Page 170 of The Secrets of the Tea Garden

‘It’s Clarrie’s, isn’t it?’ she said quietly. ‘I remember her wearing it.’

Adela nodded, her throat tightening with emotion.

Sam looked baffled. ‘How can that be? Is this yours, Adela? I’ve never seen you wear it.’

Adela struggled to speak. ‘Yes, it’s mine,’ she croaked. ‘Mother gave it to me ...’

‘So when did you lose it?’ Sam asked.

‘Before the War,’ she whispered.

‘Surely it hasn’t been lying here all this time?’ Sam said in astonishment.

‘No,’ said Adela. She felt herself begin to shake all over. She wasn’t sure if she was going to faint or be sick.

Sam’s arm went around her. ‘Well, at least you’ve got it back now.’

‘Tell him,’ said Lexy softly.

‘Tell me what?’ Sam asked, frowning.

At that moment, Charlie reappeared with a glass of water. Lexy took it from him.

‘Just give them a minute, will you?’ she asked. Charlie nodded and retreated through the kitchen door which swung behind him.

Adela looked at Lexy, her heart thumping.

‘Go on, lass,’ her old friend encouraged.

Adela swallowed hard. ‘Mother was given this necklace by the swami who lived in the clearing above Belgooree – for good luck and protection. When I came to England in ’38 she gave it to me for the same reason.’ She struggled with how to tell him the next detail.

‘And?’ Sam said gently.

Adela met his look. His eyes were so full of compassion that it gave her the courage to tell him the truth. ‘The day John Wesley was taken away I – I wrapped the necklace in his blanket and told Maggie to ask the mission women to keep it with him. It was my most important possession and it was all I had to give him. I hoped it would keep him safe ...’

She tensed, expecting to see his expression change to disappointment or resentment at her mentioning John Wesley again. But Sam laid a hand tenderly on her head and pulled her to him, cradling her against his strong shoulder. Adela’s eyes brimmed with tears.

‘But how’s it got here?’ Lexy asked, baffled.

‘I don’t know,’ said Adela tearfully. ‘Did you see one of the mothers wearing it?’

‘No,’ said Lexy with a shake of the head. ‘But someone here today must know where it came from.’

Adela’s heart began to pound. She tried to recall all of the children who had been at the party. Perhaps one of the girls was a step-sister to John Wesley? Or was one of the women who had been singing around the piano her son’s second adoptive mother? But maybe none of themhad anything to do with her boy and the necklace had been given away or sold years ago to raise funds for the mission.

Yet something that Tilly had said about the Belgian Segals gave Adela hope that they had kept the swami’s stone with her son. When Tilly had rescued the infant from the Anderson shelter after the bombing raid, she said he had been found with a small box of possessions; from what she could remember there were a handful of photographs, keepsakes and a floppy miniature teddy bear.

Adela felt sure the kind Segals would have kept the necklace and that this would have been handed on to whoever had taken on her son next. What if it was someone who had been there that very afternoon? Adela was suddenly overwhelmed by the shock. Bile rose in her throat. She tore herself from Sam’s hold and bolted for the kitchen door.

Clamping a hand over her mouth, Adela didn’t stop until she was out in the backyard breathing in gulps of air. Her head spun. Her throat watered. Adela doubled over and retched into the gutter. She couldn’t stop. She vomited until her insides felt hollow and sore. Even though her eyes were tight shut, she was aware of Sam there beside her, holding her hair away from her face and rubbing her back.

When the spasms finally stopped, Adela felt so weak she would have collapsed if Sam had not been holding her firmly in his arms. He stroked her hair. Adela realised that she was still clutching the necklace tightly in her hand. It pressed into her palm, a painful reminder of all she had lost. Her longing to find John Wesley returned with a new ferocity. Yet would her marriage survive if she started searching again? What on earth did they do now?

‘You mustn’t upset yourself like this, Adela,’ Sam said in gentle reproof.

Adela looked at him with a mixture of tenderness and sorrow.

‘Sam, this isn’t just because I’m upset,’ Adela said, feeling utterly drained. ‘It’s because I’m pregnant.’