Page 107 of The Missing Sister

‘O’course it would,’ he smiled. ‘Come here.’ He pulled her in towards him and everything about him smelt exactly as she had expected: fresh and natural and clean. She could feel the strength of him, and his height made her feel unusually like a fragile flower.

For all sorts of reasons, she pulled out of his grasp far sooner than she would have wanted to. He bent down and gave her a tender kiss on the cheek.

‘Bonne nuit, Ally,’ he said. ‘I hope we meet again soon.’

With a rueful smile, he turned and ambled back up the gravel path to the farmhouse.

Inside, Ally felt short of breath and ‘panty’, as she’d once described the sensation to Ma when she’d had a panic attack just before she was about to sit her very first flute examination. Sitting down on the bed, she bent forward, trying to slow her breathing. Wondering exactly which part of the last ten minutes had caused this reaction, she reached for the bottle of water by the bed and took a swig from it. Finally, her breathing calmed, as did her pulse. Looking at her mobile, she saw there were no missed calls or new voice messages, which meant Bear was fine. There were texts from Star asking how the evening had gone and another from Maia saying basically the same thing.

Call me!they had both ended.

‘Nope.’ Ally shook her head. ‘Not tonight.’ She just wanted to keep the memory of the evening and that delicious hug exactly as it was for a few more hours, until she had to tell her sisters and it became another part of their joint subterfuge. Besides, she decided as she undressed, if Jack did fly to see his mum in Dublin tomorrow, she was bound to tell him about the strange women who were after her to try and claim his sister as one of their own...

‘And he won’t want to keep in touch after that, will he?’ she muttered to herself as she got into bed, set the alarm and turned off the light. She lay there staring into the darkness, remembering not only the hug but all the laughter they’d shared. It had been a long time since she’d really laughed, and even if Jack had referred to his lack of academic cleverness, it was obvious to her that he was highly intelligent.

‘You don’t necessarily need a stack of certificates to be wise,’ Pa had once said to her when she had told him how insecure she’d felt about having a degree in music, rather than science or literature.

Jack’s wise, she thought, before she drifted off to sleep.

Having slept badly, Ally was awake by six thirty and ready to go an hour later. She knew that Ginette would be up, preparing to drop the children at school, so she popped into the kitchen to pay her bill and say goodbye.

‘It has been a pleasure to host you, Ally, and please come back and visit us soon,’ Ginette said as the children ran in and out of the door, collecting lunchboxes, sports kit and books.

‘I’d love to,’ Ally responded as all of them walked outside and Ginette planted the region’s customary three kisses on Ally’s cheeks.

Glad not to have bumped into Jack on her way out, Ally set off for Geneva. Once on theautoroute, she pulled into anaireto use the facilities and to phone Atlantis.

‘Hi, Ma, I’m on my way home. Is Bear okay?’

‘You would know already if he wasn’t. He’s very much looking forward to seeing hismaman,’ Ma added.

‘I’m sure that’s not true, but thanks for saying it anyway, Ma,’ Ally smiled. ‘I’ll see you later.’

‘Maia would like to speak to you.’

‘Tell her we’ll talk when I get home,’ Ally said firmly. ‘I have to go now, Ma. Bye.’

Back in the car, Ally switched CDs to some of her favourite classical pieces and relived every second of the past two days. Which for now, werehers, and hers alone...

By the time she arrived back at Atlantis, Bear was nodding on Ma’s shoulder, ready for his afternoon nap. Taking him up to her bedroom, Ally put him to her breast.

‘Maman’s home, darling, and she’s missed you so much.’

Bear suckled for a few seconds, then his tiny lips let go and he lay back in her arms, fast asleep.

Logically, she was glad he seemed to have suffered no ill effects from her absence, but as she laid him down in his cot, the fact he had so easily ceased to need her still hurt.

She wished she could clamber into bed for a nap herself, but it wasn’t fair on Maia, or any of her sisters who had participated in the search for the elusive Merry. She’d already waited since last night to tell them she knew exactly where Merry was. However she felt about her part in the ongoing plot, she had to at least pass on the information.

‘Hello, Ally,’ said Maia as her sister walked into the kitchen. ‘Sorry I wasn’t here to greet you when you arrived, Floriano had just called and I needed to speak to him about his flight over here. So, how was Provence?’

‘Beautiful, as I said on the phone. Listen, Maia, I’m really tired after the drive, so forgive me if I cut to the chase. Jack told me that he got a call from his mum saying she was in Dublin, Ireland. She’s staying at the Merrion Hotel there. The only other detail I got out of him was that she sounded, as he put it, “odd” and “frightened”. Given she left London so suddenly, we’ve definitely scared her and I feel terrible about it.’

‘Oh dear, that isn’t good,’ Maia agreed, ‘but I understand. I’m sure it’s because she doesn’t want the child she’s cared for since birth to be claimed by another family. Perhaps she’s scared that Mary-Kate might love them more.’ Maia looked at Ally and bit her lip. ‘Maybe we should just leave this whole thing?’

‘That’s what I said to Star last night. I mean, Jack is a decent, straightforward guy and I felt awful pretending I was somebody I wasn’t – a passing tourist looking to buy a house in the area – especially when he said he was really worried about his mum’s state of mind. I think we either have to come clean to Merry, or drop it completely. It’s not a game, and I almost get the feeling that Orlando was treating it like one.’

‘He was only trying to help, but maybe he enjoys the thrill of the chase too much. I mostly agree with you, Ally, but then again, I can’t help thinking of Pa and how long Georg said he’d searched for the missing sister. I remember when I was a teenager, I asked him why our seventh sister had never arrived. And the look on his face was heartbreaking when he told me it was because he’d never found her.’ Maia sighed. ‘I don’t know what we should do, I really don’t.’