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Elspeth smiled at Lili. ‘I am indeed. When your mother turned up, that’s when Otto knew that his daughter, Miriam, had survived.’ Elspeth handed the photo back to Lili. ‘It wasn’t the first time your mum had visited, but it was to be the last. It couldn’t have been long after this picture was taken that …’ Elspeth trailed off.
‘She died,’ said Lili.
Elspeth had a thought. ‘Perhaps it was a blessing that Otto never knew about that motorcycle accident. He passed away a very happy man indeed. You see, Alena had returned after all.’
Lili furrowed her brow. ‘Pardon me?’
Everyone else who had been listening intently – Ray, Sarah and Alex, even the two children, who had wandered back into the summerhouse with Bella and taken a seat together on cushions on the rug – looked at Elspeth with perplexed expressions. Wasn’t Alena dead?
Before anyone asked what she was talking about, Elspeth said to Lili, ‘Look at the photo. He is holding her in his arms.’
‘But that’s me.’
‘Yes, his great-granddaughter, Alena.’
‘No, my name is—’
‘Lili is your middle name,’ Elspeth explained. ‘Your mother named you after your great-grandmother, who perished in the war. Your first name is, in fact, Alena.’
‘Alena,’ Lili repeated, stunned. It made her wonder if Joseph hadn’t mistaken her for her great-grandmother, but knew she was the little girl who had once visited with her mum years ago.
‘And this …’ Elspeth turned and flung her arm around the room, ‘is now yours. Well, when the police establish the provenance of the paintings and return them.’
Talking of which,’ Elspeth added, ‘I imagine Joseph is telling the police about the collection of artworks waiting for its rightful owner, as we speak. That’s you, Lili.’
‘That’s assuming Miriam isn’t alive,’ Ray butted in, putting his heir-hunting hat on.
Lili turned to look at Ray. She didn’t want the paintings or a fortune to fall in her lap; she’d give it all up to see her great-grandmother. She wanted her to be alive. She wished she could see her face when she found out her father had, over the years, put her families’ collection of art back together, waiting to return it. Although she was Otto’s great-grandchild, Lili knew in her heart that it was Miriam to whom these paintings should be returned.
Elspeth turned to her daughter. ‘Expect a phone call from the police, Sarah, to confirm the provenance. There’s a safe behind the painting above the fireplace. It contains records of all the paintings and artefacts that Otto and his team stole during the war and who they belonged to, including those that were stored here.’
Everyone turned to look at the large watercolour portrait of a beautiful young woman.
Maisie asked the question everybody was thinking. ‘Why didn’t they takethatpainting?’
Lili smiled at Maisie’s pertinent question. Lili had seen other paintings hanging on the walls up at the house that the police hadn’t seemed interested in either.
Elspeth looked at her great-granddaughter. ‘A famous artist did not paint it, Maisie. Perhaps in another life he might have become a renowned artist, if it weren’t for the war, but it was not to be.’
Lili stared at the canvas. ‘That’s Alena.’ Lili knew this because she bore a striking resemblance to the woman in the picture. ‘Otto painted that portrait – didn’t he?’
‘I’m glad you got to meet him, Lili, even though you were so young.’
Lili stared at Elspeth. ‘You were here, weren’t you? You took the photo?’
‘Yes. Your great-grandfather was a gentle soul,’ commented Elspeth, turning in her seat to look at the painting.
Nate nodded, remembering the person he had thought was his great-grandfather. Nate recalled he had indeed been a kind man with a mischievous, fun-loving streak. Even though he’d just found out about Otto’s background, his role in the war, Nate didn’t feel any animosity toward the old fellow he had known and loved as a child. He understood the conflicts Miriam must have felt when she had discovered the truth about her father. If only she’d met him and listened to his story, as they all were now, then perhaps everything would have played out differently.
Nate was thinking of Lili and her parents. Maybe if they had all been together visiting Zakynthos – Lili, her parents, her grandparents – then they would have been travelling in a car, not a motorcycle. Perhaps the accident would never have happened. But then again, maybe it would have, and they would all have perished. Who knew what fate ever had in store? Then the woman he’d fallen in love with wouldn’t be sitting there, making it hard to concentrate because all he could think about was putting his arm around her shoulders, leaning in close and kissing her.
Nate tried to focus on his grandmother. She was still talking.
‘All he ever wanted to be was an artist. You are quite correct, Lili – he painted that portrait, and others hanging in the house, but he would never be recognised as a gifted artist. I think being unable to show the world at large his work affected him greatly, but that was the price he paid to keep his secret.’
Lili frowned as she cast her gaze around the empty walls. She was thinking back to something Elspeth had said a while earlier, when they had all first sat down together to listen to what she had to say. Lili recalled that Elspeth had admonished Ray, saying something about tracing family trees and Sarah and Nate’s inheritance. Elspeth had then implied that she was there to claim what was rightfully hers when Joseph died.
Lili recalled her strange comment,That’s what you’re here for, aren’t you? To get what’s rightfully yours when Joseph pops off this mortal coil.
