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‘When did you get a dog?’
‘Ah, just yesterday.’ She thought of the family photos in the hallway at the wake and decided not to go down that road and tell Lili about Sidney’s grandson at the moment. She smiled at her dog. ‘Good boy.’
Lili shook her head. ‘So, he’s called Ulysses. Wasn’t that a Greek god?’
Abigail shook her head. ‘No, you’re thinking of King Ulysses from Homer’s poem, The Odyssey.’ She knew that because it was one of the texts she’d studied at school.
Lili looked at her blankly.
Abigail explained that Sidney’s grandchildren had named him after a squirrel in the children’s movie,Flora and Ulysses.She smiled.
Abigail walked out of the kitchen with two mugs of tea to find that Ulysses had made a new friend. He was cuddled up to Lili on the sofa, his head on her lap, clearly enjoying Lili making a fuss of him. Abigail put the cups down on the coffee table and sat down.
‘So, what’s going on?’ Lili asked, eyeing her friend.
Abigail hesitated. She didn’t know which piece of news to give her first; what she’d discovered on one of Daphne’s home movie reels, or her pregnancy. She decided to go with the home movie first. Now she was there, Abigail wanted to get her friend’s opinion. ‘Watch this and tell me what you think. It’s one of Daphne’s home movies.’
She set up the projector with the reel, switched it on, and re-joined Lili on the sofa.
‘Hey, that’s Somerville Hall.’ Lili glanced at Abigail. ‘I thought Daphne only filmed at the cottage.’
‘Yeah, so did I.’
Abigail leaned forward in her seat when the home movie switched to the inside of the house and the children’s birthday party. ‘That’s me,’ she said, pointing.
Lili turned to her wide-eyed. ‘You were so cute. What were you doing there?’
‘I spoke to my stepdad. He said that it was Oliver’s fifth birthday party, and they invited children from the local area who were born the same day – the day of the Great Storm in ’87. That’s Oliver and his sister, Carys.’
‘Who’s sitting next to Carys? Is that a relative?’
‘So, you see the resemblance too?’
‘Well, you can’t fail to, can you?’
Abigail fell silent for a moment. She had been interested to know if it had been her imagination, but Lili had seen it too.
‘It’s Toby.’
‘No way! You were at a party with your future husband when you were five?’
‘We were in the same primary school class together for a brief spell. Shortly after this party, Toby and his … mother moved to London.’
‘She got a new job, didn’t she?’
‘Yes, so the story goes.’
‘And then she met a guy and got married – Clarissa’s dad.’
Abigail nodded. ‘But don’t you think it’s a bit odd?’
‘That she met someone?’
‘No, that she left so suddenly.’
‘Did she?’
Abigail nodded. ‘My stepdad said that she left the party early with Toby and moved to London soon after.’
