. What will be, will be.”
They drifted to opposite sides of the bed, and eventually, Lee slept, lulled to sleep by her breathing. He liked having her next to him. He wasn’t sure if he was supposed to be her strength or the other way around. He was just pleased she was there, more than anything else in his life to this point.
“That’s the man!” Matthew said, tapping one of three photographs that Grant held.
Grant looked at the one that Matthew selected and then, frowned.
“No, it isn’t; it can’t be. This man is dead. Besides, he’s not Russian but an American who drowned several weeks ago while here on holiday with his wife.”
“I tell you, that’s him; I’d know him anywhere.”
“I put your photograph through the intelligence database, and it came up with these three close fits. This was the closest, as the other two were nowhere near as alike. I checked the reference, and it was attached to a missing person report filed in Falmouth back in the summer. His name was Allun Tanner, and he is believed to have died when he jumped into the sea.”
“Falmouth, you say?”
“Yes, why?”
“Those women were from Falmouth. This is all beginning to add up. Are they sure he died?”
“They never found the body. His clothes and wallet and everything were discovered on the rocks.”
“John Stonehouse!” Matthew said, triumphantly. “This man must be living a double life and faked his own death. I have no idea why, but it has to be him!”