The ground gives way beneath us and I can hear the screams of Ann and Pippa as they fall through the walls of reason, as I have done so many times before. Felicity, I can see, feels powerless but unwilling to show it, and so I hold on and pray that we will not die.
We seem to melt into the garden beautifully. There was no second of understanding as we hit the grass, and we could not tell the difference between the Fall and being here. Ann lies shaking on the ground, and I know that her cheeks will be wet and her eyes watery. Pippa is lying silent on the grass, very poetically, with her legs askew, and one arm flung across her chest.
"The little sleeping beauty, " Felicity intones dully, and for the first time I can see that she hates Pippa, and yet loves her still. I wonder why Pippa is so motionless, and then an icy cold shiver runs through me.
"Pippa! Pippa! Are you alright?"
She sits up blearily, her ringlets perfectly framing her pretty face. She glares coldly at me, and then turns to Felicity. "What on earth happened? Where are we?"
Felicity does not have an answer to this, I know, and yet she so clearly wants one. "Gemma brought us here."
Pippa turns to me, wide-eyed and furious. "Where are we? I want to go home!"
"But why? It's so beautiful here."
We turn to Ann, who has finally sat up and stopped sobbing. She is looking around, the pinched and drawn expression on her face finally gone. She looks almost lovely as she sits and gazes about her in wonder. The waterfall is closer now, roaring and rushing down the craggy rock as if it were chasing some unknown prey. It is almost close enough to touch, and it looks so cool and clear and calm that, without realising it, we all begin moving towards it. It twinkles and sparkles in the sunlight, and I hop and jump nimbly onto rocks slippery with water and moss. I am almost there, ahead of the others. I can feel the gush of the water, so close to my fingers, let me touch it...
"No!" The piercing cry reaches my ears as my fingers hover but inches away. The others stop in their tracks too, and we all strain to see who has spoken.
"Come away from it! Come away from it now!" the girl who claims to be my sister is standing on the edge of the river, her eyes wide in terror and alarm. Feeling like naughty children, we made our way to the springy grass on the bank.
"Why couldn't we touch it?" This, of course, is Pippa, as spoilt and petulant as ever. The girl looks earnestly at us all, and her eyes linger on Ann.
"Is it poisoned?" Ann asks, looking nervously at the river now tumbling past us.
"No ... sort of. Not to me. But to you. You mustn't drink it."
I can see Felicity's rage growing. Never has she been denied anything she ever wanted. But I place an arm on hers to placate her.
"Who are you?" I finally have the time and the voice to ask the question that has been plaguing my troubled mind ever since I first saw her.
"Evelyn. Evelyn Doyle." My face drains of what little blood is there. "I believe you know my mother. Virginia Doyle."
"Gemma, this is your sister." Felicity can barely contain herself, but I hear none of it. This girl, so similar to myself, and yet so different, is my sister.
"Mother always said that if she were to have another girl, it would be a Gemma. And, if you were a boy, you would have been Osbert."
Felicity's witty, "Well Thank God she wasn't a boy," passes over my head. This girl looks no older than me, and yet I never had a sister.
"But –"
"I never got to see you. Darling Gemma, how I've missed you. Dear little Thomas was quite alright, but there's nothing like having a sister. I knew you would be beautiful. More beautiful than mother, certainly more beautiful than me."
I have never been called beautiful before. This girl is pretty, but her hair is straighter and darker, her eyes less green. But she has the most radiant smile.
"Oh, Gemma. Could I –" And she leans over and kisses me on the cheek.
Ann and Pippa seem bored by the girl, and instead begin exploring the garden. There are flowers everywhere, even some hanging suspended in the air, and we can see them opening and closing, unfurling and then curling back in on themselves. There is a crooked tree, one long bough hanging horizontally, close to the ground, and Ann finds her way there. Pippa, meanwhile, apprehensively prods at a flower, and jumps back in shock when it twitches and becomes a bright blue rabbit. Felicity has not moved, and I can see her trying desperately to not let the surprise and joy show on her face.
"I'm terribly sorry, but you... you must be mistaken. I never had a sister. I was stuck with Tom."
She laughs, and she sounds just like mother. I stare in shock, trying not to let the tears of sadness and fear well up in my eyes.
"Oh, darling Gemma, have I upset you so?" She places a warm arm around me, and it feels so much like mother that I cannot stop myself. Since her death, I have had to tolerate the awkward arms of father around me, the stiff English gentleman's arms of Tom, Felicity's cold hand around my waist, and of course the strong arms of Kartik, but never since have I been embraced like my mother.
"Gemma, what is it?"
"It is mother."
"Is she unwell?"
I look up in horror at her words. Of course she does not know. Why would she?
"Mother is ... Mother is dead."
Evelyn's arms fall away, and she takes a step back in dull surprise, and my mother has left me all over again.