Page 66 of The Granddaughter's Irish Secret
‘Oh yes. Very sure. You see, now I feel that the house will be used in a very good way. It will be full of people again. I feel my life has turned a corner, and now I can look at a future without worry, living with Arnaud and being close to you all at the same time. I’m not worried about material things any more. I’m only sorry if the fake necklace upset you.’
‘I’m coming to terms with it,’ Rose said. ‘And I’m learning to love it, because it belonged to Iseult, who seems to have been an extraordinary woman.’
‘I’m so glad to hear that.’ Sylvia looked thoughtful. ‘And anyway, I might know where the real necklace is. I was going through the old papers and diaries that I found the other day, just before you left for Kinsale. There was a note in one of the little diaries that belonged to Maria Fleury. It said something about receiving payment for a secret sale. I thought nothing of it, but now I have a feeling…’
‘Where is that little diary?’ Rose asked.
‘I left it up there. We should go and have a look.’
‘If you feel up to it,’ Rose said, noticing that Sylvia was looking a little pale. ‘But I can go and bring them down here if you like.’
Sylvia nodded. ‘Yes. Maybe that’s best. I feel tired after my performance in the ballroom. I’ll put the coins away in the safe while you’re upstairs.’
Rose ran up the stairs to the storeroom, where she found the stack of papers and two small leather diaries. She brought them down to Sylvia as she was just closing the safe.
‘Here they are,’ Rose said, putting them on the desk. ‘We can go through them together.’
Sylvia pulled out a chair and sat down at the desk, taking one of the diaries that Rose handed her. ‘I’ll look through this one,’ Sylvia said, ‘you go through the other one and then look through the stack of papers. I think they’re just bills and invoices. The diaries seem to be the kind where they put in appointments and such. This one is from eighteen ninety-eight.’
Rose sat down on a stool beside Sylvia and picked up a diary, excited to find that it had belonged to Maria Fleury. The diary was from 1900, which made her heart beat faster. ‘The year that first copy was made,’ she mumbled, going through each page and studying every item carefully. ‘“Mother very ill”,it says here. “Tuberculosis… Must get her to a sanatorium…”’ Rose looked atSylvia. ‘How awful. Maria’s mother must have been quite old in nineteen hundred.’
‘Around seventy or so, I’d say,’ Sylvia suggested. ‘That was old in those days. And TB was prevalent.’
‘Ugh, how horrible.’ Rose turned the page. ‘“Doctor recommends a few months in the sun”, it says here. But then she says, “How can we afford that? There must be a way. Mother is all I have.” How sad she must have been.’ Rose turned a few pages and stared in excitement. ‘Here it is!’ she exclaimed. ‘“Had piece copied. Sale of original arranged discreetly. Money to be paid to me in gold sovereigns.”’ She looked at her grandmother, grinning. ‘I’ve found it! Maria Fleury had the necklace copied in order to sell the original so she could send her mother to the Riviera to recover from TB.’
Sylvia looked confused. ‘But the money was here, hidden in the chimney. Why didn’t she do what she said for her mother?’
‘Because her mother died shortly after that,’ Rose said, turning the pages of the diary. ‘“Mama too ill to travel”, it says on February twenty-first, then, a week later, February twenty-eighth, “Mama gone to the angels. Funeral on March first.”’ Rose flicked through the next pages. ‘Nothing after that. I’d say Maria was devasted to lose her mother, just after she managed to get some money for that trip that might have saved her. How sad. Poor Maria.’
‘So that’s the story,’ Sylvia remarked. ‘I’d say Maria hid the money because she was ashamed of what she had done. Except the necklace was hers. But she may not have wanted anyone to know what she did with it, as it had been a gift on her wedding day.’
Rose nodded. ‘That sounds believable. Let’s assume that was the case and not go crazy looking for anyone else. It’s Maria’s secret, and her gift to us, in a way.’
‘Yes, that’s true,’ Sylvia agreed. ‘It will pay for repairs and part of the roof. So all is well. Except you don’t have the real necklace and you probably never will.’
‘Oh, I don’t care,’ Rose said. ‘It was Iseult’s necklace. I’ll wear the copy with great pride now that I know what happened.’
‘Good girl.’ Sylvia patted Rose’s arm. ‘This has been hard work for you. But it brought you a lot of happiness too. I have never seen that light in your eyes before.’
‘What light?’ Rose asked.
‘That sparkle in your eyes whenever you mention Noel,’ Sylvia explained. ‘I can see how much you love him. And I’m guessing he loves you too just as much.’
‘Yes, Granny,’ Rose said in a near whisper. ‘That’s what I was going to tell you. We’re in love and it has never felt like this before.’
‘That’s the best news, apart from finding the buried treasure up a chimney. Pity we’ll have to pay dearly for the repairs, but it was worth it in the end to find it, don’t you think?’
‘Yes, I think it was.’ Rose smiled and got up. ‘I’ll go back with these and then we can close the chapter.’
Sylvia nodded. ‘Grand. Now we can go through the material in the archives at a more leisurely pace. I found a few more things you might want to go through. Some old letters and an appointment book from the time Maria Fleury came to Magnolia, a calendar with appointments and reminders, but interesting all the same.’
‘I’d say that would be fascinating,’ Rose said, feeling excited. ‘A great insight into life here in the eighteen eighties. Dinners and outings and all the kinds of appointments and visits that they did in those days.’
‘You can include that in your history page on the website,’ Sylvia suggested.
‘That’s a great idea. We’ll go through it together.’ Rose let out a deep sigh. ‘I’m going to take a break during what’s left of the weekend. Spend time with Noel and make some plans. This is so new, we don’t really know where we’re at yet.’
‘Take your time,’ Sylvia advised. ‘Just enjoy the moment and the rest will sort itself out.’
