‘You did the right thing. You gave granddaughters like me the opportunity to find out about our family’s past. Each recipient can make their own decision, and that’s what’s important, Mia. You gave us the choice.’
‘You truly think so? You don’t think I’ve disrespected my aunt by taking the things she’d hidden?’
Mia shook her head. ‘No, I don’t think that. I think that you’ve done something very special.’
‘My aunt, she dedicated her life to helping women, but I know very little about why. She must have helped hundreds of pregnant girls over the years, and delivered equally as many babies. If there’s one thing I’m certain of, it’s that the women she took into her care would have been abandoned by their families if not for her.’
‘And yet there were only seven boxes hidden?’ Ella said. ‘Despite all those babies she delivered?’
‘Eight, actually. If you count the one bearing her own name. But I suppose that doesn’t count, given it was empty. The writing on it is different and the box doesn’t match the others either.’
‘Perhaps someone once made her a little keepsake box to say thank you, and it inspired her to create all the other ones? Perhaps that is the link. Maybe that’s why there was nothing inside it, and she just kept it as a memento? To remind herself why she was doing all this.’
Mia nodded as her coffee arrived. ‘Perhaps. But none of this is helping you, is it? I wish there was more I could do, some way I could help you to figure out what your clues mean.’
‘You’ve done more than enough,’ Ella said. ‘In fact, you’ve made me even more determined to find out what this all means.’
‘Is your grandmother still alive?’
‘No,’ Ella replied. ‘I loved her so much. She helped me through a very difficult time, and the more I think about all this, the more I want to understand her past. It feels like something I can do for her, even though she’s not here anymore. Does that sound silly?’
‘No,’ Mia said, smiling over her coffee cup. ‘It sounds beautiful, and it’s also similar to what another granddaughter recently told me.’
Ella felt her eyebrows lift in surprise. ‘One of the other women, from the day we received the boxes?’
Mia nodded. ‘Her name is Claudia. She recently sent me a letter to say that following her clues completely changed her life, and that she’s found family that she never even knew existed.’
‘Was her family in London?’ Ella asked, barely able to contain her curiosity.
‘Would you believe she ended up in Cuba?’ Mia said. ‘I still smile thinking about what she wrote to me. It’s made all my anxiety over my decision worth it.’
They both sat back as Mia sipped her coffee, the clues still sitting on the table in front of them as Ella wondered how she was going to decipher them and whether, just like Claudia, the key to understanding them might be abroad.
* * *
Ella usually either worked or thought about work over the weekend. She wasn’t quite certain when she’d become a workaholic, but after having a fun Saturday flitting between seeing Mia and then picking up coffee to deliver to Gabriel, she was starting to see that perhaps other people actually spent their weekends doing more pleasurable things.
She stood for a moment outside the Barbican Centre, taking the time to appreciate what a beautiful building it was before walking to what she hoped was the correct door. She’d studied art as well as history at university, and she was beginning to see that she’d been rushing through life so fast she was barely stopping to appreciate architecture and landmarks in the way she should.
‘Ella!’
Ella looked up and realised she was precariously close to tipping over the tray she was carrying. Gabriel was walking towards her in faded blue jeans, a white T-shirt and scuffed boots, the complete opposite of his appearance the night before, but somehow he looked even better. How was it that some men could improve with age? It was certainly the case with Gabe.
‘Hey!’ She righted the tray and held out his coffee. ‘I come bearing caffeine!’
He grinned and lifted the cup, taking a sip and making a sound like it was the best thing he’d tasted all day.
‘I wish we hadn’t stayed out so late last night. It’s made today brutal.’
She winced. ‘Sorry. You can blame me for that.’
They stood for a moment, and she cleared her throat, surprised by how nervous she felt.
‘Does it feel like work when you’re rehearsing? I mean, when you love what you do so much, does it still feel like a job?’
They fell into step beside each other, slowly wandering, coffees in hand.
‘Some days it does. It can be a real grind, just like any other job. But when it all comes together, when everything just falls into place, then no. It feels like magic then.’
