Thea squeezed Ezzie’s hand. ‘How did it go?’
Valentina pushed the door almost closed. ‘You looked like a ghost when you came in.’
Despite the emergency chocolate, Ezz felt trembly. ‘It’s knocked the stuffing out of me.’
‘Oh …’ breathed Thea and Valentina, in twin sighs of disappointment. Valentina slipped a comforting arm along Ezz’s shoulders.
Ezz tried to laugh but her voice wavered. ‘Kay and I … hugged. Then I hugged Rick, Julia and Iona too. I feel as if I’ve been on the wildest fairground ride ever invented. My heart feels strange. My breathing’s gone all bumpy.’
Thea clutched her chest. ‘That’s so lovely, Ezz. You’rehappyabout your birth family.’
Ezz gazed at her, seeing tears shining in Thea’s dark eyes. ‘I think I am,’ she said wonderingly. ‘Hugs don’t resolve forty-four years of absence, forty-four years ofwondering, but they did bring a certain amount of peace. Kay’s been ill. That’s why she suddenly searched for me.’ She explained about Kay’s cancer, and watched her sisters’ faces melt into tears.
‘I can see why that would change her perspective,’ Valentina choked.
‘When you’re facing tragedy, you know exactly what it is you crave,’ Thea added, sniffing. ‘I can’t blame her for wanting to hold her child.’
Finally, Ezz told them about what Mats and Grete had done to facilitate the meeting away from the freezing wind blowing off the sea and swooping up on the headland to batter Rothach Hall.
Thea slipped her hand into Ezz’s. ‘So … you saw Mats?’ There was a hopeful note in her voice.
Ezz’s happiness dimmed at remembering Mats emerging from the kitchen as she fumbled at the door to let Kay, Rick, Julia and Iona out of the Larsson’s apartment. ‘He’s going home in the New Year. I asked him to say goodbye to the children for me.’ She sighed as a new sadness weighed on her heart. ‘I might need more emergency chocolate.’
