Chapter Sixty-Eight
Iris couldn’t help but grin as she watched from the kitchen window. Flora and Brodie, holding hands and laughing together, walking down towards the jetty. There was something lovely about young love and it reminded her of those early heady days with Frank.
‘I thought they would fall in love,’ she said quietly as she began wiping down the sink and putting dishes away.
‘You were right telling me to leave them to sort it out for themselves, Frank.’ She pictured him nodding at her and smiling and imagined his voice.
If you leave them be, my love, things will blossom.
It felt like a new chapter for Flora and Brodie and Iris was thrilled they’d found each other.
Coming to stay at the boathouse on the edge of the loch had been just what Flora needed, as well as that magical setting in which to fall in love.
Little by little, Iris was beginning to find herself again, too.
She hadn’t realised what a weight of worry she’d been carrying on her shoulders, wondering and waiting in the search for her long-lost sister.
Exchanging letters with Iona had been wonderful and she waited eagerly for them to drop through the front door and onto the mat.
She’d even been neglecting her Wordle, instead choosing to read and reread the small pile of letters she had now received.
How she had enjoyed savouring her sister’s words, conjuring up images in her mind of her sister’s life.
She had enjoyed sharing her stories, too, and had written about her life in Rowan Bay and her work as a teacher then her family life with Frank and then James, his wife Gina and now this special time with Flora.
However, this morning she had to write a letter to Iona which wasn’t going to be so easy.
Yet Iris knew that before she and Iona made plans to meet each other, she must tell her the truth.
She made herself a pot of tea and sat down at the kitchen table as she thought about how to begin.
Lifting up her pen, she wrote. She sighed and ripped the page from the pad and scrunched it into a ball.
She repeated the process again and then again.
Pouring her tea into her cup, she paused for thought.
What would she tell a friend who had to write such a letter?
Keep it simple. Write from the heart. It was time to take her own advice. She took a breath and started to write.
Dear Iona,
I can’t tell you how much I have been enjoying receiving your letters. I am so grateful that we are being given this chance to be in each other’s lives. Hearing about your life makes me so happy and excited to know that I have a sister.
I have to be honest with you, though. Perhaps I should have told you this from the very start but I didn’t know how to or what to say. Every time I sat down to write, I found it so much easier to tell you about the happy times in my life with Frank and then James and Flora.
But the truth is, Iona, I’ve known about you for years. Or at least your existence.
Our mother told me about you just before she passed away. She was tired and kept slipping in and out of sleep but she started speaking about another baby she had before I was born. A girl. My sister. You.
I thought I’d misheard her and had to ask her to repeat what she said.
She explained what had happened. That she had deeply loved your father, Matthew, and they were engaged to be married.
But then he was killed in the war. There were no choices then for her and she was told that she had to give you up for adoption.
I can’t even imagine how she must have felt.
I don’t think she ever got over the heartache of losing you and your father. She died shortly after telling me.
I am so sorry that I didn’t start looking for you as soon as I found out.
It wasn’t that I didn’t care. But when mother died, I was overwhelmed and upset and scared.
I put the old tin of my mother’s, which contained the few details she had about you, in Frank’s study and forgot about it.
Somehow, I managed to bury it all away and I thought it was all in the past. Then Flora found the tin again this summer when she was clearing Frank’s study and that brought it all back.
I am sorry, Iona. So very sorry that I didn’t try and find you sooner.
Your letters mean the world to me. I feel like I’m being given a second chance and I am so grateful to you. I am so happy that we are now in each other’s lives.
I hope you can forgive me, though there is no pressure to reply.
With love,
Iris
She put the pen down, folded the letter in half and carefully tucked it into an envelope.
She peeled the final stamp off the book and pressed it into the corner of the envelope.
Glancing at her watch, she knew she could catch the last post if she was quick.
Iris needed to send the letter away before she changed her mind.