Page 110 of The Sisters at the Last House Before the Sea

‘What?’ Caitlin looked up from the book on her lap.

‘Nothing.’ Maisie peered more closely at the envelope. ‘Nah, it is the right way round. It just looked odd.’

‘Show me, please,’ said Isla. Maisie walked back and pushed the envelope at Isla, who studied the stamp and frowned. ‘Take a look at this, Cait.’

Caitlin went to stand behind her sister and peered over her shoulder. She’d hardly looked at the envelope before. She and Isla had been too busy focusing on William’s words in the letter. The stamp had red edging with ‘US Postage’ written at the top in white and, at its centre, a simple drawing of an old-fashioned bi-plane – only, Maisie was right, the plane was depicted upside down.

‘Maybe it’s upside down to represent aerial acrobatics, or it marks a tragic accident in the air?’ said Caitlin. She leaned further over Isla’s shoulder, inhaling comforting notes of vanilla and rose from her sister’s perfume.

‘That’s well out of order,’ said Maisie, wrinkling her nose. ‘Drawing the plane upside down after an accident’s disrespecting the people who probably died.’

‘I agree. It wouldn’t be in very good taste. What do you think, Isla?’

Her sister turned the envelope this way and that. ‘Maybe the plane isn’t meant to be upside down. Perhaps there was a printing error.’

‘Oh-oh!’ Maisie was bouncing up and down on the spot as if her feet were on fire. ‘It might be worth something.’

‘I doubt it,’ said Isla, still turning the envelope around as if the plane might shift.

‘No, it might be valuable. I heard that some first editions of Harry Potter with a misprint in them sold for loads of money. I read through my copy twice to check but I couldn’t find any.’

‘That’s a bit different,’ said Isla, passing the envelope to Caitlin.

‘Uh-huh?’ Maisie wasn’t properly listening. She’d put down her drink and was stabbing into her mobile phone that seemed permanently welded to her hand. She stabbed and scrolled, her brow creased in concentration. ‘No way,’ she said quietly. Then her face broke into a wide smile. ‘Look at that.’

‘Look at what?’ asked Caitlin.

‘The stamp!’ Maisie thrust her phone at Caitlin, who started to read the article on the screen.

‘Good grief! It can’t be the same stamp, surely.’

‘It is,’ declared Maisie, grabbing the envelope and almost shoving it up Caitlin’s nose. ‘It looks exactly the same, see. It’s upside down.’

‘What are you two going on about? I—’

Before Isla could say any more, Maisie had snatched the phone back from Caitlin and begun to scroll and read snippets of information from the screen.

‘“The Inverted Jenny is a rare stamp printed in error by the US Postal Service in 1918. Um… one hundred stamps were printed, all featuring a plane which mistakenly appears upside down. It says here the stamp is of great interest to collectors, with some changing hands for large sums. And some of the stamps are either missing, damaged, or believed destroyed.”’

‘It can’t be the same,’ said Caitlin, peering at the stamp until she was almost cross-eyed. ‘Though it certainly looks the same. And it’s obviously old because William sent the letter one hundred years ago.’ She looked at Isla and grinned. ‘Do you think this is what Jessie’s riddle was all about? The stamp, rather than the letter?’

‘Did you say, Maisie, that the stamp was called the Inverted Jenny?’ Isla pulled Jessie’s handwritten riddle from her handbag and read it aloud: ‘“Don’t get in a spin, girls, though mistakes can cost you dear. This one brings good fortune and, I hope, will make you cheer.” That’s it!’ she breathed. ‘That’s the answer to the riddle. It was staring us in the face all the time.’

‘What are you going on about?’ asked Maisie, still bouncing up and down. Beth was staring at them all from the corner, with her mouth open.

‘Have you done the Industrial Revolution in history at school?’ Isla asked.

Maisie frowned. ‘Possibly. I might not have been listening.’

‘Give me your phone, will you?’ Maisie handed over her mobile and Isla began typing into it. ‘Yes!’ she exclaimed after a moment. ‘I was right, it was the spinning jenny.’

‘The spinning what?’ Caitlin’s memory of history lessons at school was hazy to say the least.

‘The spinning jenny,’ repeated Isla. ‘It says here that a new type of spinning wheel was invented in the 1700s which revolutionised the textile industry, and it was called the spinning jenny.’

‘Oh, my goodness.’ Suddenly it all made sense to Caitlin, too. ‘“Don’t get in a spin, girls” is referring to the spinning jenny, with “jenny” being the clue to point us in the right direction. Then Gran’s riddle says, “though mistakes can cost you dear. This one brings good fortune…”’ She stopped, feeling breathless. ‘Gran must mean the stamp because it’s known as the Inverted Jenny, it was printed by mistake, and that mistake is worth money.’

‘I’m so glad I didn’t throw the envelope on the fire,’ said Maisie, going chalk white and almost collapsing back down onto the floor. Beth was still staring at them all, her mouth agape.

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