Page 50 of Starry Nights over Dragonfly Lake

‘Okay,’ he replied, picking up a box with ease before giving her a look.

‘Don’t you want to know what I’m talking about?’ she asked, pulling a small suitcase out of the boot.

‘Of course,’ he said, as they walked towards the hotel. ‘But, as usual, I feel certain that you’re going to tell me anyway.’

‘Oh. Well, I’m talkative,’ she told him. ‘Always have been.’

‘That is in no way a surprise to me,’ he replied, pausing to shift the box in his hands. ‘What’s in here, by the way? Blocks of concrete? Heavy machinery?’

She looked down at the box in his hands and thought for a moment. ‘That’s where my telescopes are, I think.’

‘Telescopes plural?’ he asked, as they went through the front doors of the hotel. ‘Howmany do you have?’

‘I have five,’ she told him.

‘Five telescopes!’ he replied. ‘Isn’t that a little excessive?’

‘Not at all,’ she said. ‘They each have a specific purpose. My favourite is my Dobsonian one. I saved up for years for that one. The others all do different apertures as well.’

‘Okay,’ he told her as they went across the entrance hall to climb the stairs. ‘I get why you need telescopes and technology but what about this book on the top here?’

She glanced across and saw a leather-bound book with the wordsStar Atlasimprinted on the front.

‘I kind of figured that you’d know where all the stars are, having a PhD and all,’ he carried on.

‘Of course, but I’ve had this since I was sixteen. It was the first book I ever bought about astronomy,’ she told him. ‘I mean, there’s planetarium apps too which you can use. You just hold your phone up to the sky and the screen shows the night sky labelled with all the different constellations, stars and planets. But I’m an old-fashioned nerd.’

He nodded. ‘I bet you were great at school exams,’ he said.

‘I loved all the lessons at school,’ she told him. ‘Especially the sciences. Except biology. Dissecting that frog made me queasy.’

They walked along the upstairs corridor towards the family quarters. ‘Shouldn’t you be working at NASA or something?’ he asked.

Beth giggled. ‘That would be totally amazing, wouldn’t it?’

‘So we might see you go into space at some point?’ he said, with a grin.

She grimaced. ‘Love to but can’t.’ Then she laughed. ‘I get sick on the London Tube so I think it’s unlikely. Besides, my career didn’t really pan out like I’d hoped so I’m not sure I’ll be an astronaut at any point.’

He opened up the door to the guest bedroom she would be staying in and put down the box on the bed.

Beth pulled up the suitcase to place it next to the wardrobe and wandered across to pick up theStar Atlasfrom the top of the box.

‘Maybe I should have just left it as a hobby,’ she said to herself as she stared down at the book. ‘Maybe that would have been for the best.’

‘And give up on your dreams?’ said Noah, coming to stand next to her. ‘Never.’

She looked up at him. ‘What if I fail again? Next Saturday, I mean. What if I’m not any good at being a stargazing guide?’

He stared down at her for a moment. ‘Why don’t I join the group as well? Then you can say whatever you want to just me. Forget about everyone else, however many people will be there. Just teach me, like you did the other night.’

Beth felt a lump in her throat. ‘You’d do that for me?’ she asked.

He nodded. ‘As long as I don’t drop any heavy telescopes on my feet helping you carry all this lot in,’ he told her, with a wink.

As she followed him out of the bedroom, Beth smiled to herself. Feeling buoyed up by his support, she truly hoped that she could do this.

Besides, wouldn’t it be amazing to put all her hard-earned knowledge to good use? Just for once? She would find out on Saturday night, she thought.