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Lili took a closer look. ‘It can’t be!’ It was her mother. She was standing in this very room, with the same curtains up at the window and the same coverlets on the twin beds, except they were not so threadbare. In her arms was a toddler. Lili stared at the first ever photo she’d seen of herself with her mum. Maisie appeared at the top of the stairs, and said, ‘Lili, why are you crying?’ She ran up to Lili and looked at the image in her hand. ‘Who’s that?’
‘That’s my mother, and this is me.’
Maisie studied the photo. ‘You were here with your mum.’ She looked at Lili. ‘Are we related?’
‘I don’t know, Maisie.’
‘Who’s that man?’ Maisie pointed at the elderly gentleman standing behind her mother with a hand on her shoulder. He appeared around Joseph’s age, if not older in the print.
William ran up the stairs and joined them. ‘When are we going back to the house? I’m hungry.’ He looked at the photo. ‘What’s that?’
‘It’s a picture of me as a young child with my mother.’ Lili pointed at the man in the photo. ‘But I don’t know who this is.’
‘Oh, I know,’ William said nonchalantly. ‘I’ve seen him in pictures before. That’s great-great grandpapa.’
‘Joseph’s father?’
‘Yes, I told you, great-great grandpapa. Now, come on!’ William grabbed Lili’s hand. ‘I want to go now.’
Lili didn’t want to be dragged away. She wanted to look through more photos and any paperwork she could lay her hands on. She decided she would return to the summerhouse later when the children were asleep. Now she was desperate to speak to Joseph. Why was there a photo of her and her mum with Joseph’s father? She still couldn’t believe she’d been there before, in that very room, with her mother.
Lili closed the cabin door behind her and stood there for a moment, staring at the broken latch. Was it just the priceless art that had been hidden under lock and key from the world? Or was it something more? What secret had her mother uncovered? Lili was thinking of the gravestones of a young man and his son.
