Helen Douglas: Chasing Stars

‘Don’t patronise me, Ryan.’

He sighed. ‘I’m not patronising you. Having your wits about you and the intelligence to think on your feet is worth a hundred black belts.’

He rolled on to his back again. I watched his breaths grow slower and deeper, the small shadow his long lashes cast beneath his eyes, the faintest hint of stubble under his skin.

He opened one eye. ‘I can’t sleep if you keep staring at me.’

‘I wasn’t staring at you,’ I said. I bit my lip. ‘I was just thinking.’

‘Thinking what?’ He yawned loudly.

‘What are you going to tell everyone else about coming back to Cornwall? What will your cover story be?’

He closed his eye again. ‘I’m not going to tell them anything.’

‘But they’ll think it’s odd. A few days ago you told them you were moving back to New Hampshire with your family and now you’re back again.’

‘They can’t know I’m here. You’ll need to tell Miranda that I’ve left again. Tell her that our departure was postponed by a couple of days if you need to. And don’t tell Connor or anyone else that I’m back.’

‘They’ll find out in September when you enroll at college,’ I said, confused.

‘I’m not going to college, Eden. I can’t. I can’t appear as myself anywhere. I mustn’t leave a trail to the future.’

‘So what will you do?’

‘I’ll find a job. Something casual like flower-picking where they won’t ask to see identification to start with. I’ll get some fake ID, but I will still have to keep away from anyone who knew me as Ryan Westland. Once you’re at university in a town where no one has ever seen me before, I’ll be able to come out of hiding.’

‘You can’t hide away for two years!’

‘I can and I will. If I start appearing as myself, the Guardians will pick it up and send a cleaner straight back to get me. I have to become someone else, and I can’t do that until we move to a place where no one has seen me before.’

It had never occurred to me that Ryan wouldn’t just slot back into his old life. I’d pictured him hanging out with the old crowd from school, studying for his A Levels alongside me, going off to parties together. Not hiding away at the farmhouse and working on the land.

‘But you’re missing out on your education.’

‘I can read books,’ he said through a yawn. ‘In any case, I’m already eighteen. I’ve had a pretty good education.’

‘You’ll be living like an outlaw.’

He smiled sleepily. ‘I’d sooner spend a lifetime living as an outlaw with you, than a single day of freedom without you.’

We had a table for two by the window, with a clear view over the harbour. We’d finished eating and Ryan had gone to pay the bill. Through the window, the moon hung like an oversized pearl, white and luminous, in a pink and turquoise sky. The perfect backdrop to a romantic evening.

That was what scared me. How exactly did Ryan expect the perfect romantic evening to end? For that matter, how did I want it to end?

‘Ready?’ he asked.

‘I think I might need to walk off dinner before we go back to our room,’ I said.

‘OK.’ He held my hand and we strolled down towards the pier.

Despite the late hour, there were still boats returning from daytrips. A line of chalkboards tied to a railing advertised sightseeing trips to the other islands. One of the signs caught my eye.

Available for private hire.

Visit the uninhabited isles.

See seals, basking sharks and hundreds of birds.

Ask for a quote.

‘Shall we?’ I said, pointing to the sign.

And that was when I saw her. At first I thought I was seeing things, because she was dressed very differently. The suit was gone, replaced by a pair of shorts and a body-hugging T-shirt. She looked like a tourist. Her hair, which had been slicked back into a bun when I saw her last, now hung loosely down her back. But the way she walked, head straight, face unsmiling, limbs quick and efficient, gave her away. She wasn’t looking for a pleasure cruise; she was on a mission.

‘Ryan,’ I whispered, steering him away from the harbour. ‘Back up.’

His hand tensed in mine, but he said nothing. Once we turned the corner, he stopped.

‘What is it?’

‘Lauren.’

Ryan swore.

‘How did she track us here?’ I said. ‘We used cash to pay for everything and we haven’t used our real names.’

Ryan peered around the corner. ‘What does she look like?’

‘Tall, long brown hair.’

‘I see her.’

‘How did she find us?’

Ryan turned back to me. ‘We don’t know that she has found us.’ He leant around the corner again. ‘What’s she up to? Why is she talking to the skipper of a boat?’

‘Maybe she wants to take us to one of the uninhabited islands and kill us there. Maybe she already knows where we’re staying and she’s just sorting out where to finish us off.’ I struggled to keep the panic out of my voice.

‘There has to be another reason,’ said Ryan. ‘We’ve been careful.’

Suddenly my mind flashed back to Travis’s flat. ‘It’s something to do with that ticket,’ I said. ‘It’s what made me think of coming here.’

‘Slow down,’ said Ryan. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘When we went to Travis’s flat, she found a return ticket to the Isles of Scilly on the Scillonion . She asked Miranda about it.’

‘Travis had a ticket to the Isles of Scilly? Why would he have that?’

I shrugged. ‘I don’t know. He hadn’t used the return portion. I guess he saved it in case he wanted to go back.’

‘Maybe that’s it,’ said Ryan. ‘She’s following one of Travis’s trails. Cleaning up any trace of him. This has nothing to do with us. It’s just a coincidence because you thought of coming here from seeing the ticket, right?’

I thought about it. What an idiot. I’d led us into danger again. ‘I guess I did.’

‘Perhaps his time-ship is here somewhere. He could have ended his journey from the future on one of the uninhabited islands and hidden his ship there. He isn’t able to come back and retrieve it, so his cleaner has.’

That made sense. My heartbeat began the journey back to normal.

Ryan looked around the corner again. ‘She must be hiring a boat to take her to the islands tomorrow. She’ll destroy the ship and then go back.’

‘So we’re safe.’

‘We’re safe. But I think we should follow her. See where she’s staying.’

My stomach rolled over. ‘Do we have to?’

‘I’d sooner know where she is.’

‘What if she sees us following her?’

‘She won’t.’

‘Ryan –’

‘Look, you head back to the guest house. I’ll follow the cleaner. As soon as I know where she’s staying, I’ll come back. I won’t sleep if I don’t know where she is.’

The only thing worse than following Lauren was the thought of sitting alone in my room, worrying whether Ryan was OK.

‘I don’t want to be apart from you.’

‘It will be easier to follow her if I’m alone. She knows you, but she doesn’t know me from Adam.’ He pushed the room key into my hand. ‘I promise I’ll come straight to the room as soon as I know where she is.’ He took another look. ‘She’s coming this way. Go.’

I slipped the room key into my pocket and walked briskly up the road towards the guest house without looking back. This was not how I’d imagined our evening ending.

Back in our room, the smell of paint had faded and been replaced by the fresh laundry scent of the bedsheets. I closed the windows and the curtains and sat on the edge of the bed. Ryan seemed confident that Lauren being here was just a horrible coincidence. I needed to put her out of my mind.