"Ow!" her father squealed clutching his foot.

"Oh dear Michael are you alright?" Susan asked coming into the living room. Lucy looked up from her book and surveyed the scene.

"He stubbed his toe on those boxes Gran." She said nodded to the pile of cardboard boxes beside the

"Oh I am so sorry" Susan moved over to help him sit down. "I was looking for a journal and brought these down from the spare room. I keep meaning to take them back up." Lucy watched as her father rubbed his toe and tried to smile.

"Its fine really, my own fault." Michael Smith was a good man, a loving family man, but he was a little too straight laced and proper to ever feel comfortable in Susan's house. An accountant for a big firm in central London he believed that everything had a place and minimalism is the best life rule as it aids organisation. Lucy loved her father greatly but there was a lot more of her grandmother in her, and she enjoyed organised chaos. She had overheard her father saying to her mother once that the house reminded him of a museum. A creepy monument to the dead. Lucy thought it was like a museum too, but a fascinating one.

Susan was so calm about everything that you couldn't really call her life chaos, but you could tell Michael thought she lived in a world of her own.

"You know Mum we could help organise the place a bit for you!" Cassidy said walking in. "I'm finished lecturing and Lucy is on summer holidays. You seem to have a lot more around than I remember."

"Thank you darling but I will clear it all. I brought some stuff from the country again and just haven't found a spot for everything yet."

"The country?" Michael asked, looking up at his wife who was now frowning deeply.

"Mum you haven't been out there in years. I didn't think…"

"I know I know. I don't like to go there. but last week for some reason, I found myself in the car headed out there."

Lucy was well and truly intrigued now.

"What is in the country Gran?" she asked, managing to break into the intense stare between the mother and daughter.

"Oh. I suppose you wouldn't know would you." Susan said, laying a tender hand upon her head. "Well you know that I was evacuated from London during The War along with my brothers and sister?" Lucy nodded, she'd asked about those years many times. "Well we were sent to stay with a Professor. Professor Kirke, in his country estate. He became a dear, dear friend of my families. My brother Peter even studied with him for a time."

"What happened him?" Lucy quizzed.

"He also died in the train crash that took my family." Susan said calmly, the sadness in the corner of her mouth growing slowly. "Along with his friend."

"Oh, I'm sorry." This was what Michael usually added to the conversation when the train crash was mentioned. Susan waved a hand.

"Well when I received money for my first book, and I was a lot more than I ever expected, I bought the estate and the small cottage in the same area that he had to move to in later life. I intended on using it as a holiday home when Cass grew older but I found every time I went there I grew sadder. The memories of my time there were not yet comforting."

A sombre stillness fell over the room.

"Why haven't you sold it?" Michael said after a few moments had passed. Lucy saw her mother sigh silently. wrong question.

But Susan looked at him with no sign of contempt.

"I couldn't. It has to stay with friends. The Blitz was one of the worst times in my life. But also one of the best."

With that the conversation was over.

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Lucy sat at the foot of her bed leafing through a large photo album she had found at the bottom of a chest in the room, working through it backwards so not to damage the fragile binding. She knew her grandmother didn't mind her looking through the room, she hid nothing in the house. It had been her mother's when she was growing up, and before that it had been her grandmothers and her younger sisters. Now whenever she stayed it was Lucy's. Little had changed over the years, a few postcards and pictures graced the walls from Cassidy's youth, and a few boxes of books had crept into various corners.

Lucy ran her fingers over a beautiful photo of her mother as a child. She sat in a pram in the back garden, smiling up at the photographer. She had a vague recollection of seeing these pictures before but they intrigued her immensely, leafing through her mother's childhood was fascinating, she made mental notes of questions she wanted to ask. As she reached the front few pages her mother grew smaller and smaller. Then she disappeared altogether and another woman appeared. A beautiful woman with a stunning full smile and bright engaging eyes. It was her grandmother. She should have recognised her immediately, the same shaped face and the same calming expression. It was in that moment Lucy realised there was next to no pictures of this version of her gran with her mother, but then again, she grasped the face that there would have been no one around to take those pictures. She found herself reaching up and pulling down a strand of her own hair to match the photograph before her. She looked quite like her grandmother really she'd inherited her colouring anyway. Blue-green eyes that changed quite like the sea and pale skin that could become near translucent in the winter, Cassidy had a more olive complexion that drank up the slightly sign of sun light and browned beautifully and the richest brown eyes to be seen. It was funny how all that had skipped Lucy. Her father had sandy brown hair and grey eyes, the only thing she'd inherited from him was his slightly up turned Irish nose and ginger tint through her dark hair when the sun shone. She turned to the very front page and found herself in awe of the first photo that she saw, it was her grandmother sitting under a tree with a book on her lap. She had clearly caught unaware as her face was completely natural half turned to the camera, but it was the smile across her face that caught Lucy's eye. It was full and beaming all across her face, without a trace of anything else. She looked the happiest Lucy had ever seen her. it was as she rested a hand gently on the photograph when there was a rap on the door.

"Yes?" she called out.

"What treasures have you come across today my dear?" Lucy smiled up at her grandmother as she entered. "Oh photographs, very good choice." She nodded, easing herself down beside the younger girl. "I thought you'd seen all these before dear."

"No not that I can remember. I definitely haven't seen this one. You look so happy."

Susan brushed a strand of hair behind her ear and leaned over for a closer look.

"Ah yes, I remember this…" Lucy saw the sadness creeping into her face. "It was in the garden here, before I planted the flower bed around the oak tree. Before your mother was born."

"It's beautiful." Susan nodded. Lucy let the room go silent a moment before she asked.

"Did my grandfather take it?" Susan looked back up at her, clearly slightly startled.

"Yes, he did. he was learning how to work my new camera and he took that. He insisted on developing it." she let the lightest laugh pass from her lips. "He said I was most myself when I thought no one was watching and when he realised there was an easier way to capture a likeness than sketching and oil paintings he became quite exasperating." The smile still on her face showed it was meant in jest.

"What happened to him?" Her smile immediately faltered.

"You know what happened dear…" she started as she stood up. "…He left this world." She straightened her dress and placed a hand on the door handle. "I must go ring my illustrator with a new concept." She said quickly exiting the room.

Lucy let loose a little sigh. she had asked only a handful of time about him over the years, and that was the answer she always got. She had known before not to ask. Now she found her self wondering more than ever, who was this man.

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Cassidy hummed lightly to herself as she picked up another plate to wash, she was distractedly looking out the window watching a butterfly that had been flying around the garden for the past ten minutes, it was the most beautiful shade of blue she had ever seen.

"Mum?" her stare was broken as Lucy came over beside her.

"Hello dear."

"Can I help dry?" Cassidy recoiled slightly.

"What? You're offering?" Her daughter laughed blithely.

"I finished my book." She shrugged. Cassidy handed her the towel and turned back to the sink.

"Was it good?"

"You haven't finished it?"

"Not yet. But I do know the story. It used to be one of my favourites."

"It was lovely." Cassidy nodded.

"I will read it"

"Mum, can I ask you something?" Lucy said after a few dishes were dried.

"There it is." She smiled picking up a glass and submerging it in the sink.

"Well I want to ask about…" Lucy suddenly found her mouth had gone dry.

"About what sweetheart?"

"About your dad." She said looking down at the floor suddenly.

"My dad?" Cassidy's hand fell slack and a frown started to move across her forehead.

"Yes. I, well I realised I don't know anything about him. I know he died before you were born…"

"I don't know much more Luce." Cassidy took the towel and dried her hands, gesturing towards the table. "You've never asked about him before?"

"It never dawned on me to ask before until today, I was looking at photographs with Gran and I just…"

"I don't know much Darling. You know how open and honest Mum is about everything. When she didn't talk as openly about him I sort of knew I shouldn't ask. It clearly caused her pain, so I let her tell me what she wanted to I guess."

"Weren't you curious?" Lucy was clearly dissatisfied with her mother's answer.

"Of course. Who wouldn't be? But I had Mum, I was so loved. Always, and my curiosity could never overcome the idea of causing her pain."

"Do you even know his name?" Cassidy blinked rapidly.

"Father." Cassidy's face fell to the table as she thought. "He was always father. I was named after him I think. Though I'm not sure…"

"I can't understand how that doesn't drive you crazy." Cassidy took a deep breath. This was one of the most difficult conversations she'd ever had with her daughter.

"I think over the years I learned enough. Mum told me just enough. I know he was a good man. I know my mother loved him very much. I know my aunt and uncles loved him like a brother. And I know I have his eyes, kind eyes." This peaked Lucy's interest.

"You've seen him?"

"Yes. Mum has two photographs. I'm sure she'll show you some day. You just have to let her do it at her own pace. I'm sorry I can't tell you more."

"I love our family. You know I do. It's just lately I feel something… something I can't really explain. Just like something is unsettled. And I thought maybe filling in the missing pieces would help." With this confession her mother frowned.

"Are you homesick?"

"No, no nothing like that! I love it here." Lucy said quickly. "It's not a bad unsettled. Just a feeling something is coming. It's a good feeling." The girl nodded. There was silence between them for a moment.

"Well then. If nothing's wrong you can help me finish washing up." Cassidy smiled and threw the towel on her head.