Page 180 of The Missing Sister

‘I’ve lost count, to be honest, sweetheart,’ I said as I pulled out a chair and sat down.

‘You were meant to take months to do what you’ve actually done in the space of less than two weeks.’

‘I wasn’t counting on being followed, was I?’

‘I still don’t understand why you were running away, when I’d told you the sisters just wanted to see the ring and—’

‘Could we leave it for tonight, Mary-Kate?’ I sighed. ‘I’d like a breather from the whole thing, if you wouldn’t mind.’

‘Of course, but wasn’t Tiggy lovely? She was so sweet to me. She said that even if it turned out that I wasn’t related to them, she’d love for me to stay in touch and to come and visit them at Atlantis whilst I was here in Europe.’

‘She was lovely, yes,’ I agreed. ‘She even invited all of us to go on this boat trip down to Greece.’

‘Well, hopefully Michelle will get in touch with me via the agency soon, and we’ll be able to find out more about who I am. Chip also said that it’s easy enough to do a DNA test.’

‘I don’t doubt that you’re her daughter, sweetheart. Maybe it’s just whose daughtersheis. Or in fact, who your birth father is. He might be the one who’s related to this mysterious Pa Salt.’

‘Do you know what, Mum?’ said Mary-Kate as Jack brought the tray of drinks out onto the balcony. ‘You’re right. I hadn’t thought of that.’

‘As I said, shall we leave all that for now? And just enjoy us all being here together in West Cork; a moment I never thought would happen,’ I said.

‘I’m really glad it has, Mum,’ said Jack. ‘Cheers!’

‘Cheers,’ I toasted, as I took a sip of the strong tea that tasted so much better than any other I’d tasted since I’d been on my travels. Sitting here with my children, it suddenly felt very good to be back home.

After supper in the relaxed Dunes pub downstairs, we all opted for an early night.

I climbed into bed and switched off the light, leaving the door to the balcony open so I could hear the waves crashing onto the shore.

It was a beautiful sound, and one that had been heard by humankind since we’d begun to populate this earth of ours. And by other creatures for billions of years before that. No matter what happened to any of us in our small lives, that tide would come in and roll out, and continue until the moment when our planet and everything on it ceased to exist.

‘So whydothe things that happen to us in our small lives matter?’ I murmured. ‘Because we love,’ I answered myself, ‘because we love.’

Niall picked us all up at nine the next morning to drive us to the airport. Having collected the hire car, and put myself and Jack on the insurance, I took charge of the steering wheel.

‘Where are we headed to, Mum?’ asked Mary-Kate from the back seat.

‘To my old family home,’ I said, glad that I was driving so I had to concentrate on signposts rather than the final destination. Just after Bandon, I swung a left at the signpost for Timoleague and headed along what had once been a narrow lane and now was – at best – a wider lane.

‘Did you live in the back of beyond here as well, Mum?’ Jack asked.

‘Not like we do in New Zealand, no, but on a bicycle, it certainly felt like that.’

I turned left at the Ballinascarthy crossroads, and then took a right in Clogagh village and wound my way through the country lanes completely by instinct. We ended up turning a corner near Inchybridge and almost driving into the Argideen River.

‘Jesus, Mum!’ Jack said as I slammed on the brakes to stop us going bonnet-first into the water – there was no protective barrier or warning sign, which actually made me smile.

‘You might find it funny, Mum, but I really don’t,’ muttered Mary-Kate as I reversed into a ditch on the side of a field filled with maize, which had obviously replaced the barley of my era.

‘Sorry, but we’re not far away now,’ I reassured her.

About ten minutes later, I saw the high stone walls that surrounded Argideen House in front of me, and knew we were getting close.

‘Who lives inside there, Mum? It looks pretty overgrown.’

‘I’ve no idea, Jack. My sister Nora worked there for a while, but I’m sure the occupants are long dead. Now, let me concentrate; the farm is up here somewhere...’

A few minutes later, I turned into the track that led up to it. Even though I was glad the children were with me, I wished I could have taken a moment to stop the car and draw breath before my arrival was noticed. Taking the drive as slowly as I could, I saw very little had changed, only the odd concrete bungalow peppering the valley, where before there had merely been the uninhabitable stone ruins of cottages abandoned during the Great Famine.