Lucy raised her hand to catch her mother’s attention. ‘Mum! Did you hear that? Augi has some news for us.’
‘That’s exciting!’ said Kate, turning from Jen who was showing her something on her phone. No doubt ideas for the interior of the house Sam was building further along the coast. ‘What have you found out?’
Augi glanced briefly at Oliver and Sam, displaying her usual reticence and caution, and was apparently reassured they were out of earshot.
‘I have a name,’ Augi said.
Lucy leaned forward. ‘Augi, don’t keep us in suspense.’
‘I believe the man in your photograph is John Kowalski.’
‘John Kowalski.’ Lucy repeated. ‘Wow. I guess he’s no longer Johnnie the Mysterious Marine.’
Jen picked up the photo from the table, where it had obviously been the subject of earlier discussion. Her son, Liam had found it in a box of photos, tucked under the eaves in the attic some months earlier. ‘The name makes it all the more real. John was a real person, with a family, parents who cared for him. And he was a man who was in love with someone he was looking at.’
‘Ngaire,’ Lucy said, taking the photo. ‘Who called him Johnnie.’ She turned it towards Kate. ‘This man was in love with your grandmother.’
Kate frowned, practical even now. ‘It’s a link to Ngaire, yes. But I still don’t see how it connects to the cottage.’
‘I’m still waiting to hear back from the Michigan lawyers. I passed on the name and address Oliver gave us from the hotel files, so I’m hopeful they may come back to me with something more concrete now.’
‘I just can’t figure out,’ said Kate, ‘why a brief wartime romance led to an anonymous trust. We’re getting some of the pieces but they’re not forming any kind of coherent puzzle. I mean why would a boyfriend of my great-grandmother set up a trust to enable her to live in her old family home? He couldn’t have been here long.’
‘I found that out, too,’ said Augi. ‘He was here about seven months in 1941,’ she said. ‘There’s no record of him returning afterwards.’
Kate nodded slowly. ‘Ngaire and the family were living here in 1941. But by 1945 — when she married Tamati — the cottage wasn’t ours. And then later, after Hope was born, they moved back.’ Her brow furrowed. ‘Something must have happened to firstly make us lose the house, and secondly to regain it again.’ She grunted. ‘Sort of.’
‘Financial mismanagement?’ Jen suggested.
‘Probably,’ Kate said. ‘But it still doesn’t explain why John Kowalski would buy the cottage and set up a trust to give Ngaire a home. It doesn’t make sense.’
‘We need more information,’ Lucy said.
‘I’m looking,’ Augi replied. ‘But the local archives are thinner than I expected. I could put out a request in the community —’
‘No,’ Kate said firmly. ‘Not yet. Not until we have to.’
‘I might be able to help.’
Lucy turned to find Oliver standing behind them, just outside the light of the lanterns, as if he wasn’t sure he was welcome in the circle.
‘There were other things I found at the hotel which I wasn’t sure would be relevant,’ he said. ‘But now I’m thinking they might be.’
‘What things?’ Lucy asked.
‘Some paperwork which was unfortunately undated but, from the context, was definitely after his initial posting in 1941, shows John Kowalski made at least one other visit to MacLeod’s Cove because he settled some outstanding accounts with the hotel then. Accounts which incidentally weren’t his, but members of his platoon.’
Kate’s hand flew to her cheek. ‘Could it have been after the war?’
‘I couldn’t find his name on any of the ship’s manifests after the war,’ said Augi.
‘The paperwork wasn’t dated, I’m afraid. But I’m guessing from the context, it was while the war was still going on.’
‘When was Hope born, Mum?’ asked Lucy quietly.
‘December 1946.’
‘Ah, well,’ continued Lucy, ‘at least there won’t be any surprises about parentage.’
