‘But you said you thought that Minty was your sister? Why was that if she was Grace’s daughter?’

Eileen hesitated for a moment. ‘I can only assume that it was because it would have been a scandal. Grace was unmarried, you see. She and Billy were due to be married as soon as he returned but of course—’

‘I don’t suppose you have a photo of him, do you?’ Heather asked. Eileen hesitated again but Heather continued, ‘When we heard the story, we were captured by the romance of it, weren’t we Bea?’

‘I …’ I seemed to have lost the ability to speak.

‘Romance?’ said Eileen. ‘I don’t think there was much of that, at least not from what I heard; just loss … For Grace to have lost the two people closest to her must have been unbearable, but then that’s war for you. From what I know, my grandparents looked after Grace and Minty. My mother was newly married at the time and living here too, so I imagine that – in order to save Grace’s reputation – they said that Minty was Lily’s daughter. Who was to know? Of course I never knew Grace or Minty, but my mother always talked about Minty as if she was my sister; until she was dying, that is: then she told me the truth.’

She got up and went to a dresser where she searched in one of the drawers, then pulled out an ancient-looking leather photo album. ‘I think this is the one,’ she said as she placed it on the table in front of us, then flipped over a few pages. ‘There,’ she said as she pointed to a photo of a young man in army uniform. ‘That was Billy, just before he went off to war. Handsome chap, wasn’t he?’

I took a sharp intake of breath when I looked at the photo. Ah, there you are again, I thought as I saw the face of the man from the park staring back at me, a face as familiar as family. He had indeed been a handsome chap, dark haired with fine features. I felt tears come to my eyes and brushed them away. ‘Such a sad story,’ I whispered.

‘And there’s one of Grace and Minty,’ said Eileen as she pointed at another photo. ‘I was sad not to have known them. Lily said that Grace was such a joy before she lost Billy and Minty but sank into a depression afterwards.’

Heather and I looked at the photos and I could see that Heather was as moved as I was. Minty was a little cherub with curly blonde hair. I glanced out of the window and, in my mind’s eye, I could still see the image from the hypnosis session: Grace in the garden, Minty toddling towards her.