Ellie takes a deep breath and shakes her head. ‘No. No, she didn’t. Poor George. I’m so sorry, Sophie. He was a lovely man. I knew him since I was six – did you know that? We were at school together. Right from kindergarten. Dottie must miss him terribly. How is she?’
Sophie bites her lower lip. ‘I’m sorry, Aunt Ellie. Mum’s gone too. Last year. Lung cancer. She was a smoker.’
‘Oh, Sophie.’ Ellie reaches out and pulls Sophie to her in a hug. ‘I’m so sorry. Your poor mother.’
Sophie leans awkwardly into the embrace as her aunt’s warm, bird-like body presses against her. Weren’t Ellie and Mum sworn enemies? Mum was never able to mention Ellie’s name without getting into a rant about her sister’s selfishness and cold-heartedness. This woman doesn’t seem anything like that.
Ellie steps back and shakes her head, her fine white hair swinging against her cheeks. ‘Poor Dottie. I’d always hoped to see her again. To see them both. She was so upset with me, and I never really understood why. Everything was fine until I met Thomas. Then she changed.’ She sighs. ‘I wanted to work things out with her. Florie and I were just talking about a trip to England next year, weren’t we, honey?’
Florie wipes a cookie crumb from her lip. ‘God’s truth. Got the travel brochures in the desk up in the house.’
‘I’m sorry that didn’t happen, Aunt Ellie. Mum would have loved that.’ She wouldn’t have. Not at all. Mum wouldn’t have opened the door to Ellie. And Ellie and Florie would have been too much for her to handle. It’s a good thing they never made it to England.
‘Well, you’re with family here, Sophie. There’ll always be room for you at Kittiwake. Oh, it’ll be so lovely having you here, won’t it, Florie?’
‘Oh, Lord, yes, duck,’ Florie says as she hands Sophie a mug of steaming chocolate. ‘We’s got more rooms in that big old house than I can find. We’ll set you up right good. Stay as long as you likes.’
Sam waves his hand at Becca, who is on the floor, giggling soundlessly as the dogs jump over her. ‘Come on, Becca-bug,’ he says as he signs to her. ‘Time to go. Let’s get some supper.’
Becca springs to her feet and signs something back. Sam glances over at Sophie. ‘Becca wants to teach you something.’
‘Teach me something? I’m … I’m not sure …’
‘Just watch her and do what she does.’
Becca takes Sophie’s hand and tugs her towards a battered wooden table in front of the bay window. She pulls out a wooden chair and gestures for Sophie to sit.
Sam drags a chair from under the table and straddles it like a bike. ‘Do you know the old nursery rhyme about the cat who visits the Queen?’
‘Yes,’ Sophie says as she sets her mug of hot chocolate on the table. ‘I think I can remember it.’
‘Just say it, and Becca will sign. Then do what she does.’
Sophie glances over at Ellie and Florie who are standing beside a counter, Florie’s arm draped casually across Ellie’s shoulders. Ellie nods encouragingly. ‘Go on, Sophie. It’s easy.’
Sophie takes a breath. ‘Pussy cat, pussy cat, where have you been?’ She watches Becca’s hands closely as she clumsily mirrors the signs.
‘I’ve been to London to visit the Queen.’ She glances at Sam. ‘I’m afraid I’m not very good at this.’
Ellie sits down in a chair on the opposite side of the table. ‘Nonsense. You’re doing very well. Go on.’
‘Pussy cat, pussy cat, what did you there?’ Sophie continues, copying Becca’s finger movements as Ellie and Florie join in.
‘I frightened a little mouse under her chair.’
Beaming brightly at Sophie, Becca wraps her arms around her in a hug. Ellie smiles at them across the table. ‘It looks like you’ve made a friend.’
Sam rises abruptly and frowns at Sophie. He pushes his chair under the table. ‘Becca has plenty of friends.’ He taps Becca on nose. ‘C’mon, Becca-bug. Supper time,’ he signs.
Becca kisses Sophie on her cheek and takes hold of Sam’s hand. Sophie watches them walk towards the screen door, spying Sam sneak a chocolate chip cookie from a plate on the counter to give his daughter, as Rupert drools.
‘It’ll ruin her supper,’ Florie calls after them as the screen door slams shut.
Sophie picks up the mug of hot chocolate and takes a sip. ‘What happened there?’
‘Don’t mind him, duck,’ Florie says. ‘He’s all right. He’s just overprotective of Becca since Winny passed.’
‘Winny?’
‘My daughter.’ Ellie rises from the table and walks over to the bay window, folding her arms as she looks out to the inlet beyond. ‘She died three years ago.’ Turning back to Sophie, she smiles sadly. ‘She would have been your cousin. It’s such a shame you never had a chance to meet.’
‘She was a beauty, was Winny,’ Florie says as she heads towards the back room. ‘Blonde like Ellie. You don’t look much like her. C’mon, let’s go have a scoff. I’m gut-foundered.’
Chapter 12
Norwich, England – 7 August 1940
Ellie walks over to a wooden bench under an overgrown cedar and sits down, the tree’s branches sweeping out above her like the wings of a giant crow. She crosses her ankles and tucks her feet under the bench, steadying herself by pressing her hands into the rough grey wood. The mourners melt away, slipping back to their lives, far away from the eerie quiet of the cemetery.
Beside the graves, George talks to the priest. Ruthie, Richie, and their parents, Bryan and Peggy – the whole Huggins family – never waking up to see these trees and the sky, or eat fish and chips on the pier in Yarmouth on a hot August day. The raider had been back the next day, bombing Boulton and Paul’s Riverside Works and machine-gunning King Street on his way home. More deaths. More freshly dug graves under the leafy canopy of elms and oaks in the cemetery. And more to come – she is sure of that now.
George shakes the priest’s hand. Ellie watches him stride towards her, the vibrancy of the green grass under his feet somehow at odds with the mood that has settled over the ancient city. He’s lost weight; his dark grey suit hangs loosely on his body. He sits beside her and places his hand over hers. His is warm, reassuring, and she feels the tension in her fingers slowly dissolve.
‘Are you okay, Ellie?’
She bites her lip and looks at him, willing the tears not to come. Amazed that there are any tears left inside her.
‘No. No, I’m not.’ She dabs at her eyes with a white handkerchief. ‘I remember when I met Ruthie on our first day in Brownies, in the basement hall at St George’s. She’d tied her tie all wrong. I showed her how to do it. Pops had taught me. She shared some rock candy she’d saved from her summer holiday in Yarmouth. It was fuzzy from her pocket, but I didn’t mind.’ She blinks hard, balling her hands into fists. ‘It’s not fair.’
George squeezes her hand. ‘No, it’s not fair. But there’s nothing for it but to keep on going. Ruthie would want that.’