Page 119 of The Stranger in Room Six
His face dropped. ‘I should have known. A beautiful girl like you would be taken by now. Who is the lucky man?’
Someone who might have tried to kill you during the war? The enemy? How could she tell him that?
‘His name is Anthony,’ she said, not wanting to give his Italian name. ‘He’s been caught up in the war.’ She swallowed hard. ‘I have no idea where he is.’
‘I’m sorry to hear that.’ He was standing a good distance from her now. ‘Well, Anthony is a very lucky man. I wish you both happiness if he returns.’
Later, as she went down to the sea to clear her head, Mabel noticed the door to the lacemaker’s cottage was open. Mabel recalled her words at their last meeting. ‘But we cannot always have everything.’
Yet surely she could have some happiness?
Tentatively, Mabel went in.
The lacemaker was sitting at the table, as though she was expecting her. Although no one knew how old she was, she seemed to have aged in the last few months, her movements slower and hair greying.
‘How nice to see you, Mabel,’ she said.
‘I hope I’m not disturbing you.’
‘I never mind being disturbed by you. Your kind smile is so like your mother’s.’
Mabel felt the warm glow she always got when someone commented on their likeness even though Mama was actually her aunt. She was also glad that the lacemaker, even though she knew the truth, continued to keep up the pretence.
‘Please, take a seat. Are you here to talk about your young man? I suppose you’re wondering if you’ll ever see him and your child again?’
Mabel nodded. ‘How did you know?’
The lacemaker tapped her head in answer, smiling softly at Mabel. Then she closed her eyes, as if in a trance. Mabel’s mouth was dry with hope and fear as she waited.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said eventually, ‘but I cannot see anything this time.’
Mabel felt her heart plummet with bitter disappointment.
‘But there is one piece of advice drumming away in my head.’
She looked unflinchingly at Mabel. ‘The truth always finds us out.’
Now
‘Was she right?’ asks Belinda. ‘Doesthe truth always come out?’ She looks rather pale and tired, Mabel notices.
‘I’m not sure,’ says Mabel. How can she admit that she is still waiting for that knock on the door?
The Stranger in Room Six
‘Is that all you’ve got?’ I thunder. ‘That Mabel spent the rest of her life pining for the kid she gave away and some Italian she met during the war?’
‘Give me a bit more time,’ pleads Belinda. ‘I think I’m close to something.’
‘Are you sure you’re telling me everything? This fortune teller – “the truth always finds us out”. Sounds like a load of nonsense to me, Belinda.’
‘I promise, I’m telling you everything.’
But there’s a little quiver to her chin as she speaks.
‘For your sake, I hope that’s true. I’ve already given you an ultimatum but I’ll give it again. It’s not long until the party. If you don’t come up with the goods by then, you and your girls will end up like your husband. Got it?’
Belinda whimpers, and I remember there’s something else I’ve been meaning to ask her. ‘One more thing. Did you ever find your husband’s lover? Karen, wasn’t it?’
