Page 16 of The Seven Sisters

His email warmed my heart, for sometimes translation could be an anonymous and correspondingly thankless task. So I treasured the rare occasions when an author contacted me directly and I felt a connection with them.

My attention was diverted from my computer by the sight of a familiar figure running up the lawns from the jetty.

‘Ally,’ I breathed in surprise, as I sprang up from my desk. ‘Electra, Ally’s arrived!’ I called as I hurried out of the Pavilion to greet her.

My other sisters had obviously seen her arrive too, and by the time I reached the terrace of the main house, CeCe, Star and Tiggy were already clustered around her.

‘Maia,’ Ally said as she saw me, ‘isn’t it absolutely awful?’

‘Yes, just ghastly. But how did you hear? We’ve been trying to contact you for the last two days.’

‘Shall we go inside?’ she asked us all. ‘And then I’ll explain.’

I lagged behind slightly while my other sisters crowded around Ally as they walked into the house. Even though I was the eldest and the one they looked to individually if they had a problem, as a group, it was Ally who always took command. As I let her do now.

Marina was already at the bottom of the stairs, ready and waiting with open arms. Once Ally had embraced her too, she suggested we all head into the kitchen.

‘Good idea. I really am desperate for some coffee,’ Ally said. ‘It’s been a long journey home.’

As Claudia prepared a large pot of coffee, Electra sidled in and was warmly welcomed by everyone apart from CeCe, who made a point of merely nodding in her direction.

‘Right, I’m going to tell you what happened, because to be honest, I’m still confused about it,’ said Ally as we all sat down around the table. ‘Ma,’ she said to Marina, who was hovering, ‘you should hear this too. Maybe you can help explain.’

Marina sat down at the table with us.

‘So, there I was, down in the Aegean Sea, training for the Cyclades Regatta next week, when a sailing friend of mine asked me if I wanted to join him on his motor yacht for a few days. The weather was fantastic and it was great to actually relax on the water for a change,’ Ally acknowledged with a rueful smile.

‘Whose boat was it?’ asked Electra.

‘I told you, just a friend,’ Ally responded abruptly, and each one of us raised our eyebrows in disbelief.

‘Anyway,’ she continued, ‘there we were a couple of afternoons ago, when my friend told me that another sailing mate of his had radioed him to say he’d spotted theTitananchored off the coast of Delos. My friend obviously knew the boat belonged to Pa, and we both decided it would be fun to surprise him and rendezvous with him. We were only an hour or so away if we stepped on it, so we raised anchor and set off.’

Ally took a sip of her coffee before continuing.

‘I saw theTitanthrough the binoculars as we neared it and radioed Hans, Pa’s skipper, to tell him we were close by. But’ – Ally sighed – ‘for reasons that I didn’t understand at the time, no message came back. And in fact, we could see that the boat was already moving away from us. We did what we could to catch it, but as you all know, Pa’s boat can shift when it wants to.’

I watched my sisters’ rapt faces around the table, all clearly intrigued by Ally’s story.

‘The signal on my mobile was dreadful and it was only yesterday when I was able to pick up all your messages asking me to call you urgently. And one from you, CeCe, telling me exactly what had happened.’

‘Sorry, Ally.’ CeCe lowered her eyes in embarrassment. ‘I didn’t think there was any point beating about the bush. We needed to get you home as fast as possible.’

‘And I came. So please,’ Ally entreated us, ‘can somebody tell me what on earth was going on? And why Pa Salt’s boat was down in Greece when he was already . . . dead?’

All eyes at the table turned to me, including Ally’s. So, as concisely as I could, I told her what had happened, referring occasionally to Marina for confirmation. Ally’s face drained of colour when I explained where and how our father had wanted to be laid to rest.

‘Oh my God,’ she whispered. ‘So the chances are that I happened upon his private funeral. No wonder the boat sped off as fast as it could away from me. I . . .’

Ally put her head in her hands and the other girls stood up and gathered around her. Marina and I shot each other painful glances from opposite ends of the table. Finally, Ally recovered her composure and apologised for her instinctive display of emotion.

‘It must be an awful shock for you to realise what was actually happening,’ said Tiggy. ‘We’re all so sorry for you, Ally.’

‘Thank you,’ she said, nodding. ‘But now I think about it, Pa did tell me once when we were out sailing together that his wish was to be buried at sea. So I suppose it all makes sense.’

‘Apart from the fact that none of us were invited to be in attendance when it happened,’ commented Electra mutinously.

‘No. We weren’t,’ Ally sighed. ‘And yet, totally by coincidence, there I was. Listen, would you all mind terribly if I had a little time alone?’