‘Over his dead body. I doubt he could fit it in between all his other projects, anyway. It’s a full-time job running that hostel of his. Not to mention the unorthodox way he stocks and decorates it.’

‘Eliza happened to mention that she knows all about that,’ Milly said.

‘Olivia told you?’ Rory asked.

Eliza nodded. It seemed there were no secrets tonight. ‘You don’t mind what Alex is doing?’

He shrugged. ‘I’m his brother, not his conscience. I can’t tell him how to live his life.’

Eliza woke at the hostel the next morning to an email from Olivia.

Maxie and I are so sorry, Eliza. We’re doing all we can to make amends. Talking to each other, swapping stories, reading everything we ever received from Jeannie to give you as much information about her, her parents and your father as we can. We’ve attached some of it here. You were right. We should have done this years ago. Please contact us if and when you feel ready to talk. O & M xx

Eliza had had a restless night. She’d woken often, lying in the darkness, listening to the sounds of the hostel outside. She’d thought about her mother. Her godmothers. All they had done for her over the years. About Rory and Alex. About all that Milly had said to her.

She wrote straight back. I’m so sorry too. Thank you for writing everything down. I’m ready to talk again whenever you both are.

Chapter Twenty-six

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Olivia and Maxie were seated at the round table by the bay window when Eliza came in. The table was covered in piles of paperwork. They hugged her and she hugged them back. They loved her new haircut, they told her. She knew they meant it.

‘Are you happy if we get right to it?’ Olivia asked. At Eliza’s nod, Maxie took over.

‘We’re so sorry to start with bad news,’ she said. ‘We found out more about Jeannie’s parents.’

Eliza tried to ignore a sharp jolt of something that felt like disappointment. A staff member at their old school had put them in touch with a retired nun. She’d given them Jeannie’s parents’ full names. They’d gone in search online. Jeannie’s mother had died ten years earlier. Her death notice had asked for donations to be made to the Stroke Foundation. Her father had died the following year, cause unknown. They were both buried in Melbourne.

‘Was Mum mentioned in the death notices?’ Eliza asked.

They had checked for exactly that.

‘I’m sorry, Eliza. No,’ Olivia said.

Eliza let that settle too. She had never met her grandparents. But there was still a ripple of hurt.

‘Did I have aunts or uncles?’

Olivia shook her head. ‘Jeannie was definitely an only child.’