Epilogue
The Mudlarkers’ Club continued to meet each month and recruited four new members.
Phyllida’s Instagram follower, the historian Megan O’Connor, who’d first suggested that the brooch may not be fake; an American man called Mark, who worked as a marketing executive for a craft beer Nick always raved about; a radiologist who’d heard about Gemma via another nurse who was also researching her family history; and the woman who was the great-grandniece of Charlie Griffiths, the original owner of the luggage tag Laila had found.
Publicity from the brooch boosted Phyllida’s Instagram following.
She hit four figures which was more than Phyllida could have ever imagined but far less than Gemma knew was possible.
Phyllida put her share of the money from the brooch into a bank account in her name.
Even though she wanted to share it with Robert, she didn’t want him to be tempted back into gambling as he was making such great strides with his therapy sessions and was committed to attending the Gamblers Anonymous meetings.
Phyllida used it to start clearing their debts and gave some to her son to use for future travel or to add to his savings.
Then, she put some of it aside for a holiday for her and Robert before her long-service leave was up.
She was determined that Robert’s addiction wasn’t going to ruin their marriage.
They both fancied visiting Cuba and she’d always wanted to learn the salsa. All they had to do was pick a date.
When the brooch was first put on display at the British Museum, Timothy was assigned to be its sole specialist guide because of his connection to it.
Tours ran every day for six weeks. Timothy was exhausted by the end of it.
Yet he loved it so much, he enrolled in a distance-learning course on Henry the Eighth with the University of Oxford.
Gemma suspected he would get the continuing education bug.
To appease his family and to stop them giving him flyers on retirement villages, Timothy used the money he received from the brooch to engage a housekeeper to clean and tidy the houseboat every week and to ensure all hazardous objects were kept out of falling-over reach.
He was also secretly – to everyone else in his life except the members of The Mudlarkers’ Club – planning a trip to Egypt, which he was only going to tell his daughter about when he was at the airport.
Laila felt bad about having to keep his travel plans from Jodie, but Gemma told her that sometimes keeping a short-term secret was a necessary part of the cogs of life.
Nick eventually completed the first draft of a novel.
It was still to be edited and Gemma was still to read it.
If she ever would. Nick fluctuated between feeling giddily confident in his fictional storytelling abilities to depressingly negative.
Just as well Daniel Craig and Michelle Yeoh were nowhere to be seen.
With the windfall, he was able to continue freelancing and pitching investigative feature ideas, some of which got off the ground and some of which didn’t.
Laila presented Gemma with an ink drawing of the brooch as a memento of the find and told her she was going to put some of her share of the money towards art school.
She also got another tattoo, which didn’t impress either Timothy or her foster parents but as she’d just turned eighteen, what choice did they have?
At least she’d gone to a reputable and talented tattoo artist who replicated in intricate detail Laila’s drawing of the brooch.
The tattoo perched elegantly on her right shoulder blade.
Gemma didn’t like to ask why she hadn’t thought to put it somewhere she could more easily see it, rather than in a spot that required viewing with the help of a mirror.
Laila split her time between staying with Timothy and her foster parents, which made everyone happy.
Eventually, she got the courage to meet her birth mother, and Gemma, dying to know how it went, organised to catch up with her the following day.
Laila was waiting for Gemma at a café in Kew. Her expression gave nothing away. Gemma held off from starting the conversation in case it hadn’t gone well. After greeting each other and ordering hot chocolates, Laila eventually gave her a shy smile.
‘So?’ Gemma said with trepidation. ‘Are you going to tell me?’
‘She seemed genuinely happy to see me,’ Laila said with disbelief, unable to let go of her wariness.
‘You’re her daughter, of course she would be.’
‘I think she wanted to hug me but I wasn’t ready for that …’
‘Of course …’
‘I could tell she was nervous like I was. Her fingernails were chewed as low as mine.’ Laila looked at her black-painted nails, as if to check that they still resembled those of her birth mother’s.
‘I can’t imagine how you were both feeling.’
‘I tried to keep an open mind like you said. She was chatty and asked a lot of questions. She told me, again, how she wants to embrace her roots and learn how to make traditional Pakistani – Urdu – food.’
‘That sounds great, Laila.’
‘She said she’d like to teach me.’
‘How do you feel about that?’
‘Yeah, I wouldn’t mind learning stuff but …’ Laila looked out of the café window and didn’t finish the sentence.
‘You can take it slowly,’ Gemma said. ‘Trust needs to be rebuilt. Although it sounds as if she means what she says, don’t you think?’
‘I guess.’
‘I think having an understanding of your heritage could really enrich your life.’ Gemma wanted Laila to appreciate how much more she could gain by reigniting a relationship with her mother.
‘Do you feel like you’ve missed out on that by being adopted?’ Laila asked.
Gemma nodded because she’d hit a nerve. But she wasn’t about to elaborate because this was meant to be about Laila, not her. She let Laila continue.
‘It’s made me realise that even knowing the meaning of my name has given me something to hold on to, which I know sounds kind of woo-woo.’
Gemma laughed. ‘It’s not woo-woo.’
‘Do you know what your name means?’ Laila asked.
‘My two names, you mean? I was going to find out but …’
‘Let’s do it.’ Before Gemma had a chance to reply, Laila was already on her phone. Then she pulled a face.
‘What?’ Gemma said.
‘Hayley means hay meadow.’
‘There goes that idea, then …’
‘Hang on.’ Laila raised a hand. ‘Gemma means …’ She grinned. ‘Gem or jewel. How appropriate is that?’
Gemma shook her head at the absurdity of the connection. ‘It’s a silly coincidence,’ she said.
‘Maybe in relation to the brooch but, maybe, not as far as your parents are concerned …’
Laila left the words hanging, gently and seductively, pulling Gemma into the warmth of possibility that the name her adoptive parents chose for her truly meant something.
‘On that note,’ Gemma said quickly to stop herself from getting emotional again. ‘You’ll be pleased to know that I’ve put myself on the Adoption Contact Register. Nick wouldn’t stop badgering me about it.’
‘Finally.’ Laila rolled her eyes. ‘You have to tell me straight away if you get any bites.’
‘I promise. Now tell me, how did you end things with your mum?’
‘She asked if I wanted to meet up again. I said yes.’
‘Fantastic! And what about Jodie? How’s it going with her?’
‘We’re fine. She was excited about me meeting Mum, which was nice. I thought she’d feel threatened, but I guess she does only want the best for me.’
‘Of course, she does.’
Laila nodded, as if, finally, she’d accepted that no one was out to get her. That, while life could chuck things at you like a tennis ball-spitting machine, it was empowering knowing that you could tackle every ball head on.
And what of Gemma? With part of the windfall, she bought new shelving and another display case for her mudlarking finds and equipment. Nick thought her unashamed restraint amusing and nonsensical.
‘I can’t believe you don’t want to splash out on something frivolous,’ he said.
‘But there’s nothing else I need right now,’ she replied.
‘That’s what frivolous means, that you don’t need it. What about some exorbitantly expensive designer wellies?’
‘Not even those.’
What she didn’t tell him was that while she was happy to bank the rest of the money, she also dared to dream about the future, where the two of them bought a house together.
A place they could both call home which had a whole room dedicated to their mudlarking finds and maybe, even, one for a child.
But for now, she was content to continue her life as it was, especially given all that had happened in the past few months which continued to astound her whenever she stopped to think about it.
Anushka finally got in touch to apologise for taking so long to get back to Gemma and then offered the biggest surprise of all: the suggestion of a weekend away together.
They treated themselves to three nights in Bath and they slipped seamlessly back into their friendship as if they’d never had a break.