Gabe nodded. ‘I thought you must be. Although, I’m somewhat stunned. She was always so adamant she never wanted a child. I mean… no offence. She clearly changed her mind.’
‘No, you’re right. She didn’t, really. But then, I arrived, and she was never going to shy away from her responsibility.’
‘That’s true.’ He glanced at me. ‘If I may ask… how is Nellie?’
‘She died almost two years ago.’
Gabe fell against the back of the bench, his face appearing to fold in on itself for a few seconds, before he straightened up, rubbing a hand over his beard.
‘Do you mind telling me what happened?’
‘It was sudden. A brain embolism.’
‘I’m so very sorry. That must have been tremendously difficult.’
I swallowed hard, remembering the constant ache of raw grief.
‘How did you know her? I… I found some letters. From a G.’
Gabe blinked a few times. ‘I can’t believe she kept them.’ He shook his head. ‘But yes, they were from me. They will explain better than I ever could who we were to each other.’
‘I’ve only read the first three. I won’t keep going if you’d rather I didn’t.’
He dropped his gaze to the pond, clearly deep in memories. A school of tadpoles were trying out their new legs, wriggling amongst the water weeds.
‘Did she tell you about me?’
‘She never spoke about her past, or her family. I don’t even know if she had any real friends.’
‘That must be hard, if it’s just you now.’
I nodded. ‘That’s partly why I came. Not to dig up anything, but I thought being here might help me process some of it.’
It seemed a ridiculous coincidence that I’d stumbled across G on my first full day here. But there were three thousand people on this island, narrow that down to the right age and gender, and how many of them were farmers, and it would probably be more unlikely for menotto bump into Mum’s mystery man at some point.
‘Did you know she named her business Parsley’s?’
Gabe looked at me blankly.
‘It was the name of your bull. You mentioned it in the first letter.’
He furrowed his brow. ‘Parsley? I should remember that. It sounds about right, though. We’ve always named them after herbs and such. I’d never have guessed, given what happened.’
‘Oh?’
‘Read the letters. They should fill in some gaps. And if you call in another day, I’ll find the ones she sent in return.’
‘She wrote back?’
His mouth twitched. ‘Not half as often as I wrote to her. But there’s one or two.’
‘That’s so kind of you. Thank you.’
‘One more thing, if you’d be so kind.’ He stood up, slowly. ‘Would you mind not mentioning to anyone what you read there? Especially Rosemary or my children. This is a close community, with long memories. It wasn’t an easy time for my family, and I don’t want to dredge up old pain.’
‘Do you think anyone else will recognise who I am?’
We started slowly walking back to where people were now serving up dishes of food.
