Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
A few weeks later, Dan drove by on his way to Augi’s house and automatically glanced across at the library. It was past five, and the library should have been closed. Except the double doors were still wide open. Augi working late… as usual.
He smiled to himself as he swung into a side road.
What did they say if you loved your work?
You’d never work another day in your life?
Well, that was Augi. She loved her community, and books, and it didn’t seem to matter whether she was being paid or not.
Her life was all one piece. And that included her love life, of which he was a part.
Life was good. Especially with the news which he was coming to tell her.
He’d been assigned a big consultancy job with a government agency, advising on policy transparency.
A bit of a departure from the work he’d initially focused on but the company he worked for was adamant that he was the best one for the job, and that this shift in focus would be of more direct benefit to the public than anything which had gone before.
It was a big step, and proof that the company believed in him.
He had other news for her, too. He’d sold his Washington apartment.
Augi hadn’t known he’d put it up for sale.
He wanted to surprise her. Not about the sale, but about what it had enabled him to do.
He just wasn’t sure how she would take this last piece of news.
He glanced at the house on the hill opposite the library and smiled.
He parked beside the tennis courts where a couple of kids were tapping a ball from one to the other, while a coach watched them, calling out advice.
Dan greeted her as he walked past, and entered the old-fashioned gate which swung open with its usual creak.
He could see Augi through the open doors, her head bowed over the computer.
Whatever she was working on was certainly absorbing her.
He stepped into the library and was surprised to see nothing had been packed away yet. The wooden mobile units were still displaying books, and the units fixed to the walls were still wide open, yet to be folded in on themselves and locked away. Even more surprising, Augi hadn’t looked up yet.
The last of the afternoon sun threw long bands of gold across the wooden floor.
Dust motes hung suspended in the air, glowing briefly as they drifted through the light.
The place was quiet now — no children, no murmured conversations, no chairs scraping back — only the low hum of the computer and the distant sound of the sea beyond the hill.
Augi sat at the desk, one hand pressed against her lips, her other curled tightly around the mouse. Her eyes scanned the screen again, slower this time, as if reading it carefully enough might somehow change what it said.
He walked over to her. ‘Hey, gorgeous,’ he said, dropping a kiss on the top of her head.
‘Daniel!’ she said, with eyes still far away.
‘You look… occupied.’
He sat down in the chair opposite and studied her face.
The light from the screen reflected off her hair, catching highlights of copper and gold.
He narrowed his eyes as she continued to study the screen in front of her.
How had he not noticed the subtleties of colour in her hair before?
Was it that he was so overwhelmed by the totality of her that he overlooked the nuances?
At that moment she looked up with smiling eyes.
There was a sparkle in them which he also hadn’t seen before.
And he realised it wasn’t only his lack of perceptiveness, but the answer also lay in Augi.
She had unfolded, opened out, allowing the world to see the differing shades and strands that made her personality.
She no longer hid behind a shield of uniformity, but was confident enough now to show the world who she truly was.
He’d helped do that. And he knew she loved him as much as he loved her.
But he knew it wasn’t only him. Since Sofia’s surprise arrival, and the unravelling of old griefs and misplaced guilt, the final restraints holding her back had fallen away.
She had always been compelling — he’d told her that once, quietly — but now she seemed to glow, as if something long locked away had finally been allowed into the open.
She laughed, stopping his reverie.
‘Daniel!’ she said with a laugh. ‘You’re doing it again!’
‘What?’
‘Looking at me like I’m an unusual artefact that you’ve just discovered and are trying to understand.’
‘That about sums it up.’
‘I’m not sure I want to be seen by you as an artefact. Such things are placed away from people, not to be touched.’ She said the last word, softly, with an undercurrent which sent fizzing sensations into his gut and lower.
He liked this new Augi, even more than the old one. He reached out for her hand, wanting to break the distance between them. ‘Oh, Augustini. You’ve got it so wrong. Would you like me to tell you the ways I’d like to touch you?’
Her colour rose and she pulled her hand away. But before she shot him a denial, she hesitated. ‘Yes, but not now. Later.’
He swallowed. ‘I’ll look forward to it.’ He rose, more than happy to make later arrive as soon as he could, and came up behind Augi, putting his hands on her shoulders as he looked at the screen which had again snagged her attention. ‘So, ready to go?’
‘I just want to take another look at this,’ she pointed to the screen.
He bowed down so he could see what she was pointing to.
‘I can’t quite believe what I’m reading,’ she added.
‘Which begs the question,’ he said mildly, ‘what are you reading?’
‘Ancestry.’
He grimaced. ‘Still glued to that?’
‘Yes.’ She exhaled. ‘Because I regularly check a particular cluster of matches.’
His eyes glazed over immediately, and he sat on the edge of the desk, preferring to look at her, rather than a computer screen.
She smiled faintly. ‘The Kowalskis.’
He straightened. ‘Why? Surely you’ve found out everything there is to know by now.’
He stood and rocked back on his heels, irritation creeping into his voice. ‘They — whether they realise it or not — will shortly own MacLeod’s Cottage. And my mother will be at their mercy.’
She laughed.
Dan stared at her. ‘What’s so funny about my mother being kicked out of her house?’
‘Nothing. Nothing at all.’ She rose and slid her arms around his waist. She kissed him briefly, then rested her hands on his arms, grounding herself. ‘But you’re missing something.’
He looked down at her, baffled.
‘Blond hair,’ she said lightly. ‘So fair, when everyone else in your family has darker colouring.’
‘Except Lucy,’ he murmured automatically. Then frowned. ‘What is this about?’
‘You,’ she said.
She stepped back to the desk and swivelled the monitor toward him.
‘The reason I keep checking the Kowalski cluster is to see if any closer matches turn up. When someone new does a DNA test and their profile overlaps closely enough, the system flags it.’
He leaned in, squinting at the screen. ‘Right. So what you’re trying to tell me is that the house belongs to someone else now. Yet another person to get involved in this mess.’
‘That’s right.’
‘So what’s so good about that? It hardly matters whether it belongs to one Kowalski or a Greek person or their nieces, nephews, sisters or brothers. The salient point is that it doesn’t belong to Mum.’
‘Ah, I’m glad we’ve moved on to the salient point.’ She shot him a grin which could only have been described as mischievous.
He tilted his head and scrunched his eyes in query.
‘You did a test,’ she said.
He blinked. ‘What?’
‘You did an Ancestry DNA test,’ she said gently. ‘Recently.’
‘Oh.’ He frowned. ‘Yes, actually, I did. Some time ago. Come to think of it, they emailed me the results but I haven’t got round to looking at them yet. Besides, I assume the results will just tell me I’m Irish, English, with a bit of Māori.’
‘Possibly,’ she said. ‘With a bit of Polish thrown in.’
He recoiled. ‘Polish? Why Polish?’
She smiled. ‘Not such a curve ball with a surname like Kowalski. Especially northern Poland. Do you know how close that is to Denmark and Sweden?’
He shook his head. ‘I’ve no idea what you’re talking about.’
She laughed. ‘Presumably the proximity to Scandinavia gave rise to a lot of blondes there.’
‘What the hell?’
She took a breath.
‘It’s your results that triggered the alert. You showed up as a close match.’
His mouth opened. No sound came out.
‘To John Kowalski,’ she finished softly.
He stared at her.
Then she laughed again — harder this time — because the answer had been right in front of them all along. Every time she looked at him, the laughter bubbled up again.
Dan’s expression shifted from confusion to alarm. He dropped to his knees in front of her, his hands on her thighs, searching her face. ‘Augustini. Love. Please tell me you haven’t lost your mind.’
She wiped her eyes, breathless. ‘Don’t you see?’ She cupped his face. ‘It’s you. Or rather, it’s your mother. It’s Kate. She’s the closest living relative to John Kowalski.’
His breath caught.
‘So… MacLeod’s Cottage is hers?’ His voice was hoarse, as if the words themselves were fragile.
‘Yes.’
‘But how?’ He shook his head. ‘How does that even work?’
She shrugged. ‘The usual way, I imagine. Sex. A baby. And a great deal of secrecy.’
He sat back on his heels as he thought it through. ‘So John Kowalski must have returned to New Zealand in 1946, Ngaire ended up pregnant as a result, and no one knew.’
‘He must have,’ she agreed. ‘I couldn’t see how — his records had him overseas that year. But I guess it was easier to go under the radar in those days.’
‘But Ngaire was married to Tamati by then.’
‘Yes, but remember what Hemi said? About how they were all surprised when Tamati said he was a father?’ She smiled faintly.
‘Tamati and Ngaire’s marriage must have been one of convenience.
And, no doubt, love. But not the kind of love that makes babies.
That was what Hemi was trying to tell us. It all fits.’
He nodded slowly. ‘So, Tamati and Ngaire had got married during the war, after Johnnie Kowalski had left New Zealand following his stint as a Marine. Maybe something happened that they needed each other. An arrangement.’
‘Yes, but it was an arrangement during which Ngaire and Johnnie corresponded. He was married, and so was she by that time. But it didn’t stop them from writing to each other. The records Oliver found in the hotel about their correspondence proves it.’
‘And then Ngaire stopped writing. Suddenly. Six months before Hope was born. Kowalski must have visited three months before then.’ Augi’s voice softened. ‘She must have been pregnant. And she chose not to tell him.’
Dan’s jaw tightened. ‘That’s harsh. She should have told him the truth. It was up to him what he did with it.’
‘It is harsh,’ she agreed. ‘But Johnnie was still married, and so was she. I imagine she wanted to take some kind of control of the situation and put her baby first. And that meant raising her in a stable family, in the home and community which meant so much to her. Besides, she probably thought it would be kinder if Johnnie didn’t know.
He wouldn’t have had any conflicting feelings then; he could just get on with his life. ’
He huffed. ‘I’d have wanted to know.’
She looked thoughtful. ‘What was Ngaire like?’
‘Honestly? I didn’t pay her much attention.
She was just… old. She’d either be telling me off for making a mess or trying to give me a cuddle, and, I hate to say it, but I didn’t welcome either.
’ He paused. ‘But Mum always said Ngaire was a happy woman. She loved the village and both her Pākehā and Māori families.’
Augi nodded. ‘She might not have got the man she loved, but she had her community, and family. She had a full life in all the other ways which are important.’
He pulled her close. ‘I’m greedy. I want everything. I want a full life in every way that matters.’
She laughed into his shoulder.
‘I love you, Augustini,’ he said, suddenly serious. He pulled back, searching her face. ‘And I don’t want to wait. Will you — Augustini Markos — do me the great honour of agreeing to marry me?’
Her breath caught. ‘Yes,’ she whispered. Then laughed. ‘Yes.’
He stood up, pulling her with him.
‘Come on,’ he said, already reaching for his jacket. ‘Let’s go and tell Mum.’
She smiled, heart full, mind racing.
The mystery of the house had finally found its answer.
And she had found her home.