Page 53 of The Sisters at the Last House Before the Sea

‘A greasy spoon,’ said Isla, lifting her fingers off the table top which hadn’t been wiped in a while. ‘Do you know the term? A greasy spoon is what we call this kind of…authentic place, where locals go to grab a coffee and a bite to eat.’

Not that many locals braved the interior of Bert’s Bistro. Set back from the seafront, and hidden away down a side street that led out of the village, Isla was surprised that Bert’s business was still trading. It had a reputation for serving weak coffee and, if rumours were to be believed, the occasional bout of food poisoning. But it still attracted a smattering of tourists who presumably craved the sausage butties, fried egg sandwiches, and all-day breakfasts that were highlighted in laminated photos stuck to the window.

Today, the place was empty of tourists, but at least it was open, and Bert was doing a roaring trade with council workmen who’d been gritting roads and helping people pull cars from ditches.

‘It seems very authentic,’ said Ben, wrinkling his nose at the coffee that had been set in front of him by a waitress in a ketchup-splattered apron. ‘Only, that café we went to yesterday was nice. And the pub seemed great. They might be open, too, maybe?’

‘True, but I thought you might like to see more of the village, as it really is.’

Isla stopped talking and bit her lip. Bert’s Bistro wasn’t representative of Heaven’s Cove at all. It was a dump. But it was off the beaten track so she was very unlikely to be spotted here by Paul, or anyone who knew him.

‘OK.’ Ben took a sip of his coffee and tried to hide his grimace before placing it back down on the table. ‘Are you all right? You seem distracted.’

‘I’m OK, just wondering where Maisie wandered off to.’

‘Your sister texted and said she was safe.’

‘Yeah, but she didn’t say where she’d been and—’ She was interrupted by her ringing phone. ‘Talk of the devil, it’s Caitlin. Do you mind if I take this?’

‘Of course not.’

Ben leaned back against the sticky banquette as she answered the call.

‘Hey, you’ll never guess what I’ve found,’ her sister blurted out before Isla could say a word. ‘You’ll definitely never guess so I’m going to send you proof. Your idea to go to the cultural centre was spot on. Hello, are you there?’

‘Yes, I’m here but you didn’t give me a chance to sp—’

‘I didn’t expect to find anything,’ Caitlin cut in. ‘Not really. But there it was.’

She burbled on and Isla, giving up on a two-way conversation, listened intently, her eyes opening wide as Caitlin outlined her discovery.

After the call was done, Isla leaned across the table. ‘Ben, the photo from your mum showed that William served in France during the First World War. Do you know if he was wounded while he was there?’

‘Whoa! Where did that come from?’

‘It’s something that Caitlin said. Do you know?’

Ben frowned. ‘Afraid not. All Mom’s managed to find out is that he died from an asthma attack after the war had ended.’

When Isla’s phone pinged, she opened the photo that Caitlin had sent her, and her heart leaped.

‘Look at this!’ She pushed her phone in front of Ben’s face. ‘This picture was taken during the First World War and shows local men who were in the army and a couple of women who were—’ She squinted to read the tiny lettering at the bottom of the photo. ‘“War effort nurses”, it says here, who were about to be deployed to France. Their names are listed and they include Edith Anstey.’

‘Wow.’ Ben squinted at the monochrome photo. ‘That woman there? Edith looks like you.’

‘Caitlin said the same. That’s why the photo caught her attention in the first place.’

Ben looked at the photo again and back at Isla. ‘You two are so similar. Edith has the same delicate features and pretty eyes.’ He cleared his throat. ‘So, do you and your sister think Edith met William when she was nursing during the war?’

‘Possibly. Caitlin did a quick Google search and read that nurses worked in France, dealing with injuries caused by the shelling. It sounds like dangerous work. Hang on.’ Isla started googling herself. ‘It says here female nursing staff served in field hospitals often near the front lines.’ She looked up from her phone. ‘Mustard gas was used as a weapon, wasn’t it, and your mum said William’s lungs were damaged? What if they were damaged when he was gassed, and he needed medical care?’

‘That would make sense. He was taken for treatment, William’s and Edith’s eyes met across a hospital tent, and that was it. She captured his heart.’

‘Maybe. And if that’s the case, if Edith was in France…’ Isla sucked her bottom lip between her teeth, deep in thought.

‘If Edith was in France…? What?’

‘It means the reason she didn’t marry William can’t have been because she lacked the confidence to leave Heaven’s Cove and go to New York. How could she be scared of that when she’d volunteered to be a nurse on the front line?’

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