Page 123 of The Stranger in Room Six

Mabel

Mabel can’t quite believe what this woman is telling her.

‘You’re my great-granddaughter?’ she says over and over again. ‘But how is my Antonio?’

‘He is good. I live near him in Italy.’

‘But how? Where?’

‘I will tell you all, my bisnonna, when I arrive.’

‘Bisnonna? What does that mean?’

She laughs merrily. ‘It is Italian for great-grandmother.’

Mabel’s head is spinning. ‘You are coming here?’

‘But of course. If you would like me to.’

‘Yes! Yes, I would. Please. Be quick. I need to see you before it is too late.’

Sunnyside Home for the Young at Heart is waiting.

News has got around. A room is made up for Isabella in the visitors’ wing.

Mabel spends hours putting on her make-up and trying on different clothes.

Belinda is on duty so she helps with this task, although Mabel barely talks to her.

If it wasn’t for the fact that it takes her for ever to get dressed on her own nowadays and that there are not enough staff to go round, she wouldn’t have had Belinda in the room. The air is tight.

And then there’s a knock on her door.

‘Please open it,’ she tells Harry, her heart thumping so hard that it rings in her ears.

A tall, olive-skinned woman stands there. She is pushing an elderly man in a wheelchair.

‘My bisnonna,’ she cries, running to Mabel.

But Mabel’s eyes are on the man.

‘Antonio!’ she cries out. ‘My love. I knew you were still alive. At last, you have come to find me!’