Nicole has done a pretty good job fixing up the neglect I imposed on your house. I couldn’t touch the place after you left and couldn’t bear the thought of anyone else in it. But my time’s been coming a while now, and I knew I had to make good on my promise to you. Perhaps you had a hand in bringing her here. I’d like to believe that. She’s a lot like you. Smart, feisty, insolent, pushy. Like you, she is a gem amongst the stones. She’s made these last few months waiting for death bearable.

My son survived. I found him. I don’t know what became of my Hannah, my sweet Hannah. I will carry the guilt of that night with me into the next life.

I’ve been watching James, watching him from afar and he’s a fine man, not at all taking after his father, thank goodness.

I’m leaving him the cottage and the boatshed. They must stay together.

It doesn’t change what I did and it can hardly make up for it, but, perhaps it is a gesture that can, in some inadequately small way, say I’m sorry. There is a little bit of money over from what you left me. I hope it is okay that I give it to Nicole.

I also sent James a letter. I don’t know what Hannah would have told him about me, if she ever had the chance, but I figure I owe him the truth. When we leave this world what else is there left?

I hope he can forgive me, though I doubt I could if roles were reversed. I am a coward. James will not have the chance to ask me questions, or to get angry with me, or hate me, or hit me, or look on at me with pity. I’ve robbed him of that, too afraid to face him in person. My only hope is that he is a better man than I and will find a way to deal with the truth.

I hope you made it back into your Thomas’s arms. I imagine where I’m heading now, no friendly smile will greet me. Only flames. The irony of that is not lost on me. I will conjure your beautiful face in my mind to comfort me.

Thank you for saving me, Ivy.

Charlie

Nicole read the letter out loud, her voice breaking.

‘Bugger me.’ Mandy let out a long breath.

Trevor knocked on the doorframe to the kitchen. ‘Sorry to interrupt, girls, but a few people are starting to leave and I thought you might want to say goodbye.’

‘Thanks, honey,’ Mandy said. ‘We’ll be right out.’

The women stood up and fixed their hair, splashed their faces with water and headed back outside.

‘I’ll join you in a sec,’ Nicole said as Mandy opened the screen door.