Chapter Eight #4
Anya
I scanned the timetable board at King’s Cross Station, looking for the train to Cambridge. Platform 8. In fifteen minutes.
I couldn’t believe I was going there for the first time in my life. But I’d do anything for Mum, even the one thing I swore
I wouldn’t.
The train whisked me north of London into a rural landscape that flattened out as we traveled. The sky stretched wider. The
horizon lengthened.
Magnus wanted me to come and look at more of his manuscripts before I went back up north. He said he kept ten of his favorites
in Cambridge because he couldn’t bear to be parted from them. The rest were in Scotland, at Tracy’s castle, where he felt
they were safest. “We can go today,” he said. “My driver will take us.”
Sid had messaged to ask how I was doing. He’d freak out if I told him what had happened and where I was going, and I couldn’t
talk now because the train was crowded and I didn’t want to be overheard. For all I knew, Magnus could have someone watching
me. If he could have me snatched off the pavement in Central London, who knew what else he was capable of?
I wrote: You wouldn’t believe how my day is going. I’ll call later.
I messaged Diana to let her know what I was doing but didn’t get a reply.
I thought about Mum. Telling her anything about today was totally out of the question; she must never know. But it would be
hard because she and I had never kept secrets from each other.
As the train pulled in, my eyes were glued to the sign saying “Cambridge” as it slid past the window, proof my world had been knocked off kilter.
I walked from the station into the center.
When I got there, I felt strangely at home, which was disconcerting.
I knew this world of colleges and their courtyards, of clipped lawns, streets full of students and dons, and porters in their waistcoats and hats at the college gates.
Even the air was marshy and close, just like Oxford’s.
I had an hour to kill before meeting my father. I went to see the site where his library would be built, drawn there like
a moth to a flame.
Tall hoardings surrounded the lot. It was adjacent to Magnus’s former college. A crane was at work, hoisting up a beam. The
building had risen two stories from the ground already. The hoardings were covered in signs advertising the builders and architects,
with an artist’s rendering of what the library would eventually look like and an electronic countdown clock to the date it
should be finished.
I’d seen pictures online already, but in person it was so much more impressive. Its sheer size and the audacity of raising
such a modern building in the heart of the medieval city were breathtaking. It was remarkable that one man could do this and
give it his name. It was ambition on a phenomenal scale.
My phone buzzed. Mum. My heart skipped a beat, and I debated whether to answer, because the scale of my emotional betrayal
of her felt overwhelming, and I didn’t know if or how I could keep that out of my voice or my face, but I didn’t want her
to worry. And I needed to know how she was.
All this will be worth it, I told myself, if it means she gets what she needs. I took a deep breath and accepted the video
call.
“Hi, love,” she said. “How are you?” Her face popped up on my screen. She looked much better than I was expecting. I sat on
a low wall in front of a tree so she couldn’t tell where I was.
“I’m good,” I said. “Down in London for a couple of days for work. What about you? You look great.”
In the background, on her end, I heard a strange noise.
“Is that Viv?” I asked.
“Viv is whooping! I’ve had some amazing news.”
He couldn’t have made this happen so soon, could he? “What news?”
“Somebody called from the oncology unit to say that a clinical trial in America is recruiting new patients for a trial with
that drug, the one they said wasn’t available here because it was too expensive. Anyway, I’m eligible! I’m in! All expenses
paid. Apparently, I’m perfect for it.”
I choked up. “That’s brilliant, Mum!”
“I know! I can’t believe it.”
Had it really been that easy for my father to buy Mum the chance of more life, of a cure even? It was breathtaking. I tried
to think what I would ask, if this truly was news to me.
“Who’s running the trial?”
“Oh, I can’t remember. I wasn’t listening properly once they gave me the news. They’re going to email me, so I’ll forward
it to you. I think they said it was a private clinic.”
“It’s spectacular news, Mum. I’m so happy for you.”
Viv poked her head into the frame, a smile wrapped around her face. She waved and gave a thumbs-up before disappearing again.
I chatted to Mum a little longer. She was so upbeat, I forgot where I was for a few blissful minutes. I kissed my fingers
and put them to the screen as we said goodbye. She was still connected when bells began to ring. The clock on the college
tower was chiming, and it was very distinctive.
I jabbed at the button to end the call. She’d lived in Cambridge with my dad. I was afraid she’d recognize the sound. For
a few moments I stared at the phone screen, afraid she’d call back and ask where I was, but she didn’t and I relaxed fractionally.
While we’d been speaking, the sun had moved, and the shadow of the library was reaching across the pavement, almost touching
the tips of my shoes. I checked the time. My father would be waiting for me.