The Small Fortune of Dorothea Q
Page 44
‘But, Mum! You can’t just – just disappear like that! It’s like – like – running away again! I mean, what about, about – me? Won’t you miss me?’
She laughed, and even through the Skype screen her eyes twinkled. ‘Inky, why don’t you be honest and say what exactly you want to say? That you’ll miss me?’
I hung my head. It was true. That was the core of the problem.
‘I’m too young!’ I finally wailed.
‘Inky! You’re nineteen, adult, about to start University. That’s the age young people move out anyway. Just about all of my cousins were sent by their parents to the UK or USA or Canada to study, and they were younger than you, going to a foreign country, where they knew no one! It was an adventure! You’re in your hometown, and you’ve got Sal. And you’ve always insisted on how independent and reliable and responsible you are.’
That, too, was true. How often I had teased her in the past, after I had taken care of something she’d forgotten: joked that I was the parent and she the child. How condescending I’d been. How arrogant, even.
‘I suppose we can visit each other,’ I said, reluctantly, after a while. ‘Often. But I’ll still miss you.’
She chuckled. ‘Inky, I think you’re suffering from Empty Nest Syndrome! Who would have thought it! But you’ll get over it. You’ll see. And you’ll end up loving it.’
EPILOGUE
The Quint was eventually acquired at auction by a mysterious anonymous bidder, by proxy, over the phone. The price was good; enough to change our lives forever.
About a week later I was in the kitchen cooking pepperpot when Sal called out from the front room, his voice urgent. I walked over and stood in the doorway; he was watching the news on TV.
‘What’s up?’
‘Amazing,’ said Sal. ‘Unbelievable!’
‘Well, tell me! What happened? Some new celebrity death?’
‘Well, I suppose you could call it that. The Quint is dead.’
‘What on earth do you mean?’
‘It just came on the news. You know the anonymous purchaser? It happened to be the owners of the original British Guiana One-Cent Magenta – the Du Pont stamp. They bought it – and burnt it. Officially, with witnesses.’
My jaw dropped to the floor. ‘You’re kidding! Why on earth – oh! I get it.’
‘Now there’s still only one British Guiana One Cent in the world. The moment the second one turned up, the first one lost value. So they bought it, only in order to destroy it.’
‘Wow,’ I said. ‘That’s just – Granddad would turn in his grave. He loved that stamp.’
‘No. I think he’d be OK with it. In the end, he chose to give it up for a greater good: for Rajan. For Rajan’s life. A sort of – freedom, maybe.’
I thought about this. And yes, it was true. As Mum would say: freedom and happiness come with letting go. It’s clinging that makes us miserable: clinging to things, and ideas, and our own little selves.
I nodded. ‘Yes. You’re right. Granddad would approve. And so would Gran.’
LETTER FROM SHARON
First of all, I want to say a huge thank you for choosing The Small Fortune of Dorothea Q. I hope you enjoyed reading Dorothea’s, Rika’s and Inky’s story just as much as I loved writing it – and I hope it took you on a voyage into another world, just as writing it took me back to days gone by!
If you did enjoy it, I would be forever grateful if you’d write a review. I’d love to hear what you think, and it can also help other readers discover one of my books for the first time. Or maybe you can recommend it to your friends and family…
A story is a wonderful thing to share with others—it connects us in so many ways, makes us all part of the same world, unites us in spirit. I know I’m with YOU in spirit with every story I write; I feel I’m right there behind the words, between the lines, holding out a hand to you, hoping to cast a spell to draw you in. If the spell worked, well, I’d love to hear from you—drop me a line on my Facebook or Goodreads page, or through my website.
And if you’d like to keep up-to-date with all my latest releases, just sign up here:
Sharon Maas new releases email
Thank you so much for your support – until next time.
Sharon Maas
PS. You might also enjoy my debut novel, Of Marriageable Age - out now.
Connect with me:
@sharon_maas
sharonmaasauthor
www.sharonmaas.com
OF MARRIAGEABLE AGE
A spellbinding story of forbidden love. Three continents, three decades, three very disparate lives
Savitri, intuitive and charismatic, grows up among the servants of a pre-war English household in Madras. But the traditional customs of her Brahmin family clash against English upper-class prejudice, threatening her love for the privileged son of the house.
Nataraj, raised as the son of an idealistic doctor in rural South India, finds life in London heady, with girls and grass easily available… until he is summoned back home to face raw reality.
Saroj, her fire hidden by outward reserve, comes of age in Guyana, South America. When her strict, orthodox Hindu father goes one step too far she finally rebels against him... and even against her gentle, apparently docile Ma.
But Ma harbours a deep secret… one that binds these three so disparate lives and hurtles them towards a truth that could destroy their world.
Of Marriageable Age is out now in eBook and paperback.
'A big book, big themes, an exotic background and characters that will live with you forever.' Katie Fforde
'Beautifully and cleverly written. A wondrous, spellbinding story which grips you from the first to the last page… I can't recall when I last enjoyed a book so much.' Lesley Pearse
It's a wonderful panoramic story and conveys such vivid pictures of the countries it portrays. I was immediately transported and completely captivated. A terrific writer.' Barbara Erskine
‘A vast canvas of memorable characters across a kaleidoscope of cultures… her epic story feels like an authentic reflection of a world full of sadness, joy and surprise.' The Observer
AFTERWORD
The story you have just read is, of course, fiction. And yet it was inspired by fact: by the true story of the rarest stamp in the world, the British Guiana One Cent Magenta, sometimes described as the Mona Lisa of philately.
For collectors, the value of the One Cent Magenta lies in both its uniqueness and its history. After a shipment of stamps from the UK failed to arrive in British Guiana, a new batch of stamps was printed locally. But the quality was poor, and so the Postmaster General of British Guiana ordered that each stamp be hand-signed in order to prevent forgeries. Of the one cent stamps printed, only one survives, bearing the initials of postal clerk Edmund Dalziel Wight. This is the One Cent Magenta. But that’s not all.
Just like in The Small Fortune of Dorothea Q, the One Cent Magenta has quite a bit of personal family history attached to it. Edmund Dalziel Wight happens to be an ancestor of mine, my mother’s great-grandfather. Often she told me the story of the stamp’s genesis, pointed out to me the post office where E.D.Wight used to work. “The stamp is now worth a small fortune,” she’d say, and there we have it: the spark of a story.
As I grew older, the tale of the innocent signing of a stamp that would go on to earn a fortune fuelled my imagination. What if another one of those stamps survived within the family, I asked myself; what if it turned up in one of those drawers of junk I used to burrow through as a child?
Those ‘what ifs’ never left me and, after the publication of my first three novels, it became the inspiration for a novel in which just such a stamp turns up – a family heirloom worth millions. The Small Fortune of Dorothea Q is the result.
ALSO BY SHARON MAAS
Of Marriageable Age
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