The Moonlit Garden

by Bomann, Corina

  Those words coming from her mouth sounded so unreal. Gabriel also seemed surprised, since he said nothing for a couple of moments.

  “Congratulations!” he replied eventually, and Lilly was sure he had his impudent grin on his face again. “So we’ll have to push back our dinner a little further still.”

  “I’m afraid so,” Lilly replied, regretting it deeply. “But you must still be tied up with your . . . family matters.”

  “A bit, but it’s not as bad as I thought. How come you’re intending to go so soon?”

  “Ellen says I should set off as soon as I can, while the trail is still fresh. Good old hunting wisdom.”

  “Have you any huntsmen in the family who can confirm that?”

  Lilly giggled to herself. “No, of course not. But it’s an incredible opportunity, and I think she’s right when she says I should do this by myself to finally break free from the spell.”

  “What spell is that?”

  Had she said too much? She hesitated a moment but decided it would be fine for Gabriel to know.

  “After my husband’s death I hardly went anywhere. I hid myself away, shut myself off in my own little world. The day I got the violin . . . something snapped. My view of the world shifted.”

  She paused briefly, listening for a reaction in the ether, but at the other end she heard only Gabriel’s steady breathing.

  “Anyway, my flight leaves in two days at ten in the morning. According to the schedule I’ll be in Padang the following morning.”

  “That’s good. I mean, that you’re going. Not only for Rose and Helen but for you.”

  Did he sound a little disappointed? She felt like asking him whether he wanted to come with her—as head of the music school he must be able to afford it. But it wouldn’t do.

  “Even if you only manage to find a few pieces of the puzzle,” he continued, “you’ll have made the trip and broken the spell. Then you’ll be free and you can find your way again. And apart from that, you’ll have a whole lot to tell me—provided you don’t forget about me completely.”

  “How could I?” Lilly replied with a smile.

  “There must be a whole crowd of good-looking men in Indonesia who would turn your head.”

  “That may be the case, but I think . . . ” She had almost told him that her head had been well and truly turned, but she stopped herself just in time. “I don’t think I’m . . . ”

  She’d almost said the wrong thing again. Of course she didn’t yet feel ready for a new relationship, but if she told him that, he might give up on any hopes he had in her.

  “I think I understand what you mean,” Gabriel replied, to which Lilly thought, I hope not! Please don’t take it like that. “And I’ll be waiting patiently until you get back. You haven’t told me yet how long you intend to be away.”

  “Oh, it’s only for a week.”

  “Really? I thought you were disappearing for at least a month.”

  “No, just a few days. But I hope it will be enough time to track them down. You don’t happen to know anyone in Padang who could show me around a bit while I’m there?”

  “No, unfortunately not. And even if I did, I should remind you that you’ve been told to carry this off by yourself. Even if it all comes off really badly, you’ll still have a week to remember. And who knows what it will bring you.”

  Before Ellen came home from work, Lilly had already gained a little more self-confidence. She still felt as if she were in a dream, but when her friend sat down to dinner with her, wearing a broad smile, the last traces of doubt vanished, and she realized that in just two days she would be sitting on a plane bound for Jakarta.

  “It’s just a pity I can’t take you with me,” she said a little regretfully.

  “Don’t worry, Dean will keep my spirits up,” Ellen replied with a shrug, looking affectionately at her husband, who for once had arrived home in good time for the evening meal.

  “I don’t doubt it, but . . . ”

  “It’s your trip, Lilly.” Ellen reached across the table and stroked her hand. “If it’s as beautiful there as the pictures on the Internet promise, we can go back together for a vacation.”

  “Or I can take you there on a second honeymoon,” Dean said.

  “Did we have a proper honeymoon in the first place?” Ellen laughed.

  “Of course. We went to Scotland, remember?”

  “Oh my God,” Ellen groaned.

  Lilly suppressed a grin. She knew the story of the disastrous vacation well.

  “You and me in a tent,” Dean recalled. “You’ve got to admit it was romantic.”

  “It was romantic until the downpour. We froze our arses off.”

  Jessie and Norma giggled quietly. Probably no one at their school said that kind of thing.

  “But then we found that castle.”

  “You mean the castle ruins!” Ellen gave her husband an affectionate smile. “But yes, it was romantic. As long as I had you with me it was romantic. And that’s still the same to this day.”

  Lilly smiled, but she had a strange feeling inside. She thought again of Peter, but the pain was no longer so sharp. And when she imagined Gabriel taking her to Scotland sometime . . . It could rain and hail all it liked, and she wouldn’t complain.

  “Well? We’re dying to hear what you’ve got to tell us,” Dean said, tearing her from her thoughts.

  “The woman at the travel agency said the hotel is very comfortable and quite old—perhaps Rose or Helen even stayed there,” Ellen said. “There must be a few museums and an archive there, and you can make yourself understood well enough in English. Anyway, you’re a grown woman, and the travel agent assured me that Indonesia is a fairly safe place. You’ll be able to travel and carry on your searches, and if you don’t find anything, just enjoy the exotic sights.”

  Lilly wasn’t sure if she’d manage it all, but she’d see. She felt like she had once the grieving for Peter had reduced to a bearable level. The way ahead was unclear, and absolutely anything could happen. Then she had turned inward, had lost her courage and closed herself off to protect herself from being hurt by another loss. Now she would be daring to take a step or two outside herself, making herself vulnerable. But perhaps that was exactly what she needed.

  “Will you bring us something back from Indonesia?” Norma burst out hopefully. From her sister’s pleading expression she clearly felt the same way.

  “Of course,” Lilly replied. “They probably have some cool T-shirts there.”

  “Or jewelry,” Jessie said.

  “Now, now, young ladies, let’s not get greedy,” Ellen warned.

  “It’s fine,” Lilly said. “If I see something suitable, I’ll bring it back for you.”

  “Then I’d like something, too,” Dean joined in with a laugh.

  “Yes, a lucky elephant for your building sites. That’s something you could really use right now.”

  Dean waved her away. “It’s fine, don’t worry, Lilly. Enjoy your flight and come back safely. That’s all we ask.”

  21

  Lilly wrung her hands in agitation as she waited for her bags to be checked in at the airport. She was going to Indonesia, flying to Sumatra! On her own! However much she was looking forward to the trip, at that moment she felt nervous and wished Ellen could have come with her. How would she find her way around a strange country? She didn’t even speak the language. Don’t be silly, she chided herself. If Gabriel could hear you, he’d die laughing at you.

  Now she was wishing that she’d phoned him one more time the day before, but her preparations had not left her any time. Before she had realized, it was midnight, which left her just a few hours to toss and turn restlessly in bed.

  In the morning she had found an e-mail from Sunny on Ellen’s computer, saying that she couldn’t send the video file by e-mail because it was too big.

  The video! Lilly had almost forgotten it, but it made no sense to have it sent to London. Lilly wanted to watch it at home, when she
would have the chance to visit her mother and ask her about it. She had replied that Sunny should keep the video safe until her return.

  Now she was standing here, feeling as if she had swallowed a swarm of bees and wishing that she were already on her flight.

  “Lilly!”

  On hearing her name, her instinct was to look around, but she told herself there must be several Lillys around here, one of whom had probably forgotten something.

  “Lilly!” the call came again.

  This time she turned to see Gabriel waving energetically at her. What was he doing here? Wasn’t he with his ex-wife? After all, he had said it would be for a while longer.

  “For a moment there I was afraid you had a double,” he said as he approached, clearly out of breath. “But that would have been a more rational explanation than a sudden loss of hearing on your part.”

  “What are you doing here?” she asked, amazed. “I thought you were at—”

  “That’s been sorted out. Diana’s mother was in the hospital. I always got on well with the old lady.”

  “How is your . . . ”

  She almost said mother-in-law, but that wasn’t exactly true, was it?

  “My ex-mother-in-law is a lot better now. Diana was hit quite badly by it all, as her mother’s been well until now. Since she knew how attached I am to Jolene, she told me about it, and as it seemed quite critical at first, I went to see her.”

  “So your relationship with your ex-wife . . . ”

  “Is on friendly terms.” Gabriel finished her sentence for her. “Yes, we get on well again now. Not well enough to try again together—we’re too different for that. But we talk and get in touch if anything out of the ordinary happens. Her new boyfriend is into sailing, a sport that has never really appealed to me.”

  Although Lilly hadn’t asked for an explanation, she was glad that Gabriel had told her more than he had on the phone.

  “So, after all that excitement, why are you here at the airport?” she asked.

  “I wanted to see you.” His smile bowled her over. “Since I’m going to have to do without you for a week. Apart from that, I have something here for you. I could have kept hold of it as the perfect bait to make sure you come back to me, but I think you should know about it now. It could shed a completely new light on your search.”

  Gabriel smiled at Lilly in anticipation, then handed her a letter. It was very tattered, as if it had been carried around for years. It was addressed to a Lord Paul Havenden at an estate near London.

  “Where did you find this?” Lilly asked, using all her self-control to stop herself from tearing the envelope open immediately.

  “Among the documents of Mr. Carmichael, our dear Rose’s agent. I nosed around a bit and came across one of his descendants, who had a briefcase containing some of her grandfather’s letters. When it became clear that Jolene would pull through, I made a small detour to visit the old lady. She had no desire to delve deeper into his past, but she had never had the heart to throw the briefcase away. When I called to see her, she gave me the documents without batting an eyelid. In fact, she looked relieved that I was taking some clutter off her hands.”

  “Or perhaps it was because she knew what the briefcase contained.”

  “Oh, I’m sure she knew! But as I said, I don’t think she considered these letters to be of any value. As far as I know, the Havenden family no longer exists, so there’s no danger of triggering a scandal.”

  “Scandal?” The paper in Lilly’s hand suddenly felt warmer, which could only mean that all the heat had drained from her fingers.

  Padang, March 27, 1910

  My dear Paul,

  You have probably long since forgotten me; in any case, that night on the plantation and your promise seem so distant to me that it could have been a lifetime ago.

  You must be married by now, your plantation flourishing, and you probably have a brood of children. I’m sure you no longer think about our kisses and passionate embraces, but I can’t forget you. Not because I still love you—no, I’m a stranger to such feelings now. Meeting you threw my life totally off course, making me wish sometimes that I had torn up the governor’s invitation that took me to Welkom.

  I’m writing to you now because that night bore fruit, a little girl. I can live with the guilt, and I have also succeeded in banishing you from my heart.

  But I have recently been given a fatal diagnosis. Dr. Bruns is of the opinion that I only have a few months to live, a year at best. So I’m asking you again to care for your daughter because I am unable to. If you give your agreement to the bearer of this letter, he will tell you where you can find her.

  If you don’t wish to do that, you will never know her name.

  Rose

  After reading the words in an undertone, Lilly fell silent. She needed a while to take in what she had just read. Goose bumps ran over her skin. “Rose had a child?”

  “A daughter, it seems.”

  “Why didn’t anyone know about it?” Lilly looked in bewilderment at the handwritten page, which contained such disappointment and despair.

  “Because our Mr. Carmichael could obviously keep a secret. And because he must have been aware of the scandal this letter would have caused if it had come to light. I charged one of my people at the school with finding out about the Havendens, and he unearthed something really interesting. According to him, Lord Havenden traveled to Sumatra with his wife, Maggie, to purchase a plantation. He must have met Rose sometime during that trip and got her pregnant.”

  Lilly shook her head in amazement. “This letter is incredible!”

  “It is indeed. Rose was asking for help for her and Havenden’s child because she was seriously ill. Another aspect we know nothing about, but which goes some way to explaining why she disappeared so suddenly. She must have died of the illness, which she doesn’t go into detail about here.”

  “Why did Carmichael have the letter in his possession?”

  A smile spread over Gabriel’s face. “How about we talk about it over coffee? There’s a bit of time until your flight, isn’t there?”

  Lilly had to smile, too. He had come all the way here to show her the letter, even though she was about to set off for Sumatra.

  “Of course. We’ve got quite a while yet. I arrived too early.”

  “Excellent. Come on then. I know where we can get a coffee quickly and also have somewhere to talk.”

  Soon they sat, each with a mug of coffee, at a table in the airport’s food court.

  “So, what are your theories about it?” Lilly asked after taking a sip of the hellishly hot and hellishly insipid drink.

  “Well . . . ” Gabriel took a deep breath as if preparing himself for a long speech. “There are several possibilities. Firstly, Rose could have given Carmichael the letter and asked him to forward it. It’s not out of the question that he tried to pass on the message, and Havenden either refused it or didn’t even let Carmichael in.”

  “You don’t think that would have been a bit mean? To get a woman pregnant and then simply leave her in the lurch?”

  “Huh? It would be typical of an English aristocrat! But I’ve decided not to prejudge Havenden. The nobility of that time were trapped by their obligations, and that’s often still the case today. The marriage could have been arranged. That’s something that still happened often at the beginning of the last century. Perhaps he really did love Rose. And he might have wanted to do something for his daughter. Maybe he did. Whether or not that’s the case, we can only find out if we know what this daughter was called.”

  “Why would Carmichael have kept the letter?”

  “That’s a good question. Havenden could have turned down Rose’s request. Or Havenden could have agreed to the request, but he gave the letter back to make sure that no one found it who shouldn’t.”

  “But if he did that, he would have made himself open to blackmail by Carmichael. If he was Rose’s agent, he can’t have had a very high opinion of the man w
ho got his precious young star pregnant.”

  “Perhaps Carmichael did blackmail Havenden, who knows? The third possibility is that the agent withheld the letter, never handed it over at all.”

  “Why would he do something like that? After all, Rose was asking her former lover for help. I don’t see anything wrong in Havenden having the chance to care for his daughter.”

  “You’re right. Well, now I’m going to follow two directions—firstly, I’ll pay Carmichael’s descendants another visit and ask them if they’ll dig into their family history a little. And secondly, I’ll try and find the descendants of this Havenden. As you’ve read, he had a fiancée or a wife, and Rose’s assumption that he had children with her could well prove to be true.”

  “The heirs will hardly be delighted to find out about an illegitimate child.”

  “Well, that depends. Illegitimate children have always been an occurrence in noble families. And it happened ages ago. If the child was born sometime between 1902 and 1909, he or she will certainly be dead by now.”

  “How do you get to those dates?”

  “Rose’s life is well documented up to 1902, and after that there are a few gaps, such as a six-month period when it isn’t clear where she was. Perhaps that gap is mere coincidence, or perhaps it was when she gave birth to the child.”

  Lilly nodded. She had an idea. “Rose’s child could have had children, too. And there could be grandchildren who have a legal claim to her inheritance. I don’t know much about it, but I imagine a DNA test could still prove a family relationship. Those people would then be the rightful owners of the violin!”

  “Whoa, slow down, Lilly. Think about it—there’s someone else in our story: Helen. She was the violin’s last owner. It’s her descendants who would have a claim to it. But I stress would, as her family could have sold the violin just as Rose’s did.”

  Lilly sighed. “You’re right. So we’re still a long way from finding out who the violin really belongs to.”

  “You’ll have to carry on your detective work for a while longer. But first, enjoy your days in Sumatra—and use them well. While I continue to research among the people here, you see whether you can find any trace of Rose and her child. And at the same time you can also look out for anything about Helen Carter. I reckon there’s still a lot more to discover about her.”