The Dream Weavers by Barbara Erskine (books you have to read txt) 📕

Bea smiled. ‘But not really something you would have worn to walk in the hills, either now or a thousand years ago.’

‘Probably not.’ Emma sighed. ‘And I was wearing flat sandals with gold studs. So you think I was wearing what I saw myself in, not what Eadburh would have worn in real life?’

Bea was silent for a while, thinking. ‘Or maybe Eadburh was wearing what she wore in her dreams. She obviously saw herself as young and beautiful.’

‘No!’ Emma leaned forward, hugging her knees. ‘No, she WAS young and beautiful.’

Like you. Bea didn’t point out the obvious. ‘And in your dream she was completely alone?’

Emma nodded. ‘No prince.’ The two words were unbearably forlorn.

‘And, more to the point, no attendants.’

‘No.’

‘No cloak, no belongings, no horse somewhere in the distance.’

Emma shook her head.

‘So it was a dream, but it was such a vivid dream that when Felix looked for you, you weren’t there. You had apported elsewhere. Then when the dream was over you reappeared in your bedroom.’

‘Not possible. Even I can see that. He must have come upstairs when I was in the loo. I was half asleep and forgot I’d got up.’

‘Or Eadburh borrowed you for a while, to feel again the joy of having a young woman’s body.’

‘If she had done that she would have organised there to be a young man’s body around to feel as well,’ Emma retorted. She gave a snort of laughter.

Bea hid a smile. ‘I suspect that was what she was hoping. Which brings us back to the question, where was Elisedd? Your dad is trying to research him to find out who he was and what happened to him, but it’s not easy.’

‘And it doesn’t matter. Eadburh met him. She fell in love with him; she made love to him. Why do we have to analyse everything? Why should it matter who he is? None of this will be believed by anyone else anyway. All we need to do is make it so I don’t sleepwalk over a cliff, and don’t see too many ghosts.’

She threw herself back on the grass, her arm over her eyes. ‘Do you think I’m deranged?’

‘No, of course I don’t.’

‘Everyone else will.’

‘Not if you keep all this to yourself. That part is in your hands. You will have to tell your dad and, above all, Felix to keep it to themselves.’

‘Felix will already have told Mum.’

Bea grimaced. ‘Well, if he has, you must ask him not to say any more. Do you remember what I was telling you about respecting the privacy of anyone whose aura you see and how you can’t tell them if you see illness there?’

‘Or their future.’

Bea sighed. ‘Or their future. Not that that will happen. We are not fortune tellers.’

Emma sat up again. ‘If I was, I wouldn’t have to bother with exams. I could make my living with a crystal ball.’

‘I shall ignore that remark. I’m being serious, Emma. You must keep all this private. What is happening here is so complex. Dreams within dreams. People drifting backwards and forwards through time and space. It’s like nothing I’ve experienced before. All I can do is keep you safe. Or at least teach you how to keep yourself safe, and one way of doing that would probably be to go back to London and school and try and forget everything that has happened here. Or if you can’t forget it – which, being realistic, you probably never will – at least keep your distance.’

Emma frowned, resting her chin on her knees. ‘Do we know what happened to Eadburh in real life?’

Bea was staring away into the distance. The horizon had grown hazy. ‘No, I don’t think we do. Your father told me she disappears from history.’

‘But she wants us to know what happened, so he can put it in his book.’

‘Do you think that’s what this is all about? She wants people to know the end of her story?’

Emma nodded slowly. ‘Doesn’t that make sense?’

Bea didn’t answer. Lost in thought, she gazed down the hill, where the view had disappeared.

‘Simon! Are you completely out of your mind!’ Val’s voice shrieked out of the phone at him. He didn’t try and argue. Clearly Felix had spilt the beans and there would be no chance to explain to her until she had got it off her chest. ‘If you don’t bring Emma home now, today, I am calling the police. You have clearly been consorting with a madwoman. I suppose you’ve been having an affair with her?’ She didn’t wait to see if he was going to answer. ‘Put Emma on. This minute. ‘I‘ve been trying to ring her but she isn’t answering.’

When at last she ran out of breath he had worked out what he was going to say. ‘Can I speak now? Bea is a highly trained counsellor, and incidentally no, I’ve not been having an affair with her or anyone else. She is happily married and in case you hadn’t noticed I love you, you stupid woman! Heaven knows, I would hardly have hung around this long if I didn’t!’ He paused and took a deep breath. ‘Emma has been having a lot of problems, Val, not only here, but over some considerable time, and she had to have help. We were extremely lucky that Bea was here when she was needed, otherwise all this could have come to a head in school. The pressure Em has been under has been colossal and the worry of exams has increased the stress tenfold. I’m amazed the school hasn’t said anything to us, because according to Em they have noticed something was very wrong.’

There was a heavy silence at the other end of the phone. ‘They did say something, actually.’ Val sounded chastened. ‘I assumed it was because of the exams and would resolve once the pressure was off. It did before, when she was taking her GCSEs.’ Her tone reverted to one of indignation,