***
The sounds of the party drifted along the dark corridor as Kate made her way through the gloom, admiring the scores of huge oil paintings that lined the corridor wall. It was almost midnight and she still had her second glass of champagne in her hand, with only a few sips having been taken. The party sounded simultaneously close and yet distant, which suited Kate just fine. She felt it reflected badly on her, but in truth she'd had enough for one night of being in the middle of a crowd of strangers. Having tried and failed to join a handful of conversations, she had slipped away to a quieter part of the house.
Besides, the paintings were more interesting than a load of overheard snippets of conversation.
“I thought I might find you here,” said a familiar voice suddenly.
Turning, Kate's first thought was surprise that she hadn't heard Edgar approaching. Her own footsteps had echoed, but Edgar seemed to move so quietly.
“Far from the madding crowd, I see,” he continued, smiling as he stopped next to her and turned to look up at the nearest portrait. “My great-great-grandfather,” he added after a moment. “A fearsome man. I remember him vividly, even though he died when I was very young. I'm afraid to say that he was the one who began the slow and painful process of making my family so unpopular on this island. He...”
Kate waited for him to finish.
“Let's just say that he was a man with dark tastes,” he continued, clearly preferring to take the tactful approach. “I'm sure some of the stories have been exaggerated, but he was most certainly a man who enjoyed cruelty. His mind had been damaged after he saw action in several wars. Crimea, I believe, and Gothos too. Whatever he saw on those battlefields, it drove him out of his mind, and sadly he had both the time and the money to indulge his darkest desires. Sometimes I think that my family will forever be marked by his actions. I know, for example, that his shadow hung over my grandfather.”
“Do you take a keen interest in the history of your family?” Kate asked.
“It's hard not to,” he replied. “There's a huge archive here in the mansion. Thousands of crates, probably millions of documents and photographs all told. All of it in chaos, of course. I keep meaning to go through it, or perhaps to pay someone else to do it, but so far the job remains un-started. If nothing else, though, I should very much like to trace certain lines through the generations, to see how the Le Compte family reached its current state. What about you? Do you come from a large family?”
“Not really,” Kate replied, before realizing that her usual stock answer suddenly seemed unnecessary. “My parents died when I was very young,” she added. “I was raised by my aunt.”
“I'm sorry.”
“It was so long ago,” she continued. “I don't claim any special privileges just because I happened to be orphaned. I was always looked after, always fed and clothed, and my aunt gave me a strong foundation for the rest of my life. There are people out there who had much worse childhoods, even if both their parents lived to a long age.”
“My own parents are gone now,” Edgar replied. “The ravages of time catch up with us all eventually, even if we fool ourselves into believing that we can outrun them.” He paused again. “Come. Please, let me show you something.”
“Shouldn't you get back to your party?”
“I doubt they'll even notice my absence.”
“There are so many people here tonight,” Kate said as they walked along the dimly-lit corridor. “Where did they all come from?”
“It's one of the advantages of my position,” Edgar replied, with a wistful tone to his voice. “I can summon all I need for a party without even breaking a sweat. Accordingly, I can also make them disappear with just the click of my fingers.” He smiled. “Well, you know what I mean. Besides, I had no choice. No-one from the town would have come, and I didn't much fancy holding a party without any guests.”
As they reached a narrow, arched door, he paused to take the keys from his pocket. Once he had opened the door, he held it open and allowed Kate to go first. She immediately found herself in a large hall that was filled almost from floor to ceiling with crates, boxes and various other containers, some of which had tipped over and spilled documents and photos all over the place. It reminded Kate of the times she'd been into the back rooms of some of London's largest museums, except that the chaos here was so much more overwhelming.
“The Le Compte family archive,” Edgar explained, his voice echoing in the high-ceilinged room. “Say what you like about my family, but they have always been meticulous about keeping records. Every action, every purchase, every moment... Every act of mercy or cruelty. It's all recorded somewhere here. Some of them kept receipts, some kept diaries, but all of them shared a desire to leave behind a meticulous account of their existence. I'm sure you can understand now why I feel compelled to one day organize everything. The longer I wait, the bigger the job will become, and frankly, one wonders where to begin.”
“I'm sure it'll be a fascinating project,” Kate replied, wandering over to a pile of spilled documents and picking up one of the pieces of paper, only to find that it was a receipt for the purchase of some goats, dated all the way back to the year 1820. Given the reputation of Edgar's family, the receipt seemed touchingly mundane.
“It's hard to know where to begin, really,” Edgar continued, strolling between the boxes with his hands in his pockets. “Besides, I keep getting distracted. The stones on the north side of the island, for example. I've long thought about funding a proper project to investigate them. For one thing, the ground beneath them has never been properly imaged using the latest radar systems. No-one can even be sure how deep the stones go. There is so much we could still learn about them.”
“You like to keep busy,” Kate said with a faint smile.
“How can any man not?” he asked. “The stones fascinate me, but the family archive... I worry about spending too much time gazing at my own navel. I'm more interested in the outer world than the inner, at least when it comes to history. That's why I hope to engage an outside party for the task of sorting through my family history.”
“Still,” Kate replied, “someone should definitely try to wrangle all this information into order.”
“Someone should,” Edgar replied. A brief pause followed, after which he made his way over to Kate and looked down at the piece of paper in her hand.
“Another receipt,” she said nervously, suddenly very much aware that her black dress was showing more cleavage than she would have preferred if viewed from Edgar's current position next to her shoulder. She wanted to turn away, but at the same time she felt a tight, tingling sensation in her chest, and so she stayed still. This was definitely unfamiliar territory, but she was determined not to retreat again.
“You find these things interesting?” Edgar asked.
“It's history.”
“It's a receipt for some goats.”
“It's still history,” she replied, starting to wonder where the conversation was headed. “I've always been fascinated by this kind of thing. Sometimes the fate of the world isn't just shaped by huge wars. It's also affected by little things, such as the price a man pays for a goat.” She held the piece of paper up for him to see. “Which in this case,” she added with a faint smile, “was two guineas and six-pence. Quite expensive for the time, I'd imagine.”
Edgar smiled as he took the piece of paper. He examined it for a moment, before setting it down and turning back to Kate. He was a little closer to her than might usually be considered polite.
“I was thinking,” he said after a moment. “Please, hear me out before you answer. Is there any possibility that you might -”
“There you are!” a voice suddenly shrieked. “I've been looking everywhere!”
Kate and Edgar both turned in time to see a young, blonde woman come tottering into the room. She was wearing a painfully short skirt that looked more like a belt, while her large, pneumatic breasts were almost spilling out of her far-too-tight
and far-too-pink top.
As she watched the woman come hurrying across the room, Kate couldn't help but feel that the new arrival had come from some other place entirely, and that she didn't fit with the tone of the evening at all.
“It smells funny in here,” the woman said as she reached Edgar and put her arms around him. “What is all this stuff, anyway? Why are you hiding away in a dusty old room?”
“I was just showing Miss Langley my family's archive,” Edgar replied tensely.
“Huh,” the woman said, eying Kate suspiciously. “And who exactly is Miss Langley, anyway?”
“Where are my manners?” Edgar replied, almost through gritted teeth. His displeasure was plain to see. “Didi, I'd like you to meet Kate Langley. Kate's a historian who came to the island for a sort of bus-man's holiday. She's interested in the stones on the north side of the island.”
“Those old things?” the girl said, reaching out a hand. “Pleased to meet you.”
“Kate,” Edgar continued, “I'd like you to meet Didi Pierce.”
“Hi,” Kate said as the two women shook hands. “It's nice to meet you.”
“Huh,” Didi replied, with a slight frown. “Yeah. Sure.”
Edgar smiled awkwardly. “Didi's -”
“Edgar's fiance!” Didi added, before he could finish. She held out her other hand to reveal a huge engagement ring. “What do you think? Is that one hot rock, or what? Tell her how much it cost, Eddie!”
“I'm not sure that's appropriate,” Edgar said quietly.
“A million pounds,” the girl continued. “One. Million. Pounds. Can you believe that? I'm, like, reading all about Kim Kardashian and thinking, you know, I could teach that girl a thing or two.”
“It's beautiful,” Kate replied, feeling a little flustered. “I've never seen one so big and... shiny.”
She turned to look back at the door, and suddenly she felt both flustered and humiliated: flustered because the last thing she'd expected was to learn that Edgar was engaged, and humiliated because she felt that she had perhaps allowed her imagination to wander a little while she was talking to him. After all, why should it matter to her if this guy had a fiance? It wasn't that she'd begun to fantasize about some great romantic relationship, but she'd certainly begun to think that perhaps they could be friends, which suddenly seemed very unlikely. It was as if the whole evening had occurred in a bubble that had now suddenly been burst.
She also found it hard to believe that a man like Edgar would choose a woman like this Didi character.
“Perhaps you'd like to go back to the main room,” Edgar told Didi, “and -”
“Not without you,” Didi replied, pulling on his arm. “Come on, baby.”
“Not now,” Edgar said with obvious annoyance.
“I should go,” Kate told him, not wanting to cause an argument.
“No,” he replied, “I want to talk to you about something and -”
“There's plenty of time for talking another day,” Didi continued, almost dragging Edgar to the door. “We're supposed to be having a party, in case you hadn't noticed! It's not like we have many of those either, so for once let's have some fun! You promised me that we'd still have a social life even after we moved to this frigging rock in”
“Please go back to the main room,” Edgar said, trying to get free of her grip. “I'll be along shortly.”
“No way,” Didi continued. “I want you to -”
“Leave!” Edgar shouted, finally pulling loose and sending Didi crashing to the floor.
“Are you okay?” Kate asked, rushing over to her.
“Leave her alone,” Edgar said, holding out a hand to stop her. “She's fine. I'm not going to be told what to do in my own home, and especially not by some empty-headed little cretin who doesn't have the good sense to back off when she's told!”
“My wrist hurts!” Didi whined as she got to her feet. “You hurt me!”
“You fell,” Edgar replied.
“Only 'cause you let go of me. You're mean sometimes.”
“Then leave!” Edgar said firmly. “Don't make me tell you again!”
“Don't make you?” Didi asked, with pure anger in her eyes. “Oh, that's rich!” She turned to walk away, before suddenly turning back and slapping Edgar with such venom that Kate almost rush over to stop her. “What kind of guy throws a party,” Didi continued, “and then holes up in a dark room with some woman in a crappy dress? Huh? Jesus Christ, Eddie, you're going to embarrass us!”
“I think you should go back through,” Edgar said firmly, visibly straining to contain his anger, “before this fight gets any more out of hand. We'll discuss things later.”
“When it suits you?” Didi asked sarcastically.
“When it suits me,” Edgar replied, taking a step toward her.
Almost as if she was suddenly scared, Didi stepped back, and all the confidence and pique drained from her face. She muttered something that Kate couldn't quite make out, before turning and hurrying back out of the room, leaving nothing but silence in her wake.
Kate waited for Edgar to say something, but he remained completely still, with his back to her as he watched the door.
“I'm sorry you had to witness that,” he said eventually. “It was ugly and unnecessary.”
“I didn't know you were engaged,” Kate replied, swallowing hard as she wondered how to extract herself from the situation without seeming rude. “She seems... feisty.”
He turned to her, and there was a hint of torment in his eyes. Music could still be heard drifting through from the main hall, but in the dimly-lit archive room it seemed as if the band's work was somehow inappropriate, accentuating rather than replacing the silence.
“I should probably get going,” Kate said finally, realizing that for once her sense of awkwardness had some context. “I have to be up early to take the boat -”
“Are you sure you don't want to stay another week?” Edgar asked, interrupting her. “You seem to have barely scratched the surface with your work on the stones.”
“The stones are just a side-project,” she replied. “Believe it or not, I was actually supposed to relax while I was here. You know, beach and stuff like that.”
“And doesn't your work relax you?”
Kate couldn't help but smile as she realized that, for once, she'd actually met someone who understood.
“I'll have one of my men walk with you as far as the edge of the town,” Edgar continued. “I'd do it myself, but I'm afraid Didi's right about one thing, I do have a party to host. I hope that one day you'll return to Thaxos, though. It would be a terrible shame if the mystery of the stones went unanswered forever, and I can't help thinking that perhaps you're the woman to get to the bottom of the whole thing. Call it a hunch.”
“I'm sure someone'll come up with an answer eventually,” Kate replied, feeling genuinely disappointed that her week in Thaxos was now coming to a close. “All mysteries get solved. That's just the way the world works. I'm just an archivist, really. I work better in dark rooms surrounded by pieces of paper.”
“Come,” Edgar said, heading to the door. “I'll show you out.”