Page 59 of The Sisters at the Last House Before the Sea

‘It was on the wall, near the main door. A really nice woman called Lettie was there who told me she’d put it up to tie in with the Forties Night in the hall.’

‘It’s definitely Edith.’ Isla pulled up the photo on her phone, enlarged it and peered at their great-great-aunt’s face. ‘She looks so young and unaware of what was to come.’

‘Just as well, don’t you think? It’s probably better that we don’t know what’s waiting for us around the corner.’

Would she still have married Stuart had she known what would happen a few years later? wondered Caitlin. Would Edith have stayed in Heaven’s Cove and turned down the chance of going to New York?

Isla clicked off the photo. ‘I think Edith and William must have met in France, while she was nursing and he was fighting in the trenches.’

‘That makes sense. Did Ben say that William was injured?’

‘He’s not sure, but he knows that William had bad lungs and died of an asthma attack, which made me wonder if—’

‘He’d been gassed and needed treatment—’

‘And that’s how he met Edith.’

Caitlin and Isla smiled at each other. They hadn’t finished each other’s sentences in a very long time.

‘Perhaps you and Ben can find out some more about their time in France,’ said Caitlin.

Isla grimaced. ‘I’m not supposed to be wasting my time on the mystery of Edith and William, or on Ben. I have been told that very firmly.’

‘When did you ever do what you were told?’

When Caitlin grinned, Isla grinned back and Caitlin recognised the girl her sister used to be: feisty, determined and brave. Before she started going out with Paul. Before she got stuck in Heaven’s Cove, looking after their grandmother.

‘So,’ said Isla, ‘are you really going to help me to unravel Edith and William’s doomed romance, and solve Gran’s riddle?’

Caitlin hesitated. She needed to get out of Heaven’s Cove, before memories of the past became overwhelming, but she owed it to Isla to stay and help her.Bizarrely, she felt as if she owed it to Edith and William too – a young couple whose doomed love affair had ended long before she was even born. Plus, sticking around would annoy the hell out of Paul, which had to be a bonus.

‘Yeah, sure, why not? Let’s see what happened to Edith and William and solve the strange puzzle that Gran left us. Thanks, Gran.’ Caitlin glanced down at the phone in her hand, which had just beeped with a message. It was from Stuart. ‘Um, I need to read this. I’ll see you later.’

‘Sure.’

Caitlin glanced back when she reached the door. Isla cut a lonely figure, sitting with her shoulders slumped.

‘Do you know what, Isla? We should definitely do something to mark Gran’s birthday. It would have been her ninetieth, after all. What do you reckon?’

Isla turned, a sad smile on her face. ‘Ben suggested something similar and I think that would be lovely. To show that though she’s gone she’s not forgotten.’

‘What do you think Gran would have liked?’

‘Every year, we’d line her birthday cards up on the mantelpiece, dress up in our finest, and have a takeaway in front of the fire to celebrate. That was all she ever wanted, apart from—’ She shrugged. ‘It doesn’t matter.’

Apart from her family around her, thought Caitlin, who always sent a card and huge bouquet of flowers but was never around on the day itself. Being here for this birthday would be too little too late for Jessie, but perhaps marking the occasion would bring some comfort to Isla.

‘Right then,’ she said. ‘Tomorrow night we’ll have a dinner party in front of the fire to remember Gran and mark her birthday.’

‘With a takeaway?’

‘Obviously.’ Caitlin laughed. ‘A takeaway dinner party for four.’

Isla wrinkled her nose. ‘Five. You and Maisie, me and Paul, and Ben will probably be here.’

‘Which could be awkward. We don’t have to invite him to the meal.’

‘We can’t exclude him.’ Isla’s shoulders slumped again. ‘But you’re right, it could be awkward. Maybe we should give the whole thing a miss?’

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