There’s a tension around her eyes. She’s about to sit down to a meal with both her children after twenty-five years of them not knowing she was their mother. Impulsive actions are rare for me, but I’m still floating from seeing Joel, and I tug one hand out of its pocket and hook my arm through hers. She did help my mother give birth to me, after all. She did tell me my mother’s words, when nobody else could.
She’s taller than me, and I smile up at her briefly, and we walk along together quite comfortably.
“Edwin thinks it’s a nice way to mark his birthday,” I say. “New beginnings and all that. Kiara wants to get to know you, doesn’t she? And Danny—well...” I’m not sure quite what to say about Danny. After weeks of emotional withdrawal, he has become fierce in his insistence that the revelation about our genetic identity won’t damage our sibling bond, but I see him bristle every time Laura’s name is mentioned. I blow out a puff of air. “Danny will get there. You can’t rush him.”
She nods, pressing her lips together. She glances at my necklace—a tiny gold angel on a delicate chain. “This is pretty.”
“Brooke gave it to me. Because of my mother.” I sigh. “She’s a good influence on Danny. She’s told him he has to at least say hello to you today.Trytalking to you.”
I flash her a quick grin, and she shakes her head, but there’s a flicker of amusement in her eyes.
“Poor Danny,” she says. “And you? Have you been talking to Alex?”
I still experience a dull jolt in my abdomen whenever his name is mentioned. I did consider cutting Alex off, telling him I wanted no contact between us, and at my lowest moments I wondered if he might actually be relieved if I did this. But I find myself drawn to Kiara, entranced by the myriad ways in which she reminds me of Danny. And I can see that Kiara loves Alex. He’s been a good father to her.
I’m glad he left me behind. Of course I am. I’m glad I grew up with Dominic as my dad. Nothing that happens with Alex will ever change that. But we’ve met up several times now, and when we push all the complications of our family to one side, I think we do actually like each other. It surprises me howdisappointed I am that he doesn’t want to join us today. I realize Laura is watching me, and I grimace.
“Yeah, we’ve been talking. I went up there last week, actually. Saw both of them. It was okay.”
“Good,” Laura says. “But he’s not coming today because of me.” It’s a statement, not a question.
“He needs time,” I say, but I’m not sure she’s listening.
“I wish—” She shakes her head, as if acknowledging the pointlessness of such thoughts when it’s all too late. “I wish somehow I’d managed to—”
My tone is firm. “It’s done. It made us who we are. We can’t change it.”
A bright-eyed sparrow tilts its head at us as we approach the final section of the garden and the structure I want to show Laura. Four curved stone benches stand in a circle, looking in toward a large sundial on a raised stone platform.
“It was made to tie in with the folly at Summerbourne,” I say. “On a smaller scale, obviously.”
Laura releases my arm and circles the sundial, examining the writhing stone sea serpents and the Latin inscription.
“Fruere hora,” she reads aloud.
“Enjoy the hour,” I say.
“No cannon.”
“We’re a bit more restrained at Winterbourne.”
She rests a hand on the sundial and closes her eyes. I use the opportunity to lean closer and peer at the locket just visible between the lapels of her coat.
“Laura?”
She opens her eyes.
“Your locket’s pretty too,” I say, stuttering slightly. “Are they three broken hearts? What does it mean?”
Her hand reaches for it. “I used all the money I saved at Summerbourne to buy this,” she says quietly.
I raise my eyebrows. “But you could have used that money to move out sooner, into your own place.”
She looks back at the sundial and shakes her head.
I take a deep breath. “Why a locket? What’s inside it?”
She frowns faintly, and I half expect her to claim it’s empty, but then something shifts in her expression, and I’m gripped by the conviction that I’m right: thereissomething inside it, and it has something to do with Summerbourne.
