She had not even said a farewell to the Welshman. The joy of finding Bea had wiped out all thought of him. Now she remembered the outline of his face against the glowing grate as he reproached himself for repaying her charity with dishonor.

It was the first time a man had ever said anything like that to her. There were men aplenty who had taken more than she wanted to give, but this was the only one who was sorry for it.

Sleep would not come to her, weary as she was. There was too much to consider. She spent long hours contemplating the vast distance between the sister she had sought and the sister she had found. It seemed impossible to bridge the space between them, until the door of her room opened and Bea was there. She came in quietly as Nan admonished Fuss to silence, and slipped under the blanket to lie next to Nan in the dark.

“Do you think of him still?” she whispered, and Nan could hear tears in her voice. There was no question who she was talking about. “I think of him most days.”

Her hand found her sister’s and their fingers intertwined.

“Aye, how could I not?” She felt her own tears leaking out but, as she had when Bea was just a little girl, she did her best to hide them. “I promised her to look after you both.”

“There weren’t no way to save him, Nan. I’ve thought of it over and over. He were too little for anything but a wet nurse, and us with no way to pay one, and starving ourselves.”

She felt Bea’s face press into her shoulder. This was the inescapable truth of sisters, of siblings. No matter how different they were, no matter how far apart life took them, there was no one else who shared these memories. The same early sorrows filled their hearts, and the same joys. When they slept, the same places and faces appeared in their dreams. Only the two of them remembered the brother they had had for a little while, and only they could whisper his memory between them.

“It’s like I told you, little Bea. He’s our own angel in heaven now, for how could he be anywhere else.”

“I hope it’s so.”

“It is,” she insisted, suddenly more sure of it than ever. “How else can we both still be alive, and doing as well as we are? We’ve had more than our share of good fortune. It’s him looking out for us.”

She felt Bea’s arm wrap around her waist, strong and full of life, holding her close as they had used to do when they were girls.

Her sister. She had found her sister. It was all she had wanted, and here it was, holding her in the dark and sorrowful night.

Chapter Eleven

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