Lady Penelope ended the call and couldn't help giving a wistful smile. She remembered the morning after the Tracys had lost their daughter as vividly as if it were yesterday. Her mother and Lucille had been best friends and as soon as the hysteric phone call came through to England, she had sped off to the island, leaving a young Penelope wishing she could do something to help. When her mother had returned, weary and heartbroken for her friend, she had held her bewildered daughter and said there was nothing more to be done, it just couldn't be helped.
How strangely things could transpire.
Parker kept his eyes on the road, his mind was boggled and his mouth agape. He had been highly skeptical and more than a little irked at the late night escapade around London for what he saw as a request from a boy who's brains had obviously been left in space. He was aware that there had been a daughter, but his understanding was that she was well and truly dead. For a top astronomer to ask him to search out a petty criminal in the middle of the night as she could be his long dead sister was a very far fetched notion indeed. He knew there was a young thief known as "The Shadow." What about it. He had known Harvey who had taken her on and yes, he knew where they had lived. John's voice had got quieter and more uncertain as the call went on. Parker kept responding politely without too much encouragement in the vain hope that John would regain his sanity and let him go back to bed. When Lady Penelope appeared in her dressing gown and asked who was calling so late he had internally groaned and told her.
A few hours later, Parker had thrust the terrified girl into the back seat and there had been no doubt that it was Valentina Tracy. He was too old for this sort of nonsense.
Daylight was breaking over the English countryside as they sped along in the pink Rolls Royce, but Tina's tense form had softened into sleep. Penelope couldn't blame her. Poor thing. Slowly, she reached over to stroke away the hair from Tina's face and winced at the sight of the gash on her cheek.
She remembered the first time Tina had been placed in her arms as a newborn baby. Lucille had cupped the back of her delicate head and John's finger had been in his sister's tiny clutches.
"Isn't she cute, Penny?" John had asked.
She had agreed.
What an ordeal she must have been through since then, Penelope thought. Tina had initially been in a blind panic and could do nothing but cower in the backseat beside her. With gentleness and soothing words, Penelope had calmed her enough to put her arm around her. In time, her breathing lost the raggedness and became deep and even. Eventually, she had allowed Lady Penelope to hush her into a much needed sleep.
"I'll phone ahead and ask for a room to be made ready, Parker."
"Ask them to make sure the silver cabinet is well locked."
"None of that now, Parker."
"Sorry, m'lady."
X
Tina roused, shaken softly awake by the woman beside her. When she turned to look she was slightly dazzled by the vision of pristine pink that had held her so tightly. Suddenly feeling aware of her own dishevelment, she offered an embarrassed smile that was warmly returned.
"Come along, darling, let's get you inside."
Tina shuffled awkwardly after her, nodding awkwardly in greeting at Parker who was still staring incredulously. Listening to the calm authority in Lady Penelope's voice and following her brisk strides in heels that Tina could not imagine were made for wearing, she suddenly understood what was meant by "ladies." Tina had always associated this with wads of cash in safes and valuables hanging from ears and around necks, but now she was realising it was something nuanced and practised, maybe even achievable. Tina felt her eyes involuntarily widen as she took in the sheer breadth of the mansion. Who needed a house so big? Stepping into it was otherworldly. Who was able to paint a ceiling so high? Who changes the bulbs on the chandeliers? How much is that thing worth and what even is it?
Tina reached out to examine something gold and shiny when her hand was given a sharp slap.
"Keep your mitts h'off that! Everything 'ere is listed I'll 'ave you know! I know your type h'all too well!"
"Parker, that is enough! Miss Tracey is our guest and I really thought you would be more considerate given the circumstances."
Miss Tracey. That sounded nice. Even so, Tina felt a little stung, and it was not the slap. Was Parker voicing what Lady Penelope was too polite to say? That she couldn't be trusted not to fill her pockets? The wonder of the room seemed to dissipate with a flush of red hot embarrassment. Maybe Tina had stolen from one of Lady Penelope's friends, maybe Lady Penelope knew that.
Parker skulked off, looking as wounded as Tina felt. She felt a slender arm slide round her shoulders.
"Pay absolutely no attention to him, you are so much more welcome than anyone else I've had here for a very long time."She gave a wry smile, "and you wouldn't believe some of the characters we've had. Parker's had many sleepless nights knowing he was under the same roof!" She gave an airy laugh which then changed to concern.
"You must be dying to see your father and brothers again! They're certainly bursting to see you! And you know, despite how, well... unbelievable it all is, it wasn't the least bit hard to convince them that I really do have you!"
Tina felt a little faint, she gripped the mahogany dresser behind her.
"Yes, you're quite right. I think you've had enough excitement on an empty stomach. They won't be here for another few hours, I'm sure. Let's get you ready."
X
Tina had never been so glad to see food in her life. After her second plate, Lady P's encouraging nod told her that refinement was not necessary. So she took a third.
The shower smarted her cuts but she almost didn't notice over the sheer joy of being clean and free of smoke and dried blood. When she got out, her clothes had disappeared and the smile on Lady P's face suggested she would never see them again. Tina grinned right back.
Most alternatives were slightly too dazzlingly pink, but with extensive searching, a suitable pair of jeans and a sweater were unearthed.
Feeling like a new person, Tina allowed Penelope to clean up her wounds.
"Paper stitches will do for now but I do think that you will need the real thing," examining her work she added teasingly, "you look much less frightening now, although, you may be left with a couple of very nice scars, a story for dinner parties I think."
Tina giggled, although, the nerves were creeping steadily onto her. Looking at Lady Penelope, she was much younger than she had seemed the night before, maybe around the same age as her brothers.
"Have you known my brothers long?"
"All my life. I see them often but not enough, the island is terribly far away. We had great fun together growing up. Don't you remember me even a little bit?"
She nodded. She could remember a fair skinned little girl who had enjoyed playing with Tina's hair and practising makeup as much as tumbling around with the older boys.
"What are they like?" Tina asked.
Penelope looked at her with a smile tinged with sadness. "They're just wonderful, darling, the most lovely boys. It is unbelievably cruel that you had to separated for so long. They never quite recovered after you disappeared, you know, especially John. He blamed himself terribly."
Tina's heart lurched, "but I was lost for years. I was so little, how did they not forget about me?"
"You're their sister, Tina." Penelope gripped her hand hard, "you were the most precious thing in the world to them and you could never be replaced. Your brothers and father console themselves by saving lives and operating these fantastic machines, but when all the chaos is over and the noise dies down, the same thoughts always come creeping back to them. They still think about how they couldn't save you."
Tina was wrestling with her emotions. She was not one to cry often, yet that is what she had spent an inordinate amount of time doing in the past few days. She was transfixed by the strained tremor in Penelope's cool voice, the glistening of her direct look. She drank her words in like honey and they sweetened a part of her that had whispered that she had been born unwanted and unloved.
Memories were returning in a steady flow, like they were waiting in an orderly line to be pored over and savoured one by one. Alan racing her to dinner, Virgil lifting her to his shoulders, her father pressing a kiss to her forehead and the quiet, comforting omnipresence of John. They seemed mundane, but to Tina, each one blossomed in her heart and filled it ever nearer to the brim. Sitting on Scott's lap, laughing at Gordon, her mother singing her to sleep...
Penelope's gentle hands suddenly stilled on her cuts, when Tina brought her eyes to her face it was beaming at the doorway behind her. Tina slowly turned and was met by the sight of John, staring back.
She couldn't remember crossing the floor, she could only remember the feeling of his arms enveloping her in a crushing embrace, his tears wetting her cheeks. She felt her legs buckle as she collapsed on the floor, pulling him with her as they grasped each other close, fearful of letting go. The Silver Boy that had existed as a cruel mirage was as real and as human as she had only known herself to be. As she wept against his shoulder she felt a tentative hand on the back of her head. Through tear bleary eyes she could make out the face of her father. He was almost timid in prising her from John and wrapping his arms around her, shuddering with sobs.
As she raised her head she could make out four other forms, huddled together and shell shocked. Virgil had his knuckles pressed firmly to his mouth, he and Scott could only stare. Scott's arms were around Alan whose mouth was only closed when sniffing, and Gordon who was laughing softly with tears pouring down his face.
As Tina passed wordlessly from brother to brother to father to brother, her cheeks and shoulders dampening, she felt the love she had been missing. She felt it in each warm chest she was held against, from every kiss lost in her hair, from every tearful gaze that searched her face. At the end of it all, there was John, an unusual combination of disbelief and certainty, of tears and euphoria, of strangeness and familiarity. Her eyes caught his and he nodded and smiled.
Tina had made it home.