Chapter 51
51
Tristan didn’t know how long he’d been sitting at the top of the viewing platform. He didn’t even know how he’d got there. The last thing he could remember was climbing through the woods to the observatory, having abandoned his car after it had slipped off the road in the rainstorm.
Lorelai had tried to stop him from leaving Nightshade Cottage, but he’d had to get out of there, put as much distance between himself and the memories that had suddenly confronted him after they’d spoken. ‘Tristan, we need to talk about this,’ she’d said to him, but he couldn’t. They’d never really discussed what had happened the night his parents were killed on the road by the observatory, and that, combined with the knowledge that Great-Uncle Philip might have been the trigger for the tragedy, was enough of a push for him to have to get away. Why had his uncle been at the observatory on a freezing cold January night, and what had been said between Philip and his parents? He could go around in circles forever trying to work it all out, but, in truth, he’d never know. Had Philip finally told Tristan’s mother how he felt about her? Or was it something to do with the discovery his parents had made, that binary star? It felt impossible to escape what was in his own head. ‘No,’ he’d kept muttering. ‘No, it’s not like that. It can’t be like that…’
All he knew now was that, through the fog of his own thoughts, through the barriers he’d erected to keep the outside world at bay, something had slowly, painfully brought him back to the present. It took a few moments for him to re-associate with the moment, to get out of the maelstrom of his own thoughts and emotions, but as the fog began to clear, he became aware of Charlotte’s terrified voice. His eyes met hers across the short distance between them, and then the darkness fell again, as the lightning disappeared with the flip of an atmospheric switch. It was enough, though. Charlotte was in terrible danger, and he knew he had to do something to try to help.
‘For fuck’s sake!’ she was screaming at him. ‘Did you not hear what I just said? Tristan, help me, please!’
It was the uncharacteristic swearing as much as the declaration of love that brought him back. The storm was right over their heads, and another sheet of lightning lit up her pale face, and showed her caught in the rotten wood of the platform, likely to fall through at any moment.
‘What are you doing here?’ he shouted, raising himself from the sitting position he’d been stuck in for God knew how long. His knees told him it had been a while.
‘What do you bloody think?’ Charlotte was almost snarling with fear now, and Tristan knew he had to make his next moves extremely carefully indeed, or he was at risk of both of them hurtling to the ground, and Comet, too. The little dog was looking frantically from him to Charlotte, clearly unsure which way to run.
‘I’m coming over,’ he said as calmly as he could. ‘Try not to move.’
‘I don’t plan to,’ Charlotte hissed. Her gaze shifted from Tristan to Comet. ‘Stay, boy,’ she commanded.
Tristan gave a smile. ‘I said I was coming over.’
‘Not funny!’
The only light he had was the flashes from the storm, but it would have to be enough. Carefully, he edged towards Charlotte. There was one way off the platform, and it was the way they’d both climbed up. If the floor gave way… he tried not to think about it.
‘Charlotte? Tristan? Are you there?’ Tristan froze as Thea’s voice echoed up from the ground floor.
‘We’re up here,’ Tristan called back. ‘Have you got a torch?’
‘I brought the one from my emergency kit in the car,’ Thea replied.
A sickening creak from the board underneath Charlotte’s knee made her cry out. It was a sound that was beyond even fear, and Tristan knew there wasn’t a lot of time.
‘Thea, can you call Comet down to you?’
‘I can try,’ Thea replied, and then she called the dog’s name. For a few seconds, Comet looked in bemusement from Tristan to Charlotte and then back again.
‘Go on, boy,’ Charlotte said. ‘Go and find Thea.’
Giving them both a last glance, and clearly finding the atmosphere as scary and unnerving as they did, Comet scuttled past Tristan, somehow dodged his way to one side of Charlotte and scampered down the rickety staircase.
‘He’s with me,’ Thea called.
Tristan’s shoulders relaxed a fraction. ‘Keep hold of him,’ he said. ‘And point that torch up here. Charlotte’s gone through the floor.’
‘Shit!’ Thea aimed a shaky torch beam at the gantry and, in her haste, dazzled Tristan with the LED bulb.
‘Not in my eyes,’ snapped Tristan.
‘Sorry,’ Thea replied. Tristan looked at the rotting wood of the platform as Thea adjusted where she was pointing.
‘I’m going to come to you,’ Tristan said gently to Charlotte. ‘I’m going to move very slowly. Try not to make any sudden movements yourself. We’re going to get down those steps together.’
After hours of swirling numbness in his mind, he now felt complete clarity. There was one thing he needed to do, and that was get Charlotte back on the ground. Step by slow step, foot by foot, he moved carefully back towards her. At four feet away, the wood splintered and squelched beneath his left boot. He drew in a sharp breath and tried to stop the trembling that was making his whole body shake.
‘All right?’ Charlotte called out to him. She hadn’t taken her eyes off him since he’d stood up.
‘Yeah,’ he murmured. ‘Just got to be careful.’
‘You’re telling me!’ Charlotte gave a nervous and slightly hysterical laugh.
Thea was tracking the torchlight along the floor of the gantry, lighting up a path to lead Tristan to safety. His gaze flickered between Charlotte and the path, and he suddenly felt an incredible gratitude for these two women in his life, who’d found him and brought him back from the brink of something terrible. But there would be plenty of time later to think about that. Focusing back on the immediate task at hand, he moved forward again.
Three feet. Charlotte was almost within touching distance.
‘Nearly there,’ he said, trying to project a calm he didn’t feel. He had no idea if the area she was stuck in would bear his weight as well as hers. ‘Keep still. I’m coming.’
Two feet, and another crack of thunder made them both jump. The lightning flared, and he was progressing forward again.
‘When I get to you, I’m going to move around and behind you,’ he said. ‘Don’t try to grab hold of me until I’m on the other side. I think that’s the best chance I’ve got of pulling you out without the floor disintegrating under both of us.’
‘All right,’ Charlotte said. Her face was so pale it looked almost green in the stark light of Thea’s torch, and Tristan desperately wanted to rush to her, and hold her in his arms. But he couldn’t risk it. He had to stick to his plan. ‘But hurry… please.’
Tristan nodded. ‘It’ll be all over soon, I promise.’
He was a foot away, and he called down to Thea again. ‘Shine the light on Charlotte, but keep it low. I need to see how stable the boards are around her.’
‘Got that,’ Thea confirmed, and then did as Tristan asked. ‘OK?’
‘Perfect.’ Gingerly, Tristan edged around the gap that held Charlotte captive. He reached out to the handrail, but it gave an alarming wobble, so he let go again. He moved slowly, inch by inch, trying not to dislodge any more of the wood.
‘Nearly there,’ he murmured. He looked down to see the top of Charlotte’s head, her hair plastered to her scalp, and the back of her neck looking pale and vulnerable in the torchlight. He took another step, until he was round Charlotte and nearly onto the more stable area of the platform.
A warning creak from the aged wood made them both gasp.
‘Why the fuck didn’t they take this down years ago?’ Tristan muttered, standing stock still, trying to work out which step to take next.
‘Bit late to be asking that now,’ Charlotte said, but there was no hiding her terror.
‘OK,’ Tristan said, committing himself to one of two last steps that would enable him to get a more secure foothold and hopefully pull Charlotte to safety. ‘I’m going to turn around now, and then I’ll?—’
A loud, sickening crack cut him off mid-sentence, and as Thea’s torchlight wobbled erratically around them, another part of the gantry gave way. There was a scream, a crash and a frantic-sounding bark, and then everything was silent.