Page 249 of The Missing Sister

‘Yes, but in the past few days, Mary-Kate has made contact with her birth mother, and it turns out that her mother Merry was actually adopted too. Well, she was a foundling, anyway.’

‘So, let me get this straight.’ Georg pulled out a miniature leather-bound notepad and a fountain pen from the inside pocket of his jacket. ‘The daughter, Mary-Kate, is how old?’

‘Twenty-two.’

‘And born where?’

‘In New Zealand.’

‘And she has recently identified her birth mother and father? Who are also from New Zealand?’ he asked.

‘I believe so, yes.’

‘And Merry, the mother, how old is she?’

‘Fifty-nine this year.’

‘And she has just discovered that she was adopted?’

‘Yes. Merry just found out that she was put in the place of a dead baby, and brought up as part of that family. But that originally, she’d been a foundling.’

‘From the south-west of Ireland?’

‘Yes. We did try and contact you, Georg, because we needed more information about Mary McDougal and which one of them it might be, but we didn’t hear anything back from you. Then, just by coincidence, Maia happened to be in Pa’s garden and saw a set of coordinates had been added to Merope’s band on the armillary sphere. I looked them up on Google Earth, and it turns out that they pointed to a big old house, very close to where Merry was put on the doorstep of a local priest down in West Cork.’

‘I...’ Georg looked up at Ally in horror. ‘You mean, you had only just seen that set of coordinates?’

‘Yes. I’d been in the garden sometimes when I was home, sitting on the bench under the rose arbour, and looked at the armillary sphere, but never that closely.’

‘Mein Gott!’ Georg thumped the table. ‘Ally, those coordinates have been on the armillary sphere for months. I myself gave orders to have them engraved only a few weeks after we all saw the armillary sphere for the first time. I’m amazed that none of you girls had noticed them. And when I came to see you... I took a call, if you remember, and had to leave immediately.’

‘But why would we have seen it, Georg? Maia had left for Brazil and the rest of us were only going home sporadically. If we did look, it was only at our own band.’

‘Then this is all my fault,’ he said. ‘I assumed that youhadnoticed it, and to be perfectly honest, my mind was on other things. So why is this Merry not here with her son and her daughter?’

‘Jack told me she didn’t want to come,’ Ally shrugged. ‘I’m not sure of the reasons why. Georg?’

‘Yes, Ally.’ Georg had stood up and was pacing around the salon.

‘So, the mother of Mary-Kate – Merry – is definitely the missing sister?’

‘As far as I am aware, she is, but after all this, she is not here! And neither is the ring. This is all my fault, Ally,’ he said again. ‘In recent weeks, I have been... distracted, but still, I should have told you how old she was, checked if you had seen her coordinates on the armillary sphere. But I wasn’t expecting that there would betwoMary McDougals. I... aatch!’

Ally watched him, this man who had always seemed so cool and calm, never showing any emotion. Yet now, she saw that he was utterly beside himself.

‘Do you know who used to own that old house in West Cork?’ she probed. Georg turned round, stared at her and nodded.

‘Yes, I do.’

‘Then why didn’t you tell us?’

‘Because, because... Ally, as always, I was only following orders...’ Georg sat down opposite her and wiped his sweating brow with his white handkerchief. ‘Giving you that information from the start might have upset certain... members of the family. It was thought best for you, or in fact, Mary McDougal, to discover it for yourselves.’

‘You mean, because Maia’s son is Zed Eszu’s child? And because he pursued Tiggy and Electra?’

‘Exactly, but still, this is all my mistake, Ally, and I must rectify the situation immediately.’

‘Why? I mean...’ Ally’s head was spinning. ‘How?’