‘Well, that’s a good beginning,’ smiled Boots, ‘for I’m delighted to meet you. Tell me about yourself.’
‘Oh, there’s little to tell, m’sieur, except that I was brought up by my mother and my grandparents, and they’re all dead now. So I live with my Aunt Marie and Uncle Jacques, who are very kind to me. M’sieur, you look very kind yourself, and very handsome.’
‘Handsome?’ Boots laughed. ‘No, it’s my brother Tommy who’s renowned for being handsome. But at least I seem to be the father of a very pretty girl.’
Eloise regarded him with less shyness now, the deep grey of her eyes matching his. The sunlight tinted hers with blue. She smiled.
‘See, my mother and I tried to find your grave,’ she said, ‘and all the time you were alive. Oh, I’m so sad that you couldn’t come back to her because the war blinded you, but you have come to see me now that you know I exist, which makes me happy for both of us. You have a family in England?’
‘I’ve a wife, a son and a daughter,’ said Boots, and spoke of them and of his mother and stepfather who lived with them. He did not, however, say that Rosie was adopted. Eloise listened, all eyes and ears. She looked at him, and kept looking, at his sound eye and his lazy one, at his firm mouth and the little smile that seemed close to the surface all the time. She felt she knew then why her mother had fallen in love with him.
‘Mon pere, I think perhaps you have a lovely family.’
‘It’s a very talkative one,’ said Boots. ‘Eloise, my daughter Rosie is with me, wanting to meet you, and we’ll spend several days here. Shall we get together with you, so that we can all come to know each other?’
‘You would like that?’ said Eloise.
‘Yes, very much,’ said Boots. ‘There’ll be the question of what you’d like to do, whether you’d like to come and live with us or stay with your aunt and uncle. It’s not something I’d ask you to decide while we’re here. You can take as much time to think about it as you want. If you should decide in our favour, then I’ll come and fetch you. Are you happy with that?’
‘My aunt and uncle, I must think about them and all they have done for me,’ said Eloise, ‘but yes, I am quite happy with your suggestion.’
‘Then come and meet Rosie, your sister,’ said Boots, and she put her hand in his and walked back with him to the gate. Polly and Rosie were out of the car and standing at the gate. ‘Rosie,’ said Boots, ‘here’s your new sister, Eloise.’
‘Eureka and shining stars,’ said Rosie. She opened the gate and came through, to look at Eloise and to smile at her. ‘Oh, yes, you’re my father’s, aren’t you? I’m so pleased to meet you.’
‘Excuse me?’ said Eloise, thinking Rosie quite beautiful.
‘Try French, Rosie,’ said Boots.
Rosie, fluent, said in French, ‘Eloise, I’m Rosie, and I’m so pleased to meet you. We’re sisters. Isn’t that simply wonderful? And isn’t our father lucky in having two daughters like us? We’re both treasures. There, may I kiss you?’ And Rosie kissed Eloise on her cheeks.
From the gate Polly looked on, seeing the three of them together, Boots and his two daughters. None of them belonged to her. She stood on the outside, although for many years she had longed to be on the inside, and still did. The old bitterness might have surfaced then, but didn’t. She might have said something sweetly acid, but didn’t. A girl, Anglo-French, had found a family, and Polly could not bring herself to spoil the moment.
Boots turned.
‘Polly, stop cuddling that gate. Come and join us,’ he said, ‘you’re the best part of this event.’ He moved and pulled the gate open. His hand touched hers, took hold of it and for a brief moment pressed it warmly. Then, lightly touching her arm, he brought her forward, and Polly could hardly believe that she of all people had to fight the emotional sensation of eyes turning moist. ‘We owe you, Polly. I owe you.’ Then he said in French, ‘Eloise, by the way, is going to think about whether she’ll come and live with us in England or stay here with her aunt and uncle. We’ll let her take all the time she wants to make up her mind.’
‘Eloise, you will think about living with us, won’t you?’ said Rosie.
Eloise, emotional, said, ‘But yes, how could I not? I belong to my father. It is just that I could not leave my aunt and uncle too quickly. See, I will come and spend Christmas with you, and then if I come again, it will be to stay, it will be to say my aunt and uncle are happy for me to do so. But I speak only a little English.’
‘But you do speak a little?’ said Rosie, smiling.
In English, Eloise said, ‘Oh, ’ello and ’ow are you, please, and also ’ow much.’
‘That would make a very good start,’ said Boots.
‘Lovely,’ said Polly. ‘Anything else, Eloise?’
‘Yes, what the Tommies used to say.’
‘Oh, it’s what Uncle Jacques told me,’ said Eloise. ‘Shall I say it?’
‘We’d all like to hear it,’ said Polly.
Eloise said in English, ‘It’s cheeri-oh and gawd blimey.’
In the farm lane, close to the barn that had seen the West Kents resting out of the line in the summer of 1916, Boots laughed his head off.
Which, for Polly, brought back the laughter of the men of the trenches.
The End
About the Author
Mary Jane Staples was born, bred and educated in Walworth, and is the author of many bestselling novels, including the ever-popular cockney sagas featuring the Adams family.
Also by Mary Jane Staples:
The Adams Books
Down Lambeth Way
Our Emily
King of Camberwell
On Mother Brown’s Doorstep
A Family Affair
Missing Person
Pride of Walworth
The Young Ones
The Camberwell Raid
The Last Summer
The Family at War
Fire Over London
Churchill’s People
Bright Day, Dark Night
Tomorrow is Another Day
Year of Victory
The Homecoming
Sons and Daughters
Appointment at the Palace
Changing Times
Spreading Wings
Family Fortunes
A Girl Next Door
Ups and Downs
Out of the Shadows
A Sign of the Times
The Soldier’s Girl
Other titles in order of publication
Two for Three Farthings
The Lodger
Rising Summer
The Pearly Queen
Sergeant Joe
The Trap
The Ghost of Whitechapel
Escape to London
The Price of Freedom
A Wartime Marriage
Katernia’s Secret
The Summer Day is Done
Natasha’s Dream
Nurse Anna’s War
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ECHOES OF YESTERDAY
A CORGI BOOK : 9780552143752
Version 1.0 Epub ISBN 9781446488393
First publication in Great Britain
Printing History
Corgi edition published 1995
Corgi edition reprinted 1995 (twice)
Copyright © Mary Jane Staples 1995
The right of Mary Jane Staples to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All the characters in this book are fictitious and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
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