Anna reached out and with her small fingers began to trace around her grandmother’s mouth and across her eyes before leaning in so that their foreheads touched. Frankie glanced at Maisie, then Brenda, and they stepped out behind the screen. In time they heard Anna telling her grandmother about her pony, and about Emma and Jook, and about living at the Dower House. When she could hear the deep fatigue returning to Louisa’s responses, Maisie drew back the screen and joined Anna.
“Is it time to go, Anna?” asked Maisie.
“Yes, Nan’s tired now.”
Maisie watched as the elderly woman and her granddaughter held each other. She helped the child off the bed, and as she was about to join Frankie and Brenda, Anna looked up at Louisa and said, “I’ll see you in heaven, Nan.”
“See you in heaven, my lovely one.”
Maisie remained at the woman’s bedside, and did not speak until she heard Frankie and Brenda taking Anna from the ward, the echo of their footsteps diminishing as they walked away.
“Mrs. Mason, I know you are so very tired, but there’s something we should discuss, and I don’t think it can wait.”
“Right you are. Is it about Anna?”
“Yes, it is. I’ve spoken to my solicitor about your situation—Anna not having a birth certificate, and your desire that a good home should be found for her, after the war—if not before.” She stopped speaking, gauging whether Mason had heard and understood her. The woman lifted her hand, indicating that Maisie should continue.
“I have a couple of documents here. Both have been drawn up to protect Anna. One is an application for a birth certificate. We don’t know the father, but we do know the mother, your daughter, who is now sadly deceased. I would need your signature here to that effect. But wait a moment.” Maisie moved the screen to look at the ward. She waved, catching the attention of the staff nurse, who was just leaving another patient’s bedside. “I need a witness.”
She explained the situation and handed the documents to the nurse to peruse while she continued to speak to Louisa.
“This other document is ‘To Whom It May Concern’ and allows my solicitor to protect Anna’s best interests, especially when it comes to placing her with a family. I can read it all to you, and I am sure the staff nurse will tell you if anything sounds wrong.”
“I trust you,” said Louisa Mason. “You brought her to me, and I trust you.”
“This looks perfectly all right, Mrs. Mason,” said the staff nurse, handing the documents back to Maisie. “It means Anna is fully protected.”
In her spidery hand, Louisa Mason signed the documents, which Maisie then passed to the nurse to countersign as witness. She thanked the staff nurse, who reminded her not to be too long.
“Thank you, Miss Dobbs,” said Louisa. “Thank you for bringing her. I never thought I would see her again.”
“We were worried about her for a while. She was completely silent.”
“No, she wasn’t. Anna’s never silent when she’s not talking. That’s how I knew in my heart she was really all right—she was talking to me.”
Maisie was about to reply when the old woman’s eyes closed, and her breathing slowed, as if she had slipped into a deep sleep. For a few moments Maisie watched the troubled rise and fall of Louisa’s chest, and felt, then, as if she were lingering in a place between one world and the next. It was time for her to leave.
As Maisie departed the ward, she stopped to thank the staff nurse again.
“It’s all rules in a hospital—it’s nice to break them every so often, I must say.” The nurse giggled. “And I’m glad the little girl saw her nan before she passes on. Funny little thing, isn’t she?” She picked up a thermometer, ready to check a patient. “But I think you’ll have trouble finding her a home. She doesn’t look English, does she?”
“She has a lovely heart, that’s the main thing.”
“Yes, but people wanting to adopt don’t always look at the inside, do they? They want a child who looks like them, so no one asks questions later.”
Maisie drew the motor car to a halt outside London Bridge Station, and opened the rear passenger door for Anna to alight, as Frankie helped Brenda on the other side. The four stepped onto the pavement to say their good-byes, with Maisie confirming that she would be at Chelstone on Friday. She knelt down to Anna’s height.
“Nan told me she would be in heaven tomorrow,” said Anna.
Maisie could feel Frankie and Brenda’s attention on her, waiting to hear her response.
“When did she tell you that, Anna? I don’t think I heard her.”
“Oh no, she didn’t say it out loud. She told me here.” Anna touched her forehead. “We talk like that sometimes, when we don’t want anyone else to hear.” She stared away from Maisie, as if into a distance only she could see. “And she told me she would see me in heaven. It would be a lot of years in my life, but not a lot of years in hers. Heaven’s different.”
Maisie reached out and stroked Anna’s hair, feeling its softness under her fingers. Thick and strong, yet soft jet-black hair.
Epilogue
“She was cremated,” said Billy. “I spoke to Mrs. Durant’s father—very nice man, devastated at losing his daughter and then his son-in-law. He was widowed, so I felt sorry for the old boy. But he has another daughter, and apparently he sees a lot of her.”