‘I think she’s the lady who comes and sits on my bed every night. She strokes my face and kisses my forehead. She’s very pretty and kind. I look forward to seeing her when I go to bed.’ Audrey didn’t doubt her daughter, she had witnessed too much of her strange gift to be sceptical. She blinked as her eyes began to sting with tears and wrapped her arms tightly around her daughter.
‘Of course your spirit friend is Isla, my love. She’s watching over you. I wish I could see her too,’ she said in a husky voice. They sat there entwined for a long while as Audrey remembered her sister then cast her thoughts to Louis. When she looked down at her child’s face she saw that she was sleeping.
Once back in England Alicia enjoyed toying with Florien’s heart. It was a new game and greatly entertaining. She’d lure him into the barn and make love to him with tenderness, whispering all kinds of promises and declaring her love with tears and sighs then later ignore him, only to pick him up again a few days later when it suited her. Florien trod water in this cruel sea, allowing the waves to batter him about, but he didn’t drown for calmer waters were always just on the horizon and he longed for them so much that he kept afloat. Leonora watched quietly as Florien grew paler and thinner. She didn’t tell him when he planted the wrong bulb in the garden or when he gave the chickens the pig feed because she understood. She was tormented and distracted herself. She knew what Alicia was up to because she had seen the numbers of boys she had flirted with in the Argentine, leading them all a merry dance like the pied piper of Hamelin. She longed to tell him and put him out of his misery, but she was Alicia’s sister and as their mother always said, ‘Family must stick together. Blood is thicker than water.’ And Leonora was as loyal as a faithful dog. As usual she didn’t blame Alicia. After all, it wasn’t her fault that God had made her beguiling and lovely. She pitied the men who lost their hearts to her and she didn’t blame them either. She accepted Florien’s infatuation as inevitable but her heart yearned for him still.
The year passed by quickly and soon the twins left Colehurst House for the last time. Audrey expected them to return to the Argentine but to her surprise and sadness they both wished to remain in England. Leonora because she loved Florien and Alicia because she felt that society was superior in England and there weren’t any rich dukes or princes to marry in Hurlingham. Then Henry died.
It happened suddenly. A heart attack in the middle of the night and he had died in his sleep, without any knowledge of it. Rose was devastated. Henry had been her soulmate and she had loved him all her life. Cecil, Audrey and Grace went to her at once and found Aunt Edna and Aunt Hilda keeping her company in the dining room where she was holding a candle-lit vigil. When Grace saw the body of her grandfather lying there on the table she smiled at her grandmother and said, ‘He’s with Isla now, isn’t he?’ Rose was grateful for the child’s faith and burst into tears again.
‘You’re so right, my dear. How happy that makes me to think of them together. It won’t be long before I join them both. What joy it will be to see them again,’ she said, wiping her tears.
‘I wish he had taken Herbert with him,’ Hilda hissed to Edna.
‘It’s always the people one loves the least who go on and on and on,’ Edna replied. ‘Dear Henry was a good man. I understand exactly why God wants him back. I’m afraid your husband will be around for some time.’ And so will you, she thought wickedly. She was getting much less tolerant in her old age.
After Henry’s death Cecil decided the time had come to return to England. This time Audrey’s response was very different. ‘It is for the best,’ she said. ‘After all, the twins have made their home in England and we must be a family again. All together. Grace barely knows her sisters, which is a great shame.’
‘I’m so pleased you agree,’ he replied seriously. He rarely smiled these days.
‘I shall miss my mother and Aunt Edna and Hurlingham. But it won’t go away and besides, travelling is getting easier all the time. I think I could grow to love England.’
‘You will love England. It is a beautiful place. I think we need a new start, Audrey.’ She looked up at him and pulled a thin smile. He was right, they couldn’t go on like this, making each other miserable. Audrey with her memories, Cecil with his drink. ‘I won’t drink another drop from the moment we arrive in England,’ he said.
Audrey lowered her eyes. ‘And I shall leave my memories behind.’
They both stared at each other in amazement. That was the first time they had communicated in many years.