Alexandra rose then, disappearing for a long moment before returning with something curled into her hand. It most definitely wasn’t a bottle of champagne. She sat on the edge of the sofa, slowly opening her palm.
‘These were given to me by my aunt, who raised me following the death of my mother,’ Alexandra said. ‘She told me on the eve of my eighteenth birthday that they were special family heirlooms, passed down from my own grandmother, and that they were to stay in our family forever.’ She smiled. ‘I’ve waited a very long time to do this. May I?’
Ella edged forwards, gasping when she saw the size of the diamond solitaires that Alexandra was gently placing in her mother’s ears.
‘They’re beautiful,’ Ella whispered. ‘Absolutely beautiful.’
‘I wanted to leave them behind in the little box of clues, but Hope wouldn’t let me. She said that I might need them one day, and I knew that what she meant was that if I ever left my father and had to fend for myself I might have to sell them. But I could never have parted with them, they were too special.’
‘Alexandra,’ Madeline said, as Ella watched the gentle way she touched her lobes, her fingertips grazing the diamonds there. ‘Was he a good man? My father?’
Alexandra sat straighter then, even though Ella thought such a question might make her falter. She looked first at Ella, then at Madeline, before rising and going to a table in the far corner of the room. She returned with two framed photographs, one of a young man on stage, holding a cello, and the other an old man with a head of thick white hair, laughing as he sat on the beach.
‘This was your father, Madeline,’ Alexandra said. ‘And your grandfather, Ella.’
Ella leaned forwards and looked at the photographs, even though she’d already seen them before. She heard the sharp intake of her mother’s breath, saw the way she reached for the picture of the older man, holding it close to her face as she studied it.
‘Bernard was the love of my life,’ Alexandra said. ‘I loved him as a young woman, and I loved him as an old lady. My feelings for him never changed, despite the years that passed. ‘
‘You were so fortunate to have found him again,’ Ella said. ‘I’m only sorry I wasn’t given these clues a year ago, so we could have met him.’
‘Alexandra, Ella has told me that you found your way back to Bernard. How, after all those years apart, did you manage to find each other again?’
‘I’d travelled to London to see the orchestra, would you believe? After all those years of refusing to go to a live performance, I’d decided it was time to let go of the past and find my love of music again. In the audience of course, as an observer.’
‘So it was a chance meeting? Seeing Bernard again?’
‘Fate had been most unkind to us in our younger years, Ella, but that night, it was almost as if it were meant to be.’
32
LONDON, 2012
Alexandra stood in the foyer of the Royal Festival Hall and looked around in wonder. It had barely changed since the first time she’d been there, or perhaps it had merely been so long that she simply couldn’t remember. It had been the eve of her eighteenth birthday, after all; a performance and a night that had changed the course of her life. The glittering dresses and the dapper men; the bubbles of champagne on her tongue; the breathless anticipation as the crowd had waited for the orchestra to begin. It washed over her as if no time had passed, and if she closed her eyes she truly believed that she’d look down and see the young, slender body of her youth, wearing the dress that she and Belle had gone shopping for all those years ago. Her cousin Belle would be to her left, Will to her other side, her aunt and uncle smiling and watching them as if they couldn’t have been prouder to be taking them out for the evening.
‘Aunt Alexandra?’ She looked across at her niece, taking a moment to realise who was saying her name. Thankfully she’d reconnected with her mother’s side of the family after her father had passed away, realising how foolish she’d been not to turn to them in her hour of need, even if she hadn’t been able to see that at the time. Her greatest pleasure had been her relationship with Belle’s children and then grandchildren. Georgia was the only granddaughter, and Alexandra visited London at least once a year to see her.
‘Sorry, darling, I was suddenly a million miles away.’
Georgia just smiled and took her arm. ‘Are you feeling all right?’
‘I’m perfectly fine,’ she said. ‘It’s just being here, after all these years, it’s all coming back to me.’
‘How long ago?’
‘Decades,’ she replied. ‘Only a few years after our family had been effectively exiled from Greece.’ Alexandra patted her niece’s hand, smiling down at her. ‘Back then, we thought the monarchy would be restored within months, that the exile was only a temporary thing.’
‘It’s almost impossible to imagine that you grew up in Greece with the royal family as friends.’
It did seem surreal. Alexandra thought back to her childhood, and it was almost as if she were recounting a fairy tale rather than real life. For a while, she’d held on to the memories of her mother ferociously, terrified of letting her go, almost believing that one day she’d walk through the door and it would have all been a mistake. But then, something had changed inside her, and she’d decided it would be easier to forget, to try to make the pain go away. And eventually, it had.
Alexandra looked around the room, sighing as she reminded herself that this was another time. There would be no giggles with her cousins, or dreaming about a boy she’d just laid eyes upon; tonight she was here with her niece to listen to the orchestra, not to remember what had once been.
‘I can’t believe it’s been a year since you were in London,’ Georgia said, hugging her arm as they slowly walked, following along beside everyone else. ‘We have so much to do while you’re here. Should we go shopping tomorrow?’
She nodded as she reached for the programme that was passed to her. ‘Shopping sounds lovely. So long as you remember I’m an old lady who needs to be well fed and watered along the way.’
Georgia laughed. ‘Point taken.’
