Eva and the Hidden Diary Read online

  No one said anything for a long time. I gazed at the thing lying on the grass in front of me.

  Could this battered old object have been the cause of all the scandal in the area in 1947?

  Could it have ruined the lives of the whole Lavelle family?

  And then Kate was running madly towards her house. ‘Don’t go anywhere,’ she called. ‘Zoe printed out a picture.’

  A second later she was back with a picture. She held it next to the thing on the ground, and we all looked at it doubtfully. The picture showed a shiny, perfect chalice. The thing on the ground looked like a piece of worthless old junk.

  Then Miley spat on the cuff of his coat. He bent down and started to rub. After a minute, in the middle of the dull brown surface, a patch of silver began to shine.

  ‘Well,’ said Miley proudly. ‘What do you think of that?’

  ‘OMG!’ I said. ‘You’ve found the Newtown chalice.’

  A few days later, it was time for me to leave Seacove once again. As soon as the house was scrubbed clean, and the car was packed up, Mum turned to me.

  ‘Ten more minutes, Eva,’ she said. ‘And then we have to leave, if we want to miss the traffic.’

  I knew the drill from previous years. I raced across to Kate’s place.

  Her Dad came to the door, and held Simon out for me to kiss. Simon is totally cute, but kissing a cheek crusted with dried-in porridge isn’t exactly my idea of fun, so I gave him a high-five instead. He didn’t seem to mind.

  Kate came to the door then, and her dad took Simon inside. Kate was almost bouncing up and down with excitement.

  ‘Zoe made the call last night,’ she said.

  ‘What call?’ I asked, even though I was fairly sure I could guess the answer.

  ‘The call to her boss in London. She told her she’s definitely not coming back. She’s going to stay here. Everyone’s going to stay here in Seacove.’

  I hugged her. ‘That’s so brilliant,’ I said. ‘Where is Zoe? I’d like to say goodbye.’

  Kate grinned. ‘She’s not here. She had to go to meet Roma. They’re drawing up a partnership agreement. They’ve agreed to run the catering company between them. And after they’ve drawn up the agreement, they’re going to the printers to get flyers and stuff made.’

  ‘Cool,’ I said. ‘And if they need models for the flyers, have they got Cathy and Andrea’s numbers?’

  We both laughed for a bit at the thought of Cathy and Andrea dressed up as sandwiches or cocktail sausages or something.

  Then Kate got serious again.

  ‘It’s all because of you, Eva. You’re the one who had the genius idea of getting Zoe and Roma together. How did you know they’d get on so well? Did you know they’d end up working together?’

  I shrugged. ‘Know is a big word,’ I said. ‘I sort of hoped it would work out, and luckily it did. I just put Roma and Zoe together, and they figured the rest out for themselves. It wasn’t exactly rocket science.’

  ‘Maybe not,’ said Kate. ‘But it’s still the best thing that’s happened to me. I love Zoe so much. She’s almost like a mum to me – except she’s never embarrassing, the way mums seem to be.’

  I smiled to myself, glad that Kate had never heard about Zoe’s ‘singing’ in Jacob’s pub.

  ‘And things worked out for Daisy too,’ sighed Kate. ‘I really, really hope she hurries up and writes back to us. The postman thinks I’m stalking him the way I race outside every time I hear his van coming along the lane.’

  ‘Well, you must promise to ring me the minute you hear a single word, OK?’ I said. ‘I don’t want to be left out, just because I’m not in Seacove.’

  She nodded. ‘I promise.’

  Then I checked my watch. ‘I have to go,’ I said. ‘Mum and Dad will be waiting for me.’

  ‘Oh, I nearly forgot,’ said Kate. ‘Zoe’s really sorry she couldn’t be here to say goodbye, so she left something for you.’

  She ran back into the house and came out a second later carrying a cake. She put it on the wall near the front door, so I could look at it properly.

  It was totally, totally amazing. On the top was a figure of Superwoman, but instead of Superwoman’s face, Zoe had stuck on a photo of me. All around the edge, it said “SUPER EVA” in huge silver letters.

  ‘That’s so gorgeous,’ I said. ‘I don’t think I’d ever dare to eat it.’

  ‘You’d better,’ said Kate, ‘or else my Wicked Stepmother will hunt you down and kill you or turn you into a weasel or something.’

  I giggled. Then I heard the sound of car doors slamming and the revving of an engine. I hugged Kate again, and then I picked up the cake and walked away. I found space on the back window for the cake, then I jumped into the car, and dad started the engine.

  And that was the end of another amazing holiday in Seacove.

  Chapter Nineteen

  It was a dull, chilly October afternoon when Mum drove me back to Seacove. The beach was deserted except for a man walking his dog. The sea was grey and choppy.

  Outside the shop, the brightly-coloured buckets and shovels that usually hung there had been replaced by stacks of logs and bags of coal.

  ‘It’s all different,’ I wailed to Mum. ‘And I’m not sure I like it.’

  Then I saw the notice-board on the wall outside the shop. It was a bit tattered and faded, but the picture of Cathy and Andrea was still there.

  I giggled. ‘OK. So maybe some things are still the same.’

  Mum rolled her eyes and continued to drive.

  Kate came racing out of her house when she heard our car.

  ‘You’re here, you’re here!’ she repeated over and over, like a crazy girl.

  ‘Who cares about me?’ I said. ‘What about Daisy? Is she here yet?’

  ‘She had an unexpected stop in Dublin,’ said Kate. ‘So she won’t be here for another few hours.’

  I couldn’t help feeling a small bit relieved. This was all kind of weird for me. Reading Daisy’s diary and proving that her dad was innocent was fine, but the thought of actually meeting her was making me nervous. In my mind, she was still a young girl like me, even though I knew she was old enough to be my granny.

  What were we going to talk about?

  Knitting?

  Arthritis?

  The best place to buy big beige knickers?

  Would she even know what a mobile phone or a computer was?

  Kate brought me inside to her place. Her dad and Zoe and Martha hugged me, and Simon gave me a sloppy baby kiss. When no one was looking, I wiped my face with the sleeve of my jumper – baby drool on my face so isn’t my idea of a cool look.

  ‘We met Georgina Eades last week,’ said Kate.

  ‘How come?’ I asked.

  ‘She paid for the restoration of the chalice,’ said Zoe. ‘And there was a ceremony in the church, in honour of its return to its rightful home.’

  ‘After a few decades in a hen-house,’ said Kate, trying not to laugh.

  We sat around the kitchen table. For the first time, I noticed that Zoe and Kate were all bright-eyed and edgy. They kept looking at each other and grinning like they had a big secret they were bursting to share.

  ‘What?’ I said in the end.

  ‘There’s something I haven’t told you,’ said Kate. ‘Zoe and I only found out last week, so we decided to wait until you got here to surprise you.’

  ‘What is it?’ I asked.

  Zoe and Kate looked at each other and smiled again, but neither of them answered my question.

  ‘Have you got Daisy’s diary with you?’ asked Kate instead.

  ‘Of course I have,’ I said, pulling it out of my bag. ‘I’m going to give it back to her when I see her. But why do you need that now? You’ve seen it heaps of times already.’

  Kate didn’t say a word as she took the diary from my hand.

  ‘I don’t know how we never noticed it before,’ she said, as she began to flip through the pages. ‘It was staring us right i
n the eye, and yet none of us ever copped on.’

  ‘Copped on to what?’ I asked. I was getting fed up of the way everyone was being so secretive. Secrets are only fun when you’re the one who knows what’s going on.

  ‘Patience, Eva,’ said Mum, which was a bit mean, because I could see that she was dying to know too.

  At last Kate found the page she wanted. ‘Listen to this,’ she said, as she began to read.

  Dear Diary.

  Mammy cries all the time now. I try to cheer her up but nothing works. She used to be so proud of her glossy hair and her trim figure, but now she doesn’t care about anything. She sits at the kitchen table and drinks tea and eats so much bread that she’s getting fat. Some days she doesn’t get up out of bed at all. I don’t know what is goingto happen to her. I don’t know what is going to happen to me.

  ‘I read that months ago,’ I said, as I put the diary back into my bag. ‘And I still don’t know where this is going.’

  Then, when I saw Mum smiling knowingly, I began to get angry.

  ‘Just get on with it and tell me, Kate,’ I said. ‘I totally hate guessing games.’

  Kate just smiled, and if I was a violent person, that’s when I would have thumped her.

  ‘Daisy’s mum’s trim figure is gone, and she’s getting fat,’ said Mum to Zoe, ignoring me. ‘Does that mean what I think it means?’

  Zoe nodded and at last I understood.

  ‘OMG,’ I said. ‘Daisy’s mum was expecting a baby?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Kate. ‘She was born a few months after Daisy left for America.’

  ‘That’s amazing,’ I said. ‘How did you find out? And how come no one around here seemed to know anything about it? What happened?’

  ‘After you left Seacove at the end of the summer,’ said Zoe. ‘I wanted to know more about the Lavelle family. There were still a few unanswered questions, and they were really annoying me.’

  ‘You wouldn’t like Zoe when she’s annoyed,’ said Kate, and ducked as Zoe pretended to hit her.

  ‘Anyway,’ said Zoe. ‘Before I was rudely interrupted, I was going to say that I managed to track down the records about Daisy’s mum’s time in hospital. They made very sad reading, I’m afraid. A hospital like that was not a fun place to be in 1947.’

  ‘But the baby?’ I said impatiently.

  ‘It was a little girl,’ said Zoe. ‘Despite everything that had happened, she was strong and healthy.’

  ‘The baby sister that Daisy had always dreamed of,’ I sighed. ‘She must have been so happy when she heard.’

  ‘I’m sure she would have been,’ said Zoe. ‘Only trouble was, no one told her.’

  ‘I don’t get it,’ I said. ‘Daisy had a right to know.’

  Zoe sighed. ‘Of course she did. But things were handled differently in those days. We don’t think Jean-Marc was ever even told about his second little daughter.’

  ‘And what happened to her?’ I asked. ‘Where did the baby go?’

  ‘Daisy’s mum was too sick to take care of her,’ said Zoe.

  ‘So when she was only a day old, the hospital people took her away from her mother,’ said Kate.

  ‘That’s awful,’ I said. ‘Where did they take her to?’

  ‘She was brought to Dublin, and placed with a foster family,’ said Zoe.

  ‘And is she …?’ I was afraid to finish the question. Suddenly the health of this person, who I’d only just heard of, was very important to me.

  ‘She’s alive and well,’ said Kate. ‘Zoe tracked her down. Her name is Nell.’

  ‘And did she know …?’

  ‘She hardly knew anything at all,’ said Zoe. ‘The records of that time were sketchy, to say the least. When Nell went searching some years ago, she discovered that her birth parents were dead. But until last week, she believed that she was an only child.’

  ‘That’s so amazing,’ I gasped. ‘What a lovely surprise she must have got when she heard about Daisy. Have they met yet?’

  ‘Daisy flew into Dublin last night and they were re-united,’ said Zoe. ‘After all those years, the two sisters finally met.’

  ‘OMG,’ was all I could say, so I repeated it over and over. ‘OMG. OMG. OMG.’

  Half an hour later, I was so impatient I couldn’t sit still.

  ‘You’re making me nervous, Eva,’ said Zoe. ‘Why don’t you and Kate go for a walk or something?’

  So Kate and I went to hang out with Jeremy for a while, and when we came back, Zoe had made mushroom soup for everyone.

  ‘It’s delicious,’ said Mum.

  ‘Dad and I picked the wild mushrooms,’ said Kate proudly. ‘We know all the best places to look.’

  ‘I made up the recipe,’ said Zoe. ‘And I’ve been practising it for a dinner Roma and I are doing next week.’

  Then she told us all about the plans she and Roma had for the business, and Simon sat on my knee, and I tried to stop him feeding me half-chewed soggy pieces of bread, and Kate’s dad told pathetic jokes, and Kate grinned at me like a crazy thing, she was so happy with everything.

  And then we heard the sound of a car outside.

  ‘Daisy’s here,’ said Kate. ‘She’s really and truly here at last.’

  Chapter Twenty

  We all ran outside and watched as a car with two women inside pulled up in the lane between Kate’s house and ours. As a woman stepped out of the driver’s seat, I recognised Daisy from the photograph I’d seen on the internet. I gasped as I looked at the other woman and saw that, except for the fact that she was clearly younger, they could have been twins.

  Daisy stood there for a second. She ignored the welcoming committee and gazed at her old home. I tried to see it through her eyes, and wondered how much it had changed. I thought of all the things that had happened since she’d last stepped through the front door. No one said anything, as tears began to well in Daisy’s eyes, and drip down her wrinkled old cheeks.

  Then, Simon, who was in his Dad’s arms, leaned over and touched her face.

  ‘Lady sad,’ he said.

  Daisy smiled, and for a fleeting second, I could see a glimpse of the young girl I knew from her family photo.

  ‘No, darling,’ she said. ‘The lady isn’t sad. She is very, very happy.’

  After that, everything was easier. Martha stepped forward and introduced herself.

  ‘Oh my,’ said Daisy. ‘Little Martha is all grown up!’ Everyone laughed.

  Martha introduced everyone else, and Daisy turned to the woman beside her, and stroked her arm.

  ‘This is Nell,’ she said. ‘My … sister.’

  She said the word ‘sister’ in a soft, breathy kind of voice, almost like she couldn’t believe that such a thing was really possible.

  I looked at Simon and Kate. Simon was pulling her hair, and she was tickling his tummy to distract him. Suddenly I realized how very, very glad I was that Kate and Simon were going to grow up together. They weren’t going to need a big reunion when they were old and grey. They were going to be best friends forever.

  ‘Would you like to see the house?’ asked Mum, who had brought Monica’s keys with her.

  ‘I would like that very much,’ said Daisy, and we all trooped up the path.

  Daisy guided Nell. ‘Be careful here,’ she said. ‘There’s a loose stone and it’s easy to trip. And mind your shoes, it’s rather mucky on this bit.’

  ‘Oh dear,’ said Nell. ‘You’ve only been my big sister for a day, and already you’re bossing me around.’ Then they held hands for a minute, and gave each other soppy looks, like they had known each other all their lives.

  I smiled. This was all easier and nicer than I had expected.

  At first, Daisy seemed stiff and slow, but when she got to the stairs leading to what used to be her bedroom, she speeded up, and practically galloped up the steps. She almost ran to the window. She pulled back the lacy curtain and gazed out at the view that must once have been so familiar to her.

  ‘It’s al
l the same,’ she said. ‘It’s all the same. Except … except … I expect to see Daddy working in the field, and Mammy hanging the washing on the line.’

  Nell took her hand again and squeezed it tightly. I could feel tears coming to my eyes, as I gazed at the sisters. One had lost everything she loved, and the other had never even known that it existed.

  ‘Why don’t we let you two alone for a bit?’ said Mum.

  So the rest of us went back downstairs leaving the sisters to share their sad and happy memories.

  Later we all went across to Kate’s place. Roma and Lily showed up, and everyone settled down for tea. Once again, Zoe had made an amazing cake. All the edges were decorated with perfect yellow and white daisies, and it had ‘Welcome home, Daisy & Nell’ written on the top.

  ‘This is far too perfect to eat,’ said Daisy, but the rest of us ignored her as Zoe sliced the cake up, and it was gone in minutes.

  While my mum tidied up the plates and cups, Daisy showed us the letter she’d got from the president’s office, declaring that Jean-Marc was innocent.

  ‘Daddy was right,’ she said. ‘Justice was done in the end. Such a pity it took so long.’

  I’d have been really, really angry, but Daisy just looked sad.

  ‘Are you bitter about all the people who believed your father was guilty?’ asked Zoe, getting straight to the point as usual. ‘You and your mum and dad had such a hard time here – in this place where you’d thought you had friends – where people should have stood by you.’

  Daisy didn’t answer for a long time. Then she shook her head slowly. ‘No,’ she said. ‘I’m not bitter. Being bitter wouldn’t make me happy. My great aunt used to say that holding on to resentment is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.’

  ‘Cool,’ said Kate.

  Daisy smiled at her. ‘Things were different back then,’ she said. ‘People were secretive and superstitious. They weren’t used to thinking for themselves. What happened to my family was very sad, but being bitter won’t help me. I’ll never forget, but I think I can forgive.’