The Missing Sister
Page 29
Emily touched her on the arm very gently. ‘What’s that you’re singing?’ she asked.
Belle turned to her sister and smiled at a memory. ‘Oh, just a tune from my childhood.’ Then she glanced at the house.
‘It’s a lovely place,’ Emily said, seeing her looking.
‘It should be yours. As the elder.’
‘No, Belle, it’s yours,’ Emily said, and squeezed her sister’s hand. ‘You deserve it. If it wasn’t for you, none of us would be here now. You did this, and I couldn’t be more grateful. I only ask that we never lose each other again.’
Belle’s eyes filled up as she gazed at her sister and then her new home. It wasn’t just a lovely house as Emily had said. It was the place her beautiful sister had been born, the place from which she had been lost, and now it had become the place where she had been found again.
‘I was so frightened I would never find you,’ Belle said, ‘or that you were dead.’
‘Well, you found me all right. And I am never going to let you go.’
They both stood and then they walked arm-in-arm around the garden, enjoying the moment Belle had so longed for but had also feared would never come. Her missing sister had come home at last. Thank you, she whispered as her heart filled with gratitude. Thank you.
Author’s Note
Occasionally it’s necessary to shift true events around to fit the timeline of the narrative in order to better serve the story. In the case of The Missing Sister one example occurs where I moved the massacre from 1930 to 1936.
The most crucial research took place while visiting Myanmar (Burma as it once was known) where I stayed in all the locations used in the book. In Yangon (Rangoon) the Strand Hotel was as luxurious as it is in my story, and it was easy to picture my characters there back in the 1930s. I also enjoyed a marvellous river trip travelling up the Irrawaddy from Bagan to Mandalay, just as Belle does. Time fell away as I watched the world go by and I could tell that it would have been virtually unchanged since her day. But the highlight came one morning just before dawn when we went up in a hot air balloon and drifted high above the ancient city of Bagan in central Myanmar, one of the world’s greatest archaeological sites. When the rising sun painted the hundreds of pagodas pink and gold it took my breath away: a truly unforgettable experience. As a writer I found the entire tour inspiring and, hand on heart, one of the most exceptional trips I’ve ever been on while researching a novel. Other than my visit to Myanmar, the internet once again provided a wealth of detail, as did the many history books and memoirs which are far too numerous to mention here. I’m now looking forward to my research trip for book seven which will take place a little closer to home … Keep an eye on my Facebook page or website for news and, if you haven’t yet done so, why not join my Readers’ Club to be the first to hear about new publications and to enter competitions. (You can talk to me on Twitter too.)
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Acknowledgements
Thanks once again to the entire team at Viking/Penguin and to my agent, Caroline Hardman. I’ve loved writing this, my sixth novel, and you’ve all been fantastically supportive as you always are. I’m very lucky. Thanks to all the friendly and helpful people I met during my visit to Myanmar from whom I learnt so much about the past and about the troubles of the present too. I’m also extremely grateful to the book bloggers who continue to do so much to help authors – where would we be without you? And, finally, I’d like to say a very warm thank you to all my readers.
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PENGUIN BOOKS
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First published 2019
Copyright © Dinah Jefferies, 2019
The moral right of the author has been asserted
Cover photos © Jeff Cottenden, © Getty Images and © Alamy
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ISBN: 978-0-241-98544-1
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