Author's note: This idea occurred to me after having the same nightmare for three nights but not about the same subject as our friends. Sorry Leonie, it mentions the H person but given Tommy's relationship with her determines some of his behaviour, she is hard to avoid.
Eaton Terrace 02:34 am Sunday
Tommy Lynley, Detective Inspector and the Eighth Earl of Asherton, lay uncomfortably between his white, high thread-count Egyptian cotton sheets staring into the dark, trying to put a face to the woman in his dream.
For the fourth night this week he had woken with the same uneasy expectation that the dream was a premonition. Each night it became less frightening and tonight he had welcomed it. It always happened between 2:20 am and 2:30 am and was exactly the same although each night it increased in sensuality. Tonight he had tried hard to focus on the face but the more intensely he peered, the more fuzzy and elusive it became. He thumped his fist into his mattress and groaned in frustration. "Who the hell is she?" he asked the empty room.
The dream started with him standing alone at the bottom of a medieval spiral staircase lit only by thick, oily candles with smoky, stuttering flames. The woman was ascending four steps above him and the soft curve of her buttock was level with his eyes. He found it distracting and he was trying hard to avert his eyes but was powerless. He wanted to reach out and trace the shape with his fingertips. He was explaining patiently to the woman that the outer edge of the step was wider to allow a right-handed swordsman to draw his blade and fight invaders who would be cramped for room against the central pillar as they fought their way up the stairs. The woman had simply replied that left-handed invaders would have had the advantage, both of surprise and upward thrust. She stopped at a wide platform but Tommy took two steps closer before being able to halt. The shorter woman's face was level with his head. Tommy had stopped breathing as the idea to kiss her started swirling in his mind. He had gently laid his hand on her shoulder and bent forward towards her soft lips when the candles died on a sudden cold wind that raced up the stairway.
Tommy had hurriedly pushed the woman into a room off the stairs. It had a heavy timber door that he had bolted behind them. The circular room, with a squeaky beam floor covered in sand, was lit only by the moonlight through the arrow slits. The woman backed against the heavy stone outer wall. As Tommy cupped her chin in his hand and bent to kiss her the door burst open and suddenly he had a sword in his hand and was fighting with a broad man with a long, curved scar running down his right cheek. Tommy was dressed in his light grey suit with navy tie but the man was from a different age, clad in black breeches and a white linen shirt. He beat the man back and closed the door. He turned back to the woman but just as their lips met in a tender promise of love, everything went dark and Tommy was jolted back to the loneliness of his bed.
As he analysed the dream, something about the woman seemed familiar but he could not identify specifics. It was not Helen, his deceased wife, whose lips had never yielded so willingly. Nothing about the woman reminded him of Angela the merchant banker he had tried dating a few months ago but who had diplomatically ended their liaison after he had been unable to make love to her. He had felt ashamed and angry at his uncharacteristic failure and it worried him because he had also struggled to perform satisfactorily with Lynne, the dentist he had briefly dated before Angela. Surely he could not be past his prime in his early forties?
Barbara Havers, his long-suffering sergeant, had snapped at him last week about his grumpiness and after a few drinks too many he had unintentionally confessed to his unmanliness. She had brought him back to earth with a thud. "Well if you insist on defining yourself by your ability to bed every woman that moves then no wonder you feel bad. Maybe if you just wait for someone you actually love you'll find there's no issue." There was none of the sympathy he had expected and he had scurried home feeling chastised for his promiscuous behaviour. He knew Havers was right. He was only dating women to stave off the emptiness that he still felt but it only compounded his isolation. He much preferred to be on a case away from London where he was kept busy and had Barbara to talk to over a pint. He sighed and tried to return to sleep.
Chalk Farm 02:45 am Sunday
Barbara Haver tossed and turned in her bed. She berated herself for not washing the sheets yesterday as she had planned. It was something she would have to do today now that these were sodden from sweat.
She hated her nightmare. She had been tormented by it since her teens, starting not long after her brother had died. Then it had been simple to understand. Terry had been walking away from her down a long, linoleum clad corridor that smelt of antiseptic and death. She had called to him and he looked back but kept walking. Over the years it had morphed into different people walking away. Her father never looked back and followed his son. Her mother wandered away in a daze. After Helen Lynley had been shot and died as Barbara tried to save her, it had been Tommy's wife in the corridor. Helen always looked knowingly at her and Barbara had woken with the eerie feeling that Helen was entrusting her to look after Tommy.
Tonight Helen had come back towards her. They had stood staring at each other before Helen reached out and shook Barbara by the shoulders. There was an accusation in her eyes and she mouthed words that Barbara could not understand before turning and walking away. Barbara watched her go and this time the dream extended until she was almost out of sight. Barbara jerked awake and sat up in bed. She was clammy from sweat and she could smell panic and fear in the room.
York 18:40 Tuesday
As they followed the man in a white hoodie and black peg-legged jeans through The Shambles the two out-of-town detectives had to act like any other tourists, marveling at the narrow streets with twisted houses that, after four hundred years, were losing their battle with gravity. Tommy bumped Barbara into the door of a chocolate shop when the hoodie stopped and turned to see if anyone was following. The broad figure had weaved knowledgeably through the city and seemed to be heading to the Minster.
"If he gets inside that church we might never find him," Barbara groaned when she saw the huge cathedral tower above them.
"We have men everywhere," Tommy replied confidently. "We'll follow to see where he meets his contact."
"And what if this is the wrong man? Hundreds of men wear hoodies."
"But innocent ones don't backtrack to cover their steps and look for people tailing them."
"Right as usual Sir but with you dressed up to the nines in that grey suit he's probably twigged we're cops and is confirming it."
"I can't help it that I'm in a suit and tie. We came here to testify in court. How was I to know we'd end up tailing a drug courier through a tourist hotspot?"
Barbara rolled her eyes at him. "I still prefer to close in before he gets inside that church."
"It's the largest Gothic cathedral in Northern Europe you know," Tommy replied with slight consternation in his voice.
"No, I didn't, but that just makes him harder to catch."
Barbara's concern was justified. The elusive man did a circuit of the church which Lynley and Havers could not do without arousing his suspicion. They saw him slip through the heavy oak door of the transept that was normally the exit for tour groups.
Tommy and Barbara raced across the square and through the same door just in time to see the hoodie slip into a narrow doorway. They followed and found themselves in a winding corridor that slowly ascended. When they reached a small room Tommy froze. Across the room a staircase spiralled upwards. It was lit with dull electric bulbs and had a thin metal railing curling up the outside wall but the cold, curving limestone blocks, tightly packed and stained with centuries of candle smoke was unmistakably the staircase from his nightmare.
"Quick Sir, up here," Barbara called as she ran for the stairs leaving him alone. Tommy followed mutely. He was about four steps below Barbara, his eyes level with that same smooth curve. He had never realised that under her baggy clothes Barbara was a shapely woman. He started to sweat.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing," he said as a broad grin split his face, "I just feel we have done this before."
"I doubt it. The sign back there said 275 steps. I don't climb in giddying circles unless I have to. Why they have to have narrow little spiral stairs is beyond me."
"Spiral stairs were easier to defend. The outer edge of the step was wider to allow a right-handed swordsman to draw his blade easily and have room to fight invaders who would be have difficulty wielding their sword against the central pillar."
"Yeah? Well left-handed invaders would have shocked them. They'd have surprise and the ability to thrust upwards on their side. It is easier to thrust up than down."
Tommy swallowed hard. This was his dream. The shadowy, sexy woman could not possibly be Barbara surely? But it was and the jigsaw of his life started to fit together. The love he had for Barbara had a physical side that he had tried too long to ignore. Barbara stopped at a wide step to catch her breath. Tommy continued until his face was level with hers. He reached out and put his hand on her shoulder. She frowned at him as he lent forward. There were no candles to blow out and no room to hide in. He closed his eyes.
"Sir? What are you doing?"
"I...er...I was going to..." Tommy stopped speaking as the stairway was plunged into darkness. Tommy pushed Barbara against the outer wall. "Hold the rail and don't move from this spot," he ordered as he turned and started to run up the stairs.
In the dark her hearing seemed to magnify. Above the thumping of her heart Barbara could hear a scuffle above her. Fists pounded into flesh as the two men fought. A loud grunt followed a tirade of inarticulate abuse. Lynley stifled a cry. She had heard enough. The hooded man was much larger than Tommy and undoubtedly more powerful. She raced towards the noise but kept a firm grip on the handrail. A series of cries accompanied the crashes of a body tumbling down the stairs. In the dark, confined tube Barbara could not discern how close it was until a body crashed into her chest. She broke his fall. "Tommy!" she screamed involuntarily.
"Barbara! Stay where you are."
She heard his Oxford Street dress shoes crisply hitting the worn steps with the assured grace and dark menace of a panther. He sounded angry and she worried the man whose groaning, semi-conscious face was pressed into her stomach was in further danger. She had seen Lynley go too far before when he was angry.
Tommy pulled the man off Barbara. "I thought I told you to stay where you were?" he hissed.
"I thought you were in danger," she growled back.
"Find his wrist," he said more evenly.
She held it up and Tommy handcuffed him to the railing. He stepped over the man and guided Barbara back down the stairs to the platform. He pushed her gently against the wall but pinned her with his body. "I didn't want you hurt Barbara," he said softly as he cupped her chin in his hand, "I realised tonight that it's you I love."
The darkness gave her courage. "I love you too Tommy."
His heart skipped a beat. "I've dreamt of this," he whispered against her lips.
Tommy's kiss was gentle and loving and it raised goosebumps on her skin. Without thinking Barbara put her arms around him and pulled him closer as their kiss deepened. Helen's face flashed across her vision. She was smiling and nodding approvingly as if Barbara had finally understood. The image vanished and Barbara focussed on letting the man she loved beyond anything know that she welcomed his attention.
They paused, resting their foreheads together as they caught their breath. "I wish I had done that months ago," Tommy sighed contentedly.
He kissed her again, this time with urgency and passion. Barbara smiled inwardly as their bodies pressed tighter. There would be no performance concerns for Tommy tonight.