Page 45 of Sacrifice
She looked like a movie star. Perfectly pin curled hair and precise make-up, complemented by a dress that showed off her wasp-thin waist with a full circle skirt and fitted bodice that scooped elegantly at her neck to reveal most of her shoulders and a heavy eight-pointed star pendant. Eve stared at it. That star looked awfully familiar.
She kept hold of the photo as she walked and found herself still holding it when she got to the kitchen.
“What have you got there?” Gran plucked it from Eve’s hand. “Ah, wasn’t I something?”
Eve now realized why the Star of Ishtar had seemed so familiar. “That necklace, Gran.” Eve didn’t know quite what she wanted to say about it.
Gran chuckled. “It is quite ostentatious, I suppose. Solid gold, I think it was. Heavy too. Don’t like it?” She wrinkled her nose.
“It’s not that. It’s just that design. I’ve seen it before.”
“Well, it’s been sitting on the side for the last decade at least.” Gran stood the picture on the kitchen counter with a sniff.
“No, other than that. I’ve seen it recently somewhere else.”
Gran leaned back against the counter, looking Eve over. The kettle rattled about on its base behind her, struggling to the boil and hissing steam into the air. It clicked off, and Gran’s expression settled into the wistful recall of a memory.
She turned to make the tea. “My Grandma Aliyah gave that to me. She was a bit of a character. Never took any nonsense. She was absolutely determined that I should have it and not my sister, and kept going on about how I had to pass it down. Quite specific about it. First born women. It must stick with the women.” She waved both hands up close to her head as if doing an impersonation. She still clutched the teaspoon.
“I always thought it was something to do with her culture. Roots in the middle east. Women didn’t get the best deal over there. Even now. I expect she wanted to keep some kind of wealth with her fellow females.” Gran punched the air with a smile. “Women’s rights, and all that. Of course, I haven’t passed it on, what with me being still alive and everything, but I suppose you could have it.” She stopped to think for a moment. “Yes, you should. I’m not going to wear it again, am I? A bit flashy for me these days.” She gave the picture a fond stroke. “Perhaps you could wear it to your next fancy do. Wow, that professor with it.” She gave Eve a wink. “Bring the tea.”
She marched from the kitchen and made for the bureau in the dining room without a backward glance, then proceeded to pretty much empty it out onto the table.
Paper folds of photos with actual negatives tucked in the front heaped with piles of birthday cards held together with rubber bands. Eve peeked inside a broad flat box to find a big, padded anniversary card of a kind that you never really saw anymore, greying glitter glued to a silken heart beneath the words ‘To my darling’. Eve tipped it sideways so that her Gran could see. She smiled at it faintly. “My Walter.”
Tatty brown envelopes stuffed to tearing added to the pile, then a little drawing that Eve had done of an angel one Christmas with stick-on foil wings.
“Aw look,” Eve said and scooped it up while Gran continued to search.
“Here we are. Ever such a posh box. I wondered if it might have been her mother’s.” Gran passed it over.
The box was octagonal with a slightly domed lid, every surface entirely covered with a design made from minutely detailed marquetry depicting the sun.
“She was a force to be reckoned with, Grandma Aliyah. My cousin, Frank, was always a bit scared of her, but I thought she was marvelous, right up ‘til the end. I can remember sitting with her in her garden. Mostly at home out in the sunshine. Quite radiant and elegant, she was. Used to hold court out there.” She took in a long breath to huff out a sigh and patted Eve on the arm again. “A child’s memory, though, isn't it? You only remember the sunny days. They’re the ones that stick.” She gave Eve a little nod. “Those and the stormy ones.”
The lid pulled from the top of the box in its entirety to reveal, first, a black-and-white photograph. A wedding portrait of a man, dapper in Victorian military uniform, and a woman in white with thick dark curling hair that was adorned with flowers. The woman glowered down the lens with intense dark eyes.
Gran indicated Eve should turn the photo over. “Archibald brought her back from Iran as his wife after a tour. Fanciedhimself as a bit of an explorer by all accounts, and they did have all sorts of interesting things in their house. Where they are now, I’ve no idea.
“I think she was a bit of a romantic. I wrote down what she said when she gave that to me because it struck me as being so funny at the time.”
Loopy script across the back of the photo read:
Follow your own light, child, and pass it only to the hands of your first-born daughter and bid her do the same. Keep hold of your power, for it is greater than you know.
Gran pulled a long face and shrugged. “She told me to treasure it and keep it close to my heart, so my Walter had it made into a pendant for me.”
She lifted the star from the box and let it dangle from its chain, then held it up to her neck to peer into a mirror. “It is a bit chunky, but I always liked wearing it. Made me feel special somehow.” Sunlight twinkled in its diamond cut facets and her face lifted at the sight of it. A rosy glow spread beneath her skin.
“Diane was my first, and you were hers, so it’s all like Grandma Aliyah wanted in the end. You should take it. Take it and wear it with my love. Well, Grandma Aliyah’s love.” She lay it back in the box and as it left her fingers, Eve thought she saw the twinkle fade from her eyes.
Twenty-Five
The restaurant wasdark and gothic. Lit only by small candles nestling in hollowed out skulls, the décor reminded Michaels of something from a medieval torture chamber.
“Interesting choice for dinner,” he said, sitting down opposite Jesper.
“Prague’s finest goulash,” Jesper replied. He nodded towards the steaming bowl of meat in the middle of the table. “I’m assuming you haven’t eaten today.”
