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Florence’s mouth pulled into a thin line as she handed the letter and necklace back to Lettie.
‘I think perhaps you need to leave now, Miss Starcross. I’ve seen what you have to show me and I’ve told you I delivered these items to your great-aunt, even though my parents would have been furious if they’d known. But I don’t know what they mean. The past stays in the past and I’m afraid I can’t help you.’
When she pushed herself to her feet, Lettie took her cue and stood up. She looped her bag over her body and walked to the door. But she looked back before stepping into the narrow hallway.
‘Thank you for your time, Mrs Allford. Can I ask you one more question? Why would your parents have been angry with you for delivering this envelope to Iris?’
‘They wanted us to have nothing to do with your great-aunt after Cornelius went to war.’
‘But why? I’m sorry. I know it’s hard for you to talk about this but I just don’t understand why your parents were so against Iris.’
Florence met Lettie’s gaze. ‘Because it was all her fault, of course.’
‘What was her fault?’ asked Lettie slowly.
‘Everything. Iris was responsible for Cornelius dying, and for all that followed.’
A clock ticking on the mantelpiece fractured the silence as Lettie reeled from Florence’s words.
‘But your brother died in the war.’
‘He shouldn’t have gone to war at all, Miss Starcross. That’s the whole point.’ Florence almost spat out the words. ‘He had a problem with his lungs that should have kept him out of the forces and we were pleased that he was safe. We were hearing such terrible news from the front. Two young men in the village had already been killed. Their poor, poor families were destroyed, and Cornelius said he would stay with us. He stood with me on the headland and told me not to worry because he’d never leave me.’ She brushed a hand across her face as though to steady herself. ‘But then Iris changed everything.’
‘I still don’t understand.’
‘Your great-aunt was a wicked woman. She encouraged my brother to go to war.’
‘She’d never have done that,’ said Lettie quietly, finding it hard to breathe. ‘Why would she have done that?’
‘She didn’t like having a sweetheart who wasn’t bravely fighting. That’s what my parents said. She was embarrassed that her boyfriend was still here in Heaven’s Cove when other men were in uniform, fighting for our freedom. So he fudged his papers and lied about his health and joined up. Your great-aunt wore his key around her neck for the rest of her long life not because she loved him but because she felt guilty.’
Florence’s expression suddenly softened and she sank back down into her chair. ‘I’m sorry, Miss Starcross. I know you loved your great-aunt but that’s the long and the short of it. My brother loved Iris to the end. He wanted to leave her the desk he’d spent hours making but my parents would have none of it. They ignored the instructions he’d left them and the Starcrosses were never spoken of again.’
‘Is that why they left Heaven’s Cove?’
‘They weren’t popular in the village after Cornelius died.’
It suddenly all made sense. This was the scandal her mother had talked about, and the reason Iris had rarely talked about her youth, or the beautiful place where she grew up.
‘So they were hounded out.’
‘It was their decision to up sticks and go.’
Lettie took in a deep breath, her mind still reeling.
‘I believe that Iris was truly heartbroken by your brother’s death.’
Florence shook her head and stared out of the window at puffs of white cloud. ‘At first, maybe. Until someone else came along.’
‘Mrs Allford, I don’t think anyone else ever came along. My great-aunt lived alone to the very end.’
‘So she never married or had children?’
‘No. I don’t remember her ever being in a relationship.’
‘But she obviously never mentioned my brother to you.’
‘No, she didn’t. But she wore that key around her neck every day and I found that letter stuffed into the lining of her handbag after she died. As though it was precious and she couldn’t bear to be parted from it.’
Florence stared at her for a moment before giving a sad smile.
‘It’s all in the past now, Miss Starcross. It’s all long gone and we’d best move on. You too. Go back to London and remember Iris as she was in your eyes. Thank you for showing me those mementos of my brother. Now, I daresay you can see yourself out.’
Lettie wandered slowlythrough the village. For the first time, she hardly noticed the pretty winding lanes and historic cottages with tiny front gardens filled with flowers.
Florence’s revelations had hit her for six. She couldn’t believe that kind, gentle Iris had encouraged anyone to go to war, let alone the man that she loved. If Iris had done that, the guilt of his death would have haunted her.
Florence was wrong that the past stayed in the past. Whatever had truly happened eighty years ago was spilling over, like an unstoppable wave about to engulf the present. Lettie shivered, even though the sun was warm today, and quickened her pace towards Driftwood House – the house that had been Iris’s home until she and her family were more or less run out of the village, by the sound of it.
As she walked, Lettie took Iris’s key from her pocket and fastened it back around her neck. Far from putting her off from finding out any more, Florence’s tale had galvanised Lettie to discover the real truth, whatever it might be.
